June 25, 2026
Patenting a magic trick involves documenting precisely how it works. To get around revealing magic secrets, Harry Houdini staged brief dramatic playlets that incorporated his tricks, sometimes to an audience of one. This gave him copyright protection without needing to explain the tricks.
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In 1769 a Hungarian civil servant named Wolfgang von Kempelen went to a magic show in Vienna. It wasn’t just any magic show, though. It was being performed in the court of Empress Maria Theresa, and Kempelen, who had training in physics and mathematics, had been invited by the empress herself to
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