Campbell's Symbolic Hieronymus Machine Demonstrations
The Hieronymus machine, operated with its electronics replaced by a paper circuit diagram
John W. Campbell Jr. (editor, Astounding Science Fiction) · USA
Method
Campbell publicized the Hieronymus patent ('Psionic Machine — Type One', Astounding, June 1956, after coining 'psionics' in his February 1956 editorial), then reported that a 'symbolic' build — cardboard, thread and the schematic drawing in place of the circuit — produced the same stick reactions for users.
Findings
- Campbell reported the symbolic machine worked as well as the wired one, concluding the operator's mind, not the electronics, produced the effect.
- Hieronymus rejected the symbolic reading and maintained eloptic energy was physical — the inventor and his chief promoter thus contradicted each other about what the device did.
Conclusion
An accidental control experiment: if a drawing performs like the device, the device's electronics are causally irrelevant — evidence for the ideomotor account and the founding episode of 'psionics'.
The proponent response
Psionics adopted the result as a feature (symbolic machines work); skeptics adopted it as the reductio of the hardware claims.