File:Thought Machine (d'Odiardi) - Savannah Morning News (p. 18) - 1897-10-10.jpg

Summary

 * "London, Oct. 2. — The French Academy of Sciences has in its possession the most wonderful little instrument ever invented. It is an electric love machine, and its name is not half as remarkable as the work which it does. This machine is the invention of Prof. Savary d'Odiardi of Silver street, Nottingate Hill, London. The professor is very well known in France and England. He received the medal of honor from the French Humane Society for his devotion to humanity, and a medal from the national commission for national rewards for his works and inventions. Prof. d'Odiardi calls his electric love machine a register of cerebral force. He says it indicates every motion and reads every thought, but it is strongest for love and hate. While the Chicago Human Nature Club is giving its trolley parties and receptions for the mating of males and females, Prof. d'Odiardi's little instrument is doing its work much more quietly, and experts say, more accurately. The Chicago Human Nature Club works from phrenology. Heads are read, and husbands and wives selected, but the d'Odiardi instrument works by electricity, and is controlled by thought. When you come near this instrument you immediately notice that the needle begins to swing. This, to the man who can read it, means something; and if you are provided with a chart you can read from the needle your own thoughts, just as well as you can translate them from your own mind. The instrument itself is very unpretentious. It consists of a thread, from which is hung a tiny hatchet-shaped instrument, which has a sensitized needle. This swings over a metal disc, inscribed with degrees. The instrument stands upon a pedestal, and, it is said, looks not unlike a piece of bric-a-brac. Every thought is registered by the needle, with or without the wish of the gazer; and unconscious thoughts are told as well as conscious ones. Below the needle is a disc which records the movements of the needle by absorbing all forces other than brain waves. People who have small brain power hardly influence the needle. Drunken men and idiots scarcely deflect it, because they have so few brain waves. Strong people cause the needle to vibrate rapidly, and when Mark Twain and Richard Croker tested the machine they found that the needle swung with such force that the degree upon the metal could not be recorded. If you feel loving towards a person the needle comes toward you. If you feel hateful, it swings away. This fact is of the greatest human interest, because it suggests so much. The professor uses his instrument also to cure diseases. He studies the action of the mind, and notes its influence upon the body. This he afterwards treats with his own electric cure. But the instrument can be made of more general value as a love machine than it can by curing the sick. All people feel or taste of love in some way and there is no period of life when a man or woman is love proof. From the age of 16 to 60 the vein of love runs through every human being, and there are many cases in history of those who have felt its effects below and above these ages. This machine can fill the greatest human want, namely, that of supplying a cure for the greatest malady that is known, love-sickness! Hundreds of people have tested this love machine and have found it to work quickly and accurately. It is useful to three classes of people. Lovers who want to find if their sweet-hearts are devoted to them. Young men can take their sweethearts there and place them opposite the electric needle. The man stands at one pole and the woman at the other. Both concentrate their thoughts upon it. The young woman thinks intently of the young man and the young man thinks intently of his sweetheart. This is an anxious moment. Both are awaiting the turn of the needle. The one with joyous anticipations, the other anxious. Slowly and slowly the needle begins to move, and with a few vibrating movements it swings itself towards the one whose love is the strongest. Hate deflects the needle, and if the woman hates the man the needle swings far away from her. If, on the other hand, they love equally, the needle stands still. Married women visit Prof. d'Odiardi to find if their husbands still love them. There comes a time in the life of every married man when he must stay out late at night. This the wife construes in different ways. It may be business, it may be pleasure. If the latter, he no longer cares for her. By taking him to Prof. d'Odiardi's machine she can tell if he still loves her or if his love has turned to indifference. The machine is also used by psychologists, who take old married people there by way of experiment to see if love is permanent. They also have experimented somewhat with old maids to find if they can love later in life. If an old maid marries, say about the age of 40 years, psychologists who are interested in the electric love machine endeavor to get her to the laboratory of Prof. d'Odiardi, to determine whether she married from love or other motives. <p style='text-indent: 2.3em;'>This machine can be made useful in divorces, to see if either had remained constant in love. It can be used in case of separation, to determine the custody of the child. If the needle swings toward the mother instead of the father, her love must be stronger than his. In that case both would have to think intently of the child to influence the needle. Of course, both would endeavor to put force upon it, and the needle would be a true indication of the cerebral radiation of love. <p style='text-indent: 2.3em;'>There are many other adaptations for the Electric Love Machine. Phrenologists claim that no one should marry without consulting those who can read bumps. This may be true. The love machine is also a good indicator, and the man who consults both of these authorities, and finds that in each case his lady love registers true to him, need have no objection to her on the ground of false motives. <p style='text-indent: 2.3em;'>Prof. d'Odiardi has been an electrician since the age of 10, when he invented an electric apparatus. He is a cousin of the late Dr. Cruvelhier, who was the physician of King Louis Philippe. He is of unquestioned standing in the French and German schools, and all of his discoveries and inventions are treated with respect, and not with incredulity. Edward Grey."