38 STRANGE PHENOMENA. 



his remark as a reason for not adopting the invention was 

 not apparent to the inventor, so he thanked His Grace for 

 having honoured him with an interview, and returned to 

 Glasgow. On arriving there, to his utter astonishment, he 

 found his son had made, with the aid of some old battery 

 cells, a model of a letter-box, which was identical in principle 

 with his own, and this had been accomplished without any 

 previous knowledge of what had already been done. 



Another instance deserving record was a startling sim- 

 ultaneous unison of ideas, in connection with the famous 

 Air-Pump Ventilators. Mr. R. Boyle, jun., has laboured 

 with the utmost diligence in building up for the first time 

 in this country the distinct profession and business of ven- 

 tilation engineering. From the age of eleven he had acted 

 as his father's confidential agent in business matters, and 

 when a youth of sixteen had actually given elementary 

 lectures on the Sciences to large public audiences. He was, 

 therefore, thoroughly trained to co-operate in the develop- 

 ment of such an important reform a reform affecting the 

 health of the whole community. It was while examining 

 a plan of the Air-Pump Ventilator that father and son 

 silently discovered at the same instant a means of greatly 

 increasing the power of the apparatus. 



There is no doubt that these and other mysterious 

 manifestations of an unknown agency, influencing thought 



