David Devant, Secrets of Magic: An amusing account is given of Sir Oliver Lodge's superstitious awe in face of the performance known as "Translucidation." Members of the audience were asked to write on small cards, which were placed in envelopes, sealed, marked, and placed in a bag held by Miss Devant, who was seated on the platform: "My sister would simply take an envelope out and put it on her forehead and then read the contents. This was duly carried out with the six envelopes. Each one, after it had been read, was handed over the footlights immediately, and passed on to the person who claimed it. It seemed impossible and inexplicable; so much so that one day Sir Oliver Lodge came to the performance armed with a specially-sealed envelope, which he challenged my sister to read. She read it with the rest, and he was so surprised that he got up from his seat in the stalls and made a short speech to the audience. He said he could not understand by what means this marvel had been accomplished, as he knew nothing in science could account for it." The book itself explains how the trick was worked; it involved a trap-door, two accomplices, and a powerful electric lamp--a simple mechanism but not so simple as the mentality of this great man of science, the High Priest of Spiritualism.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 13 : The Occult > # 72
