German doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) was a highly controversial character in the 18th century.  A therapist to some, a charlatan to others, he maintained that he had discovered a magnetic fluid that would cure all illnesses that he claimed to be able to control by touch or remotely.  He developed a system at the centre of which an oak washtub containing crushed glass, filings and other ingredients took pride of place.  This instrument that allowed him to heal more than thirty sick people at a time through a sort of ritual was all the rage in the upper classes.

Georges Méliès’s washtub (1861-1938) on the other hand had quite another function.  It made the most ill-assorted elements appear and disappear like the dresses here or chickens.  In Méliès’ mind the script was of no importance, he wasn’t reconstructing an episode from history but presenting it in a novel way.  The historic character was a pretext for staging special effects and reproducing the pyrotechnic effects he frequently used; the big flame rising up from the washtub being a striking example of this. Méliès perfected his manoeuvres between 1902 and 1907.  He became the master of the special effect technique trying out different kinds of genres during this time, developing his special effects and strengthening his universe.

Le Baquet de Mesmer (A Mesmerian Experiment) was part of those films in which Georges Méliès, at the peak of his art, transposed to the screen the magic acts he invented and experimented with as the great heir of the father of modern magic, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, (1805-1871) a fabulous creator of magical automatons.