A.D. 1863, _5th FEBRUARY_. Nᵒ 326. APPARATUS FOR EXHIBITING DRAMATIC AND OTHER PERFORMANCES. LETTERS PATENT to Henry Dircks, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and John Henry Pepper, of No. 309, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, Professor of Chemistry, and Honorary Director of the Polytechnic Institution, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE EXHIBITION OF DRAMATIC AND OTHER LIKE PERFORMANCES.” Sealed the 25th September 1863, in pursuance of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, and dated the 5th February 1863. * * * * * PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Dircks and John Henry Pepper at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 5th February 1863. We, HENRY DIRCKS, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and JOHN HENRY PEPPER, of No. 309, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, Professor of Chemistry, and Honorary Director of the Polytechnic Institution, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE EXHIBITION OF DRAMATIC AND OTHER LIKE PERFORMANCES,” to be as follows:— The object of our said Invention is by a peculiar arrangement of apparatus to associate on the same stage a phantom or phantoms with a living actor or actors, so that the two may act in concert, but which is only an optical illusion as respects the one or more phantoms so introduced. The arrangement of the theatre requires in addition to the ordinary stage a second stage at a lower level than the ordinary one, hidden from the audience as far as direct vision is concerned; this hidden stage is to be strongly illuminated by artificial light, and is capable of being rendered dark instantaneously whilst the ordinary stage and the theatre remain illuminated by ordinary lighting. A large glass screen is placed on the ordinary stage and in front of the hidden one. The spectators will not observe the glass screen, but will see the actors on the ordinary stage through it as if it were not there; nevertheless the glass will serve to reflect to them an image of the actors on the hidden stage when these are illuminated, but this image will be made immediately to disappear by darkening the hidden stage. The glass screen is set in a frame so that it can readily be moved to the place required, and it is to be set at an inclination to enable the spectators, whether in the pit, boxes, or gallery, to see the reflected image. The glass is adjustable and it is readily adjusted to the proper inclination, by having a person in the pit and another in the gallery to inform the party who is adjusting the glass when they see the image correctly. * * * * *