Chapter XII: The Protean Cabinet

The accompanying illustration will give some idea of the piece of furniture used in the performance of the trick which we are about to describe. It is, as will be seen, a kind of wardrobe with folding doors, mounted on four feet with castors, which facilitate its being brought forward on the stage and moved about as may be required.

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_Description of the Trick._--A person steps into the cabinet, and the doors are closed. The cabinet is turned completely round, in order to show that there is no possible mode of exit for the captive, after which, the doors are opened, and the cabinet is empty. Again the doors are closed. The cabinet is once more turned completely round, and, when the doors are opened for the last time, a transformation is seen to have taken place: it was a man who originally entered the cabinet--it is a woman who now comes from it.

* * * * * _Explanation._--The principle of the trick has a close analogy to that of the “Decapitated.” Two mirrors, suitably placed at the critical moment in the cabinet, give it the appearance of an empty piece of furniture, though it actually contains a human being.

Fig. 23, annexed, is a ground plan of the cabinet, whose elevation is shown in the preceding figure.

A, B, C, D are the sides of the cabinet; P, P, its outer doors; M, a wooden upright placed towards the front of the interior; G, G, two doors or divisions of the same height as the inside of the cabinet. These doors are hung on hinges working on the points I, I. They may either be made to close against the upright M, or may be rendered invisible by folding them back against the inner surface of the sides A, B, C, D. This last is the position which they occupy when the doors are first opened. At this stage of the proceedings, the gaze of the spectator can penetrate into every part of the cabinet, which is really empty.

When, however, the performer has entered the cabinet, and the outer doors, P, P, are closed upon him, he places himself at H, pulls towards him the two mirrors, thus bringing their edges against the upright M, and forming a triangular enclosure, I, M, I, in which he is shut in, and which conceals him from the eyes of the public. When the outer doors are again opened, a similar illusory effect is produced to that which we have described in the case of the Decapitated; the mirrors of the cabinet reflect, to the eyes of the spectators, the paper with which the sides K, K, are hung, and cause them to believe that they see the back, L, L. There is nothing to suggest the existence of the mirrors, and all appears to be in the same condition as before.

It is indispensable, for the success of the experiment, that the interior portions of the cabinet, K, K, and L, L, as well as the backs, O, O, of the mirrors should be hung with paper of the same pattern.

After having shown the company that there is nothing in the cabinet, and having again closed the doors, the individual within (while the cabinet is being turned round and a few explanations are given for the purpose of gaining time) pushes G, G, back against K, K, to give himself room to operate, and, as is sometimes done in pantomimes, rapidly strips off his masculine raiment, beneath which he wears a female costume, and conceals the discarded suit in a secret receptacle in the upper part of the cabinet. As soon as his transformation is complete, he gives an appointed signal for opening the doors, and appears in his new character.

The transformations which I have above described are only incidental to the trick proper. I only refer to them in order to give some idea of the effects that may be produced by means of the illusion in question.[43]

FOOTNOTES:

[43] With the hint afforded by the above description the intelligent reader will have little difficulty in solving the mystery of the much improved Protean Cabinet employed by Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook in their comic sketch entitled “Will, the Witch, and the Watch,” and will be the better enabled to appreciate the ingenuity displayed not only in the construction of the cabinet, but in the rapid and complicated “changes” of the various characters.