[Ads-l] [Non-DoD Source] Re: miscellany (UNCLASSIFIED)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY CCDC AVMC (USA)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

That first citation is bracketed because Herrmann titled the illusion in his programs and elsewhere as "Black Art".  But it used the technique to effect the illusion, and he must have been referencing the technique when he named it.


> 
> Nice find, that sense of "black art", and going back well over a century, too!
> 
> MAM
> 
> 
> > The OED has several senses of "black art", but not this one:
> >
> > black art (noun) - a theatrical or conjuring technique to make objects
> > or people appear to be invisible, by covering them with black material
> > and placing them in front of a black background
> >
> > [_Milwaukee Journal_ 17 Dec 1887 p 2 col 3 "In Black Art the stage is
> > darkened and draped in black velvet.  Herrmann then summons forth
> > Mephistopheles, then angels, skeletons, spirit hands, chairs, etc."]
> >


CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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