A member of the Society for Psychical Research, London, who in 1886 gave imitations of the slate-writing performances of mediums William Eglinton and Henry Slade, with a view to exposing what he believed to be their fraud. Such fraud was a major problem in evaluating Spiritualism. By simple conjuring he succeeded in emulating all their feats, his successes becoming the subject of a series of important articles. Davey's future as a valuable force in psychical research ended abruptly when he died of typhoid fever at age 27.
Sources:
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.
Davey, S. T. "Spurious Mediumship." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 3 (1888): 199-207.
Hodgson, Richard. "Mr. Davey's Imitations by Conjuring of Phenomena Sometimes Attributed to Spirit Agency." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 8, 22 (1892): 253-310.
