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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1920)
r 3IHE OREGON r SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, I SUNDAY MORNiNgj OCTOBER 31, 192(X .7-' i-j. (Mk o 9 v a, iij tint 1 H tMr Mmu TMM. MJI IIIII 1 1 llfjf Mumiim h WJMM Jllli h vamMM . win iip, i j i y y y y y - 1 1 ' r mi g mmm . ww . y' Ys?, .y y , y y - in 1 1 1 u j sss s j i j r fsst wirrsyy s 'HUM 1 'I o yy k o WW,.. m& yjr yyr.y-" -l kyryvyyyyy5tr m . -Anrf W7t fie Great Inventor1 Believes First Messages Will. Come from the irits of Scientists Who Have Learned How to Use His Machine ". .f . .iiiiiiLfr,.. 5 - Kyywjyyyyy?? m i j WMJ through such parted still retain at 2 " " ?! chUdish parapher- least the facult7 of nalla, he asserts, memory In the next X -xs. v r-x..f A 1 .1 if through such childish parapher nalia, he asserts. If Mr. Marconi or Mr. Edison himself were ship wrecked on a des ert Island In the middle of the Pa ciflo Ocean it would he futile to try to establish wireless connec tion with some schoolboy outfit In a backyard In San Francisco. But it might be possible, with great patience and skill to at tract the attention of one of the great, high-power, delicately con structed wireless stations of the navy. ' And so It Is with a disembodied spirit in the world .beyond the grave who might be seeking to at tract the attention of mankind on earth. He would have to overcome tremendous difficulties, no doubt, and would be utterly helpless In trying to "ap ply his scientific knowledge through any of the, clumsy, puerile equipment of the enthusiastic but Ignorant splrltualistlo "medium." But he might be able to make parted still retain at least the faculty of memory in the next world. If there are spirits and they have memory and wish' to communicate with .those left behind, it -will be a valuable thing for those who pass into the next world to carry with them full knowledge of the in strument which Mr. Edison hopes to perfect. Thus a distinguished scien tist like Mr. Edison himself, upon reaching his spirit abode, would be perfectly familiar with the qualities of the " instrument and ' would know what forces were necessary to set in motion to operate the recording apparatus of the machine. . The wonderful new invention as yet unnamed which enables us to see in the dark, to detect by their bodily heat" alone the presence of bodiesor objecfcwhich are entirely invisible Jlo Jhe naked eyes', was developTd'by' Samuel O. Hoffman, for merly of the Science and Research Divi sion of the United States Army. It ren dered effective service during the closing weeks of the great war, and if it had been perfected earlier it would undoubtedly have played a leading part in the defeat of Germany. A means of locating troops, trenches, artillery, etc., available to one J 5s 0 Photograph of a Medium Seance Which Mr. Edison Thinks Is an Unscientific and Absurd-Way to Communicate with Spirits. ide alone, would have given that side a use of waves of ether or other forces ia preponderant advantage in the war. the universe if Mr. Edison succeeds in set- As has long been known, every object ting up an instrument which would reg- emits a large quantity of radiation, only a DO the dead live in a world beyond the grave? If so. is It possible, for those in the spirit world to communicate with those left behind them on this earth? Just as communication between distant points on our earth is a matter of delicately con structed instruments, so also communica tion from the spirit world to our own earth must be accomplished through scientifi cally constructed instruments of even greater Ingenuity and much more minute delicacy than the telegraph, the telephone or the wireless apparatus. This is the belief of Thomas A. Edison, the foremost Inventor of modern times, who has recently stated that the problem of receiving messages from the dead is a problem of pure science, and that he is en deavoring to perfect an apparatus which will make it possible to record messages from the spirit world if there are any spirits and if they desire to communicate with us. It is Mr. Edison's belief that only through some specially constructed scien tific instrument will a message ever come from the realms of the departed, and that it will be from some spirit of a dead scien tistsome wireless expert or telegraph exper( or physicist that the first messages will come. The present method of receiving pre- tended messages from the dead through so called spiritualistic "mediums" Mr. Edison regards as absurd. Some of these mediums are barefaced frauds, of course, but he thinks that many of them are self-hypnotized enthusiasts who really believe that they are in touch with the spirit world. The appliances of the "mediums" ars clumsy, unscientific and worthless. No . message from spirit land can ever come ister calls from such a source. And this is the ask which Mr. Edison has now set his genius to work, at Already science has undertaken tasks of incredible delicacy which are in some re spects not unlike the problem which Mr. Edison has before him. The heat of a candle has been measured miles sway. The heat of the most distant stars has been recorded. Not only this, but "young stars are now distinguished from "old stars" by