Doctor Wood. Modern Wizard of the Laboratory: The Story of an American Small Boy Who Became the Most Daring and Original Experimental Physicist of Our Day-but Never Grew Up

At one of the sittings (Wood says) I brought in an ultraviolet lamp of the type I developed during the war for secret signaling. It emitted a flood of invisible light, though to the eye it appeared only as a very dark red photographer’s darkroom lantern. I asked permission to use this, representing that it was an especially dark light, which was true, and might be favorable to the manifestations. I had with me secretly a small camera with a lens of large aperture with which I felt sure photographs could be made. I showed the lamp to Dr. Crandon, Margery’s husband, while the room was lighted, turned on the lamp, and asked him if it would be all right to use it. He said he would have to consult with the control, “Walter”, a brother of Margery who’d died many years ago. “Walter” said it was O.K. As soon as Margery had gone into a trance, as signified by heavy breathing, the lights were turned down and the “phenomena” commenced. I turned on the ultraviolet light and got out my camera. But looking up I saw that all the bouquets of artificial flowers on the mantelpiece and various other objects in the room had been painted with phosphorescent paint and were glowing in vivid colors, in fact the whole place was lit up like a cathedral. I turned off the light immediately and made no further effort to use it, for the cat was out of the bag. After the sitting was over, Margery came up to me and said in a low voice, “Say, Professor, what kind of light was that you turned on there?”

I said, “Why? What’s the matter with it?”

“Why, everything in the room, all the flowers and everything, was lit up”, she replied.

I said, “How did you know that? I thought you were in a trance”. She laughed and walked away.

At another séance we were permitted to see the ectoplasm. I was sitting in front of a checkerboard which had been placed on the center of the table opposite Margery, the squares of which had been painted along the edges with luminous paint. Several objects were placed on this which were supposed to be moved by the ectoplasm. Margery had a luminous star attached to her forehead, so that we could keep track of her face in the dark. After a few minutes a narrow dark rod appeared, silhouetted over the luminous checkerboard. It moved from side to side and picked up one of the objects. Later on, as it passed in front of me, I reached out very carefully and touched it with the tip of my finger, following it back until I came to a point very near Margery’s mouth. It seemed probable that she was holding it in her teeth. A moment or two afterwards I took hold of the tip of it very quietly and pinched it. It felt like a steel knitting needle covered with one or two layers of soft leather. Neither Margery nor the control gave any evidence of having realized what I had done — though we had been warned beforehand on no account to touch the ectoplasm, as it would be sure to result in the illness or possible death of the medium.

At the end of the sitting, Margery was alive and in good spirits. Beer and cheese were brought, and we talked over things that had happened. At these sittings everything was taken down by a stenographer and subsequently typed for the benefit of the committee. I said, “Oh, there’s one thing I forgot to mention, and I should like to have it taken down now”.

Dr. Crandon objected, insisting that only things said during the séance should be transcribed. I finally persuaded him, however, by representing it as a matter of slight importance, and he said, “All right, go ahead”.

The stenographer got out her pencil, and I began dictating slowly and solemnly a complete description of my “experiment” with the ectoplasm. Margery gave a shriek and fell back in her chair, pretending to faint. She was carried out of the room, and the committee was asked to depart. Later they pretended she was dangerously ill for weeks as the result of my “brutality”.

* * *

Chapter Eighteen.

Wood and the Police — a Great, Scientific Detective Solves Bomb and Murder Mysteries in Real Life

A Morgan case?” repeated Wood, puzzled and a bit impatiently. “You say a Morgan case? It must be a mistake. I never had anything to do with any Morgan case”.

I said, “But, heck, it’s here in this list of crimes, murders, mysteries, fires, bombs, explosions…

“Oh, of course”, said Wood. “Why didn’t you say explosions? It means the Wall Street bomb. I helped at the request of Tom Lamont, one of the Morgan partners”.