THE INVISIBLE GIRL. 163 



described, as the latter invariably communicated 

 with a wall, or with a pedestal through which 

 pipes could be carried into the next apartment. 

 But the ball M and its trumpets communicated 

 with nothing through which sound could be con- 

 veyed. The spectator satisfied himself by ex- 

 amination that the ribands b, b, were real ribands, 

 which concealed nothing, and which could convey 

 no sound; and as he never conceived that the 

 ordinary piece of frame-work AB could be of 

 any other use than its apparent one of supporting 

 the sphere M, and defending it from the spec- 

 tators, he was left in utter amazement respecting 

 the origin of the sound, and his surprise was 

 increased by the difference between the sounds 

 which were uttered and those of ordinary speech. 

 Though the spectators were thus deceived by 

 their own reasoning, yet the process of deception 

 was a very simple one. In two of the horizontal 

 railings A, A, Fig. 38, opposite the trumpet 

 mouths T, there was an aperture communicating 

 with a pipe or tube which went to the vertical 

 post B, and descending it, as shown at TAA, 

 Fig. 39, went beneath the floor / /, in the 

 direction p p, and entered the apartment N, 

 where the invisible lady sat. On the side of the 

 partition about h, there was a small hole through 

 which the lady saw* what was going on in the 

 exhibition-room, and communications were no 

 doubt made to her by signals from the person 

 who attended the machine. When one of the 

 spectators asked a question by speaking into one 

 of the trumpets T, the sound was reflected from 

 the mouth of the trumpet back to the aperture at 

 A, in the horizontal rail, Fig. 38, and was dis- 

 M 2 



