Today I continue my series on The Daily Illustrated Mirror reports leading up to the Mirror Handcuff Challenge event of March 17th 1904, the event itself, and post-event reporting.
Previously I shared:
- March 11 1904 – Birmingham Man Invents a Handcuff With a Lock Which Cannot Be Picked
- March 14 1904 – The Handcuff King Accepts Our Challenge
- March 15 1904 – Houdini’s Torture Tests
- March 16 1904 – Spoken as a Sportsman
Today, I share the March 17, 1904 issue of The Daily Illustrated Mirror:
You gotta love Houdini’s answer to the £200 question on whether he can get out of the MIrror Handcuffs!
And, the last part about another inventor having a much better handcuff is interesting, along with the fact that they would be in the audience, where the inventor of Mirror handcuff was not in the audience as far as we know.
The guy with the 200 pound offer showed up at the Hippodrome in his “motor-car.” The only other time I’ve seen that word is in the Beatles song Penny Lane: The banker in a motorcar…
Harry declined that 200 pound offer to predict the outcome for good reason. If he predicted success it might direct suspicion to a set up. And he couldn’t say he was going to fail.
It was interesting to read about that other inventor with better cuffs. The Mirror Cuffs inventor actually did attend: It was Harry. His evolution of the Hungarian Cuffs. But–a British locksmith was paid to make Harry’s idea and design. THAT’S the guy in question and Harry kept him a secret.