“Mr. Breslaw will exhibit his new magical deceptions, Letters, Medals, Dice, Pocket pieces, Rings, etc., etc., and particularly communicate the thoughts of any person to another without the assistance of speech or writing.”
Pinetti comes next as an eminent presenter of second sight. Between these two well-known conjurers there may have been various unimportant, unchronicled performers who made use of Breslaw’s trick, but they have no place in the history of magic.
The trick appeared on a Pinetti programme at the Royal Haymarket, London, England, December 1st, 1784, almost sixty-two years before Robert-Houdin presented it as his original invention.
The London Morning Post and Daily Advertiser of December 1st, 1784, contains the above advertisement, reproduced from my collection.
The talking code employed by Pinetti was not original with him, as it dates back to the automaton worked by a concealed confederate who controlled the piston for the mechanical figure or pulled the strings to manipulate the dancing coins or moving head. It was novel only in its application to the supposed thought-transferrence by a human being instead of an automaton.
This code is described by various reliable authors. On page 388, Volume III. of Hooper’s “Recreations,” edition 1782, it is stated that the confederate worked the apparatus from another room. “By certain words, previously agreed on, make it known to the confederate,” is the advice given to would-be conjurers.
Beckman in his “History of Inventions” relates that he knew an exhibitor of a “talking figure” whose concealed confederate was cued to answer certain questions, the answers being given in the manner of putting the question, also by different signs. These instructions will be found on page 311 of Volume II., edition of 1817.