Not wholly unconnected with this subject is the creation of electric
forms for amusement at a distance from the operator. This is effected by
the aid of tubes made from the membranes covering the eyes of birds,
which are invisible to the naked eye even when at a short distance from
the observer.
In the mouth of one of these tubes, which spreads out slightly, is
placed a small form made of grains of powder obtained from the coloured
seeds of flowers, and, a bag of electricity being applied, the fluid
rushes through the tube. Instantly, at the other end, appears the figure
or form traced at the mouth, but of ordinary or gigantic stature,
proportioned to the power or quantity of electricity employed.
The forms can be varied or changed at will, and have so life-like an
appearance that I have seen persons go up to the supposed gentlemen or
ladies and speak to them, and only discover that they were shadows when
they have come up close to them, or when the operator has at will made
them vanish.
I should tell you how our attention was first called to the subject of
reproducing forms by electricity.
We had observed numberless instances in which copies of forms were
reproduced by electricity, as in the case of pictures in water,
reflections in mirrors, mirages, apparitions, and pictures in the air;
and had noticed that lightning would frequently imprint, on substances
like trees, pictures of surrounding objects. These appearances have, I
believe, been observed even in your world.