Who was Katterfelto?

 

Gustavus Katterfelto was a Prussian quack, scientist, magician and mystic who lived and worked in 18th Century London. Unlike most quack doctors during the Long 18th Century, Katterfelto specialized in curing a single illness, influenza. A major flu epidemic at the time helped secure Katterfelto's notoriety. Unusually for a quack however, Katterfelto peddled a modern and unique idea with regards to flu - that its rapid spread was in part due to insects, an idea now taken seriously by modern doctors.

A scientist, Katterfelto would entertain Londoners and tourists at his Piccadilly home, showing the tiniest of insects 'responsible for the flu epidemic the size of birds', projected onto his wall with a solar microscope. His scientific interests were not limited to medicine, he was also fascinated by 'fire balloons', a fascination which often landed him in trouble resulting in a Royal ban.

A salesman, Katterfelto primarily sold himself with masterful advertising copy and puff pieces planted in the London newspapers. He was advertising his own matches, fifty years before the lucifer match. Adept at spreading rumour, misinformation and speculation, he never quite confirmed or denied that he, or his famous cat, were in possession of some kind of supernatural abilities that assisted in his success.

His hyperactive use of hyperbole, his trademark slogan being Wonders, Wonders, Wonders imortalized the name of Katterfelto, passing his name into the English language - as a synonym for charlatan. He turns up in a poem by Cowper "And Katerfelto [sic] with his hair on end, At his own wonders wondering for his bread." Satirized in plays as Dr. Caterpillar, and even becoming the namesake of a mythical stallion haunting the moors of Exmoore. However, very little is actually known about the historical Katterfelto. Always in the background, referenced in the biographies of more famous British quacks of his day (such as James Graham, whose Temple of Health housed the infamous Celestial Bed, an electrically powered bed rented out to rich couples in need of productive coupling) Katterfelto's actual life remains a mystery.

We know that he mixed science, magic and showmanship with genuine scientific and artistic knowledge. The lectures held in his home to paying audiences featured scientific demonstrations and, what may seem bizarre to modern mentalists, card magic. How much of the discoveries claimed by Katterfelto were the result of genuine scientific endeavour and how much by lucky guesswork and masterful presentation will probably never be known.

Inspired by Katterfelto, we want to present magic and mentalism in the same spirit as the man himself did over 200 years ago. Mixing the genuine with the disingenous for the entertainment of our audience.

A genuis, Gustavus Katterfelto, a once famous Piccadilly resident scientist and magician, spent his final years imprisioned for vagrancy and died penniliess. Not much has changed in magic in 200 years.