A WONDERFUL ILLUSION.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 152

A WONDERFUL ILLUSION.

Sir Hiram Maxim, by opposing centrifugal force to that of gravitation, has contrived the most marvellous scientific illusion yet devised. It is thus described in the London Daily Express . — One of the wonders — probably the chief wonder — of the great open-air pleasure resorts which Mr. Imre Kiralfy will open at Shepherd's Bush, London, in 1907, will be the " magic sphere," a new invention by Sir Hiram S. Maxim, which neutralises the law of gravity. Sir Hiram has patented the " magic sphere " in England and America, and believes it will prove one of the most startling illusions of modern times. It will make people imagine that they are walking or standing, not " right end up." but with their feet against the wall, and their bodies leaning outwards in mid-air. The sphere will be fifty feet in diameter, which means that it will be a globe as high as a tall dwelling- place, and it will be raised twenty feet above the ground on a pedestal or shaft, which will revolve, making the sphere revolve with it. Outside it will resemble a small earth, with the oceans and lands painted upon it, like the biographical globe used in schools. In this respect it will be like the baby earth which was one of the features of the last Pans Exhibition. Inside the " earth " the weirdes # t of illusions will be produced by the simple process of making the sphere revolve on its pedestal. To see the illusions it will, of course, be necessary to dive into the bowels of the " earth " For this purpose there will be a slope up from the ground to the side of the great sphere, and people will enter by a door in the " earth's " side. There will be no windows, and the interior of the globe will be lighted by electricity. Once inside, the visitor to the new world will find himself standing on a floor shaped like a saucer. He will naturally gravitate to the centre, as a marble would run to the centre of a saucer. There will be room for two hundred people in the saucer, but about fifty will be the proper number, in order that the illusions may be fully appreciated. The door having been shut on the people inside, the " earth " will begin to revolve gradually gaming m speed until every one is being whizzed round at fifteen or twenty miles an hour. " This will give the necessary centrifugal force to counteract the law of gravity." Sir Hiram explained. "It will illustrate a law of Nature which, I believe, I have been the first to discover. Five years ago at Boston, I began to wonder why we always see things ' right side up,' as, of course, on our earth they never are. The only reason is the law of gravity. We have no sense which would enable us to tell whether a thing is vertical or horizontal, except through the law of gravity. If we divert the pull of gravity by another f ore e — centrifugal foree — the effect is that, instead of seeing things horizontal, we see them vertical, which produces the most amazing illusionary e.'iect. That is what the ' magic sphere ' does." In illustration, Sir Hiram took a saucer and stood a pencil against the inside, near the ran ; the pencil naturally leaned inwards. This is how people will stand on the edge of the floor inside the magic sphere when it is revolving at twenty miles an hour. " But the strange thing is that they will not know that they are revolving," said Sir Hiram, " It is the sphere that will revolve, and they with it, like people on the surface of the earth, and consequently they will think they are stationary. The centrifugal force of the revolution of the sphere will enable them to stand on the wall, as it were, with their bodies leaning horizontally. Wherever any one stands he will feel convinced that he is standing on an absolutely dead level, and at the same time he will be sure that every one else is tilted outwards from the wall. Thus a man standing on the centre may see his wife who is at the edge of the floor, apparently walking horizontally. If he walks to the side exactly opposite her he will see her walking upside down, for both will be with their heads to the centre. Each will seem to the other to be walking like a fly, and each will be sure that he or she is walking right side up, as we usually do. The illusion will be intensified by the circumstance that the upper part of the sphere inside will be a mirror, so that everyone will see double. Another strange effect will be that in a spring balance a man will weigh a good deal more at the outside edge of the floor than at the centre. The centrifugal force will pull him inwards, and so add to his weight. If a man throws a ball from one side it will fall, not where he intends it, but somewhere else. Centrifugal force will draw it to one side. The floor will also be used for skating with novel results. A man will merely have to stand on his skates to be drawn to the extremity ot the globe by the centrifugal force. If he tries to skate to the centre he will find it hard work."

Parsons, the inventor of the steam turbine, splendid marine specimens of which drive

the steamers Loongana and Maheno in Australian waters, should have his name coupled with that of George Stephenson. Stephenson, broadly speaking, took one of Watt's vertical engines and made its wheels touch ground, so that when they revolved the machine moved forward. In like manner Parsons took a Pelton water-wheel — a thing m use as a high-speed watei motor for many years — and substituted a jet of high- pressure steam for the jet of water, which, impinging on the buckets on the rim of the wheel, made it revolve. Stephenson and Parsons deserve the title of " great," but neither of them was an inventor of the particular machine with which his name is identified. They saw how another man's invention could be improved, and they carried out his ideas.