In November 1881, Alfred senior, who had been struggling to find paying venues in Victoria earlier in the year, took his family off to Western Australia to try their luck, to visit with Alfred2, and, it seems, with another ulterior motive.

Playing at St. George’s Hall in Perth from November 9, Alfred, Sarah and Charles featured, along with Mr. Hector Lacie’s ventriloquism. Listed as the assistant for The Entranced Lady was a “Madame Laroche”, who was, with a near certainty, Charles’ wife, Eleanor. There was a Madame Laroche in Australia, the partner of singer and comedian Fred Laroche with Hayward’s Combination Troupe from 1877-1878; but her movements do not correspond to the Silvesters. However in later years, Charles’ performances advertised “Marie Le Roche” or Marie De La Roche” and, for these, better proof is available.

Promoting just a short season, and in front of a fresh audience, the show began with good audiences, though some disappointment was expressed at the absence of many of the magical effects, most of the programme consisting of songs, roller-skating, the Prince of Wales Panorama and other “variety” fare. Things improved the following week, when Leo the talking Lion was introduced and the Fairy Fountain brought its usual enthusiastic response. By November 29, however, the season seems to have played out, and the ‘West Australian’ commented that, in moving to Fremantle, “we have had so many conjuring gentlemen in the colony that we fear he will be no more successful here than he was in Perth.” The Melbourne Argus also reported, “Why, I do not know, but he certainly does not draw….”

However, Alfred1 must have come to Perth with other plans ready to launch. On December 3 the Fremantle Herald gave an extensive report of a demonstration given by Dr. Silvester at the Perth Mechanics’ Institute. “Dr. Silvester, better known probably as the Fakir of Oolu, a versatile genius of the highest order and a chemist, is the discoverer of a gas which for all purposes of illumination as well as other economic operations promises to entirely supersede ordinary coal gas. Of course until this discovery is patented and brought into general use, it is not considered desirable to enter into details of manipulation, but it may be sufficient for the present brief notice to state that Dr. Silvester has proved its excellence and superiority over any other gas, not the least consideration to a consumer being its comparative cheapness.”

This was a radical move with enormous implications. The widespread lighting of streets using coal gas had begun in earnest in Sydney in 1846, with other cities following, but Perth would not see gas lighting until 1885. The entire population of Western Australia in 1881 was a mere 29,700 (the indigenous population was not included in the count) and it was the gold rushes of 1885 that would lead to a comparative ‘explosion’ in population, boosting the count to 184,000 by 1901.

Seeing the urgent need for lighting its towns, the Perth Gas Company was first launched in 1876, but little progress towards a systematic lighting infrastructure had been made by the time of Silvester’s  demonstration. A competitor, “Needle’s Gas” was in use for isolated purposes such as lighting the Exhibition Building; it had an unpleasant odour, but was still vying for approval as the “gas of choice”. Coal gas, though practical, was not especially bright.

Alfred was playing his cards close to his chest. We can discover that his formulation was a petroleum-based gas, and that it was a proven invention, not just a snake-oil claim made by a fly-by-night operator. Probably, this was something created during his long experience with the lighting of his Fairy Fountain, as he looked for something more convenient than the Oxyhydrogen mixture used; but for now, Alfred was keeping the manufacturing details to himself.

Of the flame produced, he was able to display the comparative brilliance of the light, how readily it could be regulated, and the force of the gas being distributed. There appeared to be great confidence among those present that the discovery was an exceedingly valuable one, and that it was likely to be introduced to the Western Australian public within a short timeframe.

Other claims which were made for the gas (which was eventually termed “Acolyte Gas”) were that the ingredients could be obtained in any quantity, that there was no danger (with ordinary precautions) in its generation and distribution, and that Silvester was prepared to supply the gas at rates which, compared with existing gas company rates “might be considered absurdly cheap.”

While furthering his business interests in Gas, Alfred Silvester joined forces with his oldest son to give a final entertainment at the Perth Town Hall, in the report of which the Fremantle Herald made a comment significant to both of the ‘Alfreds’. “There was a fairly good house – indeed a very good house, considering that illusions are not the sort of thing to bear being often looked at, and that the Professor has appeared before the public an unreasonable number of times for so small a community. In addition to this regular staff and the amateurs [the ‘Minstrels of the West’], he was supported on this occasion by his son Mr. Alfred Silvester, who has not been on the stage for some time, and who, to judge by the reception he got from the audience, was a welcome novelty.”

