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ADDITOR, ouija board modified by alittle round, hollow box with a pointer protruding from it. Thehollow box serves as a miniature cabinet and moves under the fingersover a polished board printed with the alphabet.
BIOMETER of BARADUC, an instrument toregister vibrations and nervous force of human bodies. It consists ofa needle suspended by a fine thread under a glass shade. If the handis brought near the shade the needle is deflected. The angle ofdeflection, according to Baraduc, depends on various mental, physicaland moral conditions of the experimenter. He believed that thebiometer affords inferences as regards these conditions.
COMMUNIGRAPH, an instrument formechanical communication with the spirits. Known as the"Ashkir-Jobson Communigraph" it consists of a small table with afree-swinging pendulum underneath. The pendulum may make contact witha number of small metal plates representing the alphabet. The contactcloses a circuit and makes the corresponding letter appearilluminated upon the face of the table. According to the inventors'claim no medium is necessary for the instrument. If a circle sitsaround the table the pendulum will commence swinging by what wouldseem to be its own volition.
DYNAMISTOGRAPH, an instrumentconstructed under spirit guidance by the Dutch physicists, Dr. J. L.W. P. Matla and Dr. G. J. Zaalberg Van Zelst, of Hague, to obtaindirect communication with the spirit world without the employment ofa medium. The device is rather complicated. Its principal partsconsist of a cylinder (into which the spirit is supposed to enter), atable isolated by a sheet of glass and charged with an electriccurrent, a pair of extremely sensitive scales and a writing apparatusarranged on the Morse system. Shut in a room, the action of theinstrument was observed through a small glass window cut in the wall.By means of a lettered dial at the top of the machine, it is alleged,long communications were spelt out by apparently spiritualintelligences. In a Dutch book, The Mystery of Death, 1911, theresult of these investigations is told in detail by the inventors. Areport of the Dutch Physical Society objects that no sufficientallowance has been made for possible earth tremors and other normalcauses. Nevertheless, such objections do not give satisfactoryexplanation for the curious communications received from the deceasedfather of Zaalberg Van Zelst.
FLUID MOTOR, of Count de Tromelin; it iscomposed of a paper cylinder, about two inches in diameter, open ateach end and crossed diametrically at its upper part by a piece ofstraw, through the middle of which a needle is stuck, with the pointresting on the bottom of a small inverted porcelain or glass jar. Thepaper cylinder is thus suspended outside and concentric with theinverted jar, the point of the needle acting as a pivot and enablingit to turn easily under the slightest impulse. Count de Tromelinclaimed that if the right hand is placed behind this apparatus itwill turn in the reverse direction to the hands of a watch. If theleft hand is placed behind it will turn in the other direction.Warcollier observed that this motion has nothing to do with thepolarity of the two hands. The left hand produces the same effect asthe right in the same position, moreover the heat of the hand issufficient to create an air current which is capable of producing therotation.
MANTIC DEVICE, an object or mechanismused to free the psyche of its inhibitions to psychic knowledge.Favorites include crystal balls, tea leaves, tarot decks, astrologycharts, etc. If messages from a given medium through a ouija boardare subconsciously based rather than spirit based, then that devicecan be seen as another flavor of mantic device.
OUIJA BOARD (from the French oui and theGerman ja: yes), a wooden tripod on rollers which, under the hand ofthe medium, moves over a polished board and spells -out messages bypointing out letters with its apex. As an invention it is very old.It was in use in the days of Pythagoras, about 540 B.C. According toa French historical account of the philosopher's life, his sect heldfrequent seances or circles at which "a mystic table, moving onwheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil,Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelationssupposedly from the unseen world."
An improvement of the original ouija board is the finger-like pointerat the narrow end, and a simplification is the replacement of thewooden board by a piece of alphabetical cardboard. If the pointer andthe roll at the apex is replaced by a pencil thrust through a boredhole so as to form the third leg the ouija board is transformed intoa planchette.
As a rule the ouija board as a method of communication is slow andlaborious. But it frequently works with those who fail to getautomatic writing with a pencil. Modern boards have the letters ofthe alphabet, numerals and Yes/No.
NERVE MEASUREMENT, To prove that themotor nerves of the medium are at work a number of apparatus havebeen constructed. The best known are the Biometer of Baraduc and theSthenometer of Dr. Paul Joire; the Dynamoscope of Dr. Collongues, theMagnetometer of Abbe Fortin, the Galvanometer of Puyfontain, theSpiritoscope of Dr. Hare, the Magnetoscope of Ruter, and the fluidmotors of Count Tromelin belong to the same class.
