Content provided in partnership with
Chevreul's Report on the Mysterious Oscillations of the Hand-Held Pendulum
Skeptical Inquirer, July, 2001 by Herman H. Spitz, Yves Marcuard
A French Chemist's 1833 Open Letter to Ampere
An extraordinary paper written in 1833 by the French chemist Michel-Eugene Chevreul on his experiments and interpretation of the "magical pendulum" is remarkable in its prescience and astute, rational understanding of the nature of the true source of the pendulum movement. The authors here present the first complete English translation of this special document.
- Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »
The mysterious movement of a small pendulum held by an "unmoving" hand is a venerable example of the erroneous assignment of unusual properties to inanimate objects. The pendulum swings back and forth or in a circular path depending on what the holder is thinking, even though the holder is convinced that he or she is holding the pendulum perfectly still. The direction of the movement is said to provide yes or no answers that relieve holders from personal responsibility for decisions and choices. The pendulum allegedly reacts to the presence of certain objects or liquids, and even provides information, such as the sex of a fetus. Its actions are sometimes attributed to mystical forces or mysterious energies (e.g., chakras), but all these magical effects occur only when the pendulum is hand-held.
Throughout history many learned men proposed weighty theories to account for the pendulum's movements and for many related phenomena. In 1808 Professor Gerboin of Strasbourg and a group of physicists published a book in which such phenomena were attributed to a new force that inaugurated a new chapter in physics, a belief supported by a number of his colleagues but not by, among others, the chemist Michel-Eugene Chevreul (1786--1889) (note that his name is not always hyphenated). The theories of Gerboin and his followers, and no doubt other such dubious theories, apparently prompted young Chevreul to perform experimental studies of the pendulum's astonishing properties in 1812. However, he did not publish his observations until 1833, and only after the urging of his friend, the eminent physicist Andre M. Ampere, to whom the publication was addressed as an open letter (and after whom the practical unit of electric current and the ammeter are named).
In 1853 the French Academy of Sciences appointed Chevreul chairman of a three-man committee charged with providing the public with a scientific explanation of the apparently spontaneous movements of the divining rod, the pendulum and--particularly during seances--small tables. For many people, table turning (or table rapping) was evidence of spirits, or even of Satan himself. Chevreul authored the committee's report, published as a book, De la baguette divinatoire, du pendule dit explorateur et des tables tournantes, au point de vue de l'histoire, de la critique et de la methode experimentale (Of the Divining Rod, the "Explorer' Pendulum and Turning Tables, From the Point of View of History, Critique, and the Experimental Method, Paris: Mallet-Bachelier, 1854). It attributed not only table turning but also such related phenomena as the pendulum and divining rod (dowsing stick) to a single principle: nonconscious (involuntary) muscle movements initiated by autosuggestion. The book included a historical survey and a discussion of the scientific method. Meanwhile, in 1852 in England, the eminent physiologist William Carpenter labeled these phenomena "ideo-motor" (now ideomotor), which nicely encapsulates the fact that an involuntary motor response can be produced by a dominant idea.
To the best of our knowledge Chevreul's 1833 paper was the first published description of controlled observations into the true source of the pendulum's mysterious oscillations. In recognition of those seminal studies the hand-held pendulum is now customarily referred to as the Chevreul pendulum. The first author became interested in Chevreul's observations while examining claims being made for facilitated communication (Spitz 1997), said to reach the competent inner person hidden behind the outer facade of incompetence presented by people with autism and/or severe mental retardation. In facilitated communication a "facilitator" holds the hand of an autistic partner who types messages on a keyboard. It turns out, however, that the facilitators are unwittingly controlling their partners' typing. (For more on facilitated communication, see SKEPTICAL INQUIRER 25[1] January/February 2001.) These movements of the facilitators place this phenomenon in the same family of automatisms as the Ouija board (Dillon 1993), automatic handwriting, mind-reading (muscle reading), table turning, dowsing, the Chevreul pendulum, and the Clever Hans phenomenon (in which superior intelligence is attributed to an animal whose responses are unwittingly cued by its human master or by observers), all of which are generated by nonconscious movements (Spitz 1997).
Chevreul is far better known in his native France than in the United States. It is difficult to understand why he is not more universally appreciated not only for the importance of his contributions to organic chemistry, color theory, and the history of chemistry, but also because of the breadth of his interests, evidenced by publications in natural history, photography, psychology, philosophy, archaeology, philosophy of science, and much more. According to Costa, when the still-active Chevreul turned 100 on August 31, 1886, it was a great national occasion. Numerous papers were presented and he was given many honors for his contributions to science and industry. There was an evening banquet, a torchlight parade through Paris, and special theater performances. When Chevreul died on March 27, 1889, at the age of 102, "His funeral at the Cathedral of Notre Dame attracted thousands of people who massed near the church despite heavy rains" (Costa 1962, 19).
Find Research Guides for:
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »