Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-02
BY AUSTIN c. LEscARBouRA

alities which have passed on to am
other existence or sphere. Immeh-
ateIy the press of the United States
and Europe announced that Thomas
A. Edison had joined the ranks of the.
spiritualists, which nov NUMBER
many a prominent scientist, author.
inventor. physicist, engineer, clergy
man and so on. Soon the h1ghly
imaginative French writer's drew pen
pictures of Mr. Edison's apparatus
serving as a telephone station or tel
egraph office or whatnot, where per
sons wishing to communicate with
those who have passed on could 90
so in a positive and prompt manner.
And no one is more sorry than
Mr.. Edison that this impression has
been permitted to gain ground both
here and abroad. "1n the first place.
I cannot conceive such thing as
spirit" said Mr.. Edison to the writ
er. He meant it, too. Imagine
something which has no weight, no
material form, no mass; IN 1t "oru'
tv to the belief that spirits exist ana
can he seen under certain clrcum-
stances and can be made to tllI Ia.
HES and rap and do other things OF
2. similar unimportant nature. Inc
whole thing is so absurd
ouija Board Improvement
Tn fact. it was mainly for the rea-
son of correcting the impression
about Mr.. Edison's activities IN TINS
latest field of research that 'He
yentor granted the writer an inter
viaw. The apparatus which he IS
reported to be building Is stu IN me
EXPERIMENTAL stage. Obviously MI;
Edison is too cautious ana Ioo Wen
| founded in the uncertainties OF any
new experimental work TO say t any
thing definite at the present time
| However. he wishes to say the folloW
mo which is very Significant IN INC
Tight OF his past record IN SO liianS
fields of endeaVor. E. so,oa
| "J have been thinking Tor so SUM
i time of a mach1ne + or nv person-
alities which have passed on 10 81 an
other existence or sphere, NOW ~. to
| low me carefully; 1 don't Claim ~ ~ o..
! our personalities pass on 70 ahotii 81
enVthine because l don't know any
thing about the subject; For tn tat
matter. no. human being knows. buI
| T do claim that it is possible 70 con.
| struct an apparatus WnIch ,or-
sonaiities in another existence or
sphere who wish to get In touch
| with us in this existence or spttne a ~
| this apparatus will.at least give tneIll
themselves than the fitting tables o6i
and raps and ouija boards and meo a.
inns and the other crude methods
now purported to be the only means
of communication ~
"In truth, it is the crudeness OF
the present methods that makes me
doubt the authenticity of purporteo
Communications with deceased per
sons. Why should personalities IN
another existence or i Spner9 tris wsue
! lar piece Of wood over a board WIN
with certain lettering en- it? Why
! should such personalities play
pranks with a table? me >" "h me
that I frankly cannot give it my
that if we are to make any real
progress in psychic 1nVestlgatlon'
we must do it with scienItlrlc ap nar
Iasf AS aR %e t do IN medicne. electricity
| chemistry, and other fields.
"Now what 1 purpose to do Is to
| furnish psychic investigators Win
an apparatus which will give b, a a
apparatus, 4et me explain, is in the
nature of a valve, so to speak. That
| is to say, the slightest conceivable
| effort is made to exert many times
poses. It is similar to modern =,
bower house, where man, with MS
relatively puny one-elghth horse
power turns a valve which starts a
| $4,000 horsepower turbine MY appa-
ratus is along those lines, in that
| the slightest effort which it inter-
| cepts will be magnified many times
so as to give us whatever form OF
record we desire for purpose OF IN
| yestigation. Beyond that l don't care
| to say anything further regarding it's
nature I have been working out the
| details for some time; indeed, a col
laborator in this work died only me
other day. In that he knew eXactIy
| hi NXynr
that he knew exactly what I am
after in this work, I believe he
ought to be the first to use 1t II ne
| is able to do SO. OF course, don't
for the survival of personality. l
am not promising communication
| with those who have passed out OF
this life. 1 merely state that am
giving the psychic investigators an
apparatus which may help them in
| their work, just as optical experts
| have given the microscope to the
| medical world. And if this apparatus
fails to reveal anything of exception
al interest. l am afraid that ! shall
| have lost all faith in the survival of
| personality as we know it in this
| existence"
Scouts Present Theories
| Mr.. Edison does not believe in
the present theories of life #; =, and nd
theories because he felt that they
were fundamentally wrong. And
| just as he experimental with one
substance after another without
search for the filament of the first
| successful incandescent electric
lamp, so he has searched and rea-
| soned and built up a structure which
represents his theories of what is
life. y
II believe that life. like matter is
indestructible," began Mr.. Edison, in
outlining his theory of life and
death. There has always been a
certain amount of life on this world
amount. You cannot create life; you
cannot destroy life; you cannot null
| tiply life.
81 believe our bodies are composed
Of myriads and myriads of infinite
small entities, each in itself unit
of life. which band together to build
a man. We have taken it for grant
| ed that each of US is a unit We
think of cat, an elephant, horse,
a fish and so on as units. I am con-
vinced that such thinking is basical-
| ly wrong; All these things appear
to be units only for the reason that
the life entities of which I speak
are far too small to be detected even
with the ultra microscope.
"The question has been raised that
| II tneSe LIE entlCleS are so SmaII,
they cannot e large enough to in
clude a cole ton Of organs capable
Of carrying on the tasks which 1 am
about to mention. Yet why not?
There is no limit to the smallness of
things. just as there is no limit as to
largeness. The e1ectron theory gives
us a reply which is wholly satisfac
tory. have had the matter rough
ly calculated and have at hand tn
data of the calculation. I am sur
that a highly organized entity. con
sisting of millions of electrons We