INVISIBLE MAN

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20389, 4 January 1938, Page 5

INVISIBLE MAN

THOUSANDS AMAZED WEIRD TESTS IN VIENNA Tens of thousands of amazed and startled people filed past the booth at the Exposition of Hygiene in Vienna xvhere daily people and things are rendered invisible, xvrites Claude Rivieres in a French nexvspaper. They could disappear right before one’s eyes, and it xvas done xvithout resorting to trickery or camouflage of any kind. Sometimes the objects or persons xvould become transparent little by little until effaced completely. Sometimes they xvould fade out quickly. Yet all the time they remained present and tangible. Through the magic of M. Armand Pinther, the famous novel of H. G. Wells, “Invisible Man," is about to become reality. The Pinther Process « The Pinther process is based on the use of a physical effect which, however, has nothing in common xvith certain mysterious rays supposed to have poxver to produce invisibility. Such rays, despite their notoriety, have not yet been discovered, and it is doubtful if they ever xvill be. To accomplish his process M. Pinther only requires a closed space about the size of a small demonstration hall and open on one side' to enable the public to observe the experiment.. Spectators may approach xvithin a yard of the object to be rendered invisible and to convince themselves that it- has not moved from its place xvhile it disappeared from sight. From the moment in xvhich it begins until the object or person becomes completely invisible the duration of the experiment may be prolonged or reduced at xvill—that is, things can be made to disappear within onethirtieth of a second (maximum rapidity) or to fade out sloxvly by degrees. Likexvise, the experiment can be repeated as often as desired and can even be induced automatically by joining it to a suitable device, in the matter of the illuminated signs which are lit and extinguished at regular intervals by the action of a clocklike mechanism. Still Present In the course of becoming invisible sloxvly the object or person is first seen to be perfectly clear in its contours, presenting its customary aspect; little by little it loses its opacity until objects placed behind and xxdiich had been concealed, appear more and more clearly. At the final stage of the experiment these objects become totally visible’, xvhile the subject is completely and and actually invisible. Hoxvever, it is still present, for the spectators are permitled to satisfy themselves of the fact by touching the hand or the end of a cane xvhich is invisible. (It is notexvorthv at this point that the hand or cane entering the zone of invisibility also become invisible.) To reverse the process the method is the same and the time required may be short or long. Naturally, of course, M. Pinther has refused to disclose the secret of his process. Everyone knoxvs, hoxvever, that the phenomenon is likely induced by an electric device which can be kept going by a simple current of light.

The box plan xvill be opened on Friday morning at nine o'clock.