SPIRITUAL & PSYCHIC · UK HISTORICAL CASE
Location: Camden area, London, England
Period: London experiment reported 12 March 1875; later correspondence in 1875–1877
A streak of light on a scale was supposed to tell the observers whether Anna Eva Fay kept hold of two electrical handles. Behind a curtain, a bell rang, a violin appeared and objects moved. The 1875 report of William Crookes’s London experiment preserves the room plan, readings and sequence—followed by a lively dispute about what he had actually endorsed.
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A medium enters a room arranged for a test
The Medium and Daybreak of 12 March 1875 published a detailed report headed A Scientific Séance—The Electrical Test for Mediumship. It describes an invitation to Crookes’s house and his explanation of the apparatus. Fay is seated in the library while the observers watch instruments in the adjoining laboratory, with a curtained doorway between the spaces.
The reporter gives readers a plan of the library and describes the furniture, windows, doors and objects which will become important. The library is examined; a door is locked and sealed. The report even corrects the illustrator’s orientation of Fay’s chair. Such details allow the account to be read as an attempted record of a particular arrangement, rather than a generic evening of phenomena.
What the electrical arrangement was meant to show
Two battery cells supplied a circuit through handles held in the medium’s hands. A galvanometer’s reflected light fell upon a graduated scale. When a demonstrator grasped the handles, the light moved away from zero; when the grip was released, it returned. Resistance coils supplied a second way of describing the state of the circuit.
Crookes explained how changing the contact or bringing the handles together would affect the readings. During the sitting, the handles were wrapped in cloth soaked in salt solution. The purpose was to provide a continuous indication of the medium’s contact while activity was reported around her in reduced light. The instruments became the observers’ reference point throughout the short session.
The sequence behind the curtain
At 10.15, according to the report, Fay takes hold of the handles. The light moves to 221 divisions and resistance is recorded as 5,600 British Association units. Crookes briefly checks her position and the curtain is adjusted. Noises follow, the musical box is heard being handled and wound, and it begins to play.
A violin protrudes beside the curtain and is taken by Mr Burns. A bell rings, and a small hand is reported holding it at the curtain’s edge before the bell is released. At 10.20 the observers record 222 divisions and resistance of 5,636 units. The account describes a small pulsation in the light which they associate with Fay’s breathing.
A library ladder is then pushed into the observers’ space and a substantial book is passed out. The circuit finally breaks: the light returns to zero, Crookes calls to Fay without a reply and enters the library. He finds her reclining in her chair, apparently faint, with the handles released. The sitting has lasted only about seven or eight minutes.
An opened desk and the room afterwards
When the room is fully lit, the company finds a writing desk open. A framed photograph previously on the wall, a mirror and a porcelain bottle are on it; drawers and smaller doors have also been opened. The reporter emphasises the desk’s linked locking arrangement and Crookes’s possession of the key.
The account interprets this as especially remarkable because the state of the electrical circuit had appeared stable during much of the activity. The sequence gives later readers something concrete to examine: what was in view, what was behind the curtain, when readings were recorded and what was discovered only once the room was lit. The publication’s confident conclusion belongs to its observers and its spiritualist setting.
A private letter becomes a public argument
The afterlife of the experiment includes a dispute over a letter. In his 1877 reply to William Carpenter, Alfred Russel Wallace prints a letter from Crookes dated 8 November 1875 to R. Cooper. Crookes says that nobody has authority to claim he doubts Fay’s mediumship, refers to the published accounts of the tests and praises her willingness to accept conditions.
Wallace challenges Carpenter’s description of this as an endorsement Fay carried away from England. He argues that the date, recipient and wording have been misrepresented, and distinguishes the private laboratory tests from her public performances. His argument is part of an active controversy, but the reproduced letter gives the reader specific wording and a date against which descriptions can be checked.
Why this London sitting remains useful
The case brings together a medium, an instrument maker’s approach to observation and a periodical willing to describe a room in unusual detail. Its strongest surviving material is the reported sequence, the diagram and the later correspondence. Those records let readers ask precise questions without reducing the evening to either a list of marvels or a verdict borrowed from a much later summary.
The map uses a rounded Camden reference for Crookes’s London investigations, consistent with the existing UKPX case files on his work. The portrait shows Fay herself and is credited to its archive source. The London experiment remains the focus here; her later career and overseas performances are separate histories.
Timeline
Early 1875 — London electrical-test sitting described in the contemporary report.
12 March 1875 — The Medium and Daybreak publishes the room plan, readings and reported phenomena.
8 November 1875 — Crookes writes the letter to R. Cooper later reproduced in the controversy.
1877 — Wallace publishes his reply to Carpenter, including the letter’s text and his distinction between private tests and public performances.
Sources and further reading
The Medium and Daybreak, 12 March 1875, “A Scientific Séance—The Electrical Test for Mediumship”
Public-domain contemporary report with diagram, stated precautions, timed readings and the room examination.
Alfred Russel Wallace, Psychological Curiosities of Scepticism (1877)
Public-domain reply to Carpenter, including Crookes’s 8 November 1875 letter and the dispute over its use.
Location note
Rounded Camden-area reference for the London investigation, not a precise identification of a present-day séance room or private residence.
Map location source · Checked 4 November 2026.
Related cases
Florence Cook and Katie King: Crookes’s London laboratory, the lamps and the photographs
Crookes and D. D. Home, 1871: the accordion cage and the moving balance