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Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
697
It
is
upon
this
system
of
mechanism
that
very
many
modern
tricks
have
been
based--notably,
the
great
rope
acrobatic
figure
of
Theodin.
In
this
case,
what
was
thought
by
the
audience
to
be
a
rope
was
really
a
tube
made
to
imitate
a
rope,
and
the
strings
passed
through
this
tube
and
worked
from
the
side
of
the
stage,
the
rope
serving
the
same
purpose
as
the
bar
stretched
across
the
box
in
the
harlequin
automaton.
Houdin
was
said
to
be
the
inventor
of
the
well-known
Magic
Clock.
This
was
a
glass
dial
plate
with
hands,
but
with
no
visible
works.
This
clever
invention
has
within
the
last
year
or
two
been
reproduced,
and
exhibited
in
many
jewelers’
windows.
His
chief
automatic
figures,
besides
the
talking
one
I
have
already
mentioned,
were
two
performing
French
Clowns
and
the
Cook
of
the
Palais
Royal.
The
clowns
were
shown
one
sitting
on
a
chair,
and
the
other
standing
beside
it.
At
the
request
of
the
exhibitor,
the
standing
clown
raised
the
chair,
with
its
occupant,
above
his
head,
while
the
latter
went
through
a
number
of
acrobatic
performances
that
would
have
done
honor
to
a
living
gymnast.
These
capital
figures
were
worked
precisely
on
the
same
system
as
the
Magic
Harlequin,
the
strings,
pistons,
and
machinery
being
necessarily
of
stronger
make,
and
worked
from
beneath,
instead
of
behind
the
stage.
This
was
considered
by
the
public,
and
Houdin
himself
looked
upon
it,
as
his
chef
d’œuvre,
and
a
masterpiece
in
automatic
figures
it
certainly
was.
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