Harry Houdini Patent for a Diver's Suit

Houdini began his career as a trapeze artist and was later renowned as a magician and an escape artist. He astonished audiences by escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets, and prison cells. Houdini's invention for a "diver's suit" permits divers, in case of danger, to quickly divest themselves of the suit while submerged and to safely escape and reach the surface of the water. In his later years, Houdini put his extensive knowledge of the occult and magic to public benefit by exposing the tricks of fraudulent spiritualistic mediums. Houdini left his entire library of magic to the U.S. Library of Congress.