wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/30/85)
Found a strange little book at the library the other day, and just finished reading it. It is by G. Harry Stine; ON THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE - Strange Machines You Can Build (Atheneum, New York, 1985, $8.95 pb, 111pp). This book describes (in a very unemotional and objective format) a number of easily-home-constructed devices that seem to have odd effects. Included are dowsing rods, pyramids, pendula, the "energy wheel" (simply a piece of paper or light material balanced on a needle point, which seems to rotate in response to mental wishes, even when enclosed and isolated from ambient air currents), the famous Hieronymous Machine, the "wishing machine", and my favorite, the SYMBOLIC Hieronymous Machine (which works even though the circuitry is a drawn schematic, the wires are threads, and the mechanical components are representations of the actual items). Sounds like a cure for the energy shortage! Most of these items originated with the old John W. Campbell "Astounding Science Fiction" editorials and articles, and Stine's name is familiar to anyone who has read in this and related areas, but this would be a handy introduction to this field for a newcomer. All the devices, even the electronic ones, are easily built at home out of scrap or surplus material, so you can play around with this stuff without fearing you have to invest large sums or risk being ripped off by a con artist. Maybe it is all nonsense, and maybe it is the revelation of mysterious Great Truths, but it appears to be harmless fun, unless you get obsessed with it (I guess obsession makes a true "crank"). In any case, if you have seen references to these devices and didn't know just what they were, this book will serve to explain their use and construction (though not, of course, their principles of operation [if they have any]). Will