PLANCHETTE, invented in 1853 by a Frenchspiritist, it is an offspring of the tipping table: a triangularpolished board on rollers, resting on a pencil in the socket at theapex. The medium places his hand on the board. If it moves the frontleg, the pencil leaves markings on the paper placed beneath. Thesemarkings may assume the form of letters and spell out connectedmessages.
PSYCHIC TELEPHONE, an instrumentinvented by F. R. Melton of Nottingham, consisting of a box inside ofwhich is a rubber bag connected with a pair of earphones from awireless set. The idea is that if a medium inflates the bag with herbreath and then seals it, the bag will take the place of the mediumand direct voices will be heard through the earphones in his absence.Harry Price subjected the instrument to a thorough test in theNational Laboratory for Psychical Research. It did notwork.
PSYCHOGRAPH, a rotating disc carrying anindex over the alphabet. It is the modified form of Prof. Hare'sinstrument to test physical phenomena. The medium has to place hisfingertips on the disc.
PSYCHOMANTEUM, an arrangement of acomfortable chair facing an angled mirror in a backlit darkened quietarea to encourage after-death communications. Popularized by Moodyand described more fully in his book Reunions: Visionaryencounters with departed loved ones. link
REFLECTOGRAPH, an instrument formechanical communication with spirits, invented by George Jobson andB. K. Kirkby. It consists of a huge typewriter the key-contacts ofwhich are so sensitive that by mere blowing upon them they can bedepressed, close an electric current and make an illuminated letterappear. The machine, however, is not quite independent of humanaction. In the person of Mrs. L. E. Singleton a medium is inco-operation. When she is entranced, a hand steals out of thecabinet, taps the keys and spells out messages which are then flashedin luminous letters on a six foot indicator.
SHADOW APPARATUS, a setup consisting ofa battery and lamp in a metal box with a Zeiss telephoto lens as aprojector and a Wratten ruby filter to shoot a pencil of light on aluminous screen, was employed to detect the shape of the invisiblearms which moved the bell or the trumpet. When the light was switchedon the shadow of the arm was thrown on the screen. To quote theresult of this experiment in the words of Eric J. Dingwall: "When thered light was switched on under the table I lay down on the floor andlooked through the passage towards the luminous screen. From near themedium's foot, which was invisible, I saw an egg-shaped bodybeginning to crawl towards the center of the floor under the table.It was white and where the light was reflected it appeared opal. Tothe end nearest the medium was attached a thin white neck, like apiece of macaroni. It advanced towards the center and then rapidlywithdrew to the shadow."
SPIRICOM, a modified radio receiver usedby a sensitive to commuicate with discarnate beings. See ElectronicVoice Phenomena. link
STHENOMETER, the instrument which Dr.Paul Joire invented to demonstrate the existence of a nervous force,acting externally to the body. In the center of the horizontal dial,marked out in 360 degrees, is a light needle or pointer, mostly ofstraw, balanced by a pivot on a glass support. The whole is coveredwith a glass shade. When the extended fingers of one's hand arebrought at right angles to the pointer, near the shade withouttouching it, after a few seconds, in the majority of cases, a decidedmovement of the pointer takes place, it being attracted towards thehand. This movement extends over fifteen, twenty, and sometimes up toforty and fifty degrees. Certain substances which have beenpreviously held in the hand also produce this movement. Wood, water,linen, cardboard, appear to store up this nervous energy. Tin-foil,iron and cotton produce no effect. The S.P.R. and some Frenchscientific groups attributed the movement of the needle to the actionof radiating heat.
TELEKINETOSCOPE,, an electric telegraphkey was placed into a brass cup and connected to a red light under ahermetically sealed glass shade. A soap bubble was blown over the cupand covered by a glass shade. It was only through the depression ofthe telegraph key that the red light could be flashed. The wholeapparatus was placed on the shelf inside the double table. Thetelegraph key was repeatedly depressed. The soap bubble, at the endof the seance, was found unbroken.
VANDERMEULEN SPIRIT INIDICATOR consistsof two glass prisms, one plain, the other resinous, fixed faceto-faceon a board. Between them hangs a very light triangle or wire. Theprisms are connected to the positive and negative pole of a dry bellbattery. If the hanging triangle swings out and touches the positivewire the circuit is closed and the bell rings. The spirits areexpected to generate electricity in the prisms. If this is done, thehanging triangle which is wired to the negative pole will be repelledby the negative prism and attracted to the positive wire. The bellrings, which is taken as an indication that a spirit desires tocommunicate, and the observers rush to the ouija board to obtain themessage.
For an extensive historictreatment of famous mediums, research associations and researchersplus extended discussions of many of the topics listed here see thefull free download of Fodors Encyclopaediaof Psychic Science