“Whereas the directors and managers of the Polytechnic Institution believe and maintain the phenomenon called ‘spirit-rapping’ to be produced by trickery, jugglery, or some natural agency, and to be an imposture, I, the undersigned, on the contrary maintain that there is some non-human agent which moves the tables, chairs, etc., and carries on an intelligent conversation with spectators by knocking, or tilting, or other signs. I am ready to wager from £5 to £50 with any one who chooses to accept my challenge that the phenomenon shall take place, and that no one present shall be able to detect any sort of trickery or jugglery in the matter. It is to be clearly understood that mere opinions that the thing is done by natural agency are to go for nothing. The natural agencymust be proved. On the other hand I defy any one to produce the same phenomenon by natural agencywithout my being able to detect that agency. In making this proposal I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not place any trust or confidence in the so-called ‘spirits,’ as I maintain, in opposition to the whole body of so-called ‘spiritualists,’ that the intelligent agent which moves the tables, chairs, etc., and converses and answers questions by knocking, is nothing more or less thanthe evil spiritwhich dwells in humanity, and is found in every human being. This proposition can be clearly demonstrated. As to the so-called ‘spirits’ being the ‘souls of the dead,’ the idea is absurd, and this absurdity also can be made abundantly manifest. This spiritualism is doing an immensity of mischief, and ought to be exposed, but it will never be exposed if people shut their eyesto the fact. It will not be the less a fact, and will not the less impose on all who witness it, because there are men and women whopredeterminein their own minds that it cannot be true, and refuse to be convincedby either their senses or their understandings. In all ages there have been deaf adders whom no music could charm, and there are in these days also many‘who having eyes will not see, and who having ears will not hear.’On what groundsdoes any one assume as a certainty that such a thing is impossible?“Richard Cruin.”
“Whereas the directors and managers of the Polytechnic Institution believe and maintain the phenomenon called ‘spirit-rapping’ to be produced by trickery, jugglery, or some natural agency, and to be an imposture, I, the undersigned, on the contrary maintain that there is some non-human agent which moves the tables, chairs, etc., and carries on an intelligent conversation with spectators by knocking, or tilting, or other signs. I am ready to wager from £5 to £50 with any one who chooses to accept my challenge that the phenomenon shall take place, and that no one present shall be able to detect any sort of trickery or jugglery in the matter. It is to be clearly understood that mere opinions that the thing is done by natural agency are to go for nothing. The natural agencymust be proved. On the other hand I defy any one to produce the same phenomenon by natural agencywithout my being able to detect that agency. In making this proposal I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not place any trust or confidence in the so-called ‘spirits,’ as I maintain, in opposition to the whole body of so-called ‘spiritualists,’ that the intelligent agent which moves the tables, chairs, etc., and converses and answers questions by knocking, is nothing more or less thanthe evil spiritwhich dwells in humanity, and is found in every human being. This proposition can be clearly demonstrated. As to the so-called ‘spirits’ being the ‘souls of the dead,’ the idea is absurd, and this absurdity also can be made abundantly manifest. This spiritualism is doing an immensity of mischief, and ought to be exposed, but it will never be exposed if people shut their eyesto the fact. It will not be the less a fact, and will not the less impose on all who witness it, because there are men and women whopredeterminein their own minds that it cannot be true, and refuse to be convincedby either their senses or their understandings. In all ages there have been deaf adders whom no music could charm, and there are in these days also many‘who having eyes will not see, and who having ears will not hear.’On what groundsdoes any one assume as a certainty that such a thing is impossible?
“Richard Cruin.”
“If any one is so unwise as to be willing to pay £100 in the event of the phenomenon taking place in his presence, and of his being unable to detect any imposture, I undertake that the ‘medium’ shall exhibitin any private room, in any home, and with any furniture(provided it be not too heavy), and that the said medium shall submitto be searched both before and after the exhibition.
