Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1901 — SLATE WRITING IS AN ART. [ARTICLE]

SLATE WRITING IS AN ART.

It May Be Acquired by Anyone Without Spirit Aid. Spiritualistic slate-writing, If cleverly done, always makes a marked Impression on a magician's audience, because It utterly baffles their efforts to detect the trick. They see a small cabinet suspended above the stage by means of cords or ribbons. It has an open front and is empty. The magician turns it around so that every part of It may be seen and taps It inside and out with hia wand, to show that it is hollow. On n stand near by he has n small easel, a common school slate, a bottle of India ink with a quill pen in It and a few sheets of ordinary white writing paper. All these he passes arouud among the audience for examination. Then he fixes a sheet of paper to the slate by means of wafers, places the •late on the easel and the easel in the cabinet, together with the bottle of ink, the latter having the pen still in It. Having allowed the audience to see the articles thus arranged in the cabinet, he throws a large silk handkerchief over it Mysterious sounds are immediately beard, and the cabinet shakes as if some living thing had entered It. When the sounds and the shaking cease he removes the handkerchief. showing an inscription written in bold black letters on the paper, and the i»en not In the ink bottle, but lyinjT on the bottom of the cabinet. He then removes the paper from the slate and passes it around for examination, when the writing Is immediately recognized as having been done with India ink. The explanation of the trick is simple. The writing was done in advance t»y the performer, the fluid used being a solution of sulphuric acid of the f.urest quality. To make the solution fifty drops of the concentrated acid are added to one ounce of filtered water. Writing done with thia solution is Invisible until exposed to heat When so eamsod it comes out perfectly black, looking exactly like dried India ink. The heat is applied by means of an ♦lectrlc running over win with

which the slate is wound. The cords by which the cabinet is suspended conceal copper wires which conduct the current to thejslate. Black silk threads suitably attached enable the performer to make the sounds in the cabinet, to cause the cabinet to shake and to Jerk the pen out of the ink bottle. Several sheets of paper are prepared in advance, each with a different inscription, the performer telling one inscription from another by secretly marked pin pricks.—New York Herald.