LULU'S LEAP EXPLAINED.

Under the stage is a wrought-iron framework, like a gigantic office-stool. The four legs are eight feet high and two inches square. Three sets of iron crossbars run from limb to limb—one at the top, one at the middle, and one near the bottom. At the top and middle also crossbars run from each corner to a point in the centre, where they support a small cylinder. Through these two cylinders—the one at the top, the other at the middle of the framework—an iron piston, about seven feet long and two inches in diameter, runs. The upper end of this piston is covered with rubber, and is attached to the bottom of the small trap in the stage on which Lulu stands when about to be sent aloft. About half way down the piston it has around it a barrel-shaped expansion about one foot in diameter and a foot long, which is fastened to it and makes part of it. Round the top and bottom of this barrel, as it may be termed, are iron hooks. Similar hooks are fixed to the lower side of the crossbars at the top and to the upper part of the crossbars at the bottom of the iron framework. Five strong rubber straps, side by side, each an inch square, and let into an iron socket, with a thimble at each end, next come into use. Of these quintuple rubber straps, which are about eight inches long, there are about fifty. The thimble at one end is just slipped over the hooks attached to the lower side of the crossbars at the top of the framework. When every hook has a rubber strap thus suspended from it, the piston is lifted by leverage, and the remaining thimble of each strap is slipped over the hook which corresponds to it on the top of the barrel. Another set of rubber straps precisely similar to those already described, only more powerful, are then attached by one end to the hooks on the bottom of the barrel. The other end is left dangling until it is time to set the trap. When that time comes, powerful leverage forces down the barrel until the straps which connect it with the crossbars at the top of the framework are distended to their utmost. Then the lower thimbles of the rubber straps, which dangle from the bottom of the barrel, are slipped over the hooks fastened to the crossbars near the bottom of the framework. The trap is then ready for use. One set of powerful rubbers is hauling up the piston towards the trap, and another set of more powerful rubbers is hauling it down to such purpose as to keep the upper set of rubbers at the greatest possible tension. When the time for Lulu to make the ascent arrives an electric battery is used. A wire is so brought to bear on the thimbles of the lower set of rubbers attached to the hook on the bottom crossbars, that one application of electric force instantaneously dislodges all the thimbles. The rubber straps at the top of the band thereupon contract with enormous power, the trap is shot up three feet above the stage, and Lulu over twenty feet beyond that. A number of rubbers of suitable strength are attached to the lower end of the piston previous to the discharge of the trap, and when the discharge is complete these instantly draw down the piston and restore the trap to the level of the stage. Lulu wears under her dress steel mechanism of a novel description. By one motion of her shoulders she can protect every joint of her limbs and make her form perfectly rigid. Those who watch her closely when she takes her stand on the trap may observe her throw the mechanism into gear by a motion of her arms just before she is shot into the air. To enable her to do this at the right moment, a small plug is removed from a hole in the stage, through which she can see every motion of the men in charge of the apparatus.

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