A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DJohn Henry Pepper, 'Professor' : 1821 - 1900
Pepper's Ghost was the key precursor of the cinema show on the British fairgrounds, and remained a recurring inspiration both to film-makers and those engaged in the timeless search for more sensational forms of public picture exhibition.
 The 'Pepper's Ghost' Illusion, 1863 A larger version may be downloaded
In 1862, 'Professor' John Henry Pepper of London's Royal Polytechnic Institution set about re-designing a concept by Henry Dircks for showing a ghost on stage. An initial collaboration soon ended, and in Dircks' publication The Ghost (1863) he writes that Pepper had 'deluded' him in their arrangements over the invention. In his book The True History of the Ghost (1890) Pepper tells his version of events, and describes the workings and developments of the effect.
 'Professor' John Henry Pepper, The True History of the Ghost. With a new introduction by Mervyn Heard. A5, 62pp. 8 illustrations. ISBN 0 9523941 7 0. Available from The Projection Box
In 1863, using the work of civil engineer Henry Dircks as a foundation, analytical chemist 'Professor' John Henry Pepper, (1821 - 1900) creates a machine that uses mirrors and lenses to project a ghostly image. Pepper's Ghost is demonstrated at London's Royal Polytechnic Institute.
During the late 1800s, the sensitivities of European and American theater-going audiences forced producers to rely on projected transparencies, lighting changes and reflected illuminations. Old-fashioned vampire traps, scrims and flats were too clunky to impersonate rainbows, ghosts or fantastic transformations. So if a ghost were to appear, namely Pepper's Ghost, someone or something offstage would be lit so the waves bounced off a piece of glass, strategically placed at an angle. The reflected image would appear to be onstage. This illusion is replayed exactly during the nickelodeon scene in Coppola's version of Dracula. In one shot, a woman in Victorian dress turns into a skeleton. Pepper's Ghost is also shown in Barnouw's The Magician and the Cinema. An obscure (there are only 4 copies in the entire US library system right now) small press book on magic called The Trick Brain has some interesting comments on variations like Kellar's Blue Room Illusion. Author Dariel Fitzkee first wrote it in 1944, and the third edition was published by Magic LTD/Lloyd E. Jones in Oakland, CA. The basic strategy of projecting through a partially mirrored, angled sheet of glass made up one of the earliest forms of "back projection" in film, called The Shuftan Process. That way, Hitchcock was able to film the climactic chase scene in his first s ound film "Blackmail" (1929) as if the whole thing had taken place at the British Museum. The Shuftan Process is illustrated in Brosnan's Movie Magic.
The Making of the Hotel Lugosi: A Miniature Example of the Pepper's Ghost Illusion The genesis of this project is my long-time participation in the construction of charity fund-raising haunted houses for Halloween, and the beginning of a series of Halloween windows last year with a miniature haunted house exterior. I should also mention my lasting affection for the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World, which contains a spectacular example (probably the worlds largest) of the effect which is usually known as Pepper's Ghost. The direct inspiration for this version of the illusion, however, lies in the hotel corridor scene found in the Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park attraction, The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror. "What if," I thought while on one of several trips through the attraction, "one were floating outside the window at the far end of this hall, looking back toward the elevator doors?" If you've been there, you have the appropriate mental picture.
A brief history follows, very loosely extracted from James Randi's book, Conjuring: In 1862, a Liverpool civil engineer named Henry Dircks constructed a miniature working model of the effect, probably similar in arrangement to the one in Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction. But it was John Henry Pepper, a chemistry professor at London Polytechnic Institute, who, having seen Dircks' model, built the first practical full-size version and exhibited it on stage. In the 1860s, magic lantern shows (the ancestors of the 1970's slide projector based 'multimedia' presentations) were all the rage in England. Sensation-hungry Londoners, who tended to forget the last big fad or craze as soon as a newer, fresher novelty arrived on the scene, beheld the startling effect of a transparent, three-dimensional ghost interacting freely with a live actor on a seemingly ordinary stage. Pepper's Ghost had materialized, and everyone forgot about magic lantern shows. The illusion appeared in public demonstrations far and wide, as similar entertainments had before it. Eventually, the effect was incorporated into dramatic productions such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Dickens' Christmas Carol. This progression seems natural, as special effects usually fare better in supporting roles than as stars in their own right. It should be noted that earlier records of a similar effect exist. A document from 1588 entitled Magica Naturalis mentions a Jean Baptiste Giambittista Della Porta, who apparently constructed one. It is my guess that the public just wasn't ready for it at the time. One discovers, when reading about the many optical illusions presented to the public in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the main working principles of most all of them have wound up finding a permanent home with modern conjurers (magicians.) They also reside comfortably in the special effects departments of the stage and motion picture industries, as well as amusement parks. Good, uncomplicated, and inexpensive effects never vanish entirely. You'll find Disney's Haunted Mansion employing simple motorized magic lantern slides in company with a Pepper's Ghost apparatus - in perfect harmony, and in full service to entertainment.
