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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.