From Spiritualism, a CABINET is a curtain enclosed space in which mediums claim to condense the psychic energy which is necessary for seance-room manifestations. Dr. Hereward Carrington points out an analogy: less expenditure of energy is required to charge a small electric conductor to a given voltage than a large one. So it may be with the cabinet "which acts as a sort of storage battery, retaining the energy and liberating it in bundles of quanta during the seance." In which connection a quotation from Allen Putnam's Bible Marvel Workers may be apt: "The ark of the covenant was constructed expressly for use as a spirit battery, or an instrument through which to give forth the commands of the Lord. The special care taken to have the ark and all its appurtenances charged with the auras or magnetisms of a selected class of workmen, becomes very interesting in these days when much wonder is expressed at the customary stickling of spirits and mediums for right conditions. Biblical history furnishes precedent for great particularity, when constructing a cabinet for manifestations."

The cabinet is usually of very simple construction. It need not be more than a curtain thrown across a corner of the room. The Davenport Brothers employed a special one. It had three doors. The middle door had a curtained opening on the top. Through this opening phantom hands were immediately thrust out after the doors were shut on the mediums tied within to their seats. The curtains of the cabinet are, as a rule, dark. But Maxwell points out that they need not be. He obtained just as good results with plain white sheets as with dark curtains. Some mediums sit within the cabinet, some outside, and others entirely dispense with it. There were famous mediums., i.e., Home, Stainton Moses, who never used one.
[Editor's note: Coincidentally, Home and Stainton Moses were also never accused of fraudulent mediumship, unlike many of the mediums from the Spiritualism movement. ]