Source:William Smith:interview by J. W. Peterson and W. S. Pender:1890:By putting his head in a hat or some dark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the stone with the other

William Smith (1890): "By putting his head in a hat or some dark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the stone with the other"

Parent page: Book of Mormon/Translation/Method/Seer stone

William Smith (1890): "By putting his head in a hat or some dark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the stone with the other"

William Smith:

a silver bow ran over one stone, under the other around over that one and under the first in the shape of a horizontal figure 8 much like a pair of spectacles....much too large for Joseph...could only see through one at a time using sometimes one and sometimes the other. By putting his head in a hat or some dark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the stone with the other. In that way sometimes when his eyes grew [tired] he [relieved] them of the strain.[1]

Notes

  1. “William Smith interview by J. W. Peterson and W. S. Pender, 1890,” in Early Mormon Documents, 1:508.