Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-10
PUZZLING ILLUSIONS.
Ghosts Are Made to Walk and
Sphinxes to Talk.
MYSTERIES EXPLAINED.
Results Which Battle the Keenest Eyes
Attained by the Use OF Mirrors and
Other Devices-Tricks which Fill the
Golfers of ShOwmen.
From the New York Herald.

|
in things very like yet unlike nature.
which are close limitations Of the gen.
uine article and yet are lacking in
osome Of the essential particulars
Miniature men or women never fail to draw
| enthusiastic crowds and the smaller and more
| complete the epitome the more attractive.
Barnum laid the foundation of his greatest
show on earth" when he and Stratton exhibited
Tom Thumb.
The same is true of giant or giantess, who
are simply exaggerations of common humanity,
and the larger and more perfectly proper
toned they are the better drawing cards they
| prove.
If we descend from animate nature to mani
mate limitations We find popular curiosity in
| creased, and the more clever the duplication
the stronger the interest evoked.
Give wheels and springs and bits of steel and
brass, or polished glass. silvered crystal the
| form and shape OF natural objects. and then
| lurther endow them with limitations of natural
| motions and even natural habits and we have
what the showmen. who know well and use 10
lhelr own advantage the foIbles of human ma
| ture, regard as the ultima thule of ingenuity
Good illusions" and .automata" are al
ways III demand III proportion to their excel
lence Still, SO great are the difficulties in the
! way of producing them and so great is the ig-
norance regarding their manufacture. even by
those who have for years handled them, that
those worthy OF an extended history are COM
paratively few
Automata were commenced very early in
the worlds history. Homer describes Vulcan
as having made tripods that moved on
wheels, and Plato and Aristotle both wrote of
statues invented by Daedalus which not only
walked but had to be tied up TO prevent their
walking away And 80 the list might be con-
tlnued down to kelar's famous Psyche of the
present time and fame.
Before automata properly come illusions
those puzzles that confound by appealings to
the senses i'll a manner which the judgment
condemns as an impossIbility.
one OF the best and most common of these
Is the one known as ''Chloris" an illusion that.
dressed IN different forms. Is used III all the il
luslOns IN Barnums big tents this season.
''CHLoRIs" AND PEPPERS GHOST"
An inclosed platform. raised some three
feet above the foor about three feet square.
is surmounted on both sides by a simple rail-
ing, from which depends curtain. In the
center is a box perhaps two feet long eigE-
| teen inches wide and eight or ten inches deep.
supported on legs perhaps eight inches high
In the center OF the box is seen a female head
apparently placed OH top of the box sur
rounded by flowers. The rest of the anatomy
Is concealed, and the astonished spectator is
left to guess where and how. Just how these
illusions are produced Prof. Feggetter at pres
| ent llluslonist and mechanic to the Palace Mu-
scum and other noted museums in this and
other cities, and who has invented and shown
nearly all of the famous receptions of the past
thirty years. has kindly given me his time and
drawings and explanation of the way illusions
are made, taking them in the order of their
production down to his latest
The first sensation In this line was the ghostly
apparitiOn known Peppers Ghost" and it
was one of the simplest of illusions as mig hit
be expected. 1t was first produced at a penny
gaff. one Of the cheapest of London theaters
| by Prof. Feggetter, who was then but thirteen
years old. Like most of the famous inventions
| 1t came about through observance of nature $
laws Prof. Feggetter observed his mother 8
| image reflected Ill polished window glass.
| and following out the principle there revealed
set to work, and in a primitive form brought
\ forth the ghost show, using a subject Miss
| Minnie Cough, a lady who has since become
| famous as an actress i'll England and in this
! country. Prof. Dirckes. a noted English me-
| chanic of that period. Selling the idea and its
| capabilities for improvement. made a proper
| apparatus, patented 1t and took it to the Poly
| technic in London, and there it gained the
name OF Peppers Ghost" from the fact that
| Prof. Pepper was the lecturer of that institute
and constantly before the public.
HOW THE GHOST WORKS.
The "ghost show" speedily became the talk
! OF the town and 1t ran for four years. Its sue
| cess of course occasioned an American appear
| ance, which it got at Barnum's Museum, on
| the site where the Herald now stands Since
| that time peppers Ghost has been shown
| all over this country and now furnishes enter
| tainment to thousands daily in some of the
| various dime museums that dot the continent.