“Nothing is easier than to lift a table by means of a concealed apparatus. The knocking also may be produced by means of muscular motion or otherwise. But can any one lift a tablewithout any apparatus, simply by placing the hand on it; or can any one contrive an apparatus so cunning that no one present, having full liberty to examine everything, shall be able to detect it?
“By collusion or otherwise questions also might be answered, but I maintain that the agent in spiritualism can tell all the most secret and hidden things of one’s life, and even one’s secret thoughts, and also that it understands and can conversein any language. I have verified thisby repeated experience. But it will not always speak when it is wanted to speak, and the ‘medium’ has no power over it to make it answer questions. But the fact that it often tells lies and often refuses to tell anything, does not make void the fact that it does also at times answerevery question which one can ask it. It is by this sort of capricious behaviour that it succeeds in completely deluding some to trust in it, and others to disbelieve in it altogether. But let a man confine himself at first to the physical phenomenon and try if he can make a table to rise up into the air completely off the ground, simply by placing his hand on it, andwithout any apparatus whatever. If he cannot do this, and ifno human being can do it, let it be acknowledged that there is some non-human agent. A little experience will very soon convince any one that it is an intelligent, and a wonderfully intelligent, agent, and then it will remain to be considered whether this intelligent agent is good or evil—I say it is evil.
R. C.”
During the year 1863, when the ghost illusion was one of the topics of the day, the famous George Cruikshank wrote a pamphlet, entitled—“A Discovery concerning Ghosts, with a Rap at the ‘Spirit Rappers,’ illustrated with Cuts, and dedicated to the ‘Ghost Club.’” Curious to say, he says nothing respecting the Polytechnic ghost, but is exercised chiefly with famous stories of ghosts and apparitions, which it is alleged have appeared to various persons. The author examines analytically a number of them, and comes to the conclusion that the persons relating them usually deceived themselves or other people, and that most of the stories are mental hallucinations. The inimitable George, as his friends delighted to call him, treats with profound contempt the spirit rappers, and all the cheats and fortune-telling mendicants who try to impose on innocent people with their bad conjuring tricks—people who might have got through the world safely; but the fatal chord is struck, and they go from bad to worse, until they end in a mad house.
The whole tribe of persons who made money directly or indirectly out of what they called spirit mediums, &c., fairly howled upon me in the lecture room, and, threatening personal violence, I was for some time attended home at night by the most stalwart of our Polytechnic employés; for, like Cruikshank, I vigorously denounced the traders in spirits, founding my arguments on the belief that God was too merciful to us to add to the troubles of this world the fear and trembling brought about by pretended communication with the invisible world.
The first story I told at my Polytechnic “Strange Lecture” had a very simple plot.
It represented the room of a student who was engaged burning the midnight oil, and, looking up from his work, sees an apparition of a skeleton. Resenting the intrusion he rises, seizes a sword or a hatchet which is ready to his hand, and aims a blow at the ghost; which instantly disappeared again and again to return.
This ghost was admirably performed by my assistant, whom we called Ye Perringe, who, wearing a cover of black velvet, held the real skeleton in his arms and made the fleshless bones assume the most elegant attitudes, the lower part from the pelvis downward being attired in white linen, and the white skeleton ghost assuming a sitting posture, so that it appeared to come out of the floor.
Although this exhibition only lasted a few minutes, it drew hundreds and thousands of pounds to the treasury of the Polytechnic. In fact, as already stated, I was obliged to remove to the larger theatre of the Institute.
The next ghost story was told in the large theatre; and it illustrated Charles Dickens’s story of the “Haunted Man.” At the same time was shown “Cupid and the Love-Letter.” When the curtain drew up, a peasant girl was discovered using her spinning-wheel and demurely thinking of something not told to the audience.
