Lodgic

Last week Sir Oliver Lodge stepped to a microphone and informed the British radio public that he had locked three women, a clergyman and two laymen in a room for the night. The room was an office of the Psychical Research Society. Sir Oliver asked the thinking public to think hard and write him letters later that evening, telling what the writers pictured the six prisoners doing. He gave a few hints--now the clergyman was holding up a playing card, now a layman was putting something funny on his head, now one of the ladies was exhibiting a picture. The prisoners were putting their minds on what they were doing. The test was to see if, by concentration, telepathic messages could be broadcast for able thinkers to receive.

For the next few days, Sir Oliver was deluged with mail. By tens of thousands thinkers (and guessers) wrote in to say that the cards held up had been every card in the pack, including the joker. Actually, as a few guessed, it was the deuce of clubs, later the nine of hearts-- but no one described the design of the cards: green on a black field, and red on a black field. They said the picture was a portrait of Edward VII, of the Prince of Wales on horseback, of Mona Lisa, of a spaniel, a cauliflower. Actually it was a Japanese print of two birds perched on a human skull. The nearest "thought" sent in was one describing the mask and derby hat worn at one point by Dr. J. V. Woolley, "Honorary Research Officer." And one telepathist accurately described a cardboard box with a scarlet lid which, though not used in the experiment, was present in the prisoners' room and might have come under observation during a period of concentration.

Sir Oliver settled down to sort and examine his large mail. The press echoed with skeptical reflections on the laws of chance and Lodge logic. Many people recall that similar tests held lately by conservative Dr. G. H. Estabrook, onetime Harvard psychologist, had produced no evidence for mental telepathy.