John Algernon Clarke, G. Faur and John Nevil Maskelyne

“ Further, it is known that the original trick has never failed, even under the most severe tests, whereas the imitations have failed repeatedly. There can only be one reason for this—a great difference in the mechanical principles employed.
Like most forms of refined entertainment the conjuror’s magic appears to have kept well abreast of the times. Certainly, at no period of the world’s history has it ever been so popular as at present. As a natural consequence, so many skilled exponents of the art have never before existed. ”

“ A mechanical trick is a mechanical invention, and when we have two absolutely different inventions, although they may produce more or less similar results, one is by no means an imitation of the other—to say nothing of a “correct imitation.” Applied to inventions generally, such a ruling would produce disastrous results. ”

“ The following is a very familiar example of the kind of trick employed by such persons. The performers are usually a man and a woman. The man first appears, and informs the audience that he will shortly introduce a lady possessing extraordinary powers. Not only can she read the thoughts of any person whose mind is en rapport with hers, but also she can foretell the future, trace missing friends, discover lost property, &c. In order to display the lady’s capabilities, he requests that any members of the audience who have questions they would like answered will write them secretly. ”

“ That a mysterious and apparently elaborate mechanical movement may, after all, possess the utmost simplicity is illustrated by the familiar conjuring trick known as “rising cards.” Four cards having been chosen by the audience and returned to the pack, this is placed end upwards in a glass goblet, or in a thin case not deep enough to hide the pack, upon the top of a decanter or upon a stick. At command, the cards rise, one at a time, out of the pack; one rises part of the way and sinks back again; one rises quickly or slowly as directed ”

“ Experiment will readily convince any one that it is absolutely impossible to move the hand so quickly as to abstract or replace any object without being perceived, so long as the eyes of the audience are upon the performer. ”

“ The only logical conclusion to be drawn is that to invent original illusions is a matter of no ordinary difficulty, and, indeed, all who have attempted work of that kind will admit that such is the case. When, however, an original principle has been invented, it may be utilized in producing many and apparently quite distinct effects. As an example of this, Maskelyne’s “Cleopatra’s Needle,” invented in 1879, may be mentioned. The trick consisted of a piece of mechanism representing an exceedingly light model of the famous obelisk. ”

“ CONJURING, the art, sometimes called White or Natural Magic, and long associated with the profession of “magician,” consisting of the performance of tricks and illusions, with or without apparatus. Historically this art has taken many forms, and has been mixed up with the use of what now are regarded as natural though obscure physical phenomena. The employment of purely manual dexterity without mechanical apparatus may be distinguished as legerdemain, prestidigitation or sleight of hand. ”

“ A more recent conjuror showed a pretty illusion by appearing to carry a flame invisibly between his hands from a lighted to an unlighted candle. What he did was to hold a piece of wire for a second or two in the flame of the first candle, and then touch with the heated wire a bit of phosphorus which had been inserted in the turpentine-wetted wick of the other. But in 1842 Ludwig Döbler, a German conjuror of much originality, surprised his audience by lighting two hundred candles instantaneously upon the firing of a pistol. This was the earliest application of electricity to stage illusions. ”

“ But it is very easy to do so unnoticed, provided the audience are looking another way at the time; and the faculty of thus diverting their attention is at once the most difficult and the most necessary accomplishment for a conjuror to acquire. It does not suffice to point, or ask them to look in another direction, because they will obviously suspect the truth and look with all the more persistence. The great requisite is to “have a good eye”—in French conjuring parlance avoir de l’œil ”

“ Modern conjuring has given rise to many interesting developments, but none perhaps attracted a larger share of public attention than the legal battle in the last years of the century over this box-trick. The case had a special interest in England, from the fact that it was the only one in which a trick had ever occupied the attention of the House of Lords. The litigation arose in this way. Mr Maskelyne had been in the habit of offering a considerable reward to any one who could produce a correct imitation of his box-trick. ”

“ The motto prefixed by Robert-Houdin to his chapter on the “Art of Conjuring” is—“to succeed as a conjuror, three things are essential: first, dexterity; second, dexterity; and third, dexterity”; and this is not a mere trick of language, for triple dexterity is required, not only to train the hand to the needful adroitness, but to acquire the requisite command of eye and tongue. Unfortunately this dexterity may be applied not only to conjuring but to cheating, particularly in the case of cardsharpers. It takes various forms: (1) marking the cards ”

“ A hoop is passed over the performer with a view to demonstrate her complete isolation, but the audience is not allowed to examine it. It has a spring joint which allows it to pass the supporting lever. Among illusions of this class there is probably none that will bear comparison with the “levitation” mystery produced by Mr Maskelyne. A performer, in a recumbent position, is caused to rise several feet from the stage, and to remain suspended in space while an intensely brilliant light is thrown upon him, illuminating the entire surroundings. ”