instruments of marvelous delicacy. Every body knows that the slightest earth tremor on the other side of our globe is recorded by the curious little instrument called the seismograph. In the Massachusetts Insti tute of Techonology laboratory is a little machine in which it is possible to weigh the earth, and Just as the war was coming to an end an American scientist developed an Instrument which would give notice of the approach of a man in the darkest night an instrument so delicate that the mo ment a soldier stuck his head above a trench hundreds of feet away across No Man's Land the heat radiated from his face gave a signal instantly. But, of course, these various instruments are of no value to a person who does not understand them or who has not been trained in the use of them. If the average lawyer, doctor or clergyman or business man stepped into a telegraph office while the operator was absent it would be im possible for him to make use of the in struments to send a message over the wire. And similarly Mr. Edison believes that It is highly unlikely that anybody not tech nically trained will be able to make use of the forces of nature and the instruments for controlling them after he has passed into the world beyond the grave. If there is to he any communication from the dead tt must he assumed that the de- small part of which affects the eye. This radiation is the ordinary dark heat, such as is felt on bringing the cold hand an inch or so in front of the face. While of the same general nature as light, it has quite different properties. Hardly any sub stances are transparent to it, rock salt being the only one easily obtainable. Glass is particularly opaque, so that ordinary optical instruments are useless. However, sharp images can be easily formed by using concave mirrors of ordinary dimen sions, as the actual wave-length of this radiation is sufficiently small (12500 inch) to obviate trouble from diffraction. The apparatus consists of a concave mir ror mounted on a tripod. This mirror concentrates the object's Infra-red radia tion on the blackened surface of a thermo pile, consisting of minute wires of bismuth and silver soldered together. This black ened junction becomes slightly heated as the radiation, is concentrated on it. The resulting electrical current, flowing through a galvanometer mounted on another tri pod, Indicates the presence of "something warm." Mr. Edison Is not yet ready to divulge the details of his invention or reveal the exact principles involved in its operation. He has, however, said enough to lead to the belief that he plans to accomplish this modern miracle by means of a wonderful "spirit wireless" an adaptation to com munication between the world of the living and the world of the dead of the wireless telegraphy now in use on this earth. Support of this view is given by Mr. Edison's expectation that the first spirits to avail themselves of the means of com munication he will offer them will be men and women who, during their earthly careers as telegraphers or scientists, be came expert in the use of delicate Instru ments and powerful electrical currents. It (C) 1920. InternaUcmal Feature Service. Inc. is also significant that he refers to the invention on which he is at work as an" "apparatus" the same term which would be used to describe a wireless telegraph outfit with its bat teries, transmitters, receivers and lofty aeriai towers. Such a "spirit wireless" as Mr. Edison ia now perfecting at his laboratories' In Orange, N. J., will mark a new epoch in the history of mankind. Its establishment will settle for all time the .ques tion of the bouI's immortaMty. If it proves that the dead do live on lna world beyond the grave and are able to communicate with us when supplied wfth suitable means, the "spirit wireless" will do away with the ouija boards, the slates, cabinets and trances of the mediums, and all the other crude, unsatisfactory methods now employed in the effort to pierce the veil of death. Will the earth soon be dotted with "spirit wireless" stations where the dead may get in touch with us as readily as our living friends do over the telephone? Will the new invention, perhaps, enable us not only to hear the voices of the spirits, but to catch fleeting glimpses of their wraith like forms? These are questions which Mr. Edison may be answering any day now to the world's everlasting satisfaction. It any one can solve this ages old problem and give scientific confirmation to man's belief in immortality, surely it is. Thomas A. Edison. In all his career he has seldom if ever attacked a problem that has proved too much for his genius. Although seventy three years old he is still active in mind and body and able to work more hours at a stretch than most men in the prime of life. How better could he crown his proud record of service to human ity than by perfecting a method by which the spirits of the dead can transmit whatever messages they may have for the living friends they have left behind? ttret Britain Bihu BeaerreO. 0 I 7. ShfE3 II III 1 Wonderfully Delicate, Seismograph if f The Little Machine Which Weighs the Earth. 'It is Mr. Edison's belief that only through some specially constructed cienunc instrument win a message ever come from tne realms of the departed."
