The trouble is that, to counterbalance the inclination of the glass, the actor must stand vertically on an inclined platform.
Professor Pepper and Mr. Tobin place a plane mirror exactly opposite the plate-glass below it, which reflects an actor who may stand in a natural position. This suffices for a single figure; but for more than one the Robin inconvenience has to be endured.
Fig. 143.—An Oriental Magician.
The phantascope, spectroscope, are other names for this deception.
The Eastern jugglers are spoken of as executing a trick which seems done by this means.
A chain is seen in the air up which animals ascend; after all have disappeared, the chain is apparently pulled up by them, for it is lost to sight. This could be represented by this means, at all events.
THE SAINT’S HEAD IN A GLORY.
Mr. Panky, in showing his Gallery of Art to some friends, suddenly directs attention to a painting of a saint, upon whose head a mysterious and divinely golden light seems continuously to glow. To add to the bewilderment of the gazers, the light suddenly ceases to descend, and, in a twinkling, emanates from the saint’s head in a magnificent nimbus. There is no resemblance to electric light or any other known, and the undulating motion is incomprehensible under natural laws.