Prof, Vehr's Electrical Experiment.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2054, 5 September 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

Prof, Vehr's Electrical Experiment.

By Kobeiit Ddkcan Milne, in the " Argonaut."

" TnE inagio of the nineteenth century I " I exclaimed. "The terra is so variously employed that it becomes necessary lor me to know how to apply it before wo can comprehend each other exactly." "Well," responded Ashley, "I take it to mean the production of phenomena by natural means, which nevertheless seem supernatural, or beyond the present scope of applied science." " As, for inßtanoe ?" I inquired. "Well, as for instance, the facnlfcy of intercommunication between persons heparated by immense distances without the medium, say, of a tangible, physical telegraphic wire." " Hot, in that case," I remarked, " and granting, for the sake of argument, that the intercommunication you describe might be carried on without the medium of a wire, how would you explain it? " "By supposing," returned Ashley, " the existence of a real and actual medium whereby communications can be transmitted, though snoh medium is imperceptible to our ordinary senses, and cannot be weighed or measured by ordinary scientific instruments." " But what reason have you," I objected, " for presuming the existence of any such medium at all." " The very best reason," he answered. " the actual experience of the past," " You do not mean that you, personally, have communicated with— in short, transmitted messages to, and received messages from— distant perspns without the uhb of ordinary telegpaphio wires ? " I asked. " There is nqlhing so extraordinary in that. You raunt surely have witneßßed the application ot that law in the case of clairvoyants and trance mediums." "Ahl" returned I. "But we were not talking of clairvoyants and tranoe mediums. Phenomena like these oan bo referred to a purely meotal source. We wore talking, I

c"' 1 'i • ' i . .i a (d uj 'mlo~ . ' "G ndUi'y; proved by rc^ultb. Juferenti.iHy i',,)A is to pay, though the laws of its «tnU i% Ht'll remain bCv,nt," replied my frvnd. " I should like to witness sujli results myself," I paid " Ymu cxn do so by coming with me this evonirq," replied Ashley. S ) it was agreed upon between the young physician, in who3Q room I then was, and myself, that we should meet again that evening at a cert un spot, aud afterward proceed to investigate the phenomena wo had been talking about. "And tha fair Julia?" I remarked, inquiringly, changing the subject. A shade passed over rrfy friend's counteian ec na I made this remark. The lady I had rrfened to was betrothed, and it required no grc.it amount of observation on my part to perceive that in mentioning her iiomo I had touched a tender cord, and so forebore to pi osecuf o tho subject, though entitled by intimacy with both an interest in their mutual relations. " It is thiß very matter which troubles me jurit now," replied my friend, uneasily. " Her letters have latterly been growing less frequent, and I fancy I csn detect also a change of style. Her plirasea seem less endearing than formerly. It would SBerfl as though a shadow had sprung up between us. You know how I love her, and I am racked with apprehension when I think she is so far awp.y, and exposed to I know not wbat estranging influences." " Wbere are the family now?" I asked, as since the Radeliffea had lefc San Francwco, some six months bafore, they had, as I knew, been travelling in Europe, though I was unacquainted with their present location. "That is what I do not know," replied Ashley, in tremulous tones. " They were in New York two weeks ago, and since then I have had no letter from Jalia, though hitherto she haa never missed a week Without writing." Julia Badoliffe, the affianced bride of Gerald Ashley, was a charming, sympathetic, and impressionable girl of nineteen summers, the only daughter of one of San Francisco's representative business men, who had been travelling with his family, and was now on his return home. Knowing the extent of my friend's affection for the lad, I felt nincere sympathy for him in his present condition. Picaently an idea struck me. Why should not my friend make use of the mode of communication he had just been explaining to me, and thus obtain the information he stood so sadly in need of ? If it really possessed the /irtue he expressed such confidence in, surely the present was the time to prove it, and I immediately made the suggestion, " The very thing I had in my mind," ho returned, in answer to my observation, " when I a<-kcd you to accompany mo thia evening. Profesbor Vphr is no ordinal y scientist, I admire yo". Some of the phenomena he pro duces'are of tho most extraordinary and startling character. " Profe&aor Vehr 1" I exclaimed, in surprise. " Do [you mean Profrpsor Vehr of the