Ghost Tech [Paperback]

Vince Wilson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: Whitechapel Productions (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892523418
• ISBN-13: 978-1892523419
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,677,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Physics Are Wrong, February 5, 2008

By 

Dave (Albuquerque) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Tech (Paperback)

I did enjoy the book and Vince's writing style. However, his explainations of how the various devices work were frequently wrong.

For instance, he says that IR thermometers emit an IR beam that is reflected by an object and then measured. That's not right. IR thermometers don't emit an IR beam. The source of the IR radiation is the object being measured. All objects that have a temperature above absolute zero emit IR radiation. This is sometimes referred to as "black body" radiation.

To most people this doesn't matter. However, the author goes on to say that the IR beam emitted from the thermometer is quite strong and might upset any ghosts. Since IR thermometers don't emit an IR beam, that statement is unsupported.

The explainations for digital thermometers and digital cameras are better, but still flawed. Even with all these physics errors, I think his conclusions about the various devices are generally correct.

So, if you just want a general idea of what equipment is recommended for ghost hunting, this book will provide that information. However, look elsewhere if you want to really understand how the equipment works so that you can make your own judgements on the limitations of each device.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good source for the tech side of ghosthunting, July 10, 2006

By 

R. Hartung "Renegade Bait!" (Walnut Creek, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Tech (Paperback)

I found Ghost Tech to be informative and educational. I'm not sure about all his views but the author gives fairly detailed explanations for his methodology. His interspersed humor adds nicely to the read although can be a bit overdone at moments. My single biggest criticism is the lack of editing done with this book. Typos and mispellings occur throughout, although not as severely as a Troy Taylor book. White Chapel Press needs to hire an editor.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A poorly put together book., November 15, 2008

By 

Mark Twain "Sam" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Tech (Paperback)

This book has a great deal of spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. There were so many of these errors that the text became distracting to read. Vince Wilson's poor use of immature humor and writing style also distracts the reader and hurts the author's credibility as any kind of an expert source of ghost hunting information. It was a poor decision on the author's part to not proofread his writing adequately enough. But the poor decisions did not end there. The bibliography does not seem to conform to any style guide I've ever seen and is woefully lacking in information should the reader want to actually seek out these sources that are never once cited in the book. The Glossary is nothing more than an afterthought. The author devotes the last chapter to the fictional equipment used in the movie Ghostbusters. Vince Wilson also mentions in the first chapter (which is itself a waste of time to suffer through while the author weakly tries and fails to define what ghosts are for himself) on page 16 that, "Ghostbusters was the movie that changed everything for paranormal researchers forever." This is a ridiculous statement and I found the author's odd fixation on Ghostbusters to be perplexing.

There are other issues raised in my mind while reading this book that make me unable to believe the author has a firm grip on the technical concepts he claims to explain. For instance on page 27 he states, "The higher the air temperature is, the more water it contains." when trying to explain humidity. He should have said something like the higher the air temperature is, the higher the air's POTENTIAL to contain water. It does not mean it will magically increase the amount of water in the air. Otherwise you could put a cubic foot of air in a container, raise the temperature, and produce water! It is a minor technical point but then again this is supposed to be a technical book and it makes me wonder what other information that he got wrong that I am not knowledgeable about enough to notice.

Overall the book is thin (literally because it's less than 120 pages) on information. I found nothing in the book that could not be found from a casual inspection of the subject through an internet search engine. The author claims to have many years of ghost hunting experience but fails to impart much information to the reader from said experience. I cannot recommend this book to anyone and suggest the buyer find another book that deals with this subject.