The ghost of a very pretty little boy dressed as Cupid now appears at her elbow, and discharges an arrow from his bow, which pierces the heart of the susceptible village girl. She attempts to caress the pretty Cupid, who eludes her kind advances, and is now discovered on the other side. The maiden turns to kiss him, but he is gone. At last, relenting, Cupid gives her a love-letter from some affectionate swain, which she takes and shows triumphantly to the audience, and leaving the girl to read it, the curtain again descended. These two illustrationsof the ghost illusion ran for fifteen months without alteration, and were succeeded by many others—viz., Scrooge and Marley’s Ghost, by Charles Dickens; the Ghost of the diving bell; the knight watching his armour; the poor author tested; the Ghost of Napoleon I. at St. Helena; and the Ghost inHamlet, pronounced by a leading R.A. as being nearly perfect, only wanting a little different colour in the walls of the ramparts, which I adopted with his ultimate satisfaction and approval.
The late Walter Montgomery took a great interest in the ghost proceedings, and assisted me greatly in arranging the scenes with due regard to the dramatic art. There is a mystery about his tragic end which deserves solution, and his brother-in-law told me at Brisbane, Queensland, that he didnotcommit suicide, but was shot by somebody else.
The sands of the year 1863 had been nearly run out, and I had taken the ghost to Manchester to a lecture hall then under the skilful management of Mr. Peacock, when another great success was scored—various London theatres took out licences to use the ghost; notably the Haymarket, under Mr. Benjamin Webster; The Britannia, under Mr. and Mrs. Lane; Drury Lane, under Mr. Chatterton, also subsequently and after the famous ghost trial before the Lord Chancellor. The Music Halls no longer tried to infringe the patent, but those who required it paid their fees for licences to do so.
The famous ghost trial came on in September at the private residence of the Lord Chancellor Westbury, who very graciously agreed to hear this patent case at once, because his lordship was informed by my solicitor, Mr. Walter Hughes, junr., that if he could not do so the Polytechnic Ghost would most likely be swamped by the multiplicity of imitators, good, bad, or indifferent.
Accordingly, one cold and chilly day I went down into Hampshire,accompanied only by my solicitor, Mr. Walter Hughes, junior, of the firm of Hughes, Masterman, and Hughes, 56, New Broad Street. On arrival we were shown into his Lordship’s drawing-room, where, to my dismay, I found a little army of solicitors and barristers drawn up as if in battle array, and sitting in a row against the right-hand wall of the room.
His Lordship’s secretary courteously came forward, and, noticing we were somewhat cold, placed chairs for us near the fire, and pulled up a table for our use on which to take notes.
We all rose respectfully when the Lord Chancellor entered, and, being requested by him to remain seated, the case was opened by his Lordship asking who appeared for the Plaintiffs, the music hall proprietors. At least four answered, “I do, my Lord,” and we in the minority could only give an answer from one voice—viz., that of my then young solicitor.
The music hall people came down with two newspaper reporters to record their certain victory over me, but which, as it turned out, was a mistake, because the reporters could only tell the truth and record the verdict given in my favour.
The Lord Chancellor, so far as I can remember (and I have no notes), then addressed the Plaintiffs—
1st. I shall require you to show cause by what right or authority you appear before me this day.2nd. I will hear you on the general merits of the case.3rd. And lastly, on the novelty which the Defendant seeks to have completed under the protection of a Patent, and which novelty you appear to deny.
1st. I shall require you to show cause by what right or authority you appear before me this day.
2nd. I will hear you on the general merits of the case.
3rd. And lastly, on the novelty which the Defendant seeks to have completed under the protection of a Patent, and which novelty you appear to deny.
One of the barristers then rose, and after saying that he would bow with submission to anything his Lordship might suggest or rule, commenced his argument by calling attention to the fact that the number of days allowed by the Patent Law had already elapsed, and by sectionsso-and-so I had lost the opportunity of getting the Patent sealed within the proper time allowed between granting Provisional Protection and sealing the Patent.
After he had ended, the Lord Chancellor asked if the Plaintiffs through their counsel had anything more to urge on this first point. They all bowed, and said “No.”
His Lordship now said: “It is very true what you state respecting the wording of the Patent Act,butif you will turn to sections so-and-so you will find that the Law Officers of the Crown have full power to grant an extension of the time for completing and sealing the Patent on the proper application of the Defendant’s solicitors, and as that application has already been made and granted, it must be evident that, though the Defendant exceeded the time usually allowed, he had full permission to do so from the constituted authorities. I will now hear you on the general merits of the case.”
