Milton Chase

Milton Chase was a famous manufacturer of Boston started by Nathaniel E. Chase and carried on by his son Charles Milton Chase. About 1853 Nathaniel , who was a manufacturing tinsmith, began making apparatus for magician popular at that time such as Potter, Harrington, Fillibrown and Blitz. (See "Leaves from Conjurers' Scrap Books" by H. J. Burlingame, page 21.)

Charles Milton Chase

C. Milton Chase (December 16, 1851 - April 30, 1928) born in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, moved to Boston as a child, graduated from the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" then worked with his father. He gave a few public performances, but was more successful as a mechanic than as a performer. Advertisements can be seen in the Sphinx as a "Manufacturer of FINEST MAGICAL APPARATUS" with "Established 1851".

Around 1882, he bought out "Adam & Co.," dealers in Magicians supplies, and continued the business for many years as "Milton Chase". During those years he made apparatus for Herrmann, Kellar, Powell, Bailey, Floyd and many others. He retired about 1912 due to ill health.

Chase was the inventor, along with B. B. Keyes, of the illusion "Astarte", which was first presented by William Robinson (Chung Ling Soo). Later Alexander Herrmann presented it as "The Maid of the Moon" and "Florine, the child of the air."

References

• Cover of Mahatma, Vol. 3, No. 5 (November, 1899).
• History of Conjuring and Magic By Henry Ridgely Evans, (1928)
• Sphinx May, 1928