THE MYSTERY OF THE SEXAPHONE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 75, 24 April 1909, Page 6

THE MYSTERY OF THE SEXAPHONE

AN EXTKAOHDIXABY INVENTION. (By Mr. W. T. Stead, in the Review of Reviews.) Mr. Williams is a working engineer who also keeps liens at Caiiord. One day when in his workshop ho noticed that some unroll steel articles suspended i'runi the wall by wire were quivering without any apparent cause. As the quivering continued, hi! hunted about to discover what was the source of the disturbance. Immediately below the pendent steel someone had placed a basket of eggs. He removed it to see if there was any nilgiiet beneath. No sooner had he' done so than the quivering ceased, lie replaced the banket and the quivering recommenced. Clearly there was sonic connection between the quiver that was felt bv the steel and the eggs. Mr. Williams began experimenting with this hitherto unsuspected sympathetic relation between steel and egg. He found that a Sterile egg left the steel unmoved. Continuing his experiments, lie found that one \'j:g would eauiie the steel to move backwards and forwards like the pendulum of a clock, while another egg, would cause it to rotate with a circular motion, lie hatched out the lirst egg, and the chicken that came out was a pullet, lie hatched out the second, and Out came a cockerel. 11l thus .wise it was that Mr. Williams stumbled upon what may be the key to many mysteries, viz., the latent power of sex in eggs to move a pendent piece of steel from side to side if the egg be female, in a circle if it he male. 1 met Mr. Williams at the Daily Mirror exhibition of the sexaphone at the Hotel Cecil.

"Arc you sure you are rightl. asked. "I have verified it a thousand times. Last year I hatched out hundreds of eggs in my three incubators, and they came out true to indication every timv. Of course, I never set eggs shown to be sterile." "Then all your certificated hatch out. and always true to the sex shown by your little machineV' "That is so. At first I was clumsy and made a few mistakes. But my wifo can test 201) eggs an hour, ami we hatch out 100 pur cent, and have just the proportion of cockerels or pullets that we profer." "What is your machine?" ''ilere it in." said Mr. Williams, producing a sexaphone; "one is simply a fine steel wire, from which is suspended | A small steel weight. That is the more I sensitive. The other is a trifle more | elaborate, Iml the principle is the sanuv J j "And docs *ex always affect it in the [aame way?'' "Invariably. Mail or woman,, bird, beast or lisll—the instrument never fails. 1 have tried it on armadillos and eels. Hut try it yourself." So I tried it on (lencral Sir Alfred Turner's head. The little ball ipiivered, moved slowly, and soon was gyrating round and round as if it would never stop. 1 tried it on a lady's head. The circular movement slowly died awav. and then the steel ball began to swing back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. "Perhaps it is suggestion," 1 objected. "It moves as we expect il to do.'' "Try it on an animal sex is unknown. Here is n hedgehog. Here are guinea-pigs, pigeons, rabbits, white mice; 'no one can say which in male and which is female without close lest them." So we did, and behold in every case the sfxuplnuie told truly the sex'of the subject! Mr. Williams suggested We should Irv it on a dog which lie was proceeding to take out of the basket. I objected. "Lei tile dog stay where it is; kce|> tlie lid down. \'n one known whether it is a lie or a she. Hold the sexaphone over the basket and see if it will work." To this Jlr. Williams objected. He could not guarantee that it' would tell the sex unless it was held close to the animal; the lid of the basket uii'dit intercept the current. I insisted. "Try it and see.'' Mr. Williams gave way. 1 held the sexaphone over the basket, and lo! in a few seconds it bvgan to gvraie in tlie circular fashion, '1 pronisiiuce this dog a male.* I sai<l. ''Take it mil and see." And male it was! i 'Tip The experiment is to be repeatcd'at my olhce for the purpose of putting the power of tlie sexaphone to a test of its ability to detect the soy ,if eggs' before a small but influential committee of the best known experts on poiiHn-rearin-' 111 l lls fointry. I hope to re'port • tlie results in n future number of the lieview.