Here the learned counsel exhausted his law and rhetoric in making out there was really nothing to patent, for who could catch hold of a ghost? And more legal technicalities were advanced and argued than I can remember at this distance of time—viz., twenty-six years ago. However, his Lordship again asked, “Have you anything more to urge on this point?” and received the same reply, “No, my Lord, we have not.” The Chancellor then repliedin extenso, exposed all the sophistries of the arguments, and whilst complimenting the counsel on his learning and the care which he had bestowed upon the case, said again that there was nothing in the arguments that militated against the sealing of the Patent. Of course, they could take action at common law, and try the case before the judges appointed to try such cases if they thought proper, and, supported by affidavits resulting from a trial at common law, could bring the case again before him.
There was one point which the Lord Chancellor alluded to. He said: “Great stress had been laid on the impossibility of patenting a mere intangible nothing, viz., a ghost; but as he understood, the Defendant did not patent the shadowy result called the Ghost, but an apparatus for ‘Exhibiting Dramatic and other Performances,’ and without this apparatus no ghost could be rendered visible to an audience.” His lordship then continued: “I will now hear you on the novelty of the proposed invention, which your affidavits declare is not new, but an imitation of something already exhibited.”
The learned counsel now made various statements, supported apparently by affidavits from persons who alleged that they had seen the ghost a long time before, and, in fact, had used the very same apparatus I had employed or words to that effect. For instance, an old playbill emanating from the Old Tivoli Gardens, Margate—not perhaps the most refined place of entertainment, in fact, no ladies appeared to visit the place say, in 1851, when I heard a lady in tights discourse a song the burthen of which was—
The playbill was laid upon his Lordship’s table, who, taking hold of it, asked, “Is this the playbill alluded to?” and threw it on the floor. I suppose the counsel was not attending to some point of etiquette, and ought to have produced his playbill in the form of a High Chancery Court affidavit. The playbill alluded to a ghost that was to be shown, and counsel again called attention to their plan of the ghost apparatus, which he was instructed to say was the same or very similar to that used by Defendant. The affidavit of some other dramatic professional was also brought forward with several others; but allthings come to an end, and at last the same distinct question rang out: “Have you anything more to urge on this question of novelty?” with the answer as before. “No, your Lordship.”
Lord Westbury commenced by alluding to the drawing brought forward by the Plaintiffs, and said, “I have examined the affidavit and the drawings, and find it is as nearly as possible a copy of the Defendant’s own drawing deposited in confidence in the archives of the Patent Office, and when I visit that establishment will take care to enquire who has presumed to allow the Plaintiffs permission to copy the Defendant’s original drawing of the apparatus used to show the ghost. I well remember,” continued his Lordship, “being taken to the house of Belzoni, the distinguished traveller, and seeing an effect no doubt somewhat similar to that produced by the Defendant’s apparatus, but I could not for one moment compare the toy of Belzoni with the refined and complete contrivances used by the Defendant at the Royal Polytechnic. An affidavit has been put in by the Plaintiffs, sworn to by a person calling himself a ‘nigger minstrel.’ He is elsewhere denominated an ‘Ethiopian Serenader,’ who had seen the Defendant’s ghost shown years ago—a very respectable man, no doubt, in his vocation; but to put the evidence of such a person against the affidavits of Michael Faraday, Sir David Brewster, and Professor Wheatstone, is a manifest absurdity. I, therefore, rule that the Great Seal of England be at once attached to the Defendant’s patent, and that the Plaintiffs do pay the costs.”
After certifying for the costs and having a little conversation with my solicitor and self, his Lordship withdrew, and we all went back to town. The reader can imagine my feelings of joy at the successful upshot of this trial when he learns that I had already received large sums for licences which I must have refunded if the case had gone against me.
