HOUDINI IN SEALED CASKET

Shannon News, 26 October 1926, Page 2

HOUDINI IN SEALED CASKET

90 MINUTES UNDER WATER

Harry Houdini, the "handcuff king," who 'is famous lor getting out of any difficulty, has done if. again. This time he had himself enclosed in an air-tight coffin and sunk to the bottom of a,, swimming tank in the Hotel Shelton, New York City, and remained there for an hour and a hal/.. This feat was by way oi: surpassing the exploit oC Rahman Bey, an Egyptian, who arrived a. few weeks earlier ami announced that he would go into .a.franco and, being put into a coffin sunk into the Hudson River, remain there a half hour. He did the trick as per schedule. Then came Houdini, avlio insisted that no trance was required. He offered to get down into the. water for an hour to ' show that it was simply a matter of careful breathing to conserve the oxygen in the coffin. And he stayed there an hour and a half. James Collins, Houdini's agent, superintended the operations. There was a galvanised coffn six and a half feet long. Houdini, clad in white shirt and dark trunks, stepped inside, and the thing was soldered tight. It was lowered to the bottom of the pool and six bathers volunteered to sit on it. Mr Collins stood at the edge of the pool, holding a telephone connected with another telephone and a signal bell inside the coffin. Every five minutes Mr Collins would. "How are you?" Conserving his breath, Houdini would push the button and ring the bell for answer. Dr W'. J. McConnoll, A\ho had examined Houdini before the submersion, reported the pulse before going down was s 4, afterward 142; his respiration before, 20, afterward 17; his temperature- before. 98.6, afterword 99; his systolic bloos pressurebefore, 141, afterward IG2; his diastolic blood pressure before, 84, afterward 42. Houdini said: "There is nothing supernatural about: it. at all. We are all human. I am an ordinary man. The casket is not air leys, but it is airtight. You don't have to go into any 'trance' to do it. The trick is, to take short, even breaths of the air already there. In that way you conserve it. This ought to be a good thing for miners and such people who work underground to know."