THE INVISIBLE GIRL.
The facility with which the voice circulates through tubes was known to the ancients, and no doubt has afforded the priests of all religions means of deception to the ignorant and credulous. But of late days the light of science dispels all such wicked deceptions. A very clever machine was produced at Paris several years ago, and afterwards exhibited in London under the name of the “Invisible Girl,” since the apparatus was so constructed that the voice of a female at a distance was heard as if it originated from a hollow globe, not more than a foot in diameter. It consisted of a wooden frame something like a tent bedstead, formed by four pillars a a a a, connected by upper cross rails b b, and similar rails below, while it terminated above in four bent wires c c, proceeding at right angles of the frame, and meeting in a central point. The hollow copper ball d, with four trumpets t t, crossing from it at right angles, hung in the centre of the frame, being connected with the wires alone by four narrow ribbons r r. The questions were proposed close to the open mouth of one of these trumpets, and the reply was returned from the same orifice. The means used in the deception were as follow: a pipe or tube was attached to one of the hollow pillars, and carried into another apartment, in which a female was placed; and this tube having been carried up the leg or pillar of the instrument to the cross-rails, had an aperture exactly opposite two of the trumpet mouths; so that what was spoken was immediately answered through a very simple mode of communication.
VENTRILOQUISM.
This is an art by no means very difficult of acquirement, if the young reader will take the pains. It is produced by a reflection of sound within the mouth, the voice being brought to the lowest possible place in the larynx. When the art is acquired by practice, the voice may be made to appear as if coming from any part of a room, from up a chimney, or from the depths of a cellar. The celebrated Dr. Wolcott, better known as Peter Pindar, used to amuse his friends in a remarkable manner with this art. He would represent his landlady as demanding payment of her rent, and hold a colloquy with her, which would at last rise to terms of reproach and fury, and end by a noise as if the landlady had been kicked down stairs. The marvellous powers of Matthews, Le Lagg, Alexander, and, lastly, Mr. Love, are familiar to most persons. To learn the art, the young practitioner must have the power of enunciating well, and that without motion of the lips,—of disguising the voice, so as to imitate other sounds,—and of adapting the degree to the apparent source of the sound. By practice this art is attainable by any person whose organs of speech are completely and fully developed.