Back on the gas-promoting trail, advertisements highlighted all the advantages of Silvester’s “Acolyte” gas for lighting and cooking, and announced the proposed formation of a public company to introduce Acolyte to Perth. This happened in February 1882, the ‘City of Perth Gas Lighting Company’ being floated with a rather small capital of £3,000. At this stage, Alfred met with a committee and fully explained the way in which the gas was manufactured; he was at once given a certificate stating that they were quite satisfied that all he claimed for the gas was strictly true – resulting in a brisk uptake in applications for shares in the company.
In late April a single gas lamp was erected outside Mr. Saunder’s store, and “very many persons witnessed the illumination … the light may be seen burning in Hay Street any evening.”

Not everything, however, was going well for the Silvester family. The Freemasons’ Hotel, operated by Alfred2, changed hands with Mr. Arnot Francisco becoming the new proprietor. On May 25, 1882, Alfred Silvester was declared bankrupt and that was the end of his hotel experiment (Mr. Francisco, by July, would be up before the courts on a charge of allowing illegal card gambling to take place in the Freemasons’.) During the remainder of the year, Madame Silvester took up some of the slack by offering singing lessons. The Fakir and his family, doubtless in support of Alfred2, gave another couple of entertainments at St. George’s Hall on June 12 and 13, in which the whole family took part. Alfred2, on this occasion, presented “Le Salon du Diable” which is of interest since it is the same title given by Miss Angelique Schott to the playlet she had registered in America some years after working for Silvester senior, using the Enchanted Canopy as the central prop.

Alfred2 filled out the year by returning to his previous venture of organising “Popular Concerts” with performances in June, August, September and December, including a joint performance by Alfred2 and brother Charles in the “Pavilion of Enchantment” at the Working Men’s Institute. This may have been a difficult time for Alfred, but he was a long way from being finished; his career in magic would continue for another twenty-five years.

Everything was going swimmingly. The new company was headed and promoted by citizens of good repute, and the Prospectus issued in August was advertised as “the most valuable and brilliant yet invented, and from the extreme cheapness of its production, facilities of generation, and safety, it is calculated that the Company can secure a good return for their investment.”

On October 14, 1882, Perth witnessed the very first full street lighting in its history, using Silvester’s gas. High-street was lit up and proved highly successful, burning with a bright and steady glare.

And yet, by December, everything collapsed. A meeting of shareholders was told that Dr. Silvester’s gas “had been tested and found to be altogether too expensive for adoption on a scale sufficient for the requirements of the city.” It was decided to wind up the present Company and to consider forming a new company which would focus on the use of coal gas for city lighting. Quite how the Company could have promoted the gas as ‘absurdly cheap’ and then, too late, discover its true cost, is beyond comprehension. Silvester did not come in for much personal criticism, since his invention undoubtedly worked, but the press declared that the time for playing around with ‘patent gases’ such as Needle’s and Acolyte was over, and that coal gas was the future. “Now is the time for the citizens to practically decide whether they will avail themselves of all the advantages attendant upon gas lighting, or whether they will rest content to live on in the deep gloom of semi-darkness in these days of light and progress.” (Daily News, Perth, January 11, 1883)

As it happened, the entire question of gas street lighting was a moot point. In less than ten years, Perth streets would begin to be illuminated by a new-fangled energy source – Electricity.

It is clear that Silvester retained faith in his creation, at least for the purposes of interior and stage lighting. Twice during the following year (1883) he gave demonstrations, in Adelaide and Melbourne, during which he continued to make claims of the gas being inexpensive.

Not pretending to any scientific qualification, we simply reproduce these two reports, and note that Silvester still kept his ‘compounds’ a secret.

“Dr. Sylvester invited a few gentlemen to Garner’s Assembly-room on Monday morning to witness his process of manufacturing a new gas for which has obtained a patent [no record of this can be found] and with which he lighted up the city of Perth in West Australia [considerable exaggeration!] The doctor’s apparatus is not at all complicated, nor could any process of gas-making be more simple than the one exhibited. A copper generator containing a compound, the nature of which was not disclosed, was connected by indiarubber tubing with a gasometer formed by a large zinc can being placed bottom upwards in another can filled with water. Dr. Silvester then produced a phial containing a white liquid, a few drops of which were placed in a jug of water, and the contents of the jug were poured into the generator. The effect was almost instantly apparent on the gasometer, which rose steadily until in a few minutes it contained several feet of gas, which had passed through two purifiers. A light was applied to an ordinary burner, and a very brilliant flame was the result. The doctor states that the materials used are so inexpensive that he could manufacture gas at fourpence per thousand feet, or that after paying for labor it might be stored in a receiver at 1s. per 1,000 feet. The process should be a valuable one for large buildings that are in isolated positions, and if the gas can really be manufactured on a large scale at anything like the price named by Dr. Sylvester the gas companies of the colonies would be conferring a boon upon their consumers by entering into negotiations with the doctor for a share in his patent rights, by which the vendors of the new gas should receive profits as large as those obtained at present on the old system of gas-making, and the consumers’ rate should be reduced to considerably less than one-half the present price.”

