156. Instead of a basket, some persons use a kind
of little table made for the purpose, with three feet,
one of which carries a pencil; the other two are
rounded, or furnished with a little ivory ball, to make it
glide smoothly over the paper. Others use a simple
planchette, triangular, oblong, or oval; on one edge is
an oblique hole for the pencil; placed to write, it is
inclined, and rests by one side on the paper ; this side
is sometimes finished with two little rollers to facilitate
the movement. It may be readily imagined that there
is nothing absolute in any of these arrangements; the
most convenient is the best.
With all these machines, two persons are almost
always necessary; but it is not necessary that the sec-
ond person should be endowed with the medianimic
faculty : it is only to maintain the equilibrium, and
diminish the fatigue of the medium.
