Read Online The President's Vampire: Strange-But-True Tales of the United States of America by Robert Schneck - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robert Schneck
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table rose two metallic uprights connected at the top by a revolving steel shaft. The shaft supported a transverse steel arm from whose extremities were suspended two large steel spheres enclosing magnets. Beneath the spheres there appeared ... a very curiously constructed fixture, a sort of oval platform, formed of a peculiar combination of magnets and metals. Directly above this were suspended a number of zinc and copper plates, alternately arranged, and said to correspond with the brain as an electric reservoir. These were supplied with lofty metallic conductors, or attractors, reaching upward to an elevated stratum of atmosphere said to draw power directly from the atmosphere. In combination with these principal parts were adjusted various metallic bars, plates, wires, magnets, insulating substances, peculiar chemical compounds, etc… At certain points around the circumference of these structures, and connected with the center, small steel balls enclosing magnets were suspended. A metallic connection with the earth, both positive and negative, corresponding with the two lower limbs, right and left, of the body, was also provided.”
Picture of High Rock, taken sometime between 1858 and 1865. It shows the Hutchinson’s houses and the tower.
(The Lynn Museuem and Historical Society)
In addition to the “lower limbs,” the motor was equipped with an arrangement for “inhalation and respiration.” A large flywheel gave the motor a professional appearance.(13) This was only a working model, though; the final version would be much bigger and cost 10 times as much.
The metal body was then lightly charged with an electrical machine resulting in a “slight pulsatory and vibratory motion ... observed in the pendants around the periphery of the table.”(14) Following this treatment, the Engine was exposed to carefully selected individuals of both sexes who were brought into its presence one at a time in order to raise the level of its vibrations.
Then Spear encased himself in an elaborate construction of metal plates, strips, and gemstones and was brought into gradual contact with the machine. For one hour he went into a deep trance, which left him exhausted and, according to a clairvoyant who was present, created “a stream of light, a sort of umbilicum” that linked him and the machine.(15)
The God Machine (K.L. Keppler)
It was at this time that the New Mary began exhibiting symptoms of pregnancy, and the spirits instructed her to appear at High Rock on June 29, 1854, for the final stage of the experiment. On the appointed day, she arrived and lay on the floor in front of the engine for two hours, experiencing labor pains. When they ended, she rose from the floor, touched the machine and it showed signs of… something. Precisely what happened is not clear; Spear claimed that for a few seconds, the machine was animate.
The New Era was unrestrained. “THE THING MOVES,” claimed the paper’s headline, along with an announcement that “The time of deliverance has come at last, and henceforward the career of humanity is upward and onward—a mighty noble and a Godlike career.”(16) Spear proclaimed the arrival of “the New Motive Power, the Physical Savior, Heaven’s Last Gift to Man, New Creation, Great Spiritual Revelation of the Age, Philosopher’s Stone, Art of all Arts, Science of all Sciences, the New Messiah.”(17)
The machine’s movements remained feeble, but this was not surprising in an “electrical infant” and the New Mary provided maternal attention while it gained strength (unfortunately, there’s no mention of what this involved). Despite the headlines, visitors to High Rock were unimpressed. In a letter to the Spiritual Telegraph , J.H. Robinson pointed out that the New Messiah could not even turn a coffee-mill(18) and Alonzo Newton admitted there was never more than a slight movement detected in some of the hanging metal balls.
Andrew Jackson Davis wrote a long, carefully worded
Picture of High Rock, taken sometime between 1858 and 1865. It shows the Hutchinson’s houses and the tower.
(The Lynn Museuem and Historical Society)
In addition to the “lower limbs,” the motor was equipped with an arrangement for “inhalation and respiration.” A large flywheel gave the motor a professional appearance.(13) This was only a working model, though; the final version would be much bigger and cost 10 times as much.
The metal body was then lightly charged with an electrical machine resulting in a “slight pulsatory and vibratory motion ... observed in the pendants around the periphery of the table.”(14) Following this treatment, the Engine was exposed to carefully selected individuals of both sexes who were brought into its presence one at a time in order to raise the level of its vibrations.
Then Spear encased himself in an elaborate construction of metal plates, strips, and gemstones and was brought into gradual contact with the machine. For one hour he went into a deep trance, which left him exhausted and, according to a clairvoyant who was present, created “a stream of light, a sort of umbilicum” that linked him and the machine.(15)
The God Machine (K.L. Keppler)
It was at this time that the New Mary began exhibiting symptoms of pregnancy, and the spirits instructed her to appear at High Rock on June 29, 1854, for the final stage of the experiment. On the appointed day, she arrived and lay on the floor in front of the engine for two hours, experiencing labor pains. When they ended, she rose from the floor, touched the machine and it showed signs of… something. Precisely what happened is not clear; Spear claimed that for a few seconds, the machine was animate.
The New Era was unrestrained. “THE THING MOVES,” claimed the paper’s headline, along with an announcement that “The time of deliverance has come at last, and henceforward the career of humanity is upward and onward—a mighty noble and a Godlike career.”(16) Spear proclaimed the arrival of “the New Motive Power, the Physical Savior, Heaven’s Last Gift to Man, New Creation, Great Spiritual Revelation of the Age, Philosopher’s Stone, Art of all Arts, Science of all Sciences, the New Messiah.”(17)
The machine’s movements remained feeble, but this was not surprising in an “electrical infant” and the New Mary provided maternal attention while it gained strength (unfortunately, there’s no mention of what this involved). Despite the headlines, visitors to High Rock were unimpressed. In a letter to the Spiritual Telegraph , J.H. Robinson pointed out that the New Messiah could not even turn a coffee-mill(18) and Alonzo Newton admitted there was never more than a slight movement detected in some of the hanging metal balls.
Andrew Jackson Davis wrote a long, carefully worded
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