"Robert F. Young - The Second Philadelphia Experiment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

conclusion during the course of previous experiments that all worthwhile undertakings are accompani'd
by an clement of risk.
The lightning bolt which the key attract'd took me unawares when it came, and the thunder that
follow'd shook the house. The glass lamp-chimney shatter'd, whether from the vibration occasion'd by
the thunder or from the actual functioning of the apparatus, I have never been able to determine, but in
either case my attempt to convert electrical fluid into light did not bear fruit. However, while the
experiment fail'd to gain its desired end, it was not altogether without results, for the tuning fork was
quivering erratically, and when the sound of thunder fad'd away, a voice could be heard—a loud
presumptuous voice that brought me to my feet.
At first I thought that someone had slipp'd into the room and was addressing me, but a glance around
inform'd me that such was not the case, and I could only conclude that my apparatus was in some way
responsible for the sounds I was hearing. The invisible speaker spoke only a few slurred words, and then
another speaker—or possibly a singer—took over and began caterwauling at the top of his
hobble-dehoyish voice to the accompaniment of a medley of sounds that I can only describe as a series
of throbs, thrums, and twangs. I subsequently transcrib'd the spoken sounds from memory:
First Voice: —to the Dick the Disk Show, brought to you by W-D-U.
Second voice:
BABYBABY-BAl3YBABYBABYBABYBABY-BABYBABYBABYBABYBABY-BABYBABYBA
BY HUH-WONCHU WONCH
UWONCHU-WONCHUWONCHUWON-CHUWONCHUWONCH UWONCHUWONCHU
CUMMA-ONAONAONAONAONAONA-ONAONAONAONA
HUM! BABYBABYBABYBABY-BABYBABYBABY
It was at this point that a fit of trembling seiz'd me, causing me to lurch against the table. The impact
dislodg'd my apparatus, and grille, Leyden jar, pewter plates, &c went crashing to the floor. Immediately,
the caterwauling ceas'd, and a blessed silence filled the room.
I was unnerv'd all the rest of the evening, and I resolv'd never to try the experiment again. Recently I
came across a possible explanation for its bizarre results in a paper written by a little-known French
metaphysicist named M. de Vrains. According to M. de Vrains, the aether acts as a storage place for
sounds and contains all of the sounds that have ever been creat'd on Earth. Occasionally, "downdrafts"
occur, and bear some of these sounds back to earth, where they are heard by "preternatural people." I
consider M. de Vrains' theroy to be medieval nonsense for the most part, but I do think that he has hit
upon a half-truth (that is to say that his basic idea is correct, but that other forces are at work of which he
is totally ignorant), and I have come to the conclusion that my apparatus some how occasion'd one of
these "downdrafts" and briefly expos'd my eardrums to the tortured wails of a victim of a long-ago
puberty rite. M. de Vrains makes the further suggestion that the aether may not be subject to time and
that the sounds stor'd in it may comprise not only all of the sounds that have ever been creat'd on earth
but all of the sounds that ever will be created on earth. This, of course, is arrant nonsense. Certain of the
words I heard do not lend themselves to a primitive past, but neither do they lend themselves to a
civilized future. It may very well be that M. de Vrains might think they do, however, and use them to
substantiate his theory: Which is why I have just decid'd to remove this account of the second
Philadelphia experiment from my papers and burn it.