Cutten, John H(ector)
British author of textbooks on radar and psychical researcher.
Cutten served for a number of years as secretary of the Society
for Psychical Research, London, and had a special interest
in telepathy, clairvoyance, and the evidence for existence of
the human aura.
Cutten invented what he called the Ghost Detector, a
complex apparatus consisting of a main control box containing
the electronics, a camera loaded with infrared film, a wind vane
and vibrator, an ordinary flash unit, a flash unit with an infrared
filter, a tape recorder, a photoelectric cell, a microphone,
a pilot light, and a thermostatic control.
It is often claimed that ghostly visitations are accompanied
by drafts of air, vibrations, changes in the illumination of the
room, noises, changes in temperature, or physical disturbances.
If any such changes took place in a haunted room, the
ghost detector operated automatically. The first camera took a
photograph with infrared film. Simultaneously, a buzzer was
automatically switched on. The investigator could then press
the remote control bulb to take an ordinary photograph with
the standard film unit. The arrangement also included a thin
wire trained around the room that triggered the equipment if
touched.
Sources:
Haynes, Renée. The Society for Psychical Research, 18821982:
A History. London: Macdonald, 1982.
CWA See Congregational Witchcraft
Association
