2-716-851 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

John Nevil Maskelyne performs a 'spirit cabinet illusion', c1910. 'How the tricks are performed - "A coach-horn or megaphone is useful for picking things up and putting them through the aperture in the door when securely tied'". John Nevil Maskelyne took up a challenge by Sir Hiram Maxim to reproduce a trick originally performed by the Davenport brothers, fraudulent spiritualists from America, and by an imitator of theirs, a Mr Fay. Maskelyne (1839-1917) was a British stage magician, escapologist, paranormal investigator and inventor of the pay toilet. From "Mr. Maskelyne's Reply to Sir Hiram Maxim", published in "The Strand Magazine, an illustrated monthly", Volume XL - July to December 1910. [George Newnes Ltd, London, 1910]