1951 My Junior Year. .

THE GREAT MACHINE THAT HEALED

During my junior year at Dartmouth, I was assigned to work with two seniors, as an assistant on the development of a machine that could duplicate Chromasthenia. A mental condition, similar to "a brown taste in the mouth" I.E. the brain is jumbling incoming signals from the sensors of taste and sight, or, in our case, jumbling hearing, and sight. We finally figured it out and built the following machine. First, we gathered a very powerful amplifier and three high-powered speakers, a woofer that really moved a lot air, a standard full range base, and, a very good tweeter. When these were on, not only did you hear the music, but also you could feel it. Then we built a crossover network, so that all sound from the amplifier was split three ways, 0 to 600 cycles, 601 to 1200 cycles, and all above 1201 cycles. These were split into two sets of leads, one to the speakers for that range of sound, and the second to three sets of amplifiers made of GE 507 amplifier tubes. This brought us a source of alternating current strong enough to operate three regular slide projectors, each of which held a primary color slide. When all of this was put together with a record player, we could see a constantly changing pattern of colors on the projection screen. The brightness of light from each projector depends on the amount of sound at that instant reaching each of the three power boosters from the crossover network. We did a lot of good with that machine.

I can remember, we had just finished putting it all together, in a sound proof room, hung with rugs to reduce echo's There was a sofa, and two easy chairs for the audience. I remember that I had a date from Smith College arriving on the noon train at White River Junction at noon this Friday, for Winter Carnival weekend. I picked her up and took her right to the machine, after dropping her off at her room. I put on the Blue Danube as rendered by George Gershwin and a stack of about 5 more like it, and turned the machine on, lowered the lights and relaxed next to her. She was entranced by the pure power of it, the play of the ever-changing lights; we didn't see just shades of colors, but an ever-changing kaleidoscope of moving shapes. It was so smooth and relaxing that the passage of time ceased to exist. I began to feel a bit hungry, and told her we had better go to eat so we could get ready for the dance that night. When I turned on the lights, the time was after 9PM we had missed supper, and the dance had already started, but we felt wonderful, fully relaxed and as rested as a long night's sleep. I think we spent most of the daylight hours with the machine that weekend; it was hypnotic in its effect on us.

Later that year, on three occasions, took the machine down to the State Asylum at Concord, NH. There, we set it up in the most difficult ward. These people were in such a withdrawn state, that they would not respond to a pin jabbed into them, we didn't try to, but that is what we were told. This room and some 15 people were kept clean with hoses. Not the slightest movement or interest was shone by any of them, while we set up. Finely when we were ready, the blinds were drawn, and we turned it on, very low at first, and the two psychiatrists in attendance began taking notes, as we slowly turned up the volume by 5PM, we called it off for the day. It was time to feed the people and we arraigned to return Saturday morning, at 8AM.

The next day, we began right where we left off, every 10 minutes; we increased the gain by one notch. Finally, at 10AM or so, I saw one of the men open one eye. As we continued, I could see a surprised look on the Dr's face, and they both began to write fast on their note pads. The sound increases continued, and so did the movement, slowly, some of them shifted to get a better look at the screen. We were actually getting through to their consciousness. To me, it was most dramatic. Some of these people had been catatonic vegetables for years, and our triple play machine was getting the message through to them, the world was still out there waiting for them.

I later learned, that all of the people responded finally, and that three of them had gone home and were on out patient status. You can't begin to imagine how good we all felt. We had taken the machine down there on a whim. In our final report, we deduced that the triple stimulus is what did it. The movement of the air gave them a tactile experience, and at the volume we were playing it they darned well heard it and obviously, they could see, and when it did, it grabbed their attention. At the same time it relaxed them to a point that their doctors were able to again communicate directly with them. All three of us got an A for the experiment.

Capt. Skip