Curiosa: Then he put on a mechanical thought-screen and dipped his quill in the ink-well

[nebroadwe]

There are a few things you don't expect to find in a copy of the second volume of Walpole's Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland and Ireland (London, 1806), and one of them is a small, typescript leaf which reads:

      There are many things that man
does not understand and one of these
is the workings of the mind. If
you will look long and hard at the
dot on the other side of this page
and concentrate on the words

                DAGMUR SILMUS

a secret from another world will
penetrate to your mind. Only 1
mind in ten thousand will receive
any impulse. Only one mind in
a million will receive the message.

     May Katain of Klag guide you.

Captain Future

Yes, there is a dot on the reverse. Paging Edmond Hamilton ... or perhaps Edmund North and Harry Bates?

Comments

blindspot?

[http://linsam.homelinux.com:22380/john (from livejournal.com)]

This almost sounds like it takes advantage of the blind-spot in the eye, such that if you had one eye closed and looked at the dot, part of the text would be obscured. Is it possible for you to post a scan of the original with the dot? I think it would be fun to play with this :)

Re: blindspot?

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

This almost sounds like it takes advantage of the blind-spot in the eye, such that if you had one eye closed and looked at the dot, part of the text would be obscured.

Even if the text is on the other side from the dot?

Is it possible for you to post a scan of the original with the dot? I think it would be fun to play with this :)

Sez you. I, on the other hand, have read too many SF books in which fiddling with things like this causes havoc, destruction and the end of the world. There's no place for that on my monthly statistics sheet. :-)