Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-03
Price Four Gents.


 breech of the sham cannon is loaded with about twice as much powder as would constitute a charge for g shotgun, and the gases produced by its combustion are set loose in an air chamber at the base of 8 series of telescoped shells surrounding the person in the cannon. As the shells extend toward the muzzle like the lengthening of 8 telescope, they give rapid impetus to the performer. Near the muzzle two openings are developed, through which pours the black smoke from the explosion, without any danger of burning or blackening the fired out one, who is at that moment gyrating through space. The cannon is so arranged that springs can be used if desired, and in that case the explosion of a smaller quantity of powder is required, merely to free the spring Attempts have been made to get up the cannon trick in this country, but it Is fully protected by patents, and the modes by which evasion has been sought have not been encouraging. In one case the perform. already darted out into the net when the explosion took place-an entire give away" as showmen say, and in the other g rash performer had his legs driven up inte him.
 Farini's young woman, whom he called Zazel. did the cannon trick successfully two and half years in Ihe Royal Aquarium in London. The trick is not ail in the superior cannon, however. The performer must have nerve enough to remain perfectly rigid in the trying second after giving the word Go !" And that perfect nerve Is exceedingly difficult to find, so much so that Sig Farini has never discovered anybody but Lulu who could do successfully the jump up act Others became limp somewhere at the prospect of the awful chuck before them, just as they said ''Go, and when they went up it was in all sorts of ways, like rabbit thrown up by it's hind legs. Few of them ever tried 1t twice.
 While his cannon act was being done by Zazel in London FaIini made at Oldham his first model of the catapult, which he patent ed and brought out four years ago. For the purposes of this act Lulu underwent another transformation, and appeared in male attire, but with carefully made up feminine form. Tn Manchester he was arrested as a woman disguised man. The first catapult built Is the one now in use in Barnum, Bailey t autchiuson's circus, and the manner of its working Is apparent to every one. Under full pressure it has ninety-five springs. ex- erting together tension of 8,075 pounds at the end of long lever, which vastly increases
 it's power. It requires constant and careful watching, for the strength of the rubbers varies very greatly with the temperature, and they have to be added to or taken of accord ingly for each performance. One day recent ly Lulu tried the catapult with the same number of rubbers that he had used the a bag of gravel of his own weight. The bag thrown up into the skylight above the roof and with such force that it burst and scattered the gravel in all directions. Ex- pertinent has shown that the point at which the lever should stop is very serious con sideration- Short of 45 degrees it will throw nearly straight up, and at ninety degrees straight forward.
 still more fascinating trick. and one vph Tpb IC rE Ea al dancer" of which Sig. Farini is the origin stor, although it has been patented in the form first seen here by other persons. It was in 1867 that, seeing boy at play with B ball at the end of a rubber cord, the query oc- cured to him, "Why, if have proportion ately strong string of rubber, can I not firt a man about as that boy does his ball 7" About that time George Conquest was doing the Lulu jump" in way of his own, by means of an invisible wire, counterweighed behind the scenes and that gave another idea to Farini for the combination of rubber springs and a wire to produce the new effect As he was too busy to work upon it himself, he gave the idea to man named Dando, who brought it out As performed in theatres, the aerial dancer requires three machines. The first of these consists simply of a swiftly travelling spiral, and rubber springs sufficiently strong to balance the dancers weight With this appar- atus the performer st each bound rises twenty or thirty feet from the stage and alights again, either upon the floor or on an outstretched hand, with the light ness and grace of a butterfly settling down upon flower, every motion being controlled by the turning and stopping of the spiral. The second machine has springs with ten sion little less than the performers weight, which allows 8 downward leap, with easy alighting: from a great height The third machine is exactly the reverse with an excess of strength in the springs, and effects an as- tonishing apparent upward leap from the stage out of sight among the mysterious re- zion of sky borders" aloft- These three machines have now been combined in one, with great simplicity and effect. by Sig. Farini, Tor working from the ground in a circus tent instead ol from the flies" of a theatre.
 There are three wheels laid together, with 8 circumference respectively of I2 feet. I6 feet and 3 feet. Around the first passes the wire which is attached to ths performer; around the second a rope which, as 1t is pulled by men behind g screen. governs the movements of the individual at the end of the wire around the third, strap attached to rubbers of sufficient tension to overcome the performers weight Then there is s narrow drum, upon which encircling steel band acts as brake to make ;he dancers motions slow swift, or stop him at any point. Pulling on the rope stretches the rubbers to their fullest extent, and allows the dancer to touch the ground; releasing it lets the rubber springs act and, if desired, jerks him up sixty feet one foot, just as the hand on the brake regulates the force.
 The aerial dancer wears 8 close fitting shape of strong canvas extending from the arms almost to the knees, so to give per feet SUI port to the body. On the back of this shape Is firmly sewed large piece Of strong leather, and fastened through leather and canvas Is heavy iron plate, with slot into which fits thimble on the end of the supporting wire. The thimble is securely held in place by catch, to which is attached a string that passes down through the sleeve to the left hand By this arrangement the performer may. in an instant and unnoticed. free himself from the apparatus. and. by walking freely about the stage increase the mystiGcation of the spectators. for the slsn- der wire Is at best more thing of reason and faith than of sight to most beholders. But care must be exercised not to pull that little string at the wrong moment Conquest, when dancing at Wallack's, with the aid of this apparatus, inadvertently pulled the string when sixteen feet aboEe the stage and when picked up was found to have some teeth knocked out and ribs cracked.
 Still another of Sig Farini's curious show inventions is a new apparatus for doing, in circus, in a more incomprehensible manner than ever before, the old marvellous aerial suspension act" As innunerable magicians have for many years familiarized the public with it. the person to bs suspended stood before the audience with one elbow resting upon a staff, and in that position was ap- parently thrown into a trance. Then the performer raised the feet of the subject, and the body, only supported by the elbow on the staff, remained rigid ly extended at any angle up to 6 horizontal position. The trick was all in & thin steel plate, fitting to and supporting the body, with a ratchet arrangement which caught and held at any point up to a right angle with the staff. Bat the new eontriv- ance does much more. In it the apparent staff consists of three steel tubes, one within another, which convey motion by cog gear ings from machinery either under a stage or within box where man can be hidden-if the trick is done in a circus-and those tubes connect with square head in an ex- ceedingly ingenious and delicate piece of machinery which is concealed within the sleeve of the person suspended. That piece of machinery contains a strong, slow screw which, turned by the first tube in the staff, gradually raises the subject to hori- l zontal position. There that tube is throxn out of gear and another takes up the motion, carrying the subject around in a complete circle Then the second tube is thrown out and the third begins moving, gradually let ting the reclining body down. During all the