The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1907-12-06
or Dead?'
5 The Strange Disappearance of
! Gerald Rathbone.
! ~ GUY TAoRNg.
CHAPTER xxl.-(continued.
~ oUv THoRN9.


you here are now W of the ma
ture of my experiments and discov-
cry. 1t has been ventilated in the
press SO largely during the last few
days, and Mr.. Donald Megbie has writ
ten such a lucid account OF the in
fluence which he believes the discov-
cry will have upon modern life, that l
am sure you all realize something of
the nature of what l am about to show
you.
"To put it very plainly, I am going
to show you how thought a be col
lected in the form of vibrations, In
the form of fluid electric current, and
collected directly from the brain OF
the thinker as he thinks.
strate to you how this current a be
transformed into a visible, living, and
actual representation Of the thoughts
of the thinker"
He stopped for a moment, and there
was a little murmur from his guests.
Then he went on:
Before proceeding to actual expert
ment, it is necessary that l should
give you some account of the means
by which I have achieved such mar
velous results. l do not propose to do
this in extremely technical language,
for, were l to do SO, a large portion of
those here this afternoon would not
be able to follow me. l shall proceed
to explain in words which I think most
of you will understand.
my illustrious c%onfreres in science
will follow me and understand the
technical aspect of what l am going
to put into very plain language, and
to them especially I would say that,
after the actual experiment has been
conducted, l shall beg them to exam
inc my apparatus and to go into the
matter with me from a purely scien-
tiic aspect.
And now, ladies and gentlemen.
let me begin.
THAT light is transmitted by waves
in the ether is ~abundantly proved, but
the nature of the waves and the ma
ture of the ether have, until the pres
ent, always been uncertain. 1t Is
known that the ultimate particles Of
bodies exist in a state of vibration,
| but it cannot be assumed that the vi
bration Is purely mechanical. Expert
ment has proved the existence Of mag
netic and electric strains In the ether,
and l have found that electromagnetic
strains are p~ropagated with the same
speed as that with which light travels.
"You will now realize, to put it in
very simple language, that the connec-
ton between light and what the man
In the street would call currents or
waves of electricity is very intimate.
| When l had fully established this in
my own mind, l studied the physiology
Of the human body for a long period.
I found that the exciting agents in
the nerve system of the animal frame
are frequently electric, and upon X
perimenting upon the nerve system in
the human eye l found that it could
be excited by the reception of electro
magnetic waves.
"In the course of my experiments
began more and more frequently to
ask myself. What is the exact nature
Of ~thought?'
"You all know how Signor Marconi
can send out waves from n of his
transmitters. l am now about to tell
you that the human brain is nothing
more or less than an organism which,
In the process Of thought, sends out
into the surrounding ether a number
Of subtle vibrations. But as these vi.
brations are so akin In their very es.
sence to the nature OF light, It occur:
red to me that 1t might be possible to
gather them together as they were
given of, to direct them to q certain
point, and then, BY means Of trans
forming them into actual light through
q new form Of spectroscope; and. in.
Istead Of colored rays being projected
upon q screen through the prism OF
the instrument, the actual Twins
thought of tho brain would appear fol
everyone to e I.
"This is. in brief, precisely what ]
have done, and 1t is precisely what !
am going to show you In a few min,
utes. Having given you this briefest
and slightest outline Of the law l have
discovered and proved, I will explain
to you something Of the mechanical
means by which l have proved it, and
by which l am going to show 1t to you
In operation"
He stopped once more and moved
little away from whore he had been
standing.
Every one was now thoroughly in
terested. There was a tremulous
silence as the tall, lean figure moved
toward q small table on which the
shining conical cap, or helmet Of
brass, lay.
Sir William took up the object and
held II in his right hand, SO that ev
cry one could see it distinctly. From
the top. where the button Of an ordi
nary cap would be, a thin. silk-cover
ed wire dropped down to tho floor
and finally rose again and disappeared
with . complicated piece Of mechan
Ism q few feet away.
This cap" Sir William said. 4.
placed upon the head Of . human be
ing. You will observe later that l,