St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-06
WEIGHING "A THOUGHT.

4 Strange Machine Invented That
Tells When Sleeper Is Dream
ing.
Chicago Tribune.
An Italian genius is reported to have
invented machine that will give the
weight of thought. The idea may
have come to him naturally enough by
a comparison Of bordering with think
Ing, and tits not impossible that he has
actualized it by the construction of
an apparatus that will exhibit a
change in the weight of the
head as compared with the feet.
1t is we'll known that the thinking proc
ess causes rush of blood toward the
head, and it is natural to infer that the
quantity of blood thus changing its place
in the system of any individual will vary
with the intensity of the thought. OF
course the process simply amounts to a
variation OF relative weight as between
the head and feet. Itcannot give Or show
any change in the weight of the body as
d whole. Tue problem is far less per-
picking, and therefore probably more
practical, than the one proposed some
twenty years ago,to measure the weight
serving the difference in force with
which the body presses towards the
earth's' center few moments before
and after death.
Such a machine cannot be used to de-
termine the value of a thought, COM
mercially or otherwise. The strongest
mental effort does not always produce
the greatest result. and small guam
tity of nervous excitement in one brain
may produce far greater effects than
intense mental eXertion by another.
There may thus be no discernible cor
relation OF blood movement to thought
product, in a QuantiLive way, even for
the same person at different times,
to say nothing of different persons.
But the idea is really interesting one
for all that, not because it establishes
something new, but for the reason that
it furnishes ocular demonstration OF a
most important scientific fact. The
doctrine that no effect can be produced
without the expenditure of CORE
spending amount of force is a modern
one, but has been formulated pretty
distinctly, and the operation of the law
observed in numerous instance which
the range of scientific study and compar-
sion. Of course such law must hold
equally good for the most minute pro-
ceSses as for the greater ones. 1t must
rule in the vibration of single mole
Guile as i'll the majestic swing Of planet
in its orbit around the sun. II the total
muscular force eXerted through the life
time of an ordinary man he proved
about equal to the energy theoretically
obtained from the combustion of three
tons Of coal, then every little mus
cuar contraction must be accom-
panied by the conversion of the cor
responding amount of energy from the
blood that circulates through the mus
cleS, and the greater the amount of con-
traction, as eXerted in a series of mi
mute and momentary impulses, the
larger mnst be the force draft upon the
fluid. But muscular movement is a re-
suit of nerve eXcitation.a and by the same
law the substance Of both must change
under the impulse. which is actually ac-
complished by means OF a change of It's
sue. particles Of matter previously COM
posing it being eliminated and giving
place to others newly taken up from the
blood substance.
The machine referred to must be an
exceedingly delicate one, if it be cor
rectIy reported that it will show when a
sleeping person placed i'll it is disturbed
by dreams or a slight sound. Ii such
slight sensations are sufficient to cause
the head TO sink lower than the feet one
would think it must be sensitive enough
to respond to a variation of the mill
ionth part of grain in the differential
pressure, and be at least as wonderful
a thing as is the Zollner apparatus for
measuring variations in the tidal forces
eXerted by the sun and moon. 1t should
be great scientific curiosity, and as
such may find its way into the museums
as we'll as the arcaua of the Students
room, for doubtless many thousands of
persons would watch with deep interest
the process by which was exhibited the
weight OF a thought.