The Air Loom

The “Air-Loom” was a horrific instrument of psychological control and torture featuring in the paranoid delusions of James Tilly Matthews, a patient in London’s “Bedlam” hospital from 1797 to 1813. Matthews’ lurid imaginings were documented by Bedlam apothecary John Haslam, in what's regarded as the first psychiatric case-study, his 1810 book, "Illustrations of Madness." We’ll be hearing selections from Haslam's text, much of which reads like particularly surreal and archaic science fiction.