THE MYSTERY OF THE SEXAPHONE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2486, 21 June 1909, Page 8

THE MYSTERY OF THE SEXAPHONE.

TO TEST THE SEX OF EOOB

(By W. T. Stead.)

Mr Williams is a working engineer who also keeps hens at Cat ford. Unc day when in his workshop ho noticed that some small steel articles suspended from the wall by wire were quivering without any apparent -cause. As the quivering continued, he hunted about to discover what was the source of the disturbance. Immediately below the pendent steel someone had placed a basket of eggs, lie removed it to see if- there was any magnet beneath. No sooner had he done so than the quivering ceased. He replaced the basket and the quivering recommenced. Clearly there was soiye connection between the quiver that was felt by the steel and the eggs. Mr Williams began experimenting with this hitherto unsuspected sympathetic relation between steel and egg. Ho found that a sterile egg left the steel unmoved. Continuing his experiments, he found that one egg would cause the steel to move backwards and forwards like the pendulum of a clock, while another egg would cause it to rotate with a circular motion. He hatch fd out the first egg, and the chicken that came out was a pullet. He hatched, out the second, and out came cockerel. In this wise it was that Mr \\ illiams stumhied upon what may he the key to many mysteries, viz., the latent power of sex in' eggs to move a pendent piece of steel from side to side if the egg he female, in a circle if it he male.

I met Mr Williams at the Daily Mirror exhibition of the sexaphoue at the Hotel CeciF.

"Are you sure you are right?” 1 asked. “T have verified it a thousand times. Last year I hatched out .hundreds of eggs in my. three incubators, and they came out true to indication every time. Of course, 1 never .set eggs shown to bo sterile.”

“Then all your certificated eggs hatch out, and always true to the sex shown bv vour little machine?”

"That is so. At first I was clumsy and made a few mistakes. But my wife can test 200 eggs in an hour, and we hatch out 100 per cent, and have just the proportion of cockerels or pullets that we prefer.” "What layout' machine?” "Here it is,” said Mr Williams, producing a sexaphoue; "one is simply a fine steel wire, from which is suspended a small steel weight. That is the more sensitive. The other is a trifle more elaborate, but the principle is the same.” “And does sex always affect it in the same way?”

"Invariably. Man or woman, bird, beast, or fish—the instrument never fails. ] have tried it on armadillos and eels. But try it yourself.” So 1 tried it on General Sir Alfred Turner’s head. The little ball quivered, moved slowly, and soon was gyrating round and round as if it would never stop I tried it on a lady’s head. Ihe circular movement slowly died away, and then the steel ball began to swing back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. "Perhaps it is suggestion,” I objected. "It moves as wo expect it to do.” "Try it on an animal whose sex is unknown. Hero is a hedgehog. Here are guinea-pigs, pigeons, rabbits, white mice; no one can say which is male and which is female without close examination —test them.”

ISo we did, and behold in every case the sexaphoue told truly the sex of the subject ! Mr Williams suggested we should try it on a dog which he was proceeding to take out of the basket. I objected. “Let the dog stay where it is; keep the lid down. No one knows whether it is a he or a she. Hold the sexaphoue over the basket and see if it will work.”

To this Mr Williams objected. He could not guarantee that it would tell the sex unless it was held close to the animal; the lid of the basket might intercept the current. I insisted. “Try, it and see.” Mr Williams gave way. I held the sexaphone over the basket, and lo! in a few seconds it began to gyrate in the circular fashion. “I pronounce this dog a male,” I said. “Take it out and see.” And male it was.