Sharpe, Sam H: Conjurers’ Optical Secrets ©1985 Sam H. Sharpe, Micky Hades International, Canada Hardcover, w/dj, 8-1/2” x 11”, 188 pages ISBN: 0-919230-91-1

Image courtesy eBay seller KochMagic

Comments: Illustrated by Mike Jaynes. A detailed, well illustrated book on various optical principles used in magic.

Other books in the series include:
Conjurors' Mechanical Secrets
Conjurors' Hydraulic and Pneumatic Secrets
Conjurors' Psychological Secrets

Contents (from book ToC):

xi Optical Principles Tabulated
xiii Psychology of Visual Illusions
xiii The Antiquity of Optical Principles in Magic

1 Part One Psychological Visual Illusions

1 1. Kinetic Illusions
1 a) Velocity
1 i) Invisibility Through Velocity
1 - DeLand's Spinning Wheel Levitation
2 ii) Rapid Transfer Illusions
2 - Charlton's Bathing Hut Illustion
3 iii) Substitution Illusions
3 - Match and Safety-pin
4 b) Persistence of Retinal Impressions
4 - Faraday's Wheel
4 - Faraday's Star
5 - Railings Illusion
5 - Spinning Top Illusion
6 c) Relative Movement or Sliding Illusions
6 - Bending Coin
6 - Swallowing Wand
7 - Restored Rope
7 - Stretching Handkerchief
7 - Corkscrew Illusion
7 - Rising Block Illusion, Histed’s
8 - Multiple Card Pass, Dai Vernon's

9 2. Position Illusions
9 a) Distance Illusions
9 b) Refracted Position Illusions
9 c) Concentric confusion
10 d) Alternating Projection Illusions

10 3. Shifting Perception or Alternating Figure Illusions

10 4. Size-Distance Illusions

11 5. Illusions of Relative Size

12 6. Horizontal And Vertical Size Illusions
12 - Arrow shortening and Lengthening
12 Confused Parallels
12 Zollner Lines
13 Widening by Irradiation

13 7. Illusions of Apparent Increase By Division
13 a) Broken Surface
13 b) Sequential or StringofBeads Division
14 c) Expanding or Compressing8. Illusions of Apparent

14 8. Decrease By Division
14 a) Broken Contour
15 b) Detachable Illusion
15 c) Dismembering

15 9. Streamlining
15 a) Bevelling
16 b) Streamlined Cavity Principle

17 10. Top Reading

17 11. Closeup Blinding

17 12. Binocular and Stereoptic Illusions
18 - Stereoscopic Illusions
18 - Stereoscopic Pictures

18 13. Effacement

19 14. Chiaroscuro

19 15. Camouflage

20 16. Blackout

21 17. Foreshortening And Perspective
22 - Invisibility by Foreshortening
22 - Calligraphs

23 18. Irradiation Illusions
23 - Invisibility by Irradiation
25 - The Squarecirde

25 19. Illusions of Colour

32 Part Two Physical Screening or Masking

31 1. Angles of Vision
32 RobertHoudin's Method of Determining Angles of Vision

33 2. Directional Screening

33 3. Temporary Visible Screens
33 - Ta Ta Toto

34 4. Background Masking and Blending
34 a) Complete Masks
35 Guiding Principles Governing the Use of Background Masks
35 Background Blending
35 History of Black Art
36 - Living Marionettes by Black Art
36 - Thauma
37 Max Auzinger and His Imitators
38 Buatier de Kolta's Black Magic
38 An Improved Mode of Obtaining Visible Illusions for Theatrical and Other Presentations
41 Georges Mellies Use of Black Art
41 Charles Bertram’s Artistic “Diablerie, or Black Magic”
41 - Devant’s “Vise Versa”
42 - The Gnome’s Grot
43 - Karl Germaine’s "Dr. Faustus”
43 - The Goose and the Golden Egg
43 - The Wizard Gardener by Black Light
44 - The Magic Carpet
45 b) Black Art Effects
45 Stage Arrangements
46 - Improved Black Art Lighting
48 i) Appearances
48 The Appearing Wand
48 ii) Disappearances
48 The Vanishing Man
48 Disappearances from Vases, Boxes and the Like
49 iii) Transpositions
49 - Who’s Who or Domino Oh!
49 iv) Transformations
49 He-She-It!
49 Rapid Germination
50 Pips to Oranges
50 v) About Turn Transformations
50 vi) Spirit Effects
50 Mysterious Animation
50 Levitation
51 A Comic Incidental
51 Dance Macabre
51 - The Dancing Skeleton
52 - La Poupee
52 Ghost Raising
52 Astral Guide
52 Decapitation
53 Flying Cherub
53 vii) Inexhaustible Effects
53 To be Continued
54 viii) Augmented Manipulation
54 - The Circle of Influence
55 - The Black Art Theatre of Prague
55 - The Astral Double
55 - The Jewel
57 A Harlequin Fantasia
57 - Pierrot's Broken Romance
58 - Elucidation of the Harlequinade
58 c) Translucent Masks or Transparencies
59 - Buatier de Kolta's Variable Transparent Mask
60 - Dicksonn’s Glass Lantern Illusion
60 - "La Lanteme Chinoise”
61 - Beauty and the Beast
61 - A.S. Cubitt's Card Frame
61 - Henry Bate’s "Cryptic Die Box”
62 d) Double Transparencies
62 - The Fane of Aquarius
62 - The Mysterious Goblet
63 - Full or Empty
63 - A Filtering Ink Experiment
64 - Robert Houdin's Magic Clock
65 - The Satyr’s Head
66 e) Openwork Masxs
66 f) Mobile Masks
66 - A Moving Background Mask
66 - Spring Blinds

