The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-23
Sofa Was Wired.

The apparatus did 1t all. The sofa was
wired for an electric battery A confed-
crate sat in the audience, his chair con-
nected with the battery, the electric push
button under the seat. A code was ar
ranged by which Miss Heller knew ex-
actly what to say.
The performance was rendered more
mysterious by Hellers talking to her in
part of the tests. Some people supposed,
of course, that he was giving her the
cue with his questions. But when the
same results were obtained In silence the
suspicious were also mystifled.
Apparatus is an elastic term when used
in connection with degardemain. Some
pieces of apparatus can be concealed be-
tween two fingers. Others fl boxes ten
feet long.
The earlier magicians used cumbersome
apparatus Frikell Finn. born in 1915,
who was knighted by the King of Den
mark and received diamond rings and the
like from most of the sovereigns of Eu-
rope, reVolutionfzed the art. lie USED no
apparatus at all.
This tendency prevailed for many years,
but at the present time the tendency to-
ward big, snowy effects and gorgeous
stage settings is bringing in the use of
more complicated apparatus than ever.
first class magician now travels with
a railroad car full of apparatus. Fifteen
Thousand collars Is IOl all UNUSUAL sum
to pay for staging a first class magician
show nowadays.
1t Is a mechanical age. Present day
presIidigitators in no way excel the old
fellows in pure legerdemain, but flood
of mechanical inventions has come to help
them, and all the conjurers have to do is
to manipulate these skilfully and grace
fully Their task is no easier, however,
for Ii is a sharper and more sceptical
10 rn1 n a nd
one use to mechanism of all kinds.
Apparatus In Stock.
The little shop carries a thousand diff
ferent kinds of apparatus In stock. Then
there are thousands of others which 1t Is
called upon to make. some of them very
old. Every day some book or leaf out
of a book will arrive from Kalamazoo or
Calcutta, with a letter stating that the
writer wants to dc the trick described,
and wants the apparatus for 1t construct
ed Some of these tricks were invented
centuries ago.
The great present day inventions In the
art are illusions and levitation, both of
which require elaborate devices. Harry
Kellar's deviation act, In which the body
of a man rose slowly into midar and re-
NAMED suspended there while the hypno-
tizer famed him, required a complicated
machine behind the scenes to work it.
De Kolta's illusion. in which every OBJ
ject on the stage appeared and disap-
peared In a seemingly unaccountable man
ner, ending with the decapitation of a
woman whose head thereupon danced I'M
cannily through the air without any Wis
ible means of support required an elabo-
rately set stage. Everything was draped
in black velvet, and the arrangement of
light was such that nothing that was not
ught IN color could be distinguished
against this mass OF black. A black bag
thrust over the head of a woman in a
white dress decapitated her. while black
bag pulled off the head of woman in a
black dress at the same instant, revealed
a head without any support.
Some Of the apparatus is amazingly sim
pie. considering the thousands whom 1t
has held spellbound. Prestidigitators de-
clare that De Kolta's neatest trick was n
little one in which he took a handkerchief
out of a CANDIDA The beauty Of this was