(e) The Electric Current 6 In all scientific research the investigator begins with preliminary experiments, and as the work proceeds the problem unfolds before his eyes. He detects one phenomenon after another and traces it to its source, so far as he is able, until he can at length make a mental picture of the reaction concerned and formulate a theory concerning it. In clairvoyant research into scientific problems, unless the observer has very extraordinary powers, a similar process takes place. The clairvoyant observer in this case is using a little-known and very delicate instrument, and he therefore has to master the technique of the instrument and to determine its range of accuracy as well as to investigate the problem in hand. This is quite in conformity with scientific usage, for the first business of the research chemist is to determine the percentage error of his apparatus, the rate of leak of his