by William D. Jensen
Dr. Thomas Galen Hieronymus has the unique distinction of having the only US patent of a psychically operating machine. At first glance, what he invented was a machine to detect the type and quantity of any material matter under scrutiny, by analyzing the previously unknown �Eloptic� radiation that seemed to emanate from all materials. No one had ever thought of such a machine, and mainstream science is perplexed that his patented device does work. His secret ingredient was that the experimenter became a part of his own machine, bridging the real and psychic worlds.
Patent number 2,482,773 was awarded in 1949, after three years of very careful consideration by the United States Patent Office. There are strict criteria that must be satisfied before a patent is awarded. A �utility patent� for a machine must be something new, unusual, and unobvious. These points are easy to satisfy. In addition, the invention had to be useful for at least one believable thing that could not be done before. He did not need to explain How it worked, only to prove That it worked, sufficiently enough to have undeniable merit. Under extraordinary cases, where an invention seems to defy the basic precepts of science, extra proof is requested by the Patent Office. Hieronymus backed up his claims with live plant experiments, and made working models of his invention.
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