Nevil Maskelyne (magician)

Nevil Maskelyne (* 1863, † 1924) was a British magician.

His father, John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917) and his son Jasper Maskelyne (1902-1973) worked as a stage magician. The family can be traced back to the court astronomer Nevil Maskelyne ( 1732-1811 ).

Nevil Maskelyne was best known as the co-author of the book Our magic, which he published in 1911 together with the magician David Devant. This book is one of the standard works on the theory and practice of stage magic and still commercially available. In the first part of the book, L' Art dans la magie, the basic principles of a magic show are explained, with an emphasis on drama and audience management. The second part, Théorie de la magic that deals with the technical side of the stage magic, with a focus on perceptual illusions and physical principles that can be exploited for tricks. In the third part, which comprises about half of the book, twelve individual items from the performances of Maskelyne and Devant be explained. As Devant 1914 withdrew from the collaboration with John Nevils father, Nevil took over his role up to John's death, 1917.

In addition to the stage magic Nevil worked in the field of astronomy with John Mackenzie Bacon (1846-1904) together. The two succeeded in 1900 in North Carolina, the first film recording a solar eclipse.

Maskelyne and Marconi

Maskelyne was very interested in wireless telegraphy. He used it to improve his magic tricks. But in 1900 he was able to exchange a message between a ground station and a balloon. But Marconi's patents stopped his ambitions.

But in 1901 hired him the Eastern Telegraph Company Limited. of. The wireless transmission was a problem for a company whose business model relied on wired communication. So they built west of Porthcurno a radio masts on to see if he can intercept communications of Marconi's company, the ship land.

On 7 November 1902 he published in the journal The Electrican its results. There, the engineers were able to read that it was possible against their assumptions, to adapt to these frequencies.

In February 1903 Marconi wrote in London Magazine St.James Gazette that he can set his instruments so well that no one can listen to his broadcasts. This demonstration should take place at the Royal Institution in June. Marconi should send a message of Cornwall from. But minutes before Marconi's message to his employees, the physicist John Ambrose Fleming arrived, came another message on the ticker. A stranger sent obscenities over the airwaves, in part directed against Marconi. The demonstration was continued, but all was so clear that the technology was by far not as secure as Marconi had promised. Maskelyne had sent the texts located on the Near West End Music Hall.

Marconi himself ignored the action, but Fleming was beside himself. He wrote an angry letter to the editor of The Times, in which he described what happened as a scientific hooliganism. He asked the readers for help in finding the perpetrator. Four days later, a letter from Maskelyne. He wrote that his action would draw attention to the glaring weaknesses of the procedure and in all served the higher purpose of public information. Flemming fought Maskelyne even weeks later in the paper and accused him of insulting the science ( Insult to Science).

Maskelyne Fleming ignored largely because his goal is to expose the false promises of security, was reached. The Eastern Telegraph Company Limited. still existed until 1928, until it. using Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. to Imperial and International Communications Ltd. merged.

Swell

• Paul Marks, The gentleman hacker, NewScientist Nr.2844/2845, p.48 digitized
• Biography of John Bacon on victorian - cinema.net
• John Nevil Maskelyne on Biography of victorian - cinema.net