“ Finally, as the last item in the programme, the clairvoyant is introduced. A handkerchief, upon which some liquid has been poured, is held over the lady’s nose and mouth, and apparently she falls into a trance. Then she proceeds to describe the appearance of certain of the writers, the position they occupy in the room, and the nature of the questions they have written, giving to those questions more or less plausible answers. The trick never fails to produce the most profound astonishment, and by its means several persons have made rapid strides to fortune. ”

“ Among the most meritorious and celebrated mechanical illusions have been automaton figures secretly influenced in their movements by concealed operators. In the 17th century M. Raisin, organist of Troyes, took to the French court a harpsichord which played airs as directed by the audience; but, upon opening the instrument, Louis XIV. discovered a youthful performer inside. In 1769 Baron Kempelen, of Pressburg, in Hungary, completed his chess-player, which for a long time remained the puzzle of Europe. ”

“ When the performer upset the basket, the child could not be seen; but another child similarly costumed suddenly appeared among the spectators, having been up to that time supported by a pair of stirrups under the cloak of a confederate among the bystanders. In another form an oblong basket is used large at the bottom and tapering to the top, with the lid occupying only the central portion of the top, and the child is so disposed round the basket that the sword plunged downward avoids him, and the performer can step inside and stamp upon the bottom to prove that the basket is empty. ”

“ Among the illusions depending for their effect upon sudden disappearance, perhaps the most inexplicable was that produced by Mr Maskelyne in 1891 under the appropriate title of “Oh!”—that being an expression frequently used by spectators upon witnessing the startling effect. In the illusion the performer whose disappearance was to be effected seated himself upon a raised couch, above which a kind of canopy was supported upon brass rods. From the canopy depended curtains capable of being raised or lowered. ”

“ The secret communicator of motion was a fine silk thread attached to the head and passing through a tiny notch cut in the lip of the glass, and so to a confederate who pulls it. In the case of the rising cards the whole of the movements are effected by arranging a single silk thread in the previously prepared pack, passing over some cards and under others, and led behind the decanter or other support to the stage and thence to the confederate. ”

“ The so-called “second-sight” trick depends upon a system of signalling between the exhibitor, who moves among the audience collecting questions to be answered and articles to be described, and the performer, who is blindfolded on the stage. As already stated, the speaking figure which Stock showed to Professor Beckmann, at Göttingen, about 1770, was instructed by a code of signals. In 1783 Pinetti had an automaton figure about 18 in. ”

“ The basket was formed with an outer shell to turn down, leaving the lady with her dress packed together lying upon the basket bottom and behind what had formed a false front side,—the principle being the same as in the clown’s box, which, when containing a man, is rolled over to display the inside empty. ”

“ Of course, all kinds of mischances are bound to occur. But, when one is supposed to be dealing with undiscovered laws of nature, it does not require much ingenuity to wriggle out of any situation, however difficult. ”

“ Remarkable ingenuity was displayed in concealing a small electromagnet in the handle of his glass bell, as well as in his drum, the electric current passing through wires hidden within the cord by which these articles were suspended. In one of Houdin’s illusions—throwing eight half-crowns into a crystal cash-box previously set swinging—electricity was employed in a different manner. Top, bottom, sides and ends of an oblong casket were of transparent glass, held together at all the edges by a light metal frame. ”

“ Such an invitation appears to be quite straightforward and genuine, but those who are sufficiently credulous or sufficiently curious to respond to it lend themselves to the perpetration of an ingenious fraud. In reply to any such communication, the writer is informed that it is necessary for him to attend one of the public performances, and endeavour to bring his mind into harmony with that of the clairvoyant. Enclosed is a complimentary ticket entitling him to attend any performance he pleases. ”

“ Two years later the same simple principle appeared in “The Cabinet of Proteus,” patented by Tobin and Pepper of the Polytechnic Institution, in which two mirrors were employed, meeting in the middle, where an upright pillar concealed their edges. In the same year Stodare exhibited the illusion in an extended form, by placing the pair of mirrors in the centre of the stage, supported between the legs of a three-legged table having the apex towards the audience ”

“ Robert-Houdin employed, instead of the table levers, vertical rods each arranged to rise and fall in a tube, according as it was drawn down by a spiral spring or pulled up by whip-cord which passed over a pulley at the top of the tube and so down the table leg to the hiding-place of the confederate. ”

“ Lucian tells of the magician Alexander in the 2nd century that he received written questions enclosed in sealed envelopes, and a few days afterwards delivered written responses in the same envelopes, with the seals apparently unbroken ”