In the course of 300 experiments, extending a little beyond the period
reported by the book, there were but two of these.
The first was on February 11, 1929. The agent made a sun as children
draw it, a circle with rays surrounding it. The percipient made no
drawing but wrote “Setting sun and bird in the sky. Big bird on the
wing—sea gull or wild goose.” Mr. Sinclair calls this a partial success,
and surely it is.
The second was on February 15, more than fifty experiments having
intervened. The agent drew a sun over hills, the percipient a circle
with rays around it actually labelled “a sun,” over a “body.” (See Figs.
93, 93a.) This also was a partial success.
Thus both times out of 300 experiments when Mr. Sinclair made a sun, his
wife “got it” and drew one also.
But twice, also, Mrs. Sinclair drew what was meant for the upper half of
a sun at the horizon when there was no sun in the original. In one of
these instances the original did have something, not a sun, considerably
like the reproduction, and there was a certain degree of resemblance in
the other. But let these count as failures. We will allow the reader to
figure out the chances of two of Mrs. Sinclair’s four suns, in the
course of 300 experiments, being drawn at the same time when Mr.
Sinclair drew his two suns.
“Line-and-Circle-Men” Originals
On February 6, 1929, Mr. Sinclair made a line-and-circle man; that is,
one drawn in schoolboy fashion (Fig. 106). The percipient got the head
circle, adding dots for features, and her crossing lines, properly
placed below the circle, roughly represent the spread of arms and legs
(Fig. 106a).
On February 10th, thirty experiments having intervened, the agent made
two such men, facing each other in boxing attitudes (Fig. 107). It will
be seen that just two vertical lines, longer than any of the others,
enter into their composition. The longest lines in what the percipient
drew are also two and vertical. And she got a confused notion of the
legs and arms, each with its angle for knee or elbow. She failed to get
any circles (Fig. 107a).
All through the period covered by the book, and past it until the 300th
experiment, there is no other line-and-circle man original. The
percipient in the same number of experiments made one drawing in which
head and body are represented by a circle and an ellipse, and the rest
of the man by single lines. And she made one fairly well drawn head with
hair, the rest of the figure represented by single lines.