(e) G represents the vibrating lever upon which the medium’s hands are placed. When test conditions are not requisite, her hands should be situated so as that merely one-half may be on each side of the fulcrum wire, on which the lever turns. When test conditions are requisite, the hands should be altogether on the portion of the board which is between the exterior end of the board and the fulcrum. When thus placed, it is utterly impossible to move the lever so as to cause it to select letters, or to control the selection, by any spirit who may be employing them to make a communication.[1]

(f) Not only are the letters of the alphabet printed equidistant, in due order, on the margin of the disk or dial-face; there are likewise words, the digits, and notes of music.

(g) The words are as follows: Yes—Doubtful—No—Don’t know—I think so—A mistake—I’ll spell it over—A message—Done—I’ll come again—Good-bye—I must leave. These words are printed on equidistant radial lines, nearly dividing the area between them. The digits are printed on radial lines intermediate between those on which the words appear.

Five concentric circular lines, dividing the margin into as many smaller portions, as in music paper, serve for the inditing of musical notes; respecting which the directions are given by Pease upon a printed slip of paper pasted inside.

(h) The index in this instrument is secured upon the outer end of a pivot supporting a pulley of about ¾ of an inch in diameter. The spring consists of a coil of brass wire, of which one end is fastened into the inside of the roof-board (c) of which the outside forms the surface for the letters, &c., while the other end of the wire is prolonged beyond the coil to about 2½ inches, and, by means of a loop, has a string of catgut tied to it securely. This string is fastened to a perforation in the pivot. Another piece of the same kind of string is fastened to the circumference of the pulley. The pivot being turned so as to wind upon it the string proceeding from the spring, and thus constraining it so as to make it capable of effectual recoil from the pulley, the latter may, with a little care, be made, as the spring recoils, to wind about it another string duly attached to its circumference. The strings being thus wound, (one to the right, the other to the left,) when the string attached to the pulley is pulled from the outside of the box, it is unwound therefrom, and meanwhile winds that attached to the spring upon the pivot. The reaction of the spring, when left to itself, reverses this process, producing the opposite revolution in the pulley. The index attached to the pivot of course turns in one direction or the other, as the pivot is actuated by the drawing out or retraction of the string which proceeds from it. This, at the outer end, is tied to a ring, which prevents it from receding into the box.

(i) It is surprising with what readiness a spirit, even when unused to the apparatus, will, by moving the lever, actuate the index, causing it to point to the letters, words, or figures distributed on the face of the disk, as above mentioned.

(j) The apparatus of Pease above described, agreeably to the design of the maker, operates by means of a string extending from the brass ring, in which the pulley string terminates externally, to a weight situated upon the floor, so as to be taut when at rest. When this arrangement is made, tilting of the table, by raising the end at which the box is situated, causes the weight to pull the string, and of course to induce the revolution of the pulley, its pivot, and corresponding index. The restoration of the table to its usual position reverses the motion. Hence by these means the index may be moved either way, as requisite for the selection of the letters required for communicating.

(k) The other figure in the same plate represents Pease’s disk apparatus, so arranged, as to be affixed to any table of moderate dimensions. The fulcrum on which the lever vibrates is so made as to be affixed to one of the table’s edges by clamps, while the disk, situated in a vertical plane, is supported by a bar which has a clamp to secure it to the table, while to the disk it is fastened by being introduced into square staples, made to receive it securely, in a mode resembling that by which a square bolt is secured. Under the vibrating lever, a hollow wire is fastened by staples, so as to receive a solid wire, which can be made to slide farther in or out, and thus adjust itself to the distance.]

(aa) The words on the dial faces in Figures 1 and 2 are somewhat abbreviated.[2]

(bb) The rod R slides in staples, so as to be made to extend farther or nearer from the fulcrum. The legs on which the disk is supported, which are a part of the casing, terminate below in a socket which fits upon a plug screwed into the base-board; upon this plug it may be fastened by the set screw (s). By sliding the rod (r) inward, the disk may be turned half round upon the plug, so as to place the lettered surface out of the sight of the medium, whose power to influence the communications is thus nullified. This is one mode of attaining test conditions; in other words, those conditions which make it impossible that the communications received should be due to any mortal, (151 to 166,) unless, as gratuitously and erroneously, as I believe, alleged, the medium by clairvoyancy sees the letters.

(cc) By another method test conditions are obtained which are not exposed to this evil.

(dd) The method to which I allude has been explained in the description of Plate I. in reference to the spiritoscope formed with the aid of a Pease’s disk, paragraph (e). The process is the same in the employment of Fig. 1 Plate IV. under consideration. It may be better understood in this case, as the illustration of the lever board L is more conspicuous. In the ordinary mode of operating without test conditions, the hand of the medium is so situated as to have nearly half of it beyond the fulcrum, marked by the line F L. When test conditions are imposed, the tips of the fingers only reach to that line, without going beyond it. Situated as last mentioned, the medium to whom they appertain cannot move the rod R, because it is already against the lower edge of the disk, which prevents it from moving upwards. In the opposite direction the medium can create no pressure, since her efforts could only tend to lift her hand, per se, from the disk. It is important that the reader should pay attention to this exposition, as the conditions thus made evident are often appealed to as one proof, among others, that my information and credentials are from the immortal worthies of the spirit world.

(ee) Fig. 2 is analogous in its mode of operating, to the apparatus represented in Plate II. It is in the substitution of a small board for a table that the principal difference consists.[3] The board requires only to be large enough to allow the hands to rest upon it in front of the disk. The index is actuated by a horizontal motion to and fro, which, as in the apparatus, Plate II., causes the rotation of a supporting wheel, which by means of a band communicates rotation to a pulley supported behind the disk on the pivot to which the index is secured in front. The sliding pulley P being fastened at a due distance from the disk (o), is used to keep the band tight.

(ff) This instrument is preferred by the spirits, and is easier for a feeble medium to employ effectually. I cannot as yet avail myself of Fig. 1; through Fig. 2 I have had some interesting tests.

(gg) This form, then, is best for incipient mediumship.

(hh) Fig. 2 may be employed under test conditions, by so situating it as that the dial shall be on the side opposite to that where the medium sits; under these circumstances she cannot see the index or the letters, and consequently cannot control the spelling of spirits, so as to give results from her own mind instead of theirs. This mode of testing does not preclude the subterfuge, so often resorted to, of clairvoyant power, enabling the medium to see through the cast-iron, or read the letters in the minds of the bystanders. This power I have never witnessed; yet it is absurdly attributed to media who, as well as all their friends, are ignorant of the existence of any such power.

(ii) Another mode of testing is that illustrated in Plate II., where a plate upon two balls supports the hands of the medium, and forms the only means of conducting communication between the medium and apparatus. It may be easily conceived that instead of the hands being placed upon the board, the plate and balls being interposed, the hands of the medium may be supported over the board of Fig. 2. as they are represented to be supported over the table in Fig. 1, Plate II.

See 167, 169, 172, 177, 196.

(kk) Fig. 3, Plate IV., is a representation of an association of serrated strips of iron in a wooden frame, which sliding on the lever board of Fig. 1, so as to have the saws just above the back of the hand of the medium, is found to increase the efficacy of the mediumship. It is only of importance to use it when test conditions are requisite, as explained already, Fig. 1, (hh). The rationale, so far as it can be suggested, will be stated under the head of mediumship. It will be perceived that the size of the frame is not in due proportion to the lever board, being upon a larger scale. But this renders it more conspicuous, and the reader can easily conceive its size to be such as to allow the grooves in the wooden sides of the frame to receive the edges of the lever board L, and thus to be secured firmly thereupon.