Trick used to make a ghost appear on stage next to an actor. A sheet of glass is hung across the
front of the stage so that the image of an actor standing in the orchestra pit appears to float on
stage. First shown at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London by J.H.Pepper on Christmas
Eve, 1862. Following many subsequent events, Charles Dickens used it during readings of The
Haunted Man. Several plays were written specially to use the effect around 1863, but the
long-term future of the effect was limited by the fact that the ghost couldn't speak. Pepper's Ghost
is now used to great effect in smaller scale applications like the Haunted Mansion in Disney
theme parks. Click here: for a graphic of the effect.