The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-05-04
THE "ELEGTRIC" GIRL"
She Does No3 Possess an Inexplicable
Power-New Light on an Old Sub
jeot.
from La Nature.

From La Nature.
Electricity is mysterious agent,
therefore everything mysterious is elec-
trio" Such is the logic of the masses,
rightly observes Mr., Nelson w. Perry
in an article in which he exposes the
somewhat crude processes emr'oyed in
an exhibition made recently, at Paris
ard London, Of a girl called magnetic"
or "electric," and possessing, according
to her manager, an inexplicable and un-
known supernatural power, although
it is question of a simple application
of the elementary principles ofthe laws
of mechanics, chapter of equilibrium.
This logic Of the masses has already
given birth to electric belts, hair
brushes, tooth brushes, tripoli and book
covers. To this logic of the masses, the
logic of the scientist responds, almost
under the same form: "All COWS have
tails, but all animals possessing tails
are not cows" The conclusion is that
the "electric' girl is electric only in
name. If the exercises that she per-
forms provoke the astonishment Of q
certain portion Of the community, it is
because the spectators are not, at dis
tance, in a situation to observe the
articles employed in each of the
exercises, or to find a natural explana-
ton Of them in the known laws Of
mechanics. We propose to poirt out
here certain number Of such artifices
and 10 describe a few Of the expert
ments, utilizing for this purpose the
data furnished by Mr.. Perry, as well as
those resulting from our own observa-
tions.
The first exercises Of the kind under
consideration date lack to 1888. They
were presented by Lulu Hurst, of
Georgia, and were the subject of a
description by Prof Simon Newcomb
published in Science, Feb. 6. 1885. The
success Of those exercises, then un-
explained, was prodigicus, and Lulu
Hurst soon had many itnitators.
Miss Abbott, of London, and Miss
Albeit, of Paris, are, we believe, the
most recent and the first in Europe.
They give the same exhibition and
have even greatly improved upon and
varied the experiments of their initia-
trice Lulu Hurst. All these exercises
tend to the same end, i. g., to make it
believed that there is supernatural
and incomprehensible force, electric or
magnetic, by putting in opposition,
under equivalent or apparently equiva-
lent conditions, athletes or very robust
men and a frail or delicate little girl,
who triumphs over them in every
experiment.
One of the experiments consists in
having a man or several men hold a
cane or billiard cue horizontally above
the head. On pushing with one hand,
the girl forces back two or three men,
who, in unstable equilibrium and under
the oblique action of fthe thrust exerted,
are obliged to fall back. This first ex-
pertinent is so elementary and infantile
that it is not necessary to odwell upon
it. In order to show the relative sizes
of the persons, the little girl is supposed
to be standing upon a platform in the
first experiment, but in the expert
rnents that we witnessed this platform
was rendered useless by the fact that
the girl who performed them was Of
sufficient height to reach the cue by
extending her arms and standing on
tiptoes. Next we have second and
more complex experiment, less easily
explained at first sight.
Two men take stick about three
feet in length, and are asked to hold it
firmly in a vertical position. The girl
places her open hand against the
lower end Of the stick, in the position
shown, and the two men are invited to
make the latter slide vertically in the
girls hand, which they are unable to
do, despite their conscientious and oft
repeated attempts.
Mr.. Perry explains this exercise as
follows: The two men are requested to
place themselves parallel with each
other, and the girl, who stands oppo.
site them, places the palm of her hand
against the stick and turned toward
her. She takes care to place her hand
as far as possible from the hands OF the
two men, so as to give herself certain
leverage. She then begins to slide bel
hand along the stick, gently at first
and then with an increasing pressure
as if she wished to better the contact
between the stick and her hand. She
thus moves it from the perpendiculal
and asks the two men to hold it in &
vertical position.
This they do under very disadvan'
tageous conditions, seeing the difference
in length of the arms Of the lever. The
stress exerted by the girl is very feeble
because, on the one hand, she has tht
lever arm to herself, and, on the other
the action upon her lever arm is {
simple traction. When she feels tha
the pressure exerted is great enough
she directs the two men to exert {
vertical stress strong enough to caus
the stict: to descend. They then ina
gine that they are e1ertirg yertica
stress, while in reality their stresses ar
horizontal and tend to keep the sticl
in q vertical position in order to reac
against the pressure exerted at th
lower part of the stick.
There is evidently certain vertica
component that tends to cause the sticl
| l. l,,k L.