Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The writing by “spirits” on the ceiling is done in this way. The medium is bound, and when the room is lighted a written answer to a question asked is put upon the ceiling. The reader will have already guessed that this is performed by the medium by means of the telescopic tube, at the end of which he places a piece of chalk. He rubs the chalk on his head, to “show” that the spirits had raised him to the ceiling, as if he had performed the feat with his head. Another “crucial” test which these mediums offer is known as the invisible writing. One of the company is asked to write a sentence or a number of figures upon a piece of paper. This paper is carefully folded, the lights are extinguished. In a few seconds they are again relighted, when the medium declares that the spirits have told him the contents of the paper, and he reads the sentences or tells the figures. Again, the medium asks a gentleman to put the hands of a watch to any hour he chooses, and, when again the lights are lowered, he calls out the exact time to the exact minute. This all seems very mysterious and unaccountable, but I shall again show that we do not require spirit aid to perform these marvels. The medium has in his pocket a small phial containing phosphorus and oil; and when this test is performed there is invariably a long cloth on the table. When the papers upon which the sentence or figures are written, or the watch, are placed on the table, the lights are lowered, and the performer stoops beneath the table, takes the paper or watch, opens the phial, from which a blue flame is emitted, and by this light he reads the sentence, or figures, or sees the time. He replaces the articles, and can, of course, readily tell what he has read or seen.