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Invisibility Machine (Herbert Winck(?); 1930s)

marion

marion

Ungnoing.
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Nov 3, 2001
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Found this supposed story on a site

http://www.csonline.net/bpaddock/Philadelf/inviman.htm
Link is dead. The PDF scan file can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030314220124/http://www.csonline.net/bpaddock/philadelf/inviman.pdf


apparently from a 1934 article in Popular Mechanics though of course it could all be a fake ( and I haven't checked snopes yet ) but it looks interesting though not exactly new ! Needs a PDF reader to see the pics . Inserts in the article are , I think , by the site owner .

Photographs Show A Man Becoming Invisible

"After years of research, a young British inventor claims to have produced an apparatus which can render a man invisible although he still stands before you in the flesh. [The Inventor's name is not given, nor is the name of the person writing this.] Operation of the device, which is being used for exhibition purposes, is a closely guarded secret but the man who is to disappear is clothed in what is described as an "electro-helmet" [Today we would call it a Space Suite, or Environment (Bunny) Suite going by the picture.] and a "spectralmantle" [might be 'spectral-mantle', either way I have no idea, nor is it described].

"In this garb he looks like a deep-sea diver as he stands in a cabinet, open at the front, on a brilliantly lighted stage.

"With both hands he touches contact gloves above his head and an electric current is switched on. As the current becomes stronger, it is claimed that the man seems to become transparent, then gradually vanishes, the feet disappearing first, followed by the rest of the body, and finally the head. The subject then is said to be tangible but not visible. Spectators are invited to verify the man's presence in the cabinet by a touch of the hand, and maintain they can feel he is still there but are unable to see him. Even the eye of the camera does not reveal the secret. Photographs taken during successive stages of the vanishing act, show only what the human eye perceives."
Click to expand...
 
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Is the reason no-one is replying to this because they cant see the pics? If it is a problem for people I'll just adiose the thread .
 
I saw the pics (in PDF and DJVU), but the scan is not brilliant, and the original pics were maybe nothing special.

I also tried a Google on this, and found half a dozen sites which show this page, but don't add anything new. I guess this is why no-one's replied - without the inventor's name and more technical details it's difficult to take this any further.

But one site that mentioned it was about crank science...!
 
Maybe they can't see the pics... because... they're... invisible!!!!

Sorry. I'll go.
 
Since the guy in the photo appears (pun intended) to be
in a booth, it is too close to the standard magicians trick
that uses two-way mirrors and lights.

I have a Star Trek transporter toy that uses the same
principle and many people are astounded by it!

But, if this device DOES work...
maybe Shadow People are the real deal after all!

TVgeek
 
Here is a JPEG version of the scanned page image (same content as the PDF file cited above).

inviman.jpg
 
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This collection of weird news stories, listed by year of occurrence, on Angelfire (last updated in 2007):

http://www.angelfire.com/dropa/mysterious.html/Our-Mysterious-World-a-collection-of-weirdness

... includes the following unattributed item describing the same purported invention.

A crowd had gathered in a public hall in London, England in 1934. A young scientist who claimed he had discovered the secret to electromagnetically-induced invisibility stepped into an open-front cabinet onstage. He wore on his head a device called an Electro-helmet along with some other paraphernalia. He reached up to touch two contacts above his head with both hands before giving the signal for the switch to be thrown. The switch allegedly sends electrical current to his strange devices, and his body gradually vanishes from his feet to his head. The story said that spectators were able to touch and feel his body inside the cabinet, but were unable to see him. "All one could see," said the story, "was the development of a cone of light such as might be projected between the two poles of a powerful transmitter." Of course, the inventor would not disclose how his contraption worked, explaining merely that it was the result of years of experimentation.
Click to expand...

NOTE: This same large timeline of weirdness presentation is also hosted at:

https://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php?topic=2552.0
 
Winck? as in, Winck, winck, nudge, nudge?
That's just Pepper's Ghost.
 
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