134 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On examination, it was 

 easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the line, that the hand 

 had moved further than the table, and that the latter had lagged be- 

 hind that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper card to the left, 

 and that the under cards and the table had followed and been dragged 

 by it. In other similar cases when the table had not moved, still the 

 upper card was found to have moved, showing that the hand had car- 

 ried it in the expected direction. It was evident, therefore, that the 

 table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor had it moved 

 simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things under it 

 behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the hand 

 back. 



The next step was to arrange an index, which should show whether 

 the table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both 

 moved or remained at rest together. At first this was done by plac- 

 ing an upright pin fixed on a leaden foot upon the table, and using 

 that as the fulcrum of a light lever. The latter was made of a slip of 

 foolscap paper, and the short arm, about quarter of an inch in length, 

 was attached to a pin proceeding from the edge of a slipping card 

 placed on the table, and prepared to receive the hands of the table- 

 turner. The other arm of 11^- inches long served for the index of 

 motion. A coin laid on the table marked the normal position of the 

 card and index. At first the slipping card was attached to the table 

 by the soft cement, and the index was either screened from the turner, 

 or the latter looked away : then, before the table moved, the index 

 showed that the hand was giving a resultant pressure in the expected 

 direction. The effect was never carried far enough to move the 

 table, for the motion of the index corrected the judgment of the ex- 

 perimenter, who became aware that, inadvertently, a side force had 

 been exerted. The card was now set free from the table, i. e., the 

 cement was removed. This, of course, could not interfere with any 

 of the results expected by the table-turner, for both the bundle of 

 plates spoken of and single cards had been freely moved on the tables 

 before ; but now that the index was there witnessing to the eye, and 

 through it to the mind of the table-turner, not the slightest tendency 

 to motion either of the card or of the table occurred. Indeed, whether 

 the card was left free or attached to the table, all motion or tendency 

 to motion was gone. In one particular case there was relative motion 

 between the table and the hands : I believe that the hands moved in 

 one direction ; the table-turner was persuaded that the table moved 

 from under the hand in the other direction : a guage, standing upon 

 the floor, and pointing to the table, was therefore set up on that and 

 some future occasions, and then, neither motion of the hand nor of 

 the table occurred. 



A more perfect lever apparatus was then constructed in the follow- 

 in^ manner: Two thin boards, 9^ inches by 7 inches, were provi- 

 ded ; a board, 9 by 5 inches, was glued to the middle of the underside 

 of one of these, (to be called the table-board,) so as to raise the edges 

 free from the table ; being placed on the table, near and parallel to 



