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Burling Hull (b.1889-d.1982) (also know as "Volta, "Volta the Great", and "The White Wizard" ), born Burlingame Gilbert Gault Hull, was an inventive magician, self-styled "the Edison of magic," specializing in mentalist and psychic effects.
Biography
His father was an amateur magician. In his earlier years he performed a skillful manipulation act, making billiard balls and silks vanish, multiply and reappear, while dressed entirely in white. Under the name Clif Westfield, Hull performed professionally in his teens with magic, chapeaugraphy, shadowgraphy, ventriloquism and dancing.
Hull claimed to be, and is generally credited as, the inventor of the Svengali Deck, which he patented in 1909. He was a prolific writer, with 52 published books to his name. He wrote on a wide variety of magical subjects, including card tricks, mentalism, escapes, razor blade swallowing, sightless vision, billiard ball manipulation, silk magic, publicity and showmanship. His 33 Rope Ties and Chain Releases, written in 1915, is still popular today.
A shrewd businessman and marketer, Hull not only produced many titles about magical effects, he gave talks to magic conventions on business methods for entertainers. He was active in the movement to protect magic trade secrets by both patent on the gimmicks and copyright on the texts, as applicable, but he undercut his own ethical stance against plagiarism by publishing secret material from other magicians who had stolen from him, in order to get revenge for having been plagiarized.