The steel frame is next passed over the body until at the base of the stocks, where it is clamped securely. Returning in swimming costume, Houdini would lie on his back in the center of the stage as members of the committee adjust his feet within the stocks and snap the locks. Inviting a representative committee of the audience, Houdini would retire for a moment or two to change while his assistants rapidly filled the tank from a high-pressure hose and with buckets of heated water from ornamental cauldrons at either side of the setting. To begin the trick, Houdini would devote five minutes to a detailed description of the tank, stocks, grill and steel tackle comprising the apparatus. With all its seeming danger, and the definite difficulties it presented, Houdini never failed in the escape.â€¨

During his lifetime and for many years after, he was the only man to perform the escape from the Water Torture Cell., or anything quite like it. It was, in a sense, a 'double challenge' â€”first, to the audience to solve and second to his imitators to try to design something even half as wonderful.

His feet are manacled and when the tank is covered it is difficult to imagine how he can possibly escape. This is filled with water while Houdini is placed head down, in full view of the audience. The greatest and most sensational of all Houdini's escapes was without doubt his 'Chinese Water Torture Cell.' In this trick, Houdini was to escape an extraordinary contraption resembling a fish tank.

Houdini water torture cell