A 2 part article from Popular Mechanics. A Great piece of History.

I call these these The Greatest Illusions of All Time part 1
By Melbourne Christopher
Popular Mechanics Dec 1958

books.google.com/books?id=YtsDAAAAMBAJ&p...%20illusions&f=false

I call these these The Greatest Illusions of All time part 2
By Melbourne Christopher
Popular Mechanics Popular Jan 1959

books.google.com/books?id=ZNsDAAAAMBAJ&p...%20illusions&f=false

Great articles.

Interesting that the author\'s opinion regarding Houdini\'s disappearing elephant is substantially different to Jim Steinmeyers. In his book Hiding the Elephant Steinmeyer describes Houdini\'s disappearing elephant as a flop. No doubt it was astounding but apparently Houdini was a better showman as an escape artist than as a magician.