The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-11-02

electric current circulates around it, the
/ iron will retain its power of attraction but
as soon as the electric current is cut off, the
iron loses all capability of playing the part
| OF loaostone. In this manner iron may be
| charged to SO great an extent that it will
hold another piece of iron strongly that
human power cannot loosen it. This was
the principle of Houdin's heavy box. In
| the centre of the little platform running
! down among his audience, which all jug
! glers use, Houdiu had All opening made, in
! which was placed powerful ele ctro-mag
net concealed by the light stuff which COW
cred the boarding. Electric wires commu-
| nicated with the room behind the scenes,
| and from there at the proper moment, was
/ sent the current. The bottom of the box
was covered with wall paper which made
| il look like wood but it was in reality q
strong iron plate. He requested his aud
| itors to lift the little box, that they NIGH.
| see how light it was They did SO /; its
weight was trifing it was apparently
| wooden box. Nevertheless" said he, ''if
l want to put bank notes in it for safe
keeping-they are not heavy just pass
my wand over it and | can make the box
SO heavy that no thief can run off with it,
Zone hundred candles lighted by pistol
sho. ~ was seeming marvel that drew all
| Paris to Houdin's hall for time. This
was an application of the old principle of
! the electric spark, and though only 100
candles were modesily mentioned by Hou-
din, he might have lit more than that with
/ his pistol shot, and so he informed his
| hearers. lIoudin was the first to make use
| of the RuhT Tkoiff coil, which, To the great
joy of the juggler rendered his trick safe
! against wind and weather.
! There is nothiig-a a juggler's patrons are
! fonder of than ghosts. and Robert Houdin
! had quite a number of these phantoms at
command. The strange deceptions brought
| about by optical illusions are practically
kmitless, and one of the most startling vas
| produced by HouGin. In this scene two
| persons are, or are supposed to be, walking
about the stage. They rush from side to
side; they eesticulate; they heard 90
| speak 20 each other; the dramatic move
ment they go through is actually blood
cur6lng. For one is creature, like our
| selves, of flesh aud blood, and the other is
a phantom, an impalpable spectre. The
! living being vainly tries to selze tue phan-
tom. He thrusts his sword through and
through it; he even himself passes through
/ 1t as the sunshine penetrateS a rain cloud.
/ In spite of this the spectre does not lose
/ its human shane 1t remains seemingly
quite intact; it continues TO gesticuate.
and appears to haughtily defy its mortal
] assaillnt. Finally it vansles and the
/ living man, with sweating brow and hor-
: ror stricken features, remains alone upon
the stage. The principle of this entertain
/ ing illusion. which is well known in mer-
ica, where 1t is technically known as Pep
per's Ghost," may be explained by few
Strokes of pen and pencil. just staud upon
table a sheet of glass about IL or Is inch
es high and about wide. 1t is strictly
( important that the glass should be of fine
| quality. free Of flaws, aud transparent. -
I Put lighted candle at a distance of five
or six inches in front Of the glass, and be-
hind the candle a book to serve as screen.
/ In booking over the book and into the glass
you will reflected there the candle
which the screen hides from your direct
vision, aud the candle will virtually appear
/ to be behind The glass, and at exactly the
same distance from it that the real candle
is. Still loolIIng through the glass, you
will finl that you may put your hand
around there and pass it apparently through
the flame again aud again, and though the
candle still seems an opaque subs ance,
your being able 10 pass your fingers through
l. shows clearly that it is airy and impal pa
ble. If, in the place of the candle, you
substitute a white body strongly iliumina-
ted, you will have the precise explanation
of the ghust effect as used by Houdn. and
later by Pepper. All lights in the hall are
turned off with the exception of that used
for the production of the spectre.
Houdu sometimes employed acoustic
doceptions with good effect. AS good one
rs any WAS that of the four harps, which
played singly and in quartet not only with
out hands TO touch the strings, but also not
harp music at all, for one harp gave the
strains of a piano, another Of a violincello.
another of VIOLIN and another of clar-
ionet. The spectator saw on the stage four
large harps, each supported by a small, up
right, triangular piece of pine wood that
was all. Houdin appeared aud touched the
strings of one of tie harps, whereupon it
started of its own accord ahd played an in
tricate piece with the exact quality of the
piano Each other harp was tOuceed in
turn aud each proved itself first a harp and
then not a harp, bnt the violin, the clan onet
aud the violoncello respectively: then they
all played together. Houdin had but to
swing them around on their pvots, and the
music ceased. The secret OF the trick was
that there were four musicians down IN the
cellar with the four Instruments named.
4 The triangular piece of pine. which was
not more than about an inch in diameter,
was attached to The harp strings, and then,
descending through the stage, was attach
ed, in the cellar below, to the divers nstru-
ments. But, to enable the juggler to shut
off the music when he liked, without the
clumsiness of communicating with those
below, each wooden triangle was sawed in
two about an inch above the level of the
sage. This division made no difference in
the matter OF communicating the music, so
Il long as the two sawed ends of the triancl lie
were placed together; but whei, the harps
were SWING around, and the triangles sep
arated, the vibrations from below ceased To
4 be transmitted, and you could not hear a
sound, no matter how Justify he n,usicians S
played. aa-F lie es-a cIa
1t is an axiom in natural philosophy that
the contents of any given receptacle must
be smaller than the receptacle. No jug
1 eler ever seemed to defy this physical la "
more amazingly than Houdn. His fanias-
tic portfolio has never been surpassed.
Houdin's qnickness of hand was so wonder
full, his 1ow Of small talk SO unceasiDg, that
he could force your attention iii any direc-
tion he chose, and i'll this way make you
Il look at one hing, although you had made
up your mind that, this time, you would
q certainly keep your ewes fixed another.
He came upon his little stage carrying