It's the essence of simplicity, and with careful control of lighting, the effect can be truly startling. The only gimmick in Pepper's Ghost is a single piece of glass, and that doesn't even move. The 'Dircksian version' is best demonstrated by looking out the window of a dimly-lit room during late dusk. With properly balanced lighting, you see a ghostly image of yourself, superimposed over the landscape outside. It's utterly simple, but with proper staging, the effect is mystifying. In John Henry Pepper's version, the glass is usually set into a box, a four-legged frame, or similar structure, and is turned at a 45 degree angle to the viewer. You can visualize the piece of glass as a half-open door, or imagine it as one of the mirrors set into a periscope.
 Floor plan for The Hotel Lugosi The complete plan may be downloaded for proper study Source: http://www.phantasmechanics.com/hotel.html
This simple device forms an optical combiner. You can see straight through the glass, of course, but you can also see a semi-transparent image of any well-lit object placed directly to the right of the glass as if it were also in the space of the directly viewed scene. The two areas should be enclosed (save for the open end facing the glass), built to the same dimensions, and have independently controlled lighting. The area which is to be reflected in the glass should be blocked from the view of the audience by scrims or other covering. There are any number of variations of this general effect, and they consist mainly of attempts to find novel ways to position the glass in relation to the viewer in order to make the gimmick less obvious. These include the use of half-silvered glass ('two-way mirrors') as in the Disney illusion which places a ghost next to the riders' reflection in a large mirror in the Haunted Mansion. Here, the ghostly figure is behind the half-mirror, surrounded by a black background, and is lit by a shuttered spotlight. The viewers see themselves reflected in the half-mirror along with the ghost, which fades into the scene by virtue of being the only lit object behind the translucent mirror. One well known serious use of Pepper's Ghost is in the heads-up display in a fighter plane, where a ghostly image of graphic flight and radar data floats before the pilot. This is the version used in the plan for my project, and is probably the most common one. Hotel Lugosi is a miniature version of Pepper, sized to fit into a residential window. Its combiner sits on a 14.5 inch square base, with the height of the glass being about 32 inches (of which only about 24 inches are used for the illusion, the rest being masked off by an opaque scrim.) The Scene and Effects areas are 24 deep, and taper down to about 9 inches wide at the far ends to achieve forced perspective (again, see the plan view.)
Magicians who used the dramatic form The magic play as magicians would consider it (that is the play as a magician's rather than playwright's invention) begins with Robert Houdin, who strove to include meaningful references to the illusions he presented, and strove to be a convincing actor playing the part of a magician. This allowed him to create strong performances of particular conviction. Professor John Henry Pepper, the scientist who created the optical principles that would become Pepper's Ghost demonstrated many of his ideas in playlet form. The Golden Age of magic plays (or Presto Playlets as they were advertised ) might be said to begin in the 1850's with the works of Maskelyne and Cooke, and later Maskelyne and Devant. Maskelyne (J. N. and Nevil) and David Devant produced dozens of magical playlets at the Egyptian Hall in London, in which they not only wrote and created the work but acted in the pieces as well. They brought the magic play to an ongoing fine art (usually with massive grand illusions) which has not been duplicated since. The most famous piece was Will, The Witch. and The Watchman, later presented in the Kellar show.
Two Books by J. H. Pepper recently offered for sale The Boy's Playbook of Science: including the various manipulations and arrangements of chemical and philosophical apparatus required for the successful performance of scientific experiments, in illustration of the elementary branches of chemistry and natural philosophy, by John Henry Pepper. New ed. London, Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1862. vii, 440 p. illus., fronts., 4 plates. 18.5 cm. Provenance: Londinean.sis.Schola.civitatis (crest on cover) Includes nearly a hundred pages on electricity; written for children. Magnetism: Embracing electro-magnetism, magneto-electricity, thermo-electricity - dia-magnetism - Wheatstone's telegraphs, by J. H. Pepper. London, F. Warne [1874?] [3], 87 p. illus. 19 cm. Wheeler 1878. Provenance: John Turner 67 Slate St Olive Grove (inscription); Walter F. Gases with Miss Gibbons' good wishes Christmas 1874 (inscription) also see the essays... http://www.analog-press.com/Pepper04.html http://www2.dynamite.com.au/temple/home/Magic.html http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/demobook/chapter6.htm
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