On this day in 1885, Professor Louis Haselmayer died. Haselmayer was an Austrian magician and inventor who worked as the “Prince of Prestidigitators, Magician, Necromancer, Musician, and Educator of Birds.” He shared his inventions in performances for no less than the Emperor of Austria and Andrew Johnson, the president of the United States. Today, however, his work echoes (literally) into the present day via one of his other inventions, the antecedent to the xylophone.
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