67 5. Mirror Masking
67 a) The Basic Principles of Mirror Work
69 - The Maskelyne Cabinet
70 - The Sphinx
72 -Babil and Bijou
72 - The Improved Maskelyne Cabinet
72 - “Palingensia" by Tobin and Lynn
74 Charles Morrit's Case - The Convict's Escape
75 Turkish Delight
75 The Panel
76 b) Adjustable-Grid Masks
76 - The Slat Cabinet
76 - The Three Graces
77 - The Flying Visit
79 - From Piller to Post
80 - Nixon’s “Narcissus” Illusion
81 - The Narcissus Spirit Cabinet
81 - Olga
81 - One! Two! Three!
82 - Modified Spinx Tables
82 - "She"
83 - Powell's "She”
83 - Four-Legged "Sphinx” Tables
84 - A Single-legged “Sphinx" Table
85 - The Sphere of Life
85 - A Woman of The World
85 - A “Sphinx" Tray
86 - Adjustable MirrorMasks
86 - Upper Mirror Masking
86 - Face-on Mirror Masks
87 - The Mirror Tumbler
87 - The Window of the Haunted House
89 - "Creo"
90 - Edge-On Mirror Masking
91 - A Deceptive Table
91 - The Philosopher's Stone
93 - The Selbit Mystery
95 - "Scrybic”
96 - The Mirror Tunnel
97 - The Silver Hat
99 - The Secret of “The Silver Hat”
102 - Selbit's “Million Dollar Mystery"
103 - The Maids of the Mist
104 c) Prismatic Masking
104 - The Bevel Conduit

105 6. Light Screening
105 a) Blinding
105 - The Chocolate Soldier
106 b) Diffusion in Transmission
107 - The Spirit Paintings
110 - The Last Word in Spirit Paintings
113 - Selbit’s Colour-Changing Picture Patent
115 - Nixon’s Method for the "Spirit Paintings”

122 Part Three Reflected Images

122 1. Plane Mirror Reflections
122 a) Single Mirror Reflectors
122 - Amphitrite
123 - Metempsychosis,0
124 - The Artist’s Dream (Walker and Pepper, 1879)
127 - A Modified "Metempsychosis” Device
127 - A Two-way "Metempsychosis” Device
127 - The Witches of Macbeth
128 - The North Pole
129 b) Double and Multiple Minor Work
129 i) The Secret Periscope
129 - The Autocollimator
130 - Who’s Who?
130 - Seeing Through a Brick
130 - The Hand of Destiny
130 - The Enchanted Telescope
131 - The Reversed Head
132 - Topsy Turvy Topsy
132 - The Epidiascope
132 - The Animated Head
133 - La Merton The Dragon Fly
134 ii) Multiple Images
134 - The Endless Vista or The Arcade of Verdure
135 iii) Magic with Sixty-Degree Mirrors
136 - A Three Headed Woman
136 - A Fadeaway Optical Illusion
137 - The Kaleidoscope
137 - A Human Kaleidoscope
137 - The Magic Temple
139 c) Transparent Reflectors A Chronology of Optical Principles
143 Clear Glass Reflectors
143 - Pepper’s Ghost
144 - La Czarine
146 - Gone!
147 - Another Midair Varnish
148 - The Mystic Scroll
148 - The Princess of Bakhkeb
150 - Phantom Art
151 b) Temporary Transparent Glass Masks
151 - Peter Pan Illusion
152 c) Transparent or Twoway Mirrors
153 - The Disembodied Spirit
155 - Reflected Thoughts

156 2. Non-Plane Mirror Reflections
156 a) Convex Mirrors
156 - The Bottle Imp
157 - Jarrett’s Tanagra
157 - The Crystals
157 b) Concave Mirrors
158 Parabolic Reflectors
159 - Ghostly Money
159 - The Phantom Rower
160 - A Sympathetic Clock
160 Diminuation by Optics
161 Diminuation by Distance
161 - The Tanagra Theatre
163 - The Inkwell Fairies
164 - A Simplified Tanagra
164 Distorting Mirror Reflections
164 - Peek Mirrors

165 Part Four Lens Transmission

165 Introduction
168 a) Back Projection
168 Modern Back Projection
169 Projected Scenery for Theatres
169 b) Reduced or Magnified Images
170 - The Camera Obscura
171 c) Prismatic Refraction and Reflection
171 - A Fish-Bowl Illusion
171 - A Wine Glass Illusion
172 i) Reversed Images
172 The Incredible Transformation
173 ii)Detached Images
173 iii) Prismatic Reflection
174 d) Duplex (or Binary) And Multiple Lighting
174 i) Sequential Lighting
174 Robert Houdin's Dissolving Views
175 David W. Noakes
175 ii) Alternative Lightingjyg
175 - A Shadow Cabinet
176 - A Magic Shadow Show
177 iii) Split Lighting

178 Part Five Trick Photography

179 1. Techniques
179 a) Stop Motion
179 b) Mirror Work
179 c) Double Exposure
179 d) Retouched Negative
180 e) Blackout or Masking
180 f) Composite Pictures, or Superimposing
180 g) Fadein or out, or Dissolve
180 h) Contrasted Focus
180 i) Project Picture Synchronized with Real Action
180 j) Substituted Plane or Position
181 k) Contrived Time

183 Part Six Chromoatics and Focussed Light Waves

183 1. Chromatics
183 a) Monochromatic Lighting

185 2. Coloured Light Bending

185 3. Emotional Lighting Based on Spectrum

186 4. Light Colouring
187 - The Sun Robe

197 5. Focussed Light Waves
187 a) Convex Lens or Mirror Burner
187 b) Light Signalling or Prompting
187 c) Light-Sensitive Element