John Nevil Maskelyne (22 December 183918 May 1917) was an English stage magician and inventor of the

pay toilet A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the eq ...

, along with other Victorian-era devices. He worked with magicians George Alfred Cooke and David Devant, and many of his illusions are still performed today. His book ''Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill'' is considered a classic overview of

card sharp A card sharp (also cardsharp, card shark or cardshark, sometimes hyphenated) is a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at poker or other card games. "Sharp" and "shark" spellings have varied over time and by region. The label is no ...

practices.In 1914 he founded the Occult Committee, a group to "investigate claims to supernatural power and to expose fraud".

Early life

Maskelyne was born on 22 December 1839 at

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, England to John Nevil Maskelyne (1800–1875), a

saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not kno ...

r, and his wife Harriet née Brunsdon (1812–1871). He trained as a watchmaker.

Career

Maskelyne became interested in conjuring after watching a stage performance at his local Town Hall by the fraudulent American spiritualists the Davenport brothers. He saw how the Davenports' spirit cabinet illusion worked, and stated to the audience in the theatre that he could recreate their act using no supernatural methods. With the help of a friend, cabinet maker George Alfred Cooke, he built a version of the gigantic cabinet. Together, they revealed the Davenport Brothers' trickery to the public at a show in Cheltenham in June 1865, sponsored by the 10th Cotswold Rifle Corps to which they belonged . In addition to the pseudo-spiritualist phenomena of the Davenports, they added comedy illusions which included the transformation of Maskelyne and Cooke into an 'unprotected female' and a gorilla. Inspired by the acclaim they received for their clever exposure of the deception, the two men repeated their show several times. Following their local success, they branched out taking their show to nearby towns. Encouraged by their results, they decided to become professional magicians and organised tours, building on their initial routines and expanding their programme. At first they struggled to make ends meet but they were saved by a young and relatively inexperienced theatrical agent named William Morton, who saw their show in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and offered to finance a tour. He engaged them at a weekly wage of £4 10s for Maskelyne and his wife, and 50 shillings for Cooke. Morton ran them round the country for two years, ending at

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

for several weeks. He then secured for them the

Egyptian Hall The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, was an exhibition hall built in the ancient Egyptian style in 1812, to the designs of Peter Frederick Robinson. The Hall was a considerable success, with exhibitions of artwork and of Napoleonic era re ...

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Cour ...

, renovated it, put in a new stage and opened at the end of 1873. Morton remained their manager for 20 years. He helped them to become firmly established on the national stage, including such marathon theatrical engagements as their famous 31-year tenancy at the Egyptian Hall, which ended in 1905 when the Hall was demolished.

Further achievements

Maskelyne and Cooke invented many illusions still performed today. Maskelyne was adept at working out the principles of illusions, one of his best-known being

levitation Levitation (from Latin ''levitas'' "lightness") is the process by which an object is held aloft in a stable position, without mechanical support via any physical contact. Levitation is accomplished by providing an upward force that counteract ...

. Levitation is commonly but incorrectly said to be Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin's creation, but it was Maskelyne's. The confusion arises because Robert-Houdin invented the illusion "La Suspension Ethéréenne" (aka the "Broom Suspension"). Levitation is also credited to American magician Harry Kellar, who in fact stole the illusion by bribing Maskelyne's technician, Paul Valadon. On Cooke's death in February 1905, Maskelyne started a partnership with

David Devant David Devant (22 February 1868 – 13 October 1941) was an English magician, shadowgraphist and film exhibitor. He was born David Wighton in Holloway, London Holloway is an inner-city district of the London Borough of Islington, north of C ...

. Devant first joined Maskelyne's team in 1893 when he auditioned as a replacement for Charles Morritt, a conjurer and inventor who worked with Maskelyne at the Egyptian Hall but who left to set up his own show. In 1894, Maskelyne wrote the book ''Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill''. It became an instant hit, and to this day is considered a classic

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...

book. It was the first detailed revelation of the secrets of cardsharps. Other authors prior to Maskelyne had written about crooked gambling, but never had anyone published a work with in-depth, detailed explanations of the secrets of crooked gambling. The first edition was published in London and New York. Later, when it entered the public domain, the Gambler's Book Club of Las Vegas published the first reprint. It is now also available online in the form of an annotated website. Maskelyne wrote several books, but ''Sharps and Flats'' is by far his most important and best known literary work.

