And that was pretty serious research at the time. The Gravity Research foundation was founded by Roger Babson (who also founded Babson College). At the time, the nature of gravity was not well understood. If it was a "wave" then it could be blocked, i.e Anti Gravity!

The New Boston historical society has a nice link, as does Wikipedia (which mentions Edison suggesting the idea to Babson):

http://www.newbostonhistoricalsociety.com/gravity.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Research_Foundation

An annual essay contest lives on. Several Nobel lauriets have won that prize including well recognized names like Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose.