Magnetic Girl

In one case this increase was twenty-five pounds, and in another, twenty-four pounds. This, of course, as insignificant, and since my arm would naturally take the direction of the resultant of the horizontal and vertical efforts of the men, the strain upon me was merely a tensional one in the direction of my arm. In the lifting experiments in which Mrs. Abbot apparently makes herself so heavy that no one can lift her, she succeeds simply by holding the lifter at such a distance from herself, by means of her extended arm, that he must apply his strength under very great disadvantage. It will require a man of more than average strength to lift, under these conditions, so slight a weight as fifty or sixty pounds and, therefore, a woman weighing 103 pounds, which is said to be Mrs. Abbott's weight at the present time, can safely defy even so strong a man as Sandow.

In the experiment with the child, a slightly different procedure is necessary, for a powerful man would be able to lift the child where he would utterly fail with a person twice its weight. In the case of the child, the hold of the lifter will be much lower than in experiments with an adult, and he must lean over further for the purpose. He is, of course, kept at the proper distance from the child, even though leaning over, by the performer's hand on his shoulder. In this position his lifting effort will not be in a vertical direction as he imagines, but in the arc of a circle whose tangent will be but a few degrees from the horizontal. He is, therefore, unconsciously working at great mechanical disadvantage in endeavoring to force the child's weight nearly horizontal, and all that the performer has to do is to counteract this horizontal push, or rather the resultant of the vertical and horizontal efforts of the lifter, by the gentle pressure of the other hand which, as before described, rests between the shoulder blades of the child upon whom the lifting experiment is being tried. One need only try either of these experiments according to directions to become perfectly convinced of the adequacy of the explanations.