Hutchinson was reproducing experiments found by Tesla when some interesting phenomena was observed. According to "Northern Mysteries":

“The Hutchison Effect” - In 1979, Hutchison claims to have discovered a number of unusual phenomena, while trying to duplicate experiments done by Nikola Tesla. He refers to several of these phenomena jointly under the name “the Hutchison effect”, including: levitation of heavy objects; fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood; while lacking any displacement, the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material; the spontaneous fracturing of metals; changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals; disappearance of metal samples.
For the first time in over a decade, Canadian inventor John Hutchison has reproduced the "Hutchison-Effect" in his homebuilt lab-environment. In our exclusive video footage, taken March 4th by researcher Harold Berndt, over 1,500 pounds of test-equipment is seen to spontaneously jump after what Berndt describes as an audible change in equipment noise that occurred while Hutchison was calibrating his test apparatus.
From the Webpage for “The Hutchison Effect”

Video from Northern Mysteries.