Palace Hotel ? I have already witnessed sonio of hi 3 remarkable experiments/'.recalling an episode in which a magic mirror had figured, some fow mouths before. " I will willingly accompany you." Two hour 3 Inter found U 3 in the professor's apaitmcnta in the Palace Hotel, where we were cordially welcomed. " You have repeated your visit," he sfiul, " with a^view to farther investigate the occult. Good. I shall bo happy to oblige you — the more so as I have myself been pursuing the investigation?, r.nd have arrived at even mere subtile e'ueidation3 of the energies conpejved in the fluid we call electricity than those which yeu witnessed in the oase of the mirror. There this plienouenon v«a^ to the reproduction of optical eff c fa , with a cerUin jp&ctijn on the snbtantial forms of whioh the figurep on the minor were Ihzsim'ilacra. Now I am üble to exert an actual phya-'eil control over the voices aa well as the minds of ilintant persons themselves, so a«, if necessary, to even transport them from placo to place. I was stiuck with the last observation of the profeepor, and with tho resemblance of its clnini to that cf tho adepts of tho Oriental Theosopby, and so intimated. " It is quite true," he said, that thia formulation of the energy I have jnst hinted at is, in offset, the same i« that controlled by the Theopophists. It may bo, also, that, in one wenee. they have arrived at that more complete mastery over nature where tbe mere effort of mind and will is able to prociace effects which I can only obtain in natural corollaries of law which the world at large possesses. Still, even granting that ouch is the ease, ray mode of procedure for obtainiug my results does not entail those penalties for their abußP to which explorers into the realms of the occult under purdy physical conditions are exposed. There are, however, penalties equally terrible for a failure to observe the substantial coivl.tioneof scientific law — penalties whioh threaten absolute annihilation of individual identity, so far as the materialper-f-on or ego oin be annihilated"— and so saying, the professor turned towards the aloove which had b?en the scene of the experiment with the mirror. It can readily bp conceived that, while impressed with the deliberate enunciation and careful phraseology of the professor, I was somewhat at a loss to trnoe their application to a phenomenon vyhich I had not yet witnessed, strongly tinctured as they were with that transcendental flavor which, while it whete the curiosity, tends rather to obsoure than elucidate the subject on which it treats. I vvas not, therefore, sorry when I saw that our host was busying himself with ihe arrangement of Fcne apparatus in the alcove, to which Ashley and myself now directed our attention, and waited. The object which particularly arrested our attention was an immense glass bell, of something the shape and sizo of a diving-bell, which occupied tha centre of the alcove. This bell rested, in an inverted position, upon a solid'slab of plate-glass, touching its edges upon every side. It reminded one, shall I say, of tho receiver of a gigantic air-pump more than anything else. The capacity of this immense bell was, evidently, many hundred gallons, beinp, as nearly as I can judge, some fivo feet high by as many in diameter. Another peculiarly which I noted was that it was coated, to a height of about two feet from its base, wich some shining opaque metallic substance ; and as a metel rod depended from its apex about tho same distance into its interior, while its upper end projected about a foot above tho bell, I had no diflifiully in connecting tho apparatus before me with some branch of electricity, as the whole boro a marked resemblance to the known characteristic* of ft Laydcn jar— that reaervoir of static electricity whoso aoientifio qualities are too well known to require further description. One other feature was deserving of notice — namelj 7 , that through one Bide of the bell projected the ends of what looked like ordinaiy telegiaphic wirea, terminating in thcßG metal handles with whiah all who have experimented with tho induction coil shock battery are familiar. The profcior walked leisurely round the bell, inspecting the metallic coating minutely, as lilcewieo the wires which projected through the sides. Having apparently satisfied himself of the fitness of the apparatus befose him, ho turned to Ashley and said : " I received your letters regarding the lady,

