Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc |
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Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Expose of the Modus Operandi ... Harry Houdini No preview available - 2015 |
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acid aconite afterwards Aldini anvil appeared arms asbestos audience Barsabas Bartholomew Fair blade body boiling breath brimstone burning cage Chabert challenge CHAPTER charcoal Charles Blagden CHING LING FOO circus Cliquot coals Desaguliers dime museum dish Doctor drink Dufour eater eating exerted exhibited experiments feats feet fingers Fire eater Fire King fire walking fire-eater fire-eating flame formance gentleman Georgia Magnet Girardelli girl give glass hand Harry Kellar honor hot iron inches Induce vomiting Kellar Lady Sunderland legs lifted Ling Look London Louis Cyr luke-warm water magicians melted ment methods minutes mouth ordeal oven performance phosphorus piece poison Powell priests quantity red-hot resisting ROBERT POWELL rope rubbed secret sensation Smith snake Sothern spoon steak stomach stone stone-eater strength strong swallowed sword sword-swallowing teeth temperature Theater throat tion tongue took trick washed wonderful Yamadeva
Popular passages
Page 2 - Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
Page 14 - Then, he melted pitch and wax and sulphur, which he drank down as it flamed ; I saw it flaming in his mouth a good while ; he also took up a thick piece of iron, such as laundresses use to put in their...
Page 14 - I tooke leave of my Lady Sunderland, who was going to Paris to my Lord, now Ambassador there. She made me stay dinner at Leicester House, and afterwards sent for Richardson the famous Fireeater. He...
Page 193 - Taking a similar poker, and holding the ends of it in his hands, and the middle against the back of his neck, he brought both ends of it together before him, and he then pulled it almost straight again.
Page 100 - ... consumed ; he then rolls round it, while burning, some more flax, and by these means the fire may be retained in it for a long time. When he wishes to exhibit, he slips the ball unperceived into his mouth, and breathes through it, which again revives the fire, so that a number of weak sparks proceed from it ; and the performer sustains no hurt, provided he inspire the air not through the mouth, but the nostrils.
Page 207 - ... and if the blow is not very quick, the water will be spilt without breaking the glasses. When the performer supports a man upon his belly, he does it by means of the strong arch formed by his back-bone and the bones of his legs and thighs. If there were room for them, he could bear three or four, or, in their stead, a great stone, to be broken with one blow.
Page 126 - ... from the fiery gulf uninjured, and proud of having succeeded in braving so great a danger. It is a remarkable result of these experiments, that the firemen are able to breathe without difficulty in the middle of the flames. This effect is owing not only to the heat being intercepted by the wiregauze as it passes to the lungs, in consequence of which its temperature becomes supportable, but also to the singular power which the body possesses of resisting great heats, and of breathing air of high...
Page 207 - ... the less liable to be struck out of its place; for when it has received by the blow the whole momentum of the hammer, its velocity will be so much less than that of the hammer as its quantity of matter is greater. When the blow, indeed, is struck, the man feels less of the weight of the anvil than he did before, because, in the reaction of the stone, all the parts of it round about the hammer rise towards the blow. This property is illustrated by the well-known experiment of laying a stick with...
Page 62 - ... Argyle-rooms, where the exhibition •was to take place. At a little before three the fire-king made his appearance near his oven, and as some impatience had been exhibited, owing to the non-arrival of Mr. J. Smith, he offered to amuse the company with a few trifling experiments. He made a shovel red hot and rubbed it over his tongue, a trick for which no credit, he said, was due, as the moisture of the tongue was sufficient to prevent any injury arising from it. He next rubbed it over his hair...
Page 128 - Blagden's breathing remained perfectly good; but after that time he felt an oppression in his lungs, with a sense of anxiety, which induced him to leave the room. His pulse was then 144— double its ordinary quickness. " In order to prove that there was no mistake respecting the degree of heat indicated by the thermometer, and that the air which they breathed was capable of producing all the well-known effects of such a heat on inanimate matter, they placed some eggs and a beef-steak upon a tin...