For many years the ghost at the Polytechnic pursued its successful career, and earned £12,000 in a comparatively short space of time. I received an illuminated address of thanks, with a handsome honorarium, from the directors, and subsequently they presented my bust in marble to my late dear wife, with a letter from the Rev. J. B. Owen, M.A., the highly-gifted chairman of the old Royal Polytechnic.
Very few persons could understand how the ghost was produced, although many persons wrote about and explained it; even the distinguished philosopher, Michael Faraday, when I took him behind the scenes, said, with his usual love of truth: “Do you know, Mr. Pepper, I really don’t understand it.” I then took his hand, and put it on one of the huge glass plates, when he said, “Ah! now I comprehend it; but your glasses are kept so well protected I could not see them even behind your scenes.”
Since the ghost was produced at the Polytechnic years ago, the author has visited America, and seen not only the chief cities of the United States of America, but also those of patriotic Canada; and about ten years ago, paying a casual visit to Messrs. Walker, the eminent organ builders, he enquired of Mr. James Walker what he had done with a model shown him during the height of the popularity of the ghost, by which an empty glass goblet, or one full of water, was gradually filled with, or changed into, wine (or coloured water resembling it), thus unwittingly and apparently embodying or putting into an illustrated form the miracle of the conversion of water into wine.
I was too busy and too well paid at the time to think of a newillusion, but I praised it much, and said if not confined to too small stage limits, it was certainly as good, if not better, than the ghost illusion.
The time had now arrived when the London world was ready for something new (as commercial men would say) in the ghost line, and although Mr. James Walker, with the modesty of a truly scientific man, disclaimed the merit due to his invention, he did at last, at my request, throw himself, with the author, heart and soul into the production of the new illusion, which we called Metempsychosis. We now took out a patent for the new optical wonder, and having thus secured the invention from that piracy and robbery which too often dog the otherwise successful steps of inventors, causing nearly every patent to be called by the legal fraternity adamnosa hereditas, we looked about for a good place—hall or theatre—where the illusion could be started. None better could be thought of than the old Royal Polytechnic, where we offered at a moderate sum per week to produce it, paying for every stick, decoration, or engraved looking-glass ourselves. But it appeared that the funds of the institution were so reduced—it was supposed, by the immense expenditure on armies, warlike material, and ladies’ legs required to produce a work emulating friend Barnum’s gigantic “Nero,” and called, with an alarming stretch of imagination, the “Siege of Troy,” or “Destruction of Troy”—that the directors were unable to guarantee the weekly salary Mr. James Walker and myself demanded. Luckily for us, a percentage on the gross receipts was suggested, and brought in a great deal more money to our exchequer than the modest weekly salary would have given us. The public came in goodly numbers to see the new optical wonder, and all went well as long as the author remained in London and could devote his time and energies to the daily exhibition; but the time was now drawing rapidly near when, according to contract, he must leave for Australia.
Professor Pepper has invariably told his numerous patrons that, although obliged to keep secret for a reasonable time all optical illusions that he produced, he would ultimately tell the public all about it.
The metempsychosic era at the Polytechnic in 1879 was marked by the production of various stories, which were nicely edited and corrected by a lady of well-balanced, tasteful, and poetic mind—viz., by Miss Walker, the sister of the author’s very able coadjutor.
