The Great Secret Of Shadow Pantomimes

Author : Tony Denier
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332133369
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (333 download)

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Download or read book The Great Secret of Shadow Pantomimes; Or, Harlequin in the Shades written by Tony Denier and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Great Secret of Shadow Pantomimes; Or, Harlequin in the Shades: How to Get Them Up and How to Act Them; With Full and Concise Instructions, and Numerous Illustrations Here in 1803 and 1804 one Winsor exhibited and explained his propositions to light the public streets with gas; but as Winsor's statements were considered at 'that" time extravagant and Baron-Munchausenish, Winsor did not win sir many converts to his scheme; and although an enlarged experiment was made by lighting up a portion of Pall Mall and the colonnade in front of Carlton Palace, it did not meet with favor, and the project was abandoned. The practice of gas lighting did not come into operation till the year 1813, when the first chartered gas company erected their works in Peter street, Westminster, London, and enlightened the darkness of the inhabitants of one of the leading cities of the world, which has been improved upon and increased from time to time, until, at the present day, the principal streets and crowded thoroughfares of all large cities are occasionally, as the play bills say, "an unparalleled blaze of refulgent light." But to return to the shadows, which, as we have before intimated, were first exhibited at the Old Lyceum, and as the modus operandi and manner of carrying it out was entirely in the heads, hands, and heels of the Frenchman's own family, and as all strangers were rigidly excluded from being "behind the scenes," the secret was safely kept, and public excitement and curiosity consequently greatly increased. Monsieur realized a very handsome sum of money, and with this increased his substance, but it would appear that he was less careful of his shadows; for, on the exhibition being removed to Old Vauxhall Gardens, London, as the saying is, "the cat got out of the bag," and it was soon found out that the whole sum and substance of the wonderful illusion, "Les Ombres Chinois," Harlequin in the Shades, or the "Man in the Moon," as he termed his performance, was and is nothing more than a clever adaptation of a very simple law in optics; so if any of our readers wish to amuse themselves and families, and astonish their friends, they will, with the assistance of the various sketches and diagrams contained in this book, be able to accomplish the same to the satisfaction of all the company present. Now then for the shadows. After a stage, or school-room platform, the next best adapted place for these performances is a drawing-room or parlor, where there are folding-doors, against the opening of which, on a common wooden frame [See Figure 1] tack up or fasten taut and tight a wet sheet or muslin cloth the size required, immersed before tacking up in a tub of water, and then well wrung out. Then have ready a light in a pan. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.