As far back in history as one cares to go he will find mention of magicians and the works of magic which they performed. Even before the building of the Pyramids in Egypt magic was a reputed art.
We read in the Bible of Aaron casting down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants and its becoming a serpent. The magicians of Egypt then being summoned by Pharaoh did likewise with their enchantments, turning their rods into serpents. (Exodus, Chapter seven, Verses ten and eleven.)
Magic was greatly in vogue in the middle ages, and we read weird tales of ghosts and gnomes in literature of that time.
One of the earliest of the necromancers of whom we read was Joseph Balsamo, known as Count Cagliostro. He married a very beautiful girl at Rome, who proved of great assistance to him in his impostures, and with her and a retinue of servants traveled all over Europe and scattered money right and left. He, however, reaped an abundant harvest by his impostures. He was very cordially received wherever he went, and was believed in by serious-minded and educated men. In Paris he became involved in some affair and was thrown into Bastille. Though eventually liberated, he was compelled to leave Paris. Cagliostro was the last to win any great fame as a pretender to occultism, although there was a feeble attempt to revive thaumaturgy in the nineteenth century by Madame Blavatsky. Science, however, has laughed away sorcery and witchcraft.
In London, 1784, we read of Chevalier and Madame Pinetti, and his wonderful experiments of new discovery. We read of Madame Pinetti being seated in one of the front boxes of the theatre, blind-folded, and guessing at everything imagined and proposed to her by any person in the company. Here we have the first mention of the second sight trick which, in the hands of latter-day artists, has become so popular. Houdin rediscovered it, passed it on to Robert Heller, who improved it, and at the present day Keller and others make it a feature of their performances.
Heller’s performance was very remarkable and mystified the people for years, even after his death; in fact, until Mr. Fred Hunt, Jr., who was Heller’s assistant for many years, made an exposé for the “London Times.”
Heller used to perform with his sister, Haidee Heller. She was introduced to the audience blind-folded and seated upon the stage. Heller would then go among the audience and receive from them various articles, which Miss Heller accurately described. Heller’s method consisted of a very elaborate code of words, which system he so simplified as to embrace every variety of article, classified in sets. One question with a word or two added sufficed to give the desired information to his sister, who had a thorough knowledge of the code, and she could at once describe any desired article.
Heller also had a silent method of performing these tricks, in which he did not speak a word, and this effect puzzled every one. It was accomplished by means of electricity. A confederate sat among the spectators, near the center aisle of the theatre, and the wires of an electric battery connected with his chair, a small push button being under front part of seat. The wires ran from the confederate’s chair to the floor and under the carpet and underneath the stage, then up to the floor of the stage, and connected to a small metal plate. The chair on which Miss Heller sat had two little pins in one leg, and these were placed upon the metal plate in the floor. In the chair was a little mechanical contrivance connected with wires which ran through the woodwork and down through the leg of the chair, and connected to the two little pins before mentioned. When the chair was placed on the plate the connection was made, and when the button was pressed by the confederate the little contrivance used made a slight tapping upon the chair which could be heard or easily felt by Miss Heller. In this manner the code used by them could be telegraphed by the assistant. Heller would bring the article to be described down near where the assistant sat so that he could see it, and he would then telegraph in their code a description of what the article might be to Miss Heller, who sat blind-folded on the stage, and she, to the wonderment of all, would accurately describe the article.
This method of telegraphing information to an assistant has been used by later performers in a slightly different manner. The assistant is concealed at the side of stage where he can see the audience and performer. The medium is blind-folded, and a committee of gentlemen come upon the stage and write numbers on a blackboard. The blind-folded medium adds or subtracts, and tells whatever figure is pointed to by any one in the committee; also tells the value of cards, and gives other tests in numbers.