The entertainment opened with a vacant stage, disclosing a sort of inner apartment about twelve feet square, tastefully upholstered, and closed by a curtain which could be lowered at pleasure, without interfering with the great roller and white curtain upon which Dissolving Views were shown. The author’s adopted son, for he never had any children of his own, was now seen walking through the inner apartment to the foot-lights, where he bowed and, addressing the audience, had hardly got as far as the words, “Ladies and Gentlemen,—I am sorry to inform you that something has detained Professor Pepper—” when my voice was heard crying out: “Stop, stop; I am here!” and, appearing out of nothing and without the aid of trap doors or descent by the help of the copper wires, the author stood in the midst, and bowed his acknowledgments for the hearty greeting kindly given him by his audience. The entertainment now proceeded, and, after apologising for the gloom he was about to cast upon the meeting by the harassing story he was about to relate, finally stated that his subject would be those “fearful bags of mystery” called “sausages,” remarking incidentally that though, thanks to Government analysts, many persons had heard of the examination and analyses of this dietetic refresher of the inner man, no one probably had ever seen sausages put together again, as it were, and formed into the very animal from which they wereoriginally educed. A large white dish of sausages was now produced. They were placed in a wire basket, such as pot-plants are suspended in from windows and verandahs, and hung up in the inner chamber. About one minute elapsed; the sausages were gone, and out of the basket came the author’s dear little sagacious white poodle, with his blue ribbon and little bells, wagging his tail, barking at the audience, and coming down to lick the hand of his master. The poor little creature was accidentally poisoned by eating bits of meat the rats had dropped whilst scuttling to their holes to die of the too rapid poison prepared by the author for those pests of domesticated people.
Then the metamorphoses proceeded. Oranges were changed into pots of marmalade, and given away to the boys, and a chest of tea was converted into a tray carrying a steaming teapot, sugar, milk, cups of tea, and handed by the attendants to the ladies in thereservedseats only—such is the blighting influence of cash, which caused the one-shilling people to be neglected and the eighteenpenny-reserved-seat folks to have their teas. The ghost of Banquo in “Macbeth,” and the ditto in “Hamlet” followed, with the curious change of a deserted piano into one at which played and sang a living member of the fair sex, attended by a gentleman in faultless black coat and white tie, who turned over her music; and this Part. I wound up with the change of a gentleman into a lady, who walked down to the foot-lights, sang a song, and then vanished into “thin air.”
But all these changes could only happen in the smaller inner apartment, the actors might walk anywhere else at pleasure, and out of the charmed circle Walker could not change to Pepper, or the latter refer to the living beings when they faded out of sight as regular “Walkers.”
So much for what was done, and now the anxious reader is getting impatient, and if a lady is doubtless curious (the poor men never areso) to know how it was all done, and as the illusion has apparently left the domain of optical science and is now relegated to the conjuring profession, the author has no hesitation in fulfilling his long-ago promise made to the public to let, as Mr. Cremer, jun., says in his most amusing book on “Conjuring,” the cat out of the bag.
Before the illusion can please the eyes, the proper apparatus for producing it must be constructed; and the key to the result consists in the use, not of clear plate glass employed in the ghost illusion, but of engraved silvered glass.
Ordinary looking-glass, such as is used for common mirrors or looking-glasses, is usually made by attaching an amalgam of tin-foil and quicksilver to one side of a clean sheet of plate or other glass.
Glass prepared in this way cannot be successfully engraved, and when the chisel or other tool is drawn with pressure across it, is liable to chip; and instead of clear, sharp engraved lines being obtained, they are ragged, and, in most cases, large patches of the amalgam are torn off.
This is not the case when glass really silvered by successful chemical processes is used, and when pure metallic silver is precipitated on to the surface of the best and flattest plate glass. When Mr. Walker and myself commenced our experiments in March, 1879, the so-called “Patent Silvered Glass” was expensive and confined to moderate-sized pieces of plate glass. Our first care, therefore, was to construct a table that could be brought by screws to a perfect level, and one that would carry a plate of glass at least twelve feet six long by six feet eight wide. Such a plate being most carefully cleaned, and quite free from grease, was placed upon the table, and levelled by means of spirit levels, just as a plate of glass used for the old collodion process would be levelled, in order that the fluid should not run off at one edge,leaving the other comparatively dry; and now came the knotty point—Which was the best silvering process to use? On consulting the best records of this art, we found valuable information in theEnglish Mechanic, Vol. xxi., No. 542.
The reader will find the following process very successful if minutely carried out in all its technical details—
To Silver Glass.
Prepare two solutions.
1. Argentic nitrate is dissolved in distilled water, and ammonia added to the solution till the precipitate first thrown down is almost entirely re-dissolved. The solution is filtered and diluted, so that 100 cc. contain one gramme of argentic nitrate.
