Do the dead live in a world beyond the grave? If so, is it possible for those in the spirit world to communicate with those left behind them on this earth? Just as communication between distant points on our earth is a matter of delicately constructed instruments, so also communication from the spirit world to our own earth must be accomplished through scientifically constructed instruments of even greater ingenuity and much more minute delicacy than the telegraph, the telephone or the wireless apparatus.
    This is the belief of Thomas A. Edison, the foremost inventor of modern times, who has recently stated that the problem of receiving messages from the dead is a problem of pure science, and that he is endeavoring to perfect an apparatus which will make it possible to record messages from the spirit world if there are any spirits and if they desire to communicate with us. It is Mr. Edison's belief that only through some specially constructed scientific instrument will a message ever come from the realms of the departed, and that it will be from some spirit of a dead scientist—some wireless expert or telegraph expert or physicist—that the first messages will come.
    The present method of receiving pretended messages from the dead through so-called spiritualistic “mediums” Mr. Edison regards as absurd. Some of these mediums are barefaced frauds, of course, but he thinks that many of them are self-hypnotized enthusiasts who really believe that they are in touch with the spirit world. The appliances of the “mediums” are clumsy, unscientific and worthless. No message from spirit land can ever come through such childish paraphernalia, he asserts. If Mr. Marconi or Mr. Edison himself were ship-wrecked on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean it would be futile to try to establish wireless connection with some schoolboy outfit in a backyard in San Francisco. But it might be possible, with great patience and skill to attract the attention of one of the great, high-power, delicately constructed wireless stations of the navy.
    And so it is with a disembodied spirit in the world beyond the grave who might be seeking to attract the attention of mankind on earth. He would have to overcome tremendous difficulties, no doubt, and would be utterly helpless in trying to apply his scientific knowledge through any of the clumsy, puerile equipment of the enthusiastic but ignorant spiritualistic “medium.” But he might be able to make use of waves of ether or other forces in the universe if Mr. Edison succeeds in setting up an instrument which would register calls from such a source. And this is the task which Mr. Edison has now set his genius to work at.
    Already science has undertaken tasks of incredible delicacy which are in some respects not unlike the problem which Mr. Edison has before him. The heat of a candle has been measured miles away. The heat of the most distant stars has been recorded. Not only this, but “young stars” are now distinguished from “old stars” by instruments of marvelous delicacy. Everybody knows that the slightest earth tremor on the other side of our globe is recorded by the curious little instrument called the seismograph. In the Massachusetts Institute of Techonology laboratory is a little machine in which it is possible to weigh the earth, and just as the war was coming to an end an American scientist developed an instrument which would give notice of the approach of a man in the darkest night —an instrument so delicate that the moment a soldier stuck his head above a trench hundreds of feet away across No Man’s Land the heat radiated from his face gave a signal instantly.
    But, of course, these various instruments are of no value to a person who does not understand them or who has not been trained in the use of them. If the average lawyer, doctor or clergyman or business man stepped into a telegraph office while the operator was absent it would be impossible for him to make use or the instruments to send a message over the wire. And similarly Mr. Edison believes that it is highly unlikely that anybody not technically trained will be able to make use of the forces of nature and the instruments for controlling them after he has passed into the world beyond the grave.
    If there is to be any communication from the dead it must be assumed the departed still retain at least the faculty of memory in the next world. If there are spirits and they have memory and wish to communicate with those left behind, it will be a valuable thing for those who pass into the next world to carry with them full knowledge of the instrument which Mr. Edison hopes to perfect. Thus a distinguished scientist like Mr. Edison himself, upon reaching his spirit abode, would be perfectly familiar with the qualities of the instrument and would know what forces were necessary to set in motion to operate the recording apparatus of the machine.
    The wonderful new invention—as yet unnamed—which enables us to see in the dark, to detect by their bodily heat alone the presence of bodies or objects which are entirely invisible to the naked eyes, was developed by Samuel O. Hoffman, formerly of the Science and Research Division of the United States Army. It rendered effective service during the closing weeks of the great war, and if it had been perfected earlier it would undoubtedly have played a leading part in the defeat of Germany. A means of locating troops, trenches, artillery, etc., available to one side alone, would have given that side a preponderant advantage in the war.
    As has long been known, every object emits a large quantity of radiation, only a small part of which affects the eye. This radiation is the ordinary dark heat, such as is felt on bringing the cold hand an inch or so in front of the face. While of the same general nature as light, it has quite different properties. Hardly any substances are transparent to it, rock salt being the only one easily obtainable. Glass is particularly opaque, so that ordinary optical instruments are useless. However, sharp images can be easily formed by using concave mirrors of ordinary dimensions, as the actual wave-length of this radiation is sufficiently small (1/2500 inch) to obviate trouble from diffraction.
    The apparatus consists of a concave mirror mounted on a tripod. This mirror concentrates the object's infrared radiation on the blackened surface of a thermopile, consisting of minute wires of bismuth and silver soldered together. This blackened junction becomes slightly heated as the radiation is concentrated on it. The resulting electrical current, flowing through a galvanometer mounted on another tripod, indicates the presence of “something warm.”
    Mr. Edison is not yet ready to divulge the details of his invention or reveal the exact principles involved in its operation. He has, however, said enough to lead to the belief that he plans to accomplish this modern miracle by means of a wonderful “spirit wireless”—an adaptation to communication between the world of the living and the world of the dead of the wireless telegraphy now in use on this earth.
    Support of this view is given by Mr. Edison’s expectation that the first spirits to avail themselves of the means of communication he will offer them will be men and women who, during their earthly careers as telegraphers or scientists, became [xxx] in the use of delicate instruments and powerful electrical currents. It is also significant that he refers to the invention on which he is at work as an “apparatous”—the same term which would be used to describe a wireless telegraph outfit with its batteries, transmitters, receivers and lofty aerial towers.
    Such a “spirit wireless” as Mr. Edison is now perfecting at his laboratories in Orange, N. J., will mark a new epoch in the history of mankind. Its establishment will settle for all time the question of the soul’s immortality. If it proves that the dead do live on in a world beyond the grave and are able to communicate with us when supplied with suitable means, the “spirit wireless” will do away with the ouija boards, the slates, cabinets and trances of the mediums, and all the other crude, unsatisfactory methods now employed in the effort to pierce the veil of death.
    Will the earth soon be dotted with “spirit wireless” stations where the dead may get in touch with us as readily as our living friends do over the telephone? Will the new invention, perhaps, enable us not only to hear the voices of the spirits, but to catch fleeting glimpses of their wraith-like forms?
    These are questions which Mr. Edison may be answering any day now to the world’s everlasting sat satisfaction.
    It any one can solve this ages-old problem and give scientific confirmation to man’s belief in immortality, surely it is Thomas A. Edison. In all his career he has seldom if ever attacked a problem that has proved too much for his genius. Although seventy-three years old he is still active in mind and body and able to work more hours at a stretch than most men in the prime of life.
    How better could he crown his proud record of service to humanity than by perfecting a method by which the spirits of the dead can transmit whatever messages they may have for the living friends they have left behind?

From—Richmond Times-Dispatch. (Richmond, Va.), 24 Oct. 1920. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.