EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS, 1855
It is a well-known saying that there is “but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous.” This idea was never verified more fully than in the position I find myself now occupying, accordingly as those by whom that position is viewed may consider the manifestations which have given rise to it in the light where in they are now viewed by me, or as they were two years ago viewed by myself, and are now seen by the great majority of my estimable contemporaries.
(Robert Hare, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations).
Robert Hare (1751-1858) was a prominent American chemist, professor, businessman, state senator, and, near the end of his life, a staunch spiritualist.
Hare invented a significant number of important electrical invention that transformed the illumination industry, but this book is about his most interesting device by far: the Spiritoscope. Published in 1855, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations, Demonstrating the Existence of Spirits and their Communion with Mortals details the circumstances of his invention.
After his spiritual conversion, Hare decided to use his scientific skill to conceive of an instrument to prevent trickery and demonstrate the spirits to write their messages more independently. The Spiritoscope consisted of a flat board with a serious of weights and pulleys connected to a wheel containing the alphabet. The medium would then sit facing away from the wheel and push down on the board until it landed on a letter. This way the medium had no control over the message, truly acting as only an instrument of communication for the spirit.
Subsequently, I contrived an apparatus which, if spirits were actually concerned in the phenomena, would enable them to manifest their physical and intellectual power independently of control by any medium…. Of course, any person actuating the table and seeing the letters, could cause the disk so to rotate as to bring any letter under the index; but should the letters be concealed from the operator, no letter required could be brought under the index at will…
Accordingly, as soon almost as the medium placed her hands on the plate resting on the ball, and without any other communication with the table, the disk began to revolve in such a way as to bring the letters under the index in due alphabetic order. Afterward various names were spelled, and communications were made. At subsequent sittings, the grandfather and brother of the medium manifested their presence successively by spelling their names on the disk.
(Robert Hare, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations).
Hare’s conversion and invention ruffled a few feathers in the scientific and educational community. Notably, he already had a long-standing feud with British chemist Michael Faraday about the nature of electricity. It became worse when Faraday published his work debunking and renouncing spiritualism in Table Talking and Table Turning two years earlier. In return Hare claimed he had spoken with the ghost of Benjamin Franklin himself and he confirmed Hare’s theories on electricity. He also claimed to have spoken to: George Washington, Q. Adams, H. Harrison, Henry Clay, E. Channing, K. White, Isaac Newton, Byron, and Martha Washington.
(Robert Hare, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations)
The term “typology” originates from the spiritualist movement, from the Greek ‘tupto’ or ‘I strike’ referring to the rapping spirits used to communicate. Early mediums were even referred to as “typters”. Using alphabets to communicate had originated with the movement, as the Fox Sister’s older bother came up with the idea of to say letters out loud until the spirit chose a letter by knocking.
This is no coincidence, as the first successful telegraph was established between Baltimore and Washington in 1844, four years before the Hydesville rappings took place.
The connection between the tapping of the telegraph and the rapping of the tables had been made early on, hence the moniker of “spiritual telegraph” often given to mediums. This connection strengthened the idea they could conduct electricity through their bodies similar to machines.
Prominent spiritualist Allen Kardec and Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, an engineer who actually helped lay the transatlantic telegraph cables in the 1860s, also experimented with technology like electricity and dials that allowed the spirits to choose letters in quick succession. On the other hand, telegraph operators also needed a faster and mechanized way to write down messages. Over the course of the 19th century, spiritualism and telegraphs technology overlapped to invent the typewriter.
It is no coincidence either, that the inventor of the first commercial typewriter available, Christopher Latham Sholes, was an avid spiritualist.
Sholes began his invention by arranging the alphabet in a typewheel similar to Hare’s, so each letters could strike into the center. He also came up the idea of having the keys strike the underside of the paper. This way, the typist would also be blind to what they were writing similar to how the medium would not be able to see the Spiritoscope wheel.
The efficiency of typewriters progressed and by the 1890s they were common instruments in seances. Mediums were even encouraged to take stenography lessons to be successful. If you listen closely enough, the knocking of the typewriter keys even sounds like the spirits who once tried to communicate through tables.