Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The angle at which the two mirrors should be set cannot be determined absolutely, but will vary according to the distance and position of the surrounding drapery. Some performers use a shawl or a screen of cardboard in place of the box, but we doubt whether any method is more effective than that above described. The ghastly illusion of the so-called “Decapitated Head,” which drew crowds to the Polytechnic some few years since, was merely the “Sphinx” in a less pleasant form. THE CABINET OF PROTEUS.--This is another adaptation of the principle on which the Sphinx illusion is founded. It is the joint invention of Messrs. Pepper and Tobin, by whom it was patented in 1865. The first steps towards a patent for the Sphinx were also taken in the same year, but the latter invention never proceeded beyond provisional protection. The Cabinet of Proteus is a wooden closet, seven to eight feet in height by four or five feet square, supported on short legs, so as to exclude the idea of any communication with the floor. (See Fig. 298.) It has folding doors, and an upright pillar extends from top to bottom of the interior, at about the centre of the cabinet. At the top of this pillar, in front, is fixed a lamp, so that the whole of the interior is brightly illuminated.