Thomas Crapper's talent as an inventor has always only been a part of his genius. His success derives from his ability to spot the unrealised potential in devices and then to adapt the technology to other purposes and then market it with the true flair of an industrialist entreprenuer.  Often Crapper is to be found pouring over the assembled salvage from enemy craft that the Galahad has downed, or examining technology wrestled from the hands of enemies of the Empire, attempting to decipher its construction and reverse engineer the technology into a reproducable product.

Whilst the Spectrescope, to give it its true name, was obtained under friendlier circumstances (it has been on "indefinate loan" from the Society for Paranormal Research for several months now) Crapper in his own inimitable style renamed it the moment he laid hands upon it. It is a tribute to Crapper's business sense that the device is now known in common parlance as the "Crapometer" and thus will forever be associated with Thomas Crapper, despite being the invention of the Acting Head (an unfortunate term given what happened to the previous Head) of the Society for Paranormal Research, a Mr. Carnaki.

The device resembles a shoulder slung wooden cased camera of a larger than usual size and certainly can't be carried innocuously. In fact it is only with recent tinkering that Crapper has managed to silence the buzzing, howling and ringing of the various auditory alarms of the sensors. There is a lense at the front of the device as well as an array of sensors measuring such things as ambient temperature, electromagnetic fields and other environmental factors. The key purpose of the device however is to measure and capture information concerning paranormal influences within its sensor range. Able to monitor ectoplasmic activity, psychokinetic energy and aetheric, astral and ethereal force the device has been constructed using Carnaki's years of experience and research with the paranormal.

The device takes some degree of training and scientific knowledge to precisely interpret the meaning of the various read-outs on the rear of the Spectrescope, yet even a layman can take some intuitive grasp of the visual display that is amongst them. This glass screen has images projected upon it from the series of strange lenses, prism and crystals sequenced within it and made of arcane and occult substances. Most important appears to be the glass tube of flourescent material that must be slotted into the receptor that is the source of the spectrescopes paranormal sight. The liquid is of unidentified composition and Carnaki has not yet revealed its nature to Crapper, although he keeps him in ready supply. Once activated that liquid drips through an hourglass like configuration, clear before it enters the funnel, but flourescent once it drips upon the slanted panel beneath. This panel forms a prism through which the images captured by the lense at the front of the scope must pass and imbues the images with its supernatural properties. Once the fluid begins to drip it must remain running until all the fluid has drained through (it is suspected that this has something to do with exposure to some gas in the bottom chamber chemically reacting with the fluid in the upper chamber) meaning that the spectrescope has an operation time limited by the amount of fluid remaining. The average time of expiration of one cylinder is 60 minutes, although flaws in the cylinderwork can result in vastly varied rates of flow, and Carnaki has been known to fashion tubes of shorter times.

The images captured by the device can be printed onto a photographic plate although this prevents the image from being projected onto the screen at the reverse, which can leave the operator "psychically blind" and as such is quite a risk. The environmental readings can be printed out using a tickertape device, and it is possible for a punchcard printer to be mounted in this port as well. The nature of the image displayed upon the screen generally depends upon what activity is within the area, but the environment is generally represented by a shadow-wreathed world of blues and blacks. The features of the landscape around the bearer seem somewhat fluid and distort and drift like weeds in the sea. Superimposed upon this strange world are kirlian images of the psychic presences and powers being exerted upon the area. The shapes and colours that these images take dictates what is being seen, although one is verging into the area of the metaphysical where absolutes are impossible at this point. Auras, ghosts, demonic manifestations, faerie presences, astral threads, magical portals...all have their own unique shape and pattern that makes them distinct from other forms.

The spectrescope has been a vital part of the Lemniscate Club's equipment since they first encountered it. It revealed the presence of a light warping field generator masking the presence of a Prussian Airship over London. It has enabled them to locate the Mysterious Crystal skull created by the beheading of Masterson (the previous head of the Society for Paranormal Research) and has shown mysterious flatline auras surrounding certain members of the Fin de Siecle Society. Whilst they have not been able to interpret all the data that the device has created, the spectrescope has opened their eyes to the hidden mysteries and conspiracies that lie behind the facade of reality.