This chafing-dish, for the better carrying on the deception,
may be inclosed in a painted tin box, about a foot high, with a hole
at top, and should stand on four feet, to let the smoke of the lantern
escape. There must also be a glass planned to move up and down in the
groove, and so managed by a cord and pulley that it may be raised up
and let down by the cord coming through the outside of the box. On
this glass the spectre (or any other figure you please) must be painted,
in a contracted or squat form, as the figure will reflect a greater
length than it is drawn. When you have lighted the lamp in the lantern
and placed the mirror in a proper direction, put the box on a table,
and, setting the chafing-dish in it, throw some incense in powder on
the coals. You then open the trap door and let down the glass in the
groove slowly, and when you perceive the smoke diminish, draw up the
glass, that the figure may disappear, and shut the trap-door. This
exhibition will afford much wonder. The lights in the room must be
extinguished, and the box should be placed on a high table, that the
aperture through which the light comes out may not be seen.
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