"" ; ih,,V v ; '"VP> t° assist ,>"M, i* fir v T ' odii, in jour teaion for information, if it becomes necessary, and if you have oouragj enough to undertake it. The first step, however, will Kg to ascertain the lady's present positron and surroundings." So raying the professor led the way to the glass bell, whioh he prodeeded to raise from the floor, by means of a rope passing round a drum and through a pulley overhead. After raising it about four feet, he kept it in position by adjusting a ratchet on the drum, and, placing a chair upon the glass slab, requested Ashley to seat himself thereon, Ashley did so, and the professor then pat into each of his hands one of the handles terminating the wires which raa through the" ride of the bell. These wires I now saw ran to the outer wall of the apartment, Where they disappeared. 11 They are," explained tho professor, M merely private connections with our ordinary public telegraph wires. They aiB, however, under certain conditions, rendered peculiarly sensitive to currents which would be powerless to affect ordinary telegraphic instruments in any manner whatever." Thus saying he loosened the ratohet on the drum, and proceeded to let the glass ball descend till it completely covered Ashley, enclosing him aa if in a rase, its edges resting on the glass slab on which his chair was set. "There v, as you s<*e," explained the professor, in answer, as it were, tn &n unspoken idea, "no danger cf aspbyxiut'en, as the holes through which the side wires and the top rod pas*, are by no means tight, thia condition not being essential to the Bucoisa of the experiment." He then proceeded to take cautiously from a gI&3S jar at one side o! the alcove, the end of a piß<jB of thick rubber tubing, a wire at the end of which he attached to a hook on the mctallio coating of a bell; and then, from a second glass jir in another corner, a similar piece of tubing, the end of which, by standing on a chair he connected with the end of the rod whioh projected upwurd from the aperx of tho bell. I noticed that these latter india-rubber-ooated wires ran out into the street like the simple telegraph wires first rj°ntiuued. I noticed, too, that they bokod ■peculiarly similar to the rubber-coated wires used for conveying the fluid which feed* the electric lights in streets ani public building*. " It is now," oaid the processor, descending from his chair, after attaching the s*coad wire to the rod at the .top cf the bell, " that the nicsty of our experiment cornea in. I have had th?ae insulated wires, from the work 1 ? of the Electric Lighting Company, brought into my apartments in order to save time and trouolo in char ; ?iu£ my bell, an operation tedious to accomplish by generating electricity b> a plate apparatus in the ordinary manner. Still, the great speed and foroe with which the llnid is generated and transmitted Wi.mrh ti,c-e wires n^jp^itatcs extreme eire in maiiipij'a'ion A '!■ g-e? too much in tension miuht be pro'luotiw of the most BCiiom consequence- i to afyoi" eorfmed inside. Still thue n no four in fbe first "la^e of the experiment, and none, if strict care is tnVun, in iho second." So Paying, the professor aprno idled tne bill w.tu an electrometer, and i.re^ntly, <\U°t dhonarcttog t'n rubber-cnateil wires itierefrom, returning thorn carnfully to thwir inspeclive inBulntorv. Is was now apparent that while wa were conversing A->hlcy hnd cloool hu eyes, aud was now reclining back iv hid nhau, seemingly 10 dpep slppp, hi* hw\ i atill cla^piog tbe handles of tha tplp.rayh 'viroj that ran into the interior of tbe b' 'I. " Thp-i; is the first effect of a moderately strong charge of B*atic olrctr'city in tl;o hcraan f-aaie," explained the ptoffcor. "ft induces a highly wrought condition of the nerres, whioh in their turn act npon the ganglion of tbe hraSn ; that, in its turn, reacting again, through the dup'ex scries «f nerves, upon the wire held in the left hand, «kiah brings tin holder into cTn»nu«.te*tum vsith whatever ttb^ct; enthrals hi 3 at. ntisn at the time of trance. The c-xperirue::!, is, in fffect, chirvoyance reduced to an art, the meamerio trance acoomphshed by acientifio means and conditioned by the reoognieed and accepted laws of electrical science. Your fripnd is now, as I verily beluvo, in direct spiritual communication with her who is" dearest to bis heart — the la u t object that held rnoopssion of hia soul before the meamerioe'ee'rio tranoe overtook him. I will put myself in communication wich him and ascertain." The professor then walked around to the pide of tha bell where Ihe wires entered the class, and appli r d the forefinger .of either hand to the onficee. As he did so, Ashley gave a visible start. His eyes, however, still remained closed. " Ha\e you seen her 7 a q ked tho professor, iv deliberate tones, bending his Bpectncled eyea upon Ashley. " Where is she ? What do you see?" " I see a vast building— a collection of vast buildings. I see throngs of people, gayly dressed, walking in and out of them, and parading the baautiful grounds which surround them. It reminds me of the Centennial Exposition of '70." 