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Biographies
William
Crookes
Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society
Great Exponents of Spiritism
Life and Achievements of Sir William Crookes
December 2000
“I am attacked by two very
opposite sects – the scientists and the know-nothings. Both laugh at me,
calling me ‘the frogs’ dancing master’. Yet I know a have discovered one
of the greatest forces in nature”. Galvani, discoverer of electricity
William Crookes was born on
17 June, 1832
in
London
. He studied at the Royal College of Chemistry and became one of the most
important scientists of the XIX century, both in the field of Physics and in
Chemistry. He combined private experimental research with business. He also
edited several photographic and scientific journals. Having inherited a large
fortune from his father, he devoted himself from 1856 entirely to scientific
work of various kinds at his private laboratory in
London
. In 1861, he discovered the metallic chemical element thallium. This led him
indirectly to the invention of the radiometer in 1875. He later developed a
vacuum tube (the precursor of the X-ray tube). His studies of cathode rays were
fundamental in the development of atomic physics. He was knighted in 1897 and
received the Order of Merit in 1910. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society,
becoming its president between 1913 and 1915.
Spiritist phenomena were very much in evidence at the end of the XIX
century. After the events involving the Fox sisters of Hydesville, in 1854 in
the
United States
, there appeared several mediums displaying the most incredible phenomena like,
levitations, rappings, the spontaneous playing of instruments, materializations,
etc. Therefore, William Crookes, as a scientist of international repute, decided
to investigate Spiritualism. He was initially very sceptical about it. He
explained the reasons for his inquiry: ‘I consider it the duty of scientific
men who have learnt exact modes of working to examine phenomena which attract
the attention of the public, in order to confirm their genuineness or to
explain, if possible, the delusions of the dishonest and to expose the tricks of
deceivers’. By his own account Crookes had originally, ‘like other men who
thought little of the matter and saw little’, taken Spiritualism to be
superstition and trickery; he stressed that his aim would be to substitute a
strictly scientific appraisal ‘for the loose claims of the pseudo-scientific
Spiritualists’.
He began by studying one of the most famous mediums of all time, Daniel
Dunglas Home, and was soon convinced that Home was endowed with a powerful
psychic force. Many believed that Crookes would expose the phenomena he
witnessed, but this rapid conversion to the ranks of believers surprised the
public and shocked his scientific colleagues. Yet he undertook all his
experiments under strict scientific conditions, whenever that was possible. He
devised instruments to preclude any possible claim of forgery. For example, he
had a wire cage made and inside it, he put an accordion he had bought himself.
Home just placed his hand on the cage and the instrument started to play a
well-known tune.
The experiments that made him really famous were with the medium Florence
Cook, at the time, only a teenager. Through her mediumship, there occurred a
series of materializations of the Spirit Katie King, which lasted almost three
years. Just before the Spirit stopped appearing, Crookes obtained a total of 44
photographs, among which were, according to him, ‘some inferior, some
indifferent, and some excellent’.
When Crookes started to report about his experiments to the scientific
community, he found unrestrained hostility. He was even accused of complicity
with Florence Cook, and of having an affair with her. Yet, he never changed his
mind about the reality of Spirit phenomena. In his presidential address to the
British Association, in 1898, he said: ‘Thirty years have passed since I
published an account of experiments tending to show that outside our scientific
knowledge there exists a Force exercised by intelligence differing from the
ordinary intelligence common to mortals. I have nothing to retract. I adhere to
my already published statements. Indeed, I might add much thereto.”
Sir William Crookes died in
London
on
4 April 1919
.
Sources: Natural and
Supernatural, by Brian Inglis, Prism – Unity Press
Encyclopedia
Britannica, the
Oxford
Talking Dictionary.
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