Citing photographic evidence of a ghostly brick from a destroyed wall hanging in midair promoted by Sir Arthur Chesney in 1922, his contemporary in the Transubstantiation Club, retired Admiral Reginald-Nigel “Ren” Bruce, posited a theory of spiritual transubstantiation which he published in 1924. According to Admiral Bruce, death or destruction were like a “phase transition” from water to ice or water to vapor, and that destruction brought all things into a so-called “phantom state” that could be at times measured and quantified, even photographed.

Only 60 copies of the book were ever produced in a private run, mostly for Club members. In it, according to the diary of Sir Chesney, Admiral Bruce put forward a design for a “phantom engine” which be and an unnamed co-author had designed. According to what notes survive, it was supposed to allow transit of matter to and from the so-called “phantom state” in much the same way that a vacuum chamber could be used to force water into ice or steam by controlling its temperature and pressure.

After what Chesney’s diary called “several wholly convincing tests,” a further trial—this time with an unnamed human subject—was planned. Given that nearly all Club members had lost one or more close family members in the war, it is suspected that they intended to contact a deceased son or nephew, either by drawing their “spirit” through the machine or sending a living person through it.

While Admiral Bruce’s theories are entirely discredited and unworkable, in as much as they are known, what is not in dispute is what happened next. The Club was destroyed in a thunderous detonation, killing all 27 members and employees on the premises and four passersby besides.

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