Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-03
INVESTIGATING AN OLD TRICK.
Four Men. Each Using One Finger
Lift Heavy Plate.

LIT heavy fiate
From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
"a few of US have lately been expert
menting with the old trick of lifting people
on ones finger tips" said young man
who lives at a fashionable boarding house
on St. Charles street. Our purpose was
to obtain some accurate intelligent data
on a very mysterious phenomenon. and We
kept careful record of everything we did
Some Of the results were very surprising.
We began by lifting living person. One
of our party lay down at full length on an
extension table and two Of US stood at
each side, opposite his shoulders and knees.
At given signal all Ave took ten deep
breaths in unison, then each of the four
at the sides placed one finger of the right
hand under the PROSTATE mans body and
lifted, meanwhile holding our breath. In
the majority OF trials, say three out of Ave.
he came up without perceptible effort. and
several times he was lifted high we
| could stretch our arms. There is absolute
ly no sense Of weight and the thing Is
absurdly easy that each man at the table is
bound to feel vaguely suspicious that he
has been tricked and that the others really
do the lifting. felt so myself until COM
mon sense convinced me that 1t was utterly
impossible. The lightest of our subjects
weighed $40 pounds and no four people on
earth could ordinarily lift a man or that
size on their finger tips without visible
strain. We tried great many variations,
but the plan l have described was the only
one that proved generally successful. The
essential point seemed to be to secure a
certain rhythm in breathing, and whenever
We hit the liiL made with unfaiing
certainty; but if any of broke STEP
so to speak, the experiment failed. We
were all deeply in earnest, we had no
trouble on account of giggling or Mysteries.
| was lifted repeatedly myself, and the feel
ing is indescribable. Floating in water is
l can come to it.
After great many experiments with
living people, continued the speaker, I'VE
tried inanimate objects We took a square
iron plate weighing 1874 pounds, formerly
used in a hearth and placed it d stool.
Four of stood at the corners and went
through the same routine that l have al
ready Notwithstanding IN unison and
then suddenly lifting. To great sur
prise this experiment proved fully sue
cessful as the other, and in forty record
trials the plate went up twenty-Six times.
Such test, by the way. is dangerous be-
cause If there is the slightest catching of
the breath while the heavy object lifted Is
in the air it instantly comes crashing down
with its full weight. Several of US mar
rowly escaped being hurt by the iron slab
and that suggested another and very in
teresting device. We took a large spring
steeyard graduated up to 200 pounds, and
made it STRENGTHENING by attaching a bit
of pencil to the pointer and putting a slip
of paper over the scale. Then we hooked
1t into a ring in the floor and fastened the
other end to the underside of short piece
of plank. The plank was supported across
couple of chairs and we tried lifting it
exactly as we did the iron slab. That put
a tension the steelyard and the effect
was exactly If we were lifting some
thing that grew heavier and heavier the
higher it went. Our breathing had no eff
feet whatever on the spring, but the an
paratus, while crude valuable in show
ing our normal lifting power We found we
We're unable to get above twelve pounds
without clearly perceptible effort and to
register twenty pounds required pronounced
eXertion. OF course, we could push the
board up four 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 1S4-pound
slab required infinitely less apparent force
that the registering Of ten or twelve
pounds the steelyard. That disposes of
the theory that the weight was so divided
we didn't feel it.
Now, how is one to account for all this?
To me 1t is unaccOuntable. 1t looks like a
clear inversion of the law of gravitation.
and the experiments are simple that any
five people who are serious and sensible can
perform them without the slightest trouble
They recall very strongly to my mind the
deviation trick of Indian jugglers. 1 have
never seen the thing myself. but Prof. Ed
ward Baldwin, who Is known as an ex-
poser of spiritualistic humbuggery once
gave me a graphic description Of a per-
Torrance which he witnessed at Bombay
The fakfr, who very old, stuck four
swords In the earth and had young fell
low lifted up and laid on the hits, two I'M
der his shoulders and two under his calves
He was stretched out rigid about yard
above the ground. The fakir then with
drew the swords, one at a time, and the
assistant remained in the air without ytsf-
BILE support. Baldwin declared 1t was a
trick, but admitted that he couldn't see