Now for a few of the tricks of this classic prestidigitateur. His greatest invention was the “light and heavy chest.” Speaking of this remarkable experiment he wrote: “I do not think, modesty apart, that I ever invented anything so daringly ingenious.” The magician came forward with a little wooden box, {139} to the top of which was attached a metal handle. He addressed the audience as follows: “Ladies and gentlemen. I have a cash-box which possesses strange properties. It becomes heavy or light at will. I place in it some banknotes for safekeeping and deposit it here on the ‘run-down’ in sight of all. Will some gentleman test the lightness of the box?”
When the volunteer had satisfied the audience that the box could be lifted with the little finger, Houdin executed some pretended mesmeric passes over it, and bade the gentleman lift it a second time. But try as he might, the volunteer would prove unequal to the task. At a sign from Houdin the box would be restored to its pristine lightness. This trick was performed with a powerful electro-magnet with conducting wires reaching behind the scenes to a battery. At a signal from the performer an operator turned on the electric current, and the box, which had an iron plate let into its bottom, covered with mahogany-colored paper, clung to the magnet with supernatural attraction. In the year 1845, the phenomena of electro-magnetism were unknown to the general public, hence the spirit cash-box created the most extraordinary sensation. When the subject of electricity became better known, Houdin made an addition to the feat which threw his spectators off the scent. After first having shown the trick on the “run-down,” he hooked the box to one end of a cord which passed over a pulley attached to the ceiling of the hall. A spectator was requested to take hold of the other end of the cord and keep the chest suspended.
“Just at present,” remarked the conjurer, “the chest is extremely light; but as it is about to become, at my command, very heavy, I must ask five or six other persons to help this gentleman, for fear the chest should lift him off his feet.”
No sooner was this done than the chest came heavily to the ground, dragging along and sometimes lifting off their feet all the spectators who were holding the cord. The explanation is this: On a casual inspection of the pulley and block everything appears to indicate that, as usual in such cases, the cord passes straight over the pulley, in on one side and out on the other; but such is not really the fact, as will be seen upon tracing the course {140} of the dotted lines (Fig. 1), which, passing through the block and through the ceiling, are attached on either side to a double pulley fixed in the room above. To any one who has the most elementary acquaintance with the laws of mechanics, it will be obvious that the strength of the person who holds the handle of the windlass above is multiplied tenfold, and that he can easily overcome even the combined resistance of five or six spectators.
| Fig. 1. | Fig. 2. THE TALKING BUST. |
The “Bust of Socrates” was another favorite experiment with Houdin. In this illusion a living bust with the features of Socrates was suspended in the middle of the stage without visible support. The performer, habited as an Athenian noble, addressed questions to the mutilated philosopher and received replies in stanzas of elegiac verse. The mise en scène is represented in Fig. 2. Houdin explains the illusion as follows:
“A, B, C, D, (Fig. 3) represent a section of the stage on which the trick is exhibited. A sheet of silvered glass, G, G, occupying the whole width of the stage, is placed in a diagonal position, extending from the upper part of the stage at the rear, down to the footlights, so as to form an angle of forty-five degrees with the floor. In the center of the glass is an opening through which {141} the actor passes his head and shoulders, as shown in the figure. It should be further mentioned that the ceiling and the two sides of the stage are hung with wall-paper of the same pattern, and are brilliantly illuminated, either by means of footlights at C, or by gas-jets placed behind the border A. Such being the condition of things, the effect is as follows: The ceiling A is reflected in the mirror, and its reflection appears to the spectators to be the paper of the wall B, D, which in reality is hidden by the glass.
Fig 3. HOW THE TALKING BUST WAS WORKED.