Oliver Gatty


Oliver Gatty was a British chemist and psychical researcher.

Career

Gatty was born in Kensington, Middlesex. He worked at Rothamsted Experimental Station and then under Eric Rideal, Professor of Colloid Science at University of Cambridge. He also worked with James Gray in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge.>
He worked at the Chemical Warfare Experimental Establishment at Porton Down. He conducted experiments for the Ministry of Supply into gas mask smoke filters and smoke screening techniques.
Gatty was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. With Theodore Besterman, he investigated the medium Rudi Schneider in a series of experiments. The results were entirely negative. Gatty was skeptical of the claims of dowsing. In 1938, he examined ten cases and concluded that "all the reliable experimental evidence shows that dowsers cannot find hidden things by means other than the use of their five senses."
He died in Cambridge on 5 June 1940 as a result of injuries sustained in a gas explosion accident.

Publications