pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 208
This data as json
path | page | folder | text |
---|---|---|---|
unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 208 | THE INEXHAUSTIBLE BOTTLE a view of "the Barrel that plays so many Liquors and is broke in pieces before the Spectators." " In 1780 Dr. Desaguliers presented in London a per- formance entitled "A Course of Experimental Philosophy wherein the Principles of Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneu- matics, and Optics are proved and demonstrated by more than 300 Experiments." In the course of these lectures he produced a sort of barrel, worked by holding the fingers over the air-holes. He also exposed the real source of strength of the notorious strong man of his day, John Carl von Eckeberg, who allowed horses to pull against him, permitted heavy stones to be broken on his bare chest, and who broke heavy ropes simply by stretching or straightening his knees. These lectures and exposés made Dr. Desaguliers so famous that he has been given considerable space in Sir David Brewster's "Letters on Natural Magic," pub- lished in London in 1851, in which book the various de- ceptions used by strong men are fully described. In fact the book is one that should be in every conjurer's library. The old Dutch books explain the barrel trick, and in 1803 Charles Hutton, professor of Woolwich Royal Academy, translated four books from Ozanam and Montucla, exposing quite a number of old conjuring tricks. The barrel trick will be found on page 94 of Volume II. The first use of "The Inexhaustible Bottle" by modern conjurers I found in an announcement of Herr Schmidt, a German performer, who for a time controlled the original writing and drawing figure, as will be found by reference to Chapter III., which is devoted to the his- [ 181 ] |