Harry Houdini, an escape artist, is a talented inventor. He just didn't want anyone to know.

1On October 27th, Harry Houdini will make his debut at the Columbia Theatre in St. Louis. The illusionist walked into an oversized milk jug and poured gallons of water onto the stage. Houdini is going to do something that looks terrible. The jar was poked and poked, turned and turned, proving to the audience that there was no hole under the stage. Houdini was handcuffed before him. His hair parted in the middle and his expression was serious. His blue bathing suit shows an extraordinary physique. He held his breath and squeezed his whole body into a jar full of water. The cover is fixed and locked from the outside with six padlocks. A cupboard was pushed around the jar to avoid being seen.

As the audience waited for Harry Houdini to be drowned, time went by.

Two minutes later, a panting and wet Houdini appeared from behind the cabinet. The jar is still locked. No one knows how he escaped before his death.

Harry Houdini is remembered as an escape artist and magician. He is also an actor, a pioneer pilot, an amateur historian and a businessman. In every role, he is an innovator and sometimes even an inventor. But in order to protect his fantasy, he basically avoided patent procedures, kept secrets, protected his tricks with copyright, and concealed his creativity in other ways. The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a silver seal of 1920 gelatin, and the author is unknown. It depicts Houdini's most dramatic side, wearing makeup and facing the camera, a deliberately mysterious look.

The great magician, half of the famous duo Penn and Teller, recently recalled how he discovered an invention of Houdini at the Los Angeles auction held by the late Sid Radner. He collected one of the largest data on Houdini in the world.

"I got a big black cross. I don't think it will sell much at the auction." When I bought it, I thought it was a good souvenir, "Taylor told me in a telephone interview.

"After I bought it, Sid came up to me and said,' Be careful, there are no children around this thing.' I said, "Why not?" He said, "You don't want them to put their fingers here. "It has holes. You tie people to it, and they want to escape. I didn't realize it was a complicated mechanism. You can cut all the ropes at the same time with a simple movement of your feet.

Houdini was born in Erik Weiss, Budapest on 1874. His parents are Jewish, but he grew up in America when he was 4 years old. He began to perform magic in variety shows from 65438 to the 1990s, escaping from handcuffs and lockers.

"His name often appears in popular culture, whenever someone does something sneaky or incredible," said John Cox, the author of the famous website Talking Crazy about Harry. "His magic is still amazing. * * * clothes from prison, is still an incredible feat. His story is both vivid and modern. Although he has been dead for 90 years, Taylor said:

Escape behavior originates from spiritual history. In the middle of19th century, performers claimed that they were in contact with invisible souls, who could chew with the dead or create miracles. "Spiritually, psychics are usually restricted in some way. He said: "At least tied up, sometimes in chains or handcuffs. ".Houdini never said such supernatural things.

"[Spiritual performers] will run away to do their performances and then be locked up again," Taylor said. "Houdini said," I'm just a smart man and escaped. "This is a major change.

Harry Houdini is a member of a generation that worships new heroes, inventors and fearless spirit. When the United States entered the 20th century, cars, airplanes, wax tanks and the movie "Gourmet 19 1 1" were legally prohibited from imitating, but how this move worked was not explained.

"In fact, I carefully observed the waterboarding cell, which was very small," Taylor said. "You think of it as a towering thing. But this is an agreement, an effective thing.

The number of people who saw Houdini escape from the waterboarding cell was far less than the number of people all over the world who were afraid of him. Houdini is a master who is good at using the media to report his achievements.

"As an innovator, he is the kind of person who knows how to use the media," Taylor said. "You recall that he was the first celebrity you met to cooperate with the company to promote sales. If he wants to go to your town and your center is the beer industry, he will talk to the brewery and arrange to escape from a huge beer barrel or something.

"He is obsessed with being at the forefront of everything," Taylor said. Although Houdini has emerged from the juggling world, he is good at using new technology to maintain his celebrity status. Knowing that movies are the next big thing, he wants to be a movie star. He did a little. Very attractive. He acted naturally.

19 18, Houdini started his first major film project, The Mystery of the Master. This series, which consists of 15, has a complicated plot. An evil company lured inventors into signing contracts and granted them the exclusive right to sell their inventions; But for the benefit of existing patent holders, companies are secretly killing these inventions. This film tells the story of the robot villain who may be the first to appear in front of the camera. Automata, a metal robot with a human brain.

Harry Houdini 1909 Worthing propeller biplane: The person marked with a small "X" is probably Houdini. According to silverman, Houdini tried to build a real robot for this film, describing it as "a character controlled by the Solinoid system, similar to an aerial torpedo." In the eyes of modern people, this statement is absurd. This "robot" is obviously a human actor walking around in a costume.

Houdini himself is often an unreliable source of his own works. He inadvertently confused the date and place. He deliberately exaggerated his achievements and inventions. Taylor also thought Houdini was "not very reliable" as a source of his own history.

"Although he wants to be a writer and historian, his job is to be a performer, and that's who he is," Taylor said. "He is very interested in the history of magic. He collected a lot of information, but I don't think he is a historian, because historians have standards.

"It is good that there is no illusion in the movie, because we simply use the camera Trix, which is a fact," Houdini once said. Although the new technology of cinematography has helped Houdini reach more audiences, it may eventually help to end the phenomenon of professional escape from artists. Under the camera, anyone can be portrayed as avoiding artists. Special effects can make everything look real.

At the same time, movies have captured the public's imagination, and aviation is doing the same thing. The Wright brothers proved that flying is possible. A group of brave, smart and rich people all over the world began to buy or build their own planes, competing to create new aviation records. The highest flight, the longest flight, the first time along a specific route. Houdini decided to join. He spent $5,000 in Europe to buy a Voisin biplane with bicycle wheels and a rear propeller. He also insured an airplane accident, which he claimed was the first life insurance in the world. Houdini set off for Australia with the disassembled plane, spare parts and insurance, becoming the first person to fly a plane on the Australian mainland.