N.B.—100 cc. are equal to rather more than 3½ fluid ounces.
2. Two grammes of argentic nitrate are dissolved in a little distilled water, and poured into a litre of boiling distilled water. 1·66 gramme of Rochelle salt is added, and the mixture boiled for a short time, till the precipitate contained in it becomes grey; it is then filtered hot.
The glass, having been thoroughly cleaned with (1) nitric acid, (2) water, (3) caustic potash, (4) water, (5) alcohol, and lastly distilled water, is to be placed in a clean glass or porcelain vessel, the side to be silvered being placed uppermost. Equal quantities of the two solutions are then to be mixed and poured in, so as to cover the glass. This should be done while the glass is still wet with distilled water.
In about an hour the silvering will be completed. Then pour off the exhausted liquid, carefully remove glass, wash in clean water, rub off silver where deposited where not required, allow to dry, and varnish silvered side with any thin varnish which does not contract much in drying.
The time required for the operation depends on temperature.
If the solutions be warmed to about 30°C., the silver is deposited in a few minutes; but it is safer to use them cold.
The inside of test tubes, bulbs, &c., are silvered by putting the solutions into them, no second vessel being then required.
Throughout the whole operation the most scrupulous cleanliness is the grand essential.
100 cc. are equal to rather more than 3½ fluid ounces.
The plate of glass being thus carefully silvered is allowed to dry thoroughly, and is finally varnished with a good thick varnish, containing plenty of red lead, so that the back surface of the silver mirror has a smooth and red appearance, while the varnish protects the delicate film of metallic silver.
An ordinary photographic picture on glass is really represented by precipitated metallic silver, but the metal in this case is in minute particles, which do not shine or reflect light.
The silvered plate glass is now engraved in the following simple manner. Being placed in a support or rack against the wall, and quite upright, a chisel—or rather, a series of chisels—are drawn across the surface in straight lines, and perpendicular, by the use of a largeT-square. Every time the chisel is drawn with pressure across the varnished back of the glass a portion of the silver is removed, leaving a straight line quite clear or transparent, and, in fact, laying bare the surface of the plate glass.
The lines were ruled in three degrees of comparison: thick, thicker, thickest; and considerable skill and experience—which no description can teach—were required to get these correctly engraved.
abcd, the Plate Glass;estraight lines engraved on silvered side andgradually increasing in thickness frometof.
abcd, the Plate Glass;estraight lines engraved on silvered side andgradually increasing in thickness frometof.
The engraved silver glass plate moved through a groove in the woodwork at the top of the chamber, and was supported below on a beautiful carriage, the wheels of which were covered with vulcanised indiarubber rings, and moved on a tramway below the floor of the room, perpendicularly. The glass could be made to slide at an angle of forty-five degrees, and as it always made a rumbling noise while moving, the music of the band concealed that defect. The ground plan of the apartment is shown on the opposite page.
Some idea of the cost of making a full-sized apparatus, with hangings and curtains and engraved glass, may be gathered from the fact that the author’s outfit for Australia with a certain number of dresses cost £327 12s. 1d. Whilst the author was travelling through Australia Mr. James Walker, with his great inventive genius, made a further improvement, by which the concealed figure atkwas done away with, and the whole apartment thrown open to the public gaze. This was done to illustrate a clever sketch written by Mr. Burnand called “Curried Prawns.”
Ground plan of chamber.
Ground plan of chamber.
aa′a″a‴, floor of the apartment;BB, groove at an angle of 45°, in which the glass moved;a″ tocgroove continued outside of the apartment used when the glass was moved away;efgh, short flight of three or four steps, as the room must stand some distance from the floor to allow of carriage moving on tramway.N.B.—The grooveatocwas concealed from the audience by handsome curtains, which were repeated at the same angle on the other side, frommtod.K.—Place where the objects to be reflected in the looking-glass were placed, but quite concealed from the audience with a door, closed when the exhibition was going on.
aa′a″a‴, floor of the apartment;BB, groove at an angle of 45°, in which the glass moved;a″ tocgroove continued outside of the apartment used when the glass was moved away;efgh, short flight of three or four steps, as the room must stand some distance from the floor to allow of carriage moving on tramway.
