Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

[P] This is the principle of the well-known “second sight” trick, a detailed explanation of which we are compelled from considerations of space to omit, the system, as perfected by Robert-Houdin and others, being so elaborate, that an independent treatise would be needed to do it justice. An admirable account of the system, as applied to the French language, will be found in a work by F. A. Gandon, “La seconde vue dévoilée,” published in Paris in 1849. There are some few other tricks performed by the aid of electricity, but any one who understands the principle of those above described may make a very shrewd guess at the working of the remainder. All tricks of this class, though ingenious and effective, are open to one or two serious objections. In the first place, the apparatus is very costly, and, secondly, they are unpleasantly liable, from the nicety of their mechanism and the absolute necessity of perfect electrical connection in all their parts, to hang fire at the critical moment, and leave the operator in a very embarrassing position. Imagine the feelings of a performer who, having just introduced his wonderful drum, which is to display unheard-of oracular powers, finds that the instrument remains as mute as the celebrated harp in Tara’s halls, and refuses to bear out, in the smallest degree, his grandiloquent assertions. Yet this unpleasant result may occur at any time from the simple breaking of a wire, or some even slighter cause. This, it appears to us, is a serious drawback to electrical tricks, though where they are exhibited at their best no illusions are more beautiful, or have more of genuine magic about them.