Editing Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (section)

===The ethereal suspension===
During Robert-Houdin's time, all of Paris was enthusiastically talking about the mysterious uses of "[[Diethyl ether|ether]]".<ref name="ref3"/> He took advantage of this by presenting an illusion that appeared to use the pungent liquid. He told the audience that he had discovered a marvelous new property of ether. "If one has a living person inhale this liquid when it is at its highest degree of concentration, the body of the patient for a few moments becomes as light as a balloon," Robert-Houdin claimed.

He proceeded to "prove" just that. He placed three stools on a wooden bench. His youngest son Eugène stood on the middle one.  With the instructions from his father, he extended his arms. Robert-Houdin placed two canes on top of the stools and positioned them under his son's arms.

He took a vial of ether and opened it. The audience smelled it wafting through the theatre. He placed the vial under his son's nose, and he went limp. In reality, the vial was empty, with the odour being produced by his son Émile pouring real ether on a hot iron shovel.

Robert-Houdin took the stool away from his son's feet, and he just hung limp as a rag. He took away one of the canes, so he was dangling by one arm, and carefully placed his head against his upraised hand. This was startling enough. What he did next was stunning. He lifted his boy upright in a horizontal position by his little finger and then let go until he was suspended in mid air.<ref name="ref5"/> Robert-Houdin stepped away to leave his son in that suspended state, balanced only by his right elbow and no other support.<ref name="ref3"/>

When it was apparent that the drug was wearing off, Robert-Houdin returned his son to his upright position. When he woke up, he seemed no worse for wear.<ref name="ref3"/><ref name="ref5"/> Robert-Houdin built up the surprise of spectators until, "… by gradually heightening it up to the moment when, so to speak, it exploded."<ref name="ref5"/> This brought letters of protest against Robert-Houdin, thinking he was putting his son's health in jeopardy, although the ether had nothing to do with the trick.<ref name="ref3"/>

Robert-Houdin was not the first to perform the Levitation Illusion. The first in Europe was [[Ching Lau Lauro]] in the 1830s.<ref name="Harry Houdini 1908" >[https://archive.org/details/unmaskingrobert00houdgoog Houdini, Harry, ''Unmasking of Robert-Houdin'' (New York: Publishers Printing Co., 1908)] (Kindle edition: {{ASIN|B003P9X4BA}}) Retrieved 14 December 2013.</ref><ref name="randi">{{Cite book |last=Randi |first=James |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26162991 |title=Conjuring |date=1992 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-08634-2 |location=New York |oclc=26162991|author-link=James Randi}}</ref>{{rp|49}} The illusion was also reported to be performed by an Indian conjuror before that, but sitting cross-legged rather than lying down.<ref name="randi" />{{rp|49}}