I am preparing an article about. electronics and magic for the newsletter of Earl Edwards IBM Ring 103 including tricks like The Atomic Lamp, Beam Shot, Scott York's Ghost Lamp, Del Ray's miracles and Anverdi's as well etc. I should also probably include the modern day use of sound systems with remote control cues, computers etc.

The earliest used of electronics that I can think of is Robert-Houdin's Light and Heavy Chest, but I thought I'd check with the hive mind to see if anyone can come up with anything earlier--and any other uses of electronics in magic. Did Robert-Houdin use electronics for tricks other than the Light and Heavy Chest?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Hello Sonny,

Be sure to check out Walford Bodie, who came just slightly after Robert-Houdin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walford_Bodie

He probably had imitators on the English stage, but he'd be a good one to start with.

Thomas Henry

Hi Sonny, Robert Houdin did indeed use electricity for his Light and Heavy Chest….hidden in the box proper was a large coil or electro magnet, when placed on the stage strategically over a hidden plate of steel beneath the s floor a current was secretly sent to the coil which charged the same making the box adhere to the plate making it impossible to lift the box.

I was a personal friend of Del Ray here in Pittsburgh in the USA, I also have the world’s largest Anverdi collection. I will pm you some more information if that would help.

Regards,

Chuck Caputo

The talking tea kettle
the box with three colored light bulbs
Mr Electric’s act
the wall of lightbulbs penetration illusion
the trick with colored magnets from Art of Close up Magic

does the party stunt with a charged Leyden jar and a circle of volunteers holding hands count?

Anatole et al. - Please, please, please come to recognize the 7th-8th grade science concerning the difference between the terms "electrical" and "electronic." They are not the same thing. Modern electronic circuits employ solid-state components (transistors, ICs, etc.) which use relatively tiny flows of electrical current to control significantly larger currents. Your common floor lamp is an electrical device that uses an electrical switch (mechanical circuit breaker) to turn it on and off. Cellphones, TV sets etc. are electronic devices utilizing multiple solid-state components to perform their highly complex functions.

Robert-Houdin's Light and Heavy Chest presumably utilized a fairly strong electromagnet with a mechanical on-off switch and was thus a purely electrical (not electronic) apparatus. Modern electronic devices are thought to have been born on December 16, 1947, at the Bell Laboratories with the successful testing of the world's first transistor to amplify electrical signals, a function theretofore performed by vacuum tubes.

I think eventually electronics will go away as most people will be expecting it to be electronic when performing. Just my thought

Mystic Craig did a remote start on a fire truck at one of the early IBM conventions at Kenton.