George Henry Felt

George Henry Felt (born September 21, 1831 in the USA , † after 1895) was an American engineer , inventor , Egyptologist , Freemason and theosophist .

Live and act

During the Civil War , Felt invented a signal rocket for transmitting messages during military operations, for which he received a patent on August 25, 1863. Another invention related to a detonator (blasting plug), which he patented on February 27 1866th In addition to his work as an engineer, he dealt with Egyptology, especially with the "secret knowledge" of the Egyptians. He was a member of a Masonic Lodge . 1877 Felt in England to a Society for occult research (Society for the Study of the occult ) have established, whose president he should have been, however, evidence lacking.

Felt was a co-founder and member of the Theosophical Society (TG). On September 7, 1875, he gave a lecture on The Lost Canon of Proportion of the Egyptians in Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's apartment in New York (= The lost system of proportions of the ancient Egyptians (“Proportion” is meant here in the sense of “ideal size ratio”) , e.g. golden ratio )). The decisive factor in this lecture was that Felt did not only talk about the symbolic content of the geometric figures of the ancient Egyptians. Rather, he claimed to have discovered how the Egyptian priests could establish contact with the elemental beings of earth, water, fire and air by means of evocation in order to make them serviceable for themselves; with such an evocation various shadowy ones would also be created Figures become visible - as far as Felt. The discussion that followed turned, of course, on the subject of the occult powers of the prehistoric magicians. Felt went so far as to claim that he had tried these magical powers himself and could thus come into contact with gnomes , sylphs , undines , elves , etc. The next step was his promise to publicly demonstrate this at a later date. These conversations fired the imagination of those present and gave Henry Steel Olcott the idea of ​​establishing a society to investigate such things. Thus, Felt's lecture was the impetus for the foundation of the TG and had also instigated its objective at the time , the scientific research of occultism .

On September 8, 1875, Felt was a co-signer of the Articles of Incorporation for the TG and at a meeting on October 30, he was elected Vice President of the Society. Despite repeated admonitions by Olcott, the president of the TG, to keep his promise of a public demonstration of the magical powers, Felt repeatedly postponed his demonstration. In the end he did not take part in the TG meetings either, by 1876 at the latest it was obvious that he was not able to provide the required evidence. This was the reason for numerous TG members to leave society and meant a serious setback for the organization that had just been set up. Felt was later voted out of his position as Vice President of the TG, it is unclear whether this also meant his exclusion as a member.

Works

• Proceedings of a court of inquiry, convened by special order no. 85, Headquarters Department of Washington, at the request of First Lieut. George H. Felt, Fifty-fifth NYSM and acting signal officer, USA W. Felt, New York 1863
• The Kaballah of the Egyptians and the Greek Canon of Proportion . JW Bouton, New York o.J.

Web links

• The foundation of the Theosophical Society (English)
• The patent certificate for Felts Signal Rocket (English, PDF document, 282 kB)