“A reporter from the Herald office had an interview with Mr. Sylvester (the Fakir of Oolu) this morning, and was shown the apparatus and the method manufacturing the new illuminating gas invented by Dr. Sylvester, and mentioned in telegrams from Western Australia which were published in these columns. The machinery required for the production of the gas does not seem to be very complicated. It consists of a dome-shaped copper receiver, a vessel formed something like a coffee pot, a cylindrically shaped “scrubber” and a gasometer, all of which are connected by India rubber tubes. The doctor takes about a quart of ordinary Yan Yean water [ie, local drinking water] and puts into it a drop from a phial containing a dark liquid, resembling crude petroleum, though thinner in consistency. The water thus treated is poured into the copper receiver and in a few seconds the gas passes through the intermediate vessels and raises the gasometer. From the meter the gas is laid on to bats-wing, fishtail and Argand burners, and when the meter is sufficiently charged these are lit. The light is a very beautiful one, white and strong, of about 30 candle power to each of the burners. The Dr. is confident of producing this gas at a cost to the consumers of about 2s per 1000. The secret of its construction is, he says, contained in the dark coloured liquid, and in the contents of the copper receiver. He is now in treaty for the sale of half of his patent rights, reserving to himself, in addition the privilege of contracting for the illumination of theatre stages, footlights and border lights. Dr. Silvester also exhibited a very superior description of lime light, which was made by a mixture of the gas first described with oxygen, prepared by an old chemical method which is almost forgotten – the treatment of manganese with sulphuric acid. The light is much superior to the ordinary limelight.”

Regardless, there seems to have been no further outcome. After 1883 the gas story fades away like so much vapour.

For the present, we will leave Alfred junior in Western Australia, returning later to examine his career to 1907.

Finally the ‘Victorian Express’ took a gratuitous pot-shot from the other side of the country, declaring that the ‘Inquirer’ was a fossilised rag which smelt as if it had been printed in a dungeon by a fellow who was manacled and leg-ironed! Alfred was probably glad to see the back of the matter, arriving in Adelaide at the end of February 1883, and then moving back to Melbourne.

Said the S.A. Advertiser (June 19), “Dr. Silvester, the original Fakir of Oolu, has visited Adelaide so often and earned so good a reputation as an entertainer that it is hardly necessary to say that on his reappearance, after a somewhat lengthened absence, at Garner’s Assembly-rooms on Monday night he was accorded a very hearty welcome. The Fakir of Oolu is not only a clever prestidigitator, but he possesses the accomplishment of being able very speedily to place himself en rapport with his audience. The puns he makes use of, even if they are not so new as they were a year or two ago, still maintain their character for atrocity, and a laugh is forced out of the most blasé listener, while the air of bonhomie with which each trick is presented is also by no means an unpleasant adjunct to the entertainment.”

This must have been a pleasant relief to the Fakir, following a difficult time of small audiences, even though the closing playlet, “Christmas Bells” was described by the ‘Journal’ as “a dreary sketch, wretchedly played.” His season continued for a healthy three weeks, concluding on July 7 with a well-attended Benefit night for the Fakir.

All of a sudden, on August 16, advertisements were printed; “Dr. Silvester’s company being disbanded, tradesmen are cautioned against giving credit.” – and in the remainder of the year, Dr. Silvester is seen only once more, as a volunteer performer on a bill in aid of the Dramatic and Musical Association of Australia, November 17. Alfred was not done yet, but it seems that upon his marriage, Charles and his wife must have decided to finally leave the show, as they are not seen again in the Fakir’s advertisements.