11 He is evidently in New Orleans," observed the professor to me. " I have no question that Miss Radoliffe is there. Do you fee the lady?" he continued, addressing my friend. "Ha 1 There I " responded Ashley, with animation. " There is Julia with her father and mother, and stay !— there ia another there— a tall, handsome man, who has just approached the party. He takes of! his hat and bows. He steps to Julia's side. She shrinks a little as he approaches. Mr. and Mrs. ltadclilTa smile as he proffers his arm. They walk on. He is bending over Julia und conversing in low, passionate tones. He is telling her that he loves her. She listens to him as in a dream. He presses his suit more vehemently. They have left or lost her father and mother in the crowd. They are now alone in a little Moorish kiosk. He bends down and kisses her, and though she shudders she does not move away. Merciful heavens I " and witk a start Gerald Ashley awoko. The professor eyed him calmly. " Are you satisfied?" he said, dreat beads of perspiration were standing on Aphley's brow. He looked the picture of agony and apprehension. " You have been there in spirit," said Mia profpssor. "You know and appreciate the position yonr love is in. Would you regain her? Would you save her to yourself? Do you dare to appear beside her in bodily form, and bring her back with you here, wreßting her from the new lover who has gained dominion over her. and whom, if you hesitate now, you will be in a very short time powerless to rival ? Do you trust to my art ? Bclievo mo, I sympathize with you, and will help you if I can," and the professor looked calmly and Bteadily into the eyea of the man innide the bell. "I am willing to encounter any risk," responded A3hl6y, " to regain tho love of my betrothed. What must Ido ?" " Simply retain your clasp upon the handles," said the professor, calmly. " Keep your attention fixed, aa heretofore, and you will presently be in the kiosk of the New Orleans Exposition, not in spirit as you were a minute ago, but in actual, physical body. When you find yourself there, 1 Jeavo it to yoiirrelf to regain the affections of your betrothed. Leave it to. me to bring you both here. B° careful, though, not to looren your clasp on hci' hand when the wire sounds the call to return. Gi, and fortune attend you." Ashley again olasped the handles of the

, ; r n s , .i . c, il t rim ivi on it n s T.'O wlucb betokened mat h» re^.l '.A v.il cp,>reciated every detail of th.3 ji "ofrfidor'o ai/icc. The latter walked with Horn"whatq i aifL'r^« n ;i thaq wan hi 3 wont to thp insulaton wh r ■ the wires of tho Eleotrio I/^htiig Coinoaav lay, and proceeded to adjust tli*>m to thpir respective places on the bell as b?fore. P.f. sently Ashley's head fell baok upon the cTiir as before., •md his eyes closed. Toe prj>:ior took out his watch, looked at it aoaiewJiat nervously, approached the bell at interval* with his elcctrometpr, and paced the tloor. 41 My instrument 13 baßo.i," he exp amal to me, "on a centigrade bc&Io of my own. It will take some time for a bell of the biz ? yo:i see before you ts bejom? folly charged wth the fluid, even with my wirea, which I have had conteyed almost straight from hvadqaartors; and unt ; i the bell is fully oharged the experiment cannot be oonsumated. We waited patiently io? uoma ininuteg more, Ashley mu/maring meanwhile; "New Orleans ; kiosk ; Icm see her, bat I cannot approach her; her fatbec and mother ara searching anxiously for hrr through other portions of tho t,r,mnd=!." Presently my ffical beoatm Bilert. Tho profesior again, for tha fifth or sixth time, approsohed the ball and applied his instrument. " Ilu-ih ! " said he. " The tension in the boll ia now augmenting rapidly. A short tuna more and we shall witness the successful accomplishment of our experiment." As he spoke, I noticed a change taking place in Ashley. Seated there, as he wa3, hi 3 head Icaniug oa the back of his chair, his hands grasping the eleotrodes, I diatinotly saw his form become thin, filmy, ami transparent. Moment by moment more thin, filmy, and transparent it grew till the attenuation was such that cran the outline was scarcely visible. Tbe hands alone, of all portions of the body, retained som°thing of their pristine substantiality. "He haa gone," whispered the professor, with subdued exoitement. "We must now gauge tho time till we can reasonably presume that he has accomplished his purpose, regaining his betrothed, and take measures for their return — the return of both, for if he be without her little would be gained. She would again, doubtless, as soon as her lover has left hdr, become amenable to him who gained a dominion over her in the absence ot her original lover, and whO3e supremacy would bo restored." " Bat ho 7— how"— l stammered— " how ia this to be accounted for ? What haa beoorae of my friend' who was seated there bat a moment ago ?" " Tae simplest thing in tbe world, my deaj Eir," replied the professor, earnestly. " You