And now, for the first time, the strained ears of the spectators caught
a note of keen vibration and excitement in Sir William Gouldesbrough's
voice. He had been speaking very quietly and confidently hitherto; but
now the measured utterance rose half a tone; and, as when some great
actor draws near in speech to the climax of the event he mimics, so Sir
William also began to be agitated, and so also the change in tone sent a
thrill and quiver through the ranks of those who sat before him.
"Here," he said, "I have succeeded in transforming my electric currents
into light. That is nothing, you may think for a moment, the electric
current produces light in your own houses at any moment; but you must
remember that in your incandescent bulbs the light is always the same in
its quality. Light of this sort, passed through the prism of a
spectroscope will always tell the same story when the screen presents
itself for analysis. My problem has been to produce an infinite variety
of light, so that every single thought vibration will produce, when
transformed, its own _special_ and _individual_ quality of light, and
that," he concluded, "I have done."
Sir Harold Oliver, who had been leaning forward with grey eyes so
strained and intent that all the life seemed to have gone out of them
and they resembled sick pearls, gave a gasp as Sir William paused.
Then Gouldesbrough continued.
He placed his hand upon the thing like a camera which rose from the lid
of the larger structure below it.
"Within this chamber," he said, "all the light generated below is
collected and focussed. It passes in one volume through this object."
He moved onwards, as he spoke, running his fingers along the pipe which
led him to the next marvel in this stupendous series.
"I have now come," he began again, "to what Mr. Guest and myself might
perhaps be allowed to think as our supreme triumph. Here is our
veritable Thought Spectroscope within this erection, which, as you will
observe, is much larger than anything else I have shown you. The light
which pours along that tube is passed through, what I will only now
designate as a prism, to keep the analogy of the light spectroscope, and
is split up into its component parts.
"You will see that, rising out of this iron box," he ran his hand over
the sides of it as if he loved it, "the lens projects just like the lens
of a bioscope. This lens is directed full upon that great white screen
which is exactly opposite to you all; and this is my final demonstration
of the mechanism which I am now about to set in motion to prove to you
that I have now triumphed over the hitherto hidden Realm of Thought.
From this lens I shall pour upon the screen in a minute or two for you
all to see, without doubt and in simple view, the thoughts of the man or
woman on whom I shall place the cap."
He ceased. The first part of the demonstration was over.
Lord Malvin rose in his seat. His voice was broken by emotion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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