THE POLYTECHNIC GHOST

The stage illusion Pepper’s Ghost is familiar from its use in theatres and fairground booths, and as the starting point for a whole branch of ingenious magical illusions. This article traces its development at London’s Royal Polytechnic Institution under the aegis of its Honorary Director, John Henry Pepper. It explores the creative environment and facilities that made the Polytechnic so ideally equipped to nurture Henry Dircks’ fledgling invention, and charts its subsequent development there both in ghost lectures and in a unique form of entertainment combining the stage‐based Ghost with screen‐based dissolving views.