debiro to know why your friend's body haa disappeared. Would you ask the same question had t*;at body baen exposed to intense be.it ? You answer, no ; beoaase you say that it is a reoognised law of chemhtry that tne most refractory subata.nees — rook or mctrt! -are lirqt melted and ftien volatilized by beat. Heat, in effect, expands and disiiirtj.;rates the mass, and deoolloeates the atoms of every known substance. The static electricity, with which that glaaß Dell i 3 charged, is, in one sen3e, a correlative of h:a\ and, in another, a correlative of the physical energy which we call spirit. Is it wonderful, therefore, that the intense heat with which that bell is laden should suffioe to produce tho effects whioh you nowwitneis? There u nothicg wonderful, ray dear sir, in any cbetoical proocss, do matter how apparently inc-raprcheneible and inexplicable it may be. You have seen a solid blook of i;e made instantaneously in and projected from a red hot crucible. Ia what is now being done any more incomprehensible than that ?" " Say that the human body yon lately saw be'oie you has been volatilized, resolved into iti piiraary elements, and then, through the n^ency of the psychio power resident within it. has been transmitted to the spot whioh that fy chic power had most in view, along the ordinary telegraph wires which connect us with that spot. Sound waves can be transmitted in thin manner by the telephone ; light waves are amenable to the same law — why, then, should not this law apply to matter which haa been etkerealized to the same degree as light and sound ? It is but carrying the subject to ita legitimate conclusion. But stay 1 Hush I Here they come I " As the p-otesBor spoke, I beeamo nwaro of a dim and saadowy form shaping itself within the bell. Aa it gained shape I discerned, with what feeliogs of awe oan be imagined, that there was not one form but two. Slowly but gradually the dim form assumed a more bodily and distinct aspect. I came in a very few seoonds to realise that the forms which stood before me in the bell were those of Gerald Ashley and his affianced bride, Julia R*dolin"i3. Tnere oould be no doubt about the matter. There they st?od in distinot bodily form, but still with a bewildered, dreamy look upon them, as though scarcely awakened from sleep. "We have triumphed 1 " said the professor, in low tones, aa he mounted on a chair to disconnect the insulated feeding-wire from the rod at the top of the bell, at the same time motioning me to do the same for the other wire. I proceeded to do so as fast as I could, when suddenly a blinding flash passed before my eyes, and a report sounded in my ears like that of a cannon. The last thing I remember Feeing was the great glass bell with Gerald Ashley and Julia lUdoliffe inside, and Professor Vehr standing on a chair beside it, the whole pioture illuminated by the brilliant light of an eleotric flash, and the facade of Market Street distinctly visible through the windows of the apartment. A week afterward, when 1 r covered flansibilitv, I aficertained several things. First, that Professor Vcbr had left the city, the lessee of the Palace Hotel vowing that he would never receive another scientist, or permit another private wire from the Electric Lighting Company to entpr the building. Secondly, that Doctor Gerald Ashley had not been seen since the eventful night, tha strange experiences of which I have just recorded. Thirdly, that on that very day Miaa Julia Riilelifhhad disappeared from New Orleans, the last time that she had been Been bein*g in. a certain kiosk in tho Exposition grounds with a Mr. Arthur Livingstone, though that gentlemin avers that he saw her approached by some stranger, who claimed an acquaintanceship with her, and with whom f»he dmapppared in tha crowd a short fri me afterward. When Mr. Livinpstone waa preiaed for a description m t'.e gentleman in question, Mr. and Mrs. lli-lcl.fle were at once convince! that n coul.l bj no one else but Dr. Gerald Ashley; and while sadly recriminating him f>'r fuoh a hasty and uoadvised step as doping with their daughter, have no doubt that tho pair will turn up when it bocornea expedient to do so. As for me, I have taken pams to verify the daU oi the disappatrance of Miss Julia Kadclifl'd at Nrw Orleans, and find it to be the same day and hour as Di. Gerald Ashley'* and my own vnit to Professui Velir'a upartments/on the iii^ht of the grand explosion at tho Pakce Hotel. I have arrived at a certain concluritin na tho facta, and consider that the mnrt j-iiheiou- a-, well <is the moat syropath"tia course I can pursue, under the oircumsUnces i= to placa tue foregoing facts before tho puMic juat aa they are ; thereby, ppthaps. rt/orduig that poor solaoe to tho blllioted which comists in the removal of an illgroiindod hope of ever seeing their lo3t and loved ones Again.