The latter was matured in this wise:—Mr. Dircks, a patent agent, who had saved some property and was an independent man, wrote a paper for the _Athenæum Literary Journal_, in which he described an optical effect that could be performed with sheets of glass. This paper excited no attention because the explanation of it was somewhat vague and unsatisfactory. The Christmas of 1862 was fast approaching, when Messrs. Horne, Thornthwaite, and Wood, philosophical instrument makers, of Newgate Street, invited the author to see a model which Mr. Dircks had caused to be constructed. This was the beginning of the Ghost; but as Mr. Dircks said that an entirely new theatre must be built to show the effects which he allowed could only be seen by a few people placed in an upper gallery, and then only by _daylight_, it was no wonder that the Crystal Palace, the Colosseum, and other places had all declined to have anything to do with Mr. Dircks or his model, which was now placed in the hands of Professor Pepper—so called because the Directors of the then Royal Polytechnic had determined that his title should be Professor of Chemistry and Honorary Director of the above Institution. The title was not that of a hair-dresser or a dancing-master, but was conferred upon him by express minute of the Board of Directors. Professor Pepper had had his services in establishing classes at the Royal Polytechnic already recognised by the authorities at South Kensington, who gave him an honorary diploma in Physics and Chemistry of the Committee of Council on Education some two or three years before the ghost was brought out, and at a time when he was sole lessee of the Polytechnic at a rental of £2,480 per annum, which had to be paid before a single lecture or entertainment was brought before the public. The classes Mr. Pepper established were for the study of Drawing, French, German, Arithmetic, and Mathematics, with, of course, Chemistry and Physics; and pupils were admitted at very low fees in order to encourage the working men to attend. He also arranged Monday evening lectures for the working classes, and reduced the admission to sixpence if the workmen came with proper tickets supplied by Professor Pepper, but signed by the foreman under whom the men worked.