1884 arrived, and Alfred opened a February season at the Melbourne Opera House in Bourke Street, featuring Madame Silvester with thought reading, a Marionette entertainment by Dean and Herbert, not one but two simultaneously suspended ‘Entranced Ladies’, and a series of his best known small feats for which he must have recruited a substitute assistant (the Talking Lion and Glass of Water effects would normally have been aided by Charles). The Fairy Fountain, as usual, concluded the evening. The ’Record’ (2) said that “there is no illusion about the excellence of his entertainment … he places his audience in a friendly footing, and jokes with them about everything he does, so that they are pleased to be beguiled by so genial a companion, and think it condescending of a favored magician to exhibit himself in this homely aspect.”

After closing on February 16, no more is seen of the Fakir until November 1884, when Silvester became a popular attraction at the Exhibition Palace during celebrations of the Jubilee of Victoria’s settlement. Silvester presented magic, the suspension illusion, and his ever-popular Fountain all through the month.

Aside from this, Alfred delivered an informative explanation to the Herald (April 25) showing the reasons why Boilers were prone to explode, due to a near-doubling of internal pressure from only a slight increase of heat.

But in May, the press reported, “The friends of Dr. Silvester, the Fakir of Oolu, will be sorry to learn that he is very ill and confined to bed by a severe attack of gout.”  Whether his old problem of gout was Alfred’s only health issue at this stage is doubtful, based on later reports. He appears to have recovered enough to operate his oxyhydrogen and magnesium lamps at Mr. Curtis’ Annual Ball at Fitzroy, illuminating the dancers. On October 31, the Exhibition Building featured the famed Fairy Fountain during its Carnival, though whether Silvester operated the fountain is not mentioned.

The Evening News of January 14, 1886 reported that Alfred “had been suffering for some time from paralysis of the brain”; or what today would be commonly termed a ‘stroke’. He was said to have only partially recovered (The ‘Lorgnette’ referred to a ‘lingering and painful illness’). The Geelong Advertiser, however, stated that Silvester had been in Geelong in early January.

On the morning of January 13, 1886 at the age of just fifty-five, Alfred Silvester died at his home in Princes Street, Fitzroy; his son Charles was with him. On the following day his funeral moved to the Melbourne General Cemetery, where he was buried in the same plot as his first wife, Mary. (3)

Alfred’s present wife, Sarah, would eventually re-marry, in November 1887 to Henry James Kingsley. She had one more child, Gladys Jessie Kingsley (1889-1925), and lived until the age of 92 (February 4, 1948). She is buried at Boroondara General Cemetery in Kew. (4)

A man of keen intelligence, scientific mind, and adventurous spirit, Alfred Silvester was possibly the first magician in Australia who could be said to have become a permanent audience favourite. Though his years in Australia were little more than a decade, his reputation was always solid, his illusions innovative, his personality kind and likeable. He was the father of numerous generations to come of performers in Australia, some magicians, others variety and musical entertainers. Most notably, the Fakir of Oolu regularly inspired a word which is only rarely applied to a conjurer – Alfred Silvester was an artist.

Inscription on Alfred and Mary Silvester's grave:

(1) Letter to the Fremantle Herald from Alfred2, February 17, 1883 p.3

(2) The Record, February 8, 1884

(3) Location of gravesite for Alfred Silvester and his first wife, Mary.

Silvester's grave is at Church of England compartment N, grave 336. There seems to be no signage for section "N", the nearest, very old sign, being for "O".

Enter the cemetery from South Avenue and turn right at the first intersection of First Ave / Sixth Ave. Continue down Sixth Ave and turn into Fifth Ave on your left. After a couple of hundred metres this turns into "Centre Ave"; if you pass Tenth Ave you have gone too far. On the left of the road, about twenty metres before the Tenth Ave sign, look for a terracotta gutter extending into the grave area, next to a stone for Private G.E.Kanngieser and a tall slim yellow column (Heales).

The map from the cemetery office shows this as "Third Avenue" but it is nothing more than a narrow path with the gutter. Follow the brick guttering about 30-40 metres until reaching a grave for Forbes. Look left for a tall brown stone column with an urn on the top (another Forbes, plus Luxton), just ten metres from the Forbes grave.

Silvester's grave is immediately next to the brown column (with Forbes and Thomas Luxton buried). The grave is a rectangular raised grave with a heavy flat stone on top. The text is very worn due to being flat-on to the sky, but the stone is unbroken.

(4) Sarah Amelia Beaumont/Silvester/Kingsley grave - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208219513/sarah-amelia-kingsley