The Spiritualist newspaper > No.140, April 30th 1875

210
THE SPIRITUALIST.
April 30, 1875.
bands, bis waistcoat was taken off, and placed on one side,
witbont disturbing tbe worsted bandages.
Mr. Eeningale Cook moved tbat a committee be appointed to
consider tbe question of engaging mediums.
Mr. Rogers saw no objection to tbe consideration of tbe
question.
Tbe resolution was then passed, the members of tbe Com¬
mittee appointed being Mr. Eeningale Cook, Mr. Samuel
Cbinnery, Mr. Thomas Everitt, Mr. E. D. Rogers, Mr. Martin
Smith, and Mr. Desmond Fitz-Gerald.
Tbe meeting then broke up.
THE SECRET OE “PSYCHO” REVEALED.
BY THE EDITOR.
Since the days ■when the automaton chess-player
proved a puzzle to all the courts of Europe, also to the
general public until the secret of its action was found
out, no analogous piece of mechanism has so long
defied the critical examination of observers until Messrs.
Maskelyne and Cooke some months ago first introduced
“ Psycho ” to public audiences at the Egyptian Hall,
and night after night does Mr. Maskelyne claim that
nobody hut himself and a person who aided him in its
construction knows the secret of its action.
THE CLEVERNESS OP MESSRS. MASKELYNE AND COOKE’S PER¬
FORMANCES—NEWSPAPER STATEMENTS ABOUT THE INEXPLICA¬
BILITY OP THE AUTOMATON “ PSYCHO.”
For the information of those who have not seen
Psycho, I will give a few extracts from newspapers de¬
scribing the external characteristics of the figure and
its action.
The Times of January 22nd, 1875, says:—
Tbe marvel of Psycho, Mr. Maskelyne’s new invention,
consists in these distinctive features—the figure has no living
being within it: be is placed upon a stand of thin tran¬
sparent glass, consisting of one single piece, which perfectly
isolates him from any connection mechanical, electrical, mag-
netioal, or otherwise conceivable, with any operator at a distance,
and yet, nevertheless, be plays a game at whist with no little
skill, and, unless matched against very scientific players,
commonly wins. If any person gives him a sum to calculate
in addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, be shows
tbe answer, one figure at a time, by opening a little door, and
sliding the figures in front of the aperture with a movement
of bis left band. You help yourself to a card out of the pack,
and be tells tbe suit and rank and number of spots by means
of strokes on a bell. You privately mark any card in the pack,
which you shuffle and bold in your own bands, and upon the
pack being placed in front of tbe figure, be instantly finds tbe
identical card, and bolds it up without possibility of substitu¬
tion or deception. For complete novelty of tbe effects pro¬
duced, Psycho outdoes everything which has appeared since
tbe subtle inventions of Robert Houdin.
The Daily Telegraph of January 18th, says :—
Inventive ingenuity can hardly be more strikingly exempli¬
fied than in tbe new automaton called Psycho, with which Mr.
Maskelyne, tbe clever mechanician, has now embeUisbed tbe
first portion of bis curious entertainment. That even the
smallest accomplice can be concealed within tbe machine is
shown to be impossible, and unless the visitor to the Egyp¬
tian Hall can come to the desperate conclusion that Mr.
Maskelyne has gone beyond Professor Tyndall, and discovered
the faculty of memory developed in the movements of clock¬
work, a problem is here submitted to the public which seems
to be inexplicable.
The Standard of March 4th says
It is enough to say that gentlemen from the audience were
invited to come on the stage, and given every facility to try
and discover how the tricks were practised, and many availed
themselves of this permission, and were most keen in their
surveillance, but all efforts at detection failed.
The Morning Advertiser of Jan. 29th, says:—
Psycho is truthfully described as the most wonderful automa¬
ton in the world, and it surpasses everything hitherto accom¬
plished by mechanical means or by the so-called psychic,
dynamic, or other secret force, by whatever name it may be
called, and does not fail-to elicit the enthusiastic applause of
an admiring and bewildered audience.
The Daily News of Jan. 18th, says:—
The movements of Psycho all appear in fact as natural as
they are perplexing, and whatever may be the secret intelli¬
gent force, which directs these, the invention itself is
certainly subtle and ingenious, as the audience clearly and
heartily recognise by the manner in which they receive the
successive feats.
The Era of Jan. 28rd, says :—
Of all the marvels of human skill employed in the con¬
struction of automaton figures, we do not remember to have
heard or read of anything approaching the marvellous powers
of Psycho. We might extend our notice of this marvellous
novelty almost indefinitely, but enough has been said, we
think, to prove Mr. Maskelyne has gone far beyond everybody
else in the mysteries of mechanical invention. There are,
doubtless, more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of
in our philosophy, and some of these things Mr. Maskelyne is
evidently acquainted with.
The Graphic of March 14th, says :—
The whole performance is of a most wonderful character,
and although every facility is given for examining the ap¬
paratus, both before and after each feat, one comes away com¬
pletely puzzled as to the modus operandi by which the results
are achieved.
The Pictorial World of Jan. 23rd, says:—
Their latest wonder is Psycho, a mechanical marvel that
throws into the shade all the automata of which we have
any record. Psycho is more than a match for both mortals
and spirits.
Fun of Jan. 27th, says:—
Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke, who have already eclipsed all
rivals past, present—we had almost said and to come, have
gone a step further in advance, and invented an automaton,
the like of which has never been seen or heard of. Psycho is
a perfect marvel of ingenuity. Those cool people who make
it a rule never to be astonished at anything, will find
their coolness and their ingenuity fairly put to the test by
Psycho.
Lloyd's News of Jan. 24th, says :—
Looking back through all the performances introduced
by conjurors during the past quarter of a century, we have
no hesitation in proclaiming Psycho the greatest puzzle of
the age.
In conclusion, I may end as I began, by giving a
quotation from The Times:—
Whoever is familiar with the feats of legerdemain performed
by the old school of conjurors, beginning in the last century
with Jerome Sharp, Barrett, Breslau, Dean, De Grisy, the
Chevalier Pinetti, and continuing with Comus, Katerfelto,
Jonas, Dento, Sibley, Lane, Ingleby, Ramon Samee, Bosco,
Phillipstahl, Doebell, Phillipe, to the more modem Robert
Houdin, Jacobs, Gyngell, Anderson, Robin, Buck, Frikell,
Poletti, Hermann, Maju, Stodare, Hartz, Beaumont, and the
Fakir of Oolu, will admit that real originality of invention in
the tricks has been comparatively rare. But among the
eminent professors of magic who have introduced meritorious
novelties and struck out a distinct line of their own must be
classed the very clever gentlemen who are now giving perform¬
ances at St. James’ Great Hall.
THE ROMANCE OF MYSTERY.
There is a charm to the selfish mind in the possession
of any secret or treasure beyond the reach of everybody
else, and though diamonds be rare, and captured
specimens of the octopus scarce, more exclusive still
is the secret of the mechanism which beats within the
breast of the unemotional Psycho. “ Only one person
besides myself,” said Mr. Maskelyne, last Saturday,
placing his hand affectionately upon the automaton,
“ knows the secret of Psycho.” A gentleman ’once
narrated in these pages how by some occult power of
the eye ,one of the natives of India could make a
trailing length of the convolvulus plant wriggle after