Will H. Chandlee died on this day in 1954. He was an artist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and an amateur magician. Chandlee discovered a new principle in optical effects; he elaborately christened it Lumen-X, and claimed to have almost sold it to Houdini and Thurston. Perhaps his most incredible claim was that Lumen-X could be arranged to duplicate the famous Indian Rope Trick—the boy that climbs to the top of the rope and instantly vanishes. Chandlee never had the chance to create it, but he offered clues about his secret. Unlike the impoverished props of an Indian street magician, he proposed an expensive purpose-built theater and a huge sheet of glass mirror.
