Carrington's spirit box sold on Ebay

by SIMON FORSYTH

     A SPIRIT contact box, allegedly made and used by the well known psychical researcher Hereward Carrington, recently fetched £360 on the internet auction site Ebay.

The small wooden box, which was offered with "original" bell, wires and battery, was designed and made by the researcher to test the validity of physical mediumship. When pressure was exerted upon the lid of the box it pressed down upon 2 metal contacts which completed an electrical circuit. This caused a bell inside the box to ring.

Carrington's interest in psychic phenomena was aroused at the age of 18 and followed an anti-Spiritualist line until reading Miss X's Essays in Psychical Research. This shook his pessimism. In 1900, at the age of 19, he joined the Society for Psychical Research and devoted the rest of his life to the subject. He investigated such famous mediums as Eusapia Palladino and 'Margery' Crandon and was founder of the American Psychical Institute and Laboratory. He died in 1959.

Also sold were more than 350 private letters to Carrington from other famous names in psychical research. These largely discussed the controversy over the 'Margery' mediumship and have never been published. They included letters from the notable psychical researchers Walter Franklin Prince and Harry Price. The collection also contained letters from Dr Leroy Crandon, the husband of 'Margery'.