Saturday, September 8, 2012

Yorick's Skull - an old optical illusion


This Pear's Soap advertising
card is from before 1900. 
(Click to enlarge)


It is an "awe inspiring but interesting illusion."
(Click to enlarge) 

This optical illusion on an advertising card is an example of an afterimage or ghost image. I'm not sure how Yorick's skull was supposed to sell soap, but since this English product is still being sold, and has been sold since 1789, I guess they knew what they were doing.
Yorick's Skull.

An awe inspiring but interesting illusion.

"Now get thee to my Lady's chamber, and tell her, let "her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come."
Hamlet. Act V- Scene 1.

Directions to see the ghost.

Look steadily, in a good light, for thirty seconds at the mark X in the eye of the skull, and then at a sheet of paper, a wall, a ceiling or elsewhere, and continue your gaze fixedly for another thirty seconds when an awe inspiring and ghost-like skull will slowly appear!

By increasing the distance the apparition will increase in size, so that at five or six feet it will appear of huge proportions.

Presented by Pears' Soap.

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