The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1907-12-05
Alive or Dead?'
The Strange Disappearance Of
Gerald RathbOne.
~ GUY rHoRNE-
~ guy rHoRNE.

- "a PCAooh "Oai ~ baAc 10P - doASS
unconscious Of anything nor than
the mere fact of its weight upon his
head. But what Is actually going on
Is that every single thought he Sc
cretes is giving off this vibration, not
into the ether, but within the space
enclosed by the cap. These vibrations
cannot penetrate through the sub
stance with which the cap is lined,
and in order to obtain an egress they
can only s the outlet which I have
prepared for them. This is placed in
the top of the cap, and is something
like those extremely delicate mem
branes which receive the vibrations cf
the human voice in a telephone and
transmit them along a wire to the re-
ceiver at the other end Of It,"
He put down the cap and looked to-
ward his audience. Not a single per-
son moved In the very least. The dis
tinguished party, tier upon tier, might
have been a group Of wooden statues
painted and colored to resemble the
human form.
Sir William moved on. Here" he
said, lis a piece OF apparatus, enclosed
in this box, which presented the first
great difficulty In the course of the
twenty years during which l have been
engaged upon this work. Within this
wooden she'll" he tapped 1t with his
fingers, "the thought vibrations IL /
may call them SO, are collected and
transformed into definite and separate
electric currents. Every single varia-
ton is their strength o. quality is
changed into a corresponding electric
current, which, in its turn, varies from
its fellow-currents. So far, l have
found that between 5000 and 1000 cur
rents, differing in their tensity and
their power, are generated by the or
binary thoughts of the ordinary human
being"
"You may take 1t from me, as | shall
presently show my scientific brethren,
that within this box thought vibrations
are transformed into electric currents"
He passed OF to a much larger ma
work OF wires covered with crimson
and yellow silk to the mahogany box
which he had just left.
The outside of the new piece of APP
paratus resemb!ed nothing 81 much as
one OF those enormous wine-coolers
which one sees in big restaurants or
hotels. 1t raj a large, square case
standing upon four legs; from the lid
of this case rose something which sug-
gested a very large Photographic cam
era, but made OF dull steel. The tube,
In which the lens of an ordinary cam
era Is set, was In this case prolonged
for six or sever feet, and was lost in
the interior Of the next machine.
And now, for the first time, the
strained ears of the spectators caught
a note Of keen vibration and excite
ment In Sir William Gouldesbrough's
voice. He had been speaking very
quietly and confidentially hitherto. but
now the measured ~utterance rose half
a tone, and, as when some great actor
draws near in speech to the climax of
the event he mimics. so Sir William
also began to be agitated, and so also
the change In tone sent a thrill and
culver through the ranks of those who
sat before him.
Here" he said, 81 have succeeded
in transforming my electric currents
into light, That Is nothing. you may
think for q moment; the electric cur
rent produces light in your, houses
at any moment; but you must remem-
Der that In your incandescent bulbs
the light is always the same In its
quality. Light Of this sort. passed
through the prism Of a spectroscope.
will always tell the same story when
the r presents itself for analysis.
My problem has been to produce an in
finite variety Of light. SO that every
single thought vibration will produce
when transformed. its W special and
individual quality Of light, and that"
he concluded, 81 have DONE"
Sir Harold Oliver, who had been
leaning forward with gray eyes SO
strained and intent that all the life
seemed to have gone out of them and
they resembled sick pearls, gave a
gasp as Sir William paused.
Then Gouldesbrough continued.
He placed his hand upon the thing
like a Gamers which rose from the lid
Of the larger structure below It.
within this chamber" he said, "all
the light generated below is collected
and focused. 1t passes in one volume
through this object"
He moved onward as he spoke, run.
ming his fingers along the pipe which
led him to the next marvel in his stu.
pendous series.
Il have now come" ne began again,
ito what Mr.. Guest and myself might,
perhaps, be allowed to think as our su,
preme triumph. Here is our veritable
thought spectroscope within this erec
tion. which. you will observe, Is much
larger than anything else I have shown
you. The light which pours along that
tube is passed through what I will ONLY
now designate as a prism, to keep tbs
analogy OF the light s~pectroscope, and
Ii split up into its component parts.
"You will see that, rising out Of thi,
iron box'-he ran his hand over thu
sides OF 1t as II he loved 1.-THE len,
projects Just like the lens Of q bio
scope. This lens Ia directed full upol
that great white screen which ii exact
ly opposite to you all: and this IL m,
anal demonstration Of the mechanism
! which ] am about to set In motion {,