Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-01-31
NUr1BER 20
MAGIC MIRRORS.
How Instruments Used By Magiciahs
and SwindIers Are Made.

How Instruments ibcu " mhBtcihhp
and SwindIers Are Made,
The aphorism Of Barnum that the
public loves to be humbugged finds IL
lustration IN the success Of the oculists
in this country who sell magic mir
rors" to credulous individuals for 80
and $40 which cost one-tenth those
figures.
Some Of these charlatans with sub
lime assurance have called the law to
their aid to protect them from rivals
Or, it may be, to add prestige to their
merchandise. as several Of the mirrors
are. or claim to be, covered by letters
patent, copyright or trademarks.
The mirror makers can justify their
calling with precedents numberless.
The belief that bit Of bright metal or
glass could be so charged by the black
art that it would reflect in visible form
the invisible things or beings about US
is as old as civilization. Egypt and
Babylon, Persia and india, Japan and
China, have made and used these Oc-
cult instruments from early times.
Those which are made in the far east
possess qualities which ut one time
were puzzling, but which, when the
secret was discovered, were found in
genous utilzations Of optical laws.
The simplest is the japanese lucky
mirror, a fair model Of which the writ
er saw in a Broadway shop couple
Of days ago. This is a fat plate and
handle made Of metal resembling
steel. One side is so highly Furnished
that II reflects as well as the best sill
yer backed looking class. The reverse
is chased in low relief with figures Il
vines, birds, clouds ard deOgraphs Cr
talismans. When employed in the usu-
al fashion, ii does not differ from IN
ordinary mirror. but when large
beam Of light is thrown upon ii and re-
hected upon a dark wall or ceiling in
the reflected circle appears a luminous
face, telegraph or other figure. The
result is secured in the original weld
ing OF casting Of the mirror when
piece Of metal of different composition
shaped like the figure it Is to produce
is fused into the circumjacent mass.
A similar effect is produced in sill
vered mirrors by just laying on the re-
flecting character in one kind Of tinfoil
and filling in the rest of the surface
with foil of the same appearance, but
different rejecting quality. Akin to
this style Of work are the magic lac
quers which at certain Oblique angles
disclose figures and lines which are in
visible when looked upon at right an
giles to the lacquer's surface. oldest
of the oriental mirrors are those set at
the bottom OF cylinder or truncated
cone whose surface IS waved or undu-
lating. The base reflects in ordinary
manner: the sides in such a fashion as
10 produce fOci or focal circles ut vari-
Gus points. From one point Of view
the locker sees n faint halo about his
face at the bottom of the cylinder;
from a second point a misty human
face alongside of his own; from third
a face looking at him through his re-
fiected eyes.
The principle which underlies these
odd images is the same as that used
by Cooke and Maskelyne in London In
producing their ghosts and seems to
have been employed with great skill
by Cagliostro in the eighteenth CEN
tury.-New York Post.