Scepticism

Maskelyne was a member of The Magic Circle and, like

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American Escapology, escape artist, Magic (illusion), magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his Escapology, escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to ...

, tried to dispel the notion of

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

powers. To this end, in 1914 he founded the Occult Committee, to "investigate claims to supernatural power and to expose fraud". In particular, it attempted to prove that the Indian rope trick had never been performed. Spiritualist

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British natural history, naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution thro ...

did not accept that Maskelyne had replicated the feats of the Davenport brothers utilizing natural methods, and stated that Maskelyne possessed supernatural powers. Maskelyne's observations of trickery at the Cambridge séance sittings in 1895 were important for the exposure of the medium

Eusapia Palladino Eusapia Palladino (alternative spelling: ''Paladino''; 21 January 1854 – 16 May 1918) was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through ...

. Maskelyne's writings criticising

Spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase ...

and

Theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

were included in the book ''The Supernatural?'' (1891) with psychiatrist Lionel Weatherly (1852–1940). It was an early text in the field of

anomalistic psychology In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, with few assumptions made about the validity (or otherwise) of the reported phenomena. Early history Accord ...

and offered rational explanations for

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

and Spiritualistic practices,

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

phenomena and

religious experience A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense ...

s. In 1910, Maskelyne debated Hiram Maxim in '' The Strand Magazine'' on the trickery of the Davenport brothers.

Inventions

With his son, John Nevil Maskelyne Jr., Maskelyne invented a typewriter whose types were inked by a pad and which typed proportionally (some characters receiving greater widths than others). This machine was probably introduced to the market in 1893. The 1897 Victoria model of the Maskelyne Typewriter introduced further refinements. Maskelyne's invention of the door

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, leading to the

euphemism A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...

to "spend a penny". With John Algernon Clarke, Maskelyne invented the Psycho Automaton, a machine that could supposedly play

Whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump' ...

. At London's Egyptian Hall, Psycho appeared in more than 4,000 performances.

Personal life

Maskelyne married Elizabeth Taylor (1840-1911) in Pershore in 1862. Their children were: *

Nevil Maskelyne Nevil Maskelyne (; 6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth. He created the ''British Nau ...

(1863–1924) * Minnie Jane Maskelyne (1866–1942) * Edwin Archibald Maskelyne (1879–1920) Nevil became the father of Jasper Maskelyne. Both Nevil and Jasper were magicians, and Jasper has been credited as a possible creator of large-scale ruses, deceptions and

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

used during the Second World War. Maskelyne claimed to be a descendant of

(1732–1811), the

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

; although some sources repeat this,Agent Zigzag, Ben Macintyre other recent biographical accounts establish otherwise.

Death

Maskelyne died in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it ...

, London on 18 May 1917.

Publications

''Maskelyne and Cooke: An Exposé of the Falseness of Their Pretensions''
(1873)
''Modern Spiritualism: A Short Account of its Rise and Progress, with Some Exposures of So-Called Spirit Media''
(1876) Reprinted in ''The Mediums and the Conjurors'', 1976. * (with) Lionel Weatherl
''The Supernatural?''
(1891, reprinted 2011)
''Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill''
(1894) * ''Maxim Versus Maskelyne: A Complete Explanation of the Tricks of the Davenport Brothers and Their Imitators: The Cleverest Performance Ever Attributed to Supernatural Power''. Maskelyne & Devant's Entertainment Bureau. Contains the following articles from '' The Strand Magazine'':
''Mr Fay's Cabinet Trick: A £20 Challenge to Mr Maskelyne''

''Mr Maskelyne's Reply to Sir Hiram Maxim's Challenge''

''Mr Maskelyne's Reply to Sir Hiram Maxim''
Part I.
''Mr Maskelyne's Reply to Sir Hiram Maxim''
Part II.
''Maxim Versus Maskelyne: The End of the Discussion''

''My Reminiscences''
(1910)
''The Fraud of Modern "Theosophy" Exposed''
(1912)

References

External links

Winners of the Magic Circle's Maskelyne Award for services to British Magic

SHARPS and FLATS: Secrets of the Cardsharps
– The online edition of Maskelyne's famous book ''Sharps and Flats'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maskelyne, John Nevil 1839 births 1917 deaths Anomalistic psychology English inventors English magicians English sceptics Critics of parapsychology Critics of Theosophy People from Cheltenham Critics of Spiritualism