The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1853-07-27
Table Moving.

FARADAY, the great electrician, has been
experimenting on table turning "not," he
says, "that it was necessary on my own ac-
count, for my conclusion respecting its ma
ture was soon arrived at, and is not changed"
He proposes publishing, in the Atheneum,
the details at length of his experiments, but
in the meantime announces his plan of ex-
perimenting and its results. Assuming that
the tables were moved by quasi involun-
tary muscular action Of the operator, Fara-
days first point was to prevent the wind
having any undue influence over the effects
produced in relation to the nature of the
substances employed.
A bundle (quere, laycrsD of plates, con-
sisting of sand paper, millboard, glue, glass,
plastic clay, tin foil, card board, gutta percha,
vulcanised India Rubber, wood and rcsinous
cement, was therefore made up and tied to-
gether, and being placed on table under
the hand of turner, did not prevent the
transmission of the power-the table turned
as before. Hence no objection could be ta-
ken to the use of these substances in the
construction of apparatus. The next point
was to determine the place and source of
motion; that is to say, whether the table
moved the hand or the hand the table. To
ascertain this, indicators were constructed.
One of these consisted of light lever,
having its fulcrum on the table, its short
arm attached to a pin fixed on card board,
which could slip on the surface of the table,
and its long arm projecting rs an index of
motion. 1t is evident that if the experiment
ter wiled the table to move toward the left,
and it did so move before the hands, placed
at the time on the card board, then the in
dex would move to the left also, the fulcrum
going with the table. If the hands volunta-
rily moved toward the left ,oithom the table,
the index would toward the right; and, if
neither table ror hands moved, the index
would itself remain immovable.
The result was that while the operator
saw the index, it remained very steady; when
it %as biddsn & from thsms sv or they loessS ssS
believed that they always pressed directly
downward; and when the table did not move
there was still, unwittingly resultant of
hand force in the direction it was wanted to
make the table move. This resultant Of
hand force increases as the fingers and hands
become stiff, numb and insensible by con-
tinued pressure, till it becomes an amount
sufficient to move the table. Mr. Faraday
has perfected his testing apparatus, and has
placed it on view to the public at the store
of Newman, philosophical instrument ma
ker, No. l22 Regent street, London.
But the most curious effect of this test
apparatus is the corrective power it posses
scs over the mind of the table turner. AS
soon rs the index is placed within view and
the operator perccivcs that it tells truly
whether he is pressing downwards only, or
obliquely, then all effects of table turning
cease, even though the operator persevere
till he become weary and worn out. Mr..
Faraday adds, IN his letter to the Times, from
which the above is extracted: "Permit me
to say, before concluding, that have been
greatly startled by the revelation which this
purely physical subject has made of the pub
lie mind. No doubt there are many persons
who have formed right judgement or used
n cautious reserve, but their number is al
most as nothing to the great body who have
believed and borne testimony, as l think, in
the cause of error. think the
Al
mental condition of the public body in the
state in which this subject has found it, must
have been greatly deficient in some very i'm
portart principle. Y. Tribune.