386 Experimental Investigation of Table- Moving. [1853. 



that it moves first, and they have to follow it, that sometimes 

 it even moves from under their hands. With some the table 

 will move to the right or left according as they wish or will it, 

 with others the direction of the first motion is uncertain : 

 but all agree that the table moves the hands and not the hands 

 the table. Though I believe the parties do not intend to move 

 the table, but obtain the result by a quasi involuntary action, 

 still I had no doubt of the influence of expectation upon their 

 minds, and through that upon the success or failure of their 

 efforts. The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections 

 due to expectation, having relation to the substances which I 

 might desire to use : so, plates of the most different bodies, 

 electrically speaking, namely, sand-paper, millboard, glue, 

 glass, moist clay, tinfoil, cardboard, gutta percha, vulcanized 

 rubber, wood, &c., were made into a bundle and placed on a 

 table under the hands of a turner. The table turned. Other 

 bundles of other yjlates were submitted to different persons at 

 other times, and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore, 

 these substances maybe used in the construction of apparatus. 

 Neither during their use nor at other times could the slightest 

 trace of electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the 

 same trials it was readily ascertained that one person could 

 produce the effect ; and that the motion was not necessarily 

 circular, but might be in a straight line. No form of experi- 

 ment or mode of observation that I could devise gave me the 

 slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No attrac- 

 tions, or repulsions, or signs of tangential power, appeared, 

 nor anything which could be referred to other than the mere 

 mechanical pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I 

 therefore proceeded to analyse this pressure, or that part of it 

 exerted in a horizontal direction: doing so, in the first instance, 

 unawares to the party. A soft cement, consisting of wax and 

 turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was prepared. Four or five 

 pieces of smooth slippery cardboard were attached one over 

 the other by little pellets of the cement, and the lower of these 

 to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table ; the edges of 

 these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a 

 pencil line was drawn over the laps so as to indicate position. 

 The upper cardboard was larger than the rest, so as to cover 

 the whole from sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands 



