Lesson 89 Television Day: Swindle's Ghost
TV Commentary:
Some people believe that there are houses which are haunted by ghosts.Perhaps there are, perhaps there aren't-it's hard to say. Today we are going to describe a scientific experiment during which a "ghost" was seen. The "ghost" is really an after-image. It is called "Swindle's Ghost" because the experiment was first performed by an American psychologist called Swindle. This is how our own experiment as performed.
A dark, moonless night was chosen and the curtains were drawn so that no light could enter from outside. Half a dozen people were asked to sit round a table in the middle of the room. A table-lamp was placed in the centre of the table. When everyone was seated, the lamp was turned off for ten minutes. Everyone sat in complete darkness and looked towards the lamp till they got quite used to the darkness. They sat perfectly still and kept looking in exactly the same direction. Then the lamp was turned on for exactly one second and then off again. Shortly afterwards, the whole scene became visible in the darkness. It was a very clear "ghost" image which lasted for a few seconds. |