Henry Allen to Faraday   2 November 1853¹

Brighton | Novr 2 | 1853

Sir

When your letter on “Table turning” was first published², it staggered my preconceived opinions on the probable cause of the Phenomenon.

Your name, and the energy with which you applied yourself to solve the new problem demanded respect and consideration: Subsequent experience however, reduced me to this dilemma, that I must either succumb entirely to the ‘argumentum ad hominem’, and lay aside the evidence of my senses or search for a solution, on some other principle.

Repeated trials, made in concert with persons beyond suspicion of trickery, resulted in convincing me that the agency of muscularity would be utterly powerless to effect the movements & biddings of the several tables that have walked, & run, & writhed under my manipulation.

Granting your Theory to be reasonable, that muscular pressure, involuntarily, but insensibly energetic, could after an allotted period, first move, and then slowly, and then more rapidly, turn a large table, it is nevertheless inconceivable that an individual willing, and (it may or may not be) communicating his wish to his coadjutor, should, suddenly, in an instant, render the table motionless (while rapidly revolving[)] or under the same circumstances, cause it to revolve with immediate and equal velocity in the opposite direction, being conscious that the difficulty of reversing the motive power, will be in proportion to the rapidity of the revolution in the opposite direction.

The reveries of some monomaniacal clergymen and others, who have created and invoked a satanic agency are truly pitiful, so unhallowed a use of Table-turning has been made by them that I will pass them by.

Though you may not think me superstitious you will probably give me credit for being credulous, for believing, as I do, that by a simple act of volition on my part, a table has been made to indicate by particular & unmistakable movements, certain ideas then fixed in my mind. The aberrations in the Correctness of the dumb answers being the exception, not the rule, the result of my repeated experiences on this point, I will withhold, but you should question the sanity of my views in other ways on the question before us, let me therefore simply communicate to you what occurred in my Drawing room a day or two since, no doubt closely approximating to the marvellous.

A small three legged mahogany Table, had, under the repeated manipulations of a pupil of mine, my son, and myself, uniformly failed to discover any signs of motion. I began to suspect that my young friend, from his peculiar temperament, might be the Cause, and instead of him, I substituted a young lady in one quarter of an hour the table moved off and rapidly, its motion, rapidity & revolution, being entirely under the Control of our will. Our manual pressure amounted to simple contact; our volition, under this Contact causing it to raise one leg, then another, then two at once, slowly and measuredly, at last the mere touch of any one of us was found sufficient to produce the same results, as those produced by a Union of Contact and that almost instantaneously.

And now I come to the experiment which more especially seems to negative the hypothesis of the agency of muscular action, and confirm that of some occult power in the individual extracted by contact with the inanimate object, combined with strong volition, dependent more or less on the temperament of the individual.

After we had ascertained that the table was under our almost instantaneous control, my son, 15 years of age, & myself went down to the Dining-room and laid our hands gently on the sensible horizon of a large globe fixed in a mahogany pedestal it moved off rapidly in a few seconds, and was equally obedient with the table to our will, raising one or two legs in accordance with our volition; a large mahogany chair was next made to traverse the room; a large Japanned tea-tray with Cups, Saucers, Metal tea pot, &cc, as readily and quickly yielded to our touch: Desks, Tea caddys, in fact, every moveable Article we could think of candlesticks, China, plates & Glass-Dishes circumambulated, when they came in contact with our fingers[.] Indeed we felt ourselves so charged with this occult power, that hardly any thing could resist us, and for the last evening or two, the table, which the first time, required a quarter of an hour to start it, now requires a minute or two only.

Pray excuse me for troubling you but a strong desire on scientific grounds, to know whether & how all this can be reconciled with your Theory induces me to hope that to will give the question a little consideration and kindly put me in possession of the result of your investigation.

I have the honor to be | Sir | Yours faithfully | Henry Allen | Vicar of Patcham & | Chaplain to the Troops | Brighton