site claimed to be promising was identified and drilling began, but by the end of 1975 the costs had become so great that Pesenti opted out. The Zululand bore eventually bottomed out at 6,000 metres with a drill stem and no oil. Elf involvement Although the connection remains unclear to this day, some time in 1976 de Villegas and Bonassoli were introduced to Elf officials, apparently through de Villegas or Violet's connections in the French intelligence services. Bonassoli explained that he had been tinkering with televisions when he hit upon the idea of building his gravity wave detector that could be used to detect masses underwater - not just oil, but submarines as well. He had developed these into two machines, "Delta" detected oil from the air and output a paper report, while "Omega" mapped out the resources from closer ranges and displayed on a TV screen. He was willing to demonstrate the devices, but only if there were no scientists present, claiming that they might steal his ideas. Information about the pair's invention quickly made their way up the French political hierarchy. In spite of the obvious scientific problems that would have turned up had they been investigated, there is no record of anyone involved having attempted any sort of scientific due diligence. Nor is there any record of any sort of background check, which would have turned up the string of previous failures. Such an obvious oversight on the part of the officials might sound odd, but writers have commented on a sort of political chauvinism that surrounded the project. At the time Elf was almost wholly controlled by the government, as were similar companies in other European nations and Canada. Unlike those companies, Elf had little crude oil supply of its own, and few known deposits for future commercialization. Elf was in danger of losing its status as a producer, at some point becoming nothing more than another refiner. If the devices could find new sources of oil practically anywhere, as was being claimed, Elf might remain among the small family of oil-producing European nations. This possibility was so attractive that the official involved overlooked any doubts that were expressed, while also keeping the project completely secret. Between 30 April and 7 May 1976 the devices were demonstrated for Elf officials, who obliged Bonassoli's "no scientists" request. The devices, not much larger than a few photocopiers, were