TO DETECT LYING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3119, 19 February 1909, Page 3

TO DETECT LYING.

A machine that will indicate when j . a man is lying may seem merely the product of imagination, but it is claimed that such a contiivance has been invented by two specialists of high repuiation and undoubted integrity. The electric psyehometer, Jasit is called, is described as "a galvanometer, plus an apparatus for measuring and recording the fluctu'atidns produced in the human organism by the emotion?." The subject to be experimented on rests one hand on a zinc and another on a car bon plate. An electric current is thus established, and by means of a lamp and mirror glass scale, or upon a measured screen, a beam that will move in sympathy with every emotional tremor. The eminent p3y- ', chologists who have invented the , machine claim that a man cannot lie without an emotional tremor be- ) ing set up within him. which will be i registered by the machine. lake > the case of a man who has stolen a watch. If the word "watch" is pro- | nounced in his hearing, among a | number of non-significent-words, the ) chances are 100 to 1 in favour of him j betraying himself by means of the [ machine. Dr. Peterson, the American co-inventor, obtained astonishing results with a young criminal, who was given a guarantee that nothing that was discovered would be used against him. He had been out on patrol, and the points to be- ascertained were whether he had brokenhis patrol by leaving New York, whether he had been arrested, and whether he was concerned in certain thefts. When he denied having been out of New York, and having been arrested, the beam of light moved six inches each time. A number of cities were mentioned, and by all but one the light was deflected. Further questioning established his guilt beyond doubt, though he maintained his innocence. In another experiment Dr. Peterson is said to have ascertained by means of the psychometer which one of three men whom hj« had never seen before was in possession of certain informaton imparted to only one of the three by another person. The man With the (information came prepared to resist / every effort to extort the secret from ' { him, but it was to no purpose.. At all the significant words propounded Iby Dr. Peterson the light beam moved from three to six inches; at the indifferent ones it did not move more than two inches. It is said that the coolest and most accimplished of liars are powerless against this contrivance.