N.B.—The grooveatocwas concealed from the audience by handsome curtains, which were repeated at the same angle on the other side, frommtod.
K.—Place where the objects to be reflected in the looking-glass were placed, but quite concealed from the audience with a door, closed when the exhibition was going on.
a c d eare the outside of the room, 12 feet square, engraved glass running fromh atoa d. The winge gis placed square; this is an immense advantage, as it renders unnecessary any counterpart atc n, and as, of course, it cannot be seen, the light from the foot-lights one gis not seen by reflection atc n. When the winge gwas at the same angle ash a, this was always a weak point in the illusion, as when the glass crossed, the reflection ofe g, unless very dimly illuminated, always shewed. Now it does not matter whene gis placed as in drawing. The frontage to the audience, instead of being froma f, is now extended toe—i.e.12 feet—consequently the return sidesf eandc bcan be removed. This plan, of course, precludes the use of “trick” chairs, baskets, &c. &c.; but it has a good many other advantages in its favour, for with a “sociable” in the middle of the room made in two exact halves, these halves trick or cover one another when the glass is pushed across, and of course this movement is not seen by the audience; then any person or persons can be made to appear gradually, sitting or standing, atlorm,right in the middle of the wide open room. Mr. Walker tried this effect at the Polytechnic Institution, and it was capital—the ensemble is more imposing. This plan of shewing the illusion is the plan for the stage, as the necessity for darkening the stage in front is nearly wholly avoided. The back of the side-wingi kcan be painted black, so that its reflection shall not be seen. In lieu of the gas-jets, as now arranged, there is a gas-lamp; this is placed on a pedestal or small table. The shadow of the “sociable” to a great extent covers or hides the path along which the glass travels. Mr. Walker says: “I thought out this way for Mr. Irving’s necessities, but I did not hear anything from him; and it has come in well for Mr. Burnand’s sketch, which has been produced.” In this sketch, a gentleman afflicted with dyspepsia through eating “curried prawns” (the name of the piece), calling on some friends, where he has promised to help them in some amateur theatricals, looks at the different costumes of Mephistopheles, Faust and Marguerite, and throws them carelessly on the seat atm, walks down the steps (which we shall double in width) the glass now crosses, and, whilst in a fit of melancholy, he wonders if Mephistopheles will appear. Sure enough, he does. Mephistopheles then comes down in front, and with incantations makes, successively or together; Faust and Marguerite appear; they then disappear in the same manner.
The author’s friends and the public all know how steadily he has opposed the so-calledSpiritual deceptions, which generally are not a half nor a quarter as clever as the tricks of a first-rate conjuror.
Punchinstructs us what to do at a Spiritual séance, which, if done, would certainly astonish the person performing the part of the materialised spirit.Punchwrites—“How to behave at a Spiritual séance.—Always try to hit the happy Medium.”
The author thought the time had now arrived when a new generation who knew not the ghost might be interested in its revival, and with that idea the authorities at the present Polytechnic concurred, so that by the time these pages are read it is hoped the ghost will be in full career once more, and if the author only receives a tenth part of the great patronage he received in 1863 he will be amply repaid for all his exertions in reproducing the ghost illusion. And he desires thankfully to acknowledge the very kind help he has received from Robert Mitchell, Esq., the Secretary and Manager of the numerous classes and useful lectures now so well conducted at Mr. Quintin Hogg’s Polytechnic.
The author hopes to show “something new” at the Polytechnic; and a lady in miniature, as it were from Liliput, dances on a silver waiter held out by the author; and the great man Napoleon I., for whom, like Alexander the Great, the world was too small, stands in the palm of the hand of the author.
If “duffers,” &c., did not exist, the illusion would be explained to the public; but ten years need not elapse before they know all.
FINIS.
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