Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-02

tive tried inanimate objects. We took
a square iron plate weighing 1874 pounds.
formerly used in a hearth, and placed
1t on a stool. Four Of us stood at the
corners and went through the same
routine that 1 have already described
breathing in unison and then suddenly
lifting. To our great surprise this experi-
ment proved fully as successful as the
other. and in 40 record trials the plate
went up 26 times. Sue a test, by the
way, is dangerous, because if there is the
slightest catching of the breath while the
heavy object lifted is in the air it instant
ly comes crashing Down with it's full
weight. Several of us narrowly escaped
being hurt by the iron slab, and that sug-
gested another and very interesting de-
vice. We took a large spring steelyard,
graduated up to 200 pounds. and made it
self-registering by attaching 3 bit of EN-
Gil to the pointer and putting a slip of
paper over the scale.
Then we hooked it into a ring in the
floor and fastened the other end to the
under side of a short piece Of plank. The
plank was supported across a couple OF
chairs. and we tried lifting it exactly as
we did the iron slab. That put a tension
on the steelyard and the effect was exact
ly as if we were lifting something that
| grew heavier and heavier the higher It
| went. Our breathing had no effect what
ever on the spring, but the apparatus.
l WhiiC NIttuSs dS NdIudDie Ill SHOW lHo
our normal lifting power. We found we
were unable to get above ~ pounds
without clearly p~erceptible effort, and to
register 20 pounds required pronounced
exertion. OF course, We could push the
board up on our finger tips until the
pointer stood at 100, but that was a GYM
nastic feat that strained every muscle.
We found that the raising of the 1884,
pound slab required infinitely less appa-
rent force than the registering Of 10 or
/ 10 r,,& 80, 4loE Jy--~1 VrIot liz,
poses of the theory that the weight was
so divided we didn't feel it.
Now, how 10 one to account for all
this? To me it is unaccountable. 1t
looks, like a clear inversion of the law
of gravitation, and the experiments are
serious and sensible can perform them
without the slightest trouble. They re-
call very strongly to my mind the levi
tation' trick of Indian jugglers. ! have
never seen the thing myself. but Profess
sor edward Baldwin, who is known as an
exroser of ~spiritualistic h~umbuggery.
once gave me a graphic description of a
Performance which he witnessed at Bonn
bay. The fakir, who was very old, stuck
four swords in the earth and had a young
fellow lifted up and laid on the hilts, two
under his shoulders and two under his
calves. He was stretched out rigid,
about a yard above the ground. The
falsir then withdrew the swords, one at a.
time, and the assistant remained in the
air without visible support. Baldwin de-
clared it was a trick, but admitted that
he couldn't see through it. Still it was
really more inexplicable than our own
experiments. One might say. in regard
to lifting a living person, that some sort
of electric sympathy was established:
that the phenomena was in some way
due to animal magnetism; but how about
the iron plate? The metal has a certain
fixed gravity, and how that gravity can
be modified or overcome by anything we
might do, no matter what, is a problem
that battles conjecture. Our rhythmic
breathing undoubtedly has a direct bear
ing on the result, because we are unable
to accomplish anything without it; but
why? and how? l have a pretty fair i'm
agination, but I haven't been able to get
within a mile of a theory. even when l
cave the probability entirely out Of
consideration One Of our party happens
to be away at present, cut when he re-
turns we propose to pursue our invests
cations. We will see, for Instance.
whether different substances offer vary,
ing degrees of resistance"