“The Vanishing Lady”, the railway, and illusions of movement

Abstract

This chapter explores the connection of the railway, illusions and a shift in the perception of space-time that occurred in the nineteenth century. The latter is described in the first part as associated with the mechanization of transport and the resulting dissociation of the travellers with the space they traversed. Subsequently, the connection between the railway and illusionistic media technologies is explored, stretching from optical devices and theories to early cinema. Via an attraction, the railway is further linked to entertainment culture, and the second part opens up another, more figurative connection: the “Vanishing Lady”, a stage illusion invented by magician Buatier de Kolta in 1886, which became enormously popular in the following decade. Because the “vanished” performer reappears off-stage, it does not, in fact, present a disappearance but a teleportation. As such, this illusion is interpreted as a performative expression of the shift in the concept of space-time that occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century: If the traversed space between departure and destination became irrelevant for rail passengers, so it seemed to have disappeared for the “Vanishing Lady” who instantaneously travelled from one place to another.