Indian Conjuring

By day, Lionel H. Branson was a career officer of the British Indian Army: he served for over 20 years, fought in Mesopotamia during WW1 and retired in the rank of major. But all this time he perfected his craft as a conjurer and explored Asian illusion practices (and even used some of his knowledge in military intelligence). He was a member of The Magic Circle, an organization promoting the art of illusion, and was a fierce debunker of spiritualism and the supernatural. In Indian Conjuring, which sums up his Asian explorations, Major Branson devoted an entire chapter to the Indian rope trick. He offered a large sum of money to anyone who could perform the Indian rope trick; no one ever claimed the reward.