Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-21
INVENTS MACHINE TO
CURE INVETERATE LIARS
EXPERIMENTS TO REDUCE TRUTH
TO SCIENCE
Tests Made on Harry Orchard a
Boise-I,redicted Instruments
VIII Keep Innocent
Out of Jail

CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Sept. 2o.-Prof
Hugo Munsterberg of Harvard university
has just crowned the achievements of a
life devoted to psychological research by
the invention of several little machines to
record the emotions and reveal the Sc
crets Of the human mind.
"Truth-compelling machines" is what
one scientist calls them. Machines to
cure liars" another designates them.
What they may accomplish in the Grim
inal and legal world can scarcely be ap-
preciated at the present time, but the
assertion is made that Prof. Munsterberg
has reduced a knowledge of the truth
to an exact science" and that a few years
hence no innocent person will be kept in
Jail, nor, on the other hand, will any
guilty person cheat the demands of JUS
tice.
No less a criminal than Harry Orchard
was made the subject of Prof. Munster
berg's first exhaustive test of these ma
chimes These tests were made at the
time of the trial at Boise. Prof Mum
sterberg is now at work on treatise Gov
ering these tests, concerning which ht
says:
ITO deny that the experimental psychol-
ogist has possibilities of determining the
truth-teIling powers is as absurd as to
out whether there is arsenic in the stom-
ach.'
An inquiry among scientists and psy-
biologists reveals the fact that one of the
machines used by Prof. Munsterberg is
not unknown to science, but an oppor-
tunity has never before been offered for
making such remarkable tests.
The simplest of these machines is called
the "automautograph," and consists
merely of wooden sling suspended from
the ceiling upon which rests the arm of
the person being examined. A pencil is
grasped lightly in the fingers, the point
of the pencil just reaching a smooth sheet
of paper, which records the involuntary
writings of the suspect.
Fingers Twitch
1t has been learned that the arm mus
cles and finger muscles thus used con-
stantly twitch under the stress of any
passing emotion. Tests upon different
persons have disclosed the fact that the
same general outline is made by any
person under the stress of the same emo
ton.
Another instrument, much more deli
cate in construction, is the 'pneumo-
graph" which records the normal breath
ing and any variation in breathing caused
by an emotional suggestion. The record
ing of these emotions is done electrically
and in another room far removed from the
suspect.
The effect of emotional stress upon the
rate of breathing is a matter of common
knowledge, but the reduction of the char
acter of each breath is matter of very
recent scientific research Every breath
writes its own history, and thoughts of
the mind are easily uncovered by refer
ence to the chart.
Perhaps the most delicate of these in
etrument is the "sphygmagraph," which
is attached to the wrist and records the
action OF the heart beats. OF the three
kinds of emotion, that of the heart is
the most sensitive and the least influ-
enced by the will. For this very reason it
is the surest test. The record of it's halts,
jumps and rapid beating is the most sig
nificant of ali
With all these instruments attached to a
sane person full and a definite charted
knowledge of every emotion is at hand,
it is declared. All that will be necessary
when examining a suspect will be to
compare the involuntary records he has
made under examination with the rec
ords of an innocent man under similar
examinations
The last of the three instruments also
employs electricity in the form of an in
strument somewhat resembling the re-
cording telephone. Any suspicion on the
part of the suspect would assist rather
than hinder the investigation. Hesitancy
in trying to avoid discriminating answers
would make significant sign on the rec
ords