Part 10

Having thus closed your boxes, you produce what appears to be a single box, and lay it on the table. You now ask the person, who still retains his hold of the shilling in the handkerchief, if he is sure that it is there. He will reply in the affirmative; you then request him to allow you to take the handkerchief, and having done so, you strike that part of the handkerchief containing the shilling on the box, and immediately shake out the handkerchief, holding it by two corners, and shifting it round so as to get the shilling within your grasp: it will thus appear that the shilling is no longer there. You desire the person to open the box, and hand it round, till the shilling be found; and when the last box is opened, and the shilling taken out, you ask the lender to state whether it is the one which he marked; to which he must, of course, reply in the affirmative.

THE LOCOMOTIVE SHILLING.

Privately place a shilling, which you previously mark on the head side with a cross, under a candlestick, or in any other out-of-the-way situation, where it is not likely to be discovered. You next borrow a shilling of one of the company, and say: “Now I am going to show you a trick with this shilling, but that you may know it again, I will mark it.” Then take your penknife, and cross it in the same manner as the one you have concealed; show it to the person who lent it to you, and ask him if he will know it again. He will reply: “Yes; it is marked with a cross.” Knock under the table, and say “Presto! fly quickly!” at the same time, adroitly conveying the shilling into your pocket. You then tell the spectators that it is gone; but you have a strong notion that if they look they will find it under the candlestick, (or whatever other place you may have concealed it in,) where the first shilling you marked will of course be found, and having the same marks as the genuine one will be mistaken for it.

THE PENETRATIVE SIXPENCE.

You profess that you will make a sixpence appear to pass through the table. To perform this feat, you must have a handkerchief, in one corner of which is sewed a sixpence.—Take it out of your pocket, and ask one of the company to lend you a sixpence, which you must seem to carefully wrap up in the middle of the handkerchief, but instead of which, you keep it in the palm of your hand, and in its stead, wrap up the corner in which the other sixpence is sewed, in the midst of the handkerchief, and bid the person from whom you borrowed the sixpence, feel that it is there. You then lay it under a hat upon the table, take a glass in the hand in which you have concealed the sixpence, and hold it under the table. Give three knocks upon the table, crying “Presto! come quickly!” Then drop the sixpence into the glass; bring the glass from under the table, and exhibit the sixpence to the spectators. You lastly take the handkerchief from under the hat, and shake it, taking care to hold it by the corner in which the sixpence was sewed.

THE VANISHING SIXPENCE.

Having previously stuck a small piece of white wax on the nail of your middle finger, lay a sixpence on the palm of your hand, and addressing the company, state that it will vanish at the word of command. “Many persons,” you observe, “perform this feat, by letting the sixpence fall into their sleeve; but to convince you that I shall not have recourse to any such deception, I will turn up my cuffs.” You then close your hand, and bringing the waxed nail in contact with the sixpence, it will firmly adhere to it. You then blow your hand, and cry “Begone!” and suddenly opening it, and exhibiting the palm, you show that the sixpence has vanished. If you borrow the sixpence of any of the company, take care to rub off the wax, before you restore it to the owner.

TO MAKE A SIXPENCE BALANCE AND SPIN ON ITS EDGE, ON THE POINT OF A NEEDLE.

Procure a common wine-bottle, two forks, two corks, a needle, a sixpence, and a penknife. Having corked the bottle, force the eye of the needle into the cork perpendicularly, leaving more than half the needle sticking up. You next cut a small slit with the penknife in the centre of the bottom of the second cork, into which you insert the sixpence edgewise; then stick the forks into the upper cork, and, with a steady hand, place the edge of the sixpence on the point of the needle, and it will immediately find its balance. You may now take the upper cork between the finger and thumb, and spin it round as fast as you please, as the sixpence will not fall off. When it goes slow, hit one of the forks with your finger as it goes round, to increase its velocity.

THE MULTIPLYING COIN.

Let a tumbler be half-filled with water; put a sixpence in it; and holding a plate over the top, turn the glass upside down. The sixpence will fall down on the plate, and appear to be a shilling; while at the same time a sixpence will seem to be swimming in the water. If a shilling is put in the glass, it will have the appearance of a quarter of a dollar and a shilling; and if a quarter of a dollar were put in, it would seem to be half a dollar and a quarter of a dollar.

MAGIC RAT TRAP.

Prepare a pasteboard circle, upon one side of which draw a figure of a cage, and on the other side that of a rat. Near the outer edge of the circle fasten two strings opposite each other. So that they may be held between the fore finger and thumb in such manner that the circle may be made to revolve rapidly. When it is set in motion the transition is so quick, that it presents the appearance of a rat in the cage.

TO SHOW THE VELOCITY OF MOTION.

Take a long hollow stalk or reed, suspend it horizontally by two loops of single hairs; by striking it with a sharp quick stroke at a point nearly in the centre, between the hairs, it may be cut through without breaking either of them. The hairs in this case would have been ruptured, if they had partaken of the force applied to the stalk; but the division of the latter being affected before the impulse could be propagated to the hairs, they must consequently remain unbroken.

A smart blow, with a slight wand or hollow reed on the edge of a glass tumbler, would break the wand, without injury to the glass.

Lay a small piece of money upon a card placed over the mouth of a glass tumbler, and resting upon the rim of the glass. The card may be withdrawn with such speed and dexterity, that the piece of money will not be removed laterally, but will drop into the glass.

THE EXPLODING BUBBLE.

If you take up a small quantity of melted glass with a tube, (the bowl of a common tobacco pipe will do,) and let a drop fall into a vessel of water, it will chill and condense with a fine spiral tail, which being broken, the whole substance will burst with a loud explosion, without injury either to the party that holds it, or him that breaks it; but if the _thick_ end is struck even with a hammer, it will not break.

THE MAGIC PICTURE.

Take two level pieces of glass, (plate glass is the best,) about three inches long and four wide, exactly of the same size; lay one on the other, and manage to leave a space between them by pasting a piece of card, or two or three small pieces of thick paper at each corner.

Join these glasses together at the edge by a composition of lime slacked by exposure to the air, and white of an egg. Cover all the edges of these glasses with parchment or bladder, except at one end, which is to be left open to admit the following composition:

Dissolve by a slow fire six ounces of hog’s-lard, with half an ounce of white wax; to which you may add an ounce of clear linseed oil.

This must be poured in its liquid state, and before a fire, between the glasses, by the space left in the sides, and which you are then to close up. Wipe the glasses clean, and hold them before the fire, to see that the composition will not run out at any part.

Then fasten with gum a picture or print, painted on very thin paper, with its face to one of the glasses, and if you like, you may fix the whole in a frame.

While the mixture between the glasses is cold, the picture will be quite concealed, but become transparent when held to the fire; and as the composition cools, it will gradually disappear.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING.

Provide a tin tube that is larger at one end than it is at the other, and in which there are several holes. Fill this tube with powdered resin; and when it is shook over the flame of a torch, the reflection will produce the exact appearance of lightning.

THREE OBJECTS, DISCERNIBLE ONLY WITH BOTH EYES.

If you fix three pieces of paper against the wall of a room at equal distances, at the height of your eye, placing yourself directly before them, at a few yards’ distance, and close your right eye, and look at them with your left, you will see only two of them, suppose the first and second; alter the position of your eye, and you will see the first and third; alter your position a second time, you will see the second and third, but never the whole three together; by which it appears, that a person who has only one eye can never see three objects placed in this position, nor all the parts of one object of the same extent, without altering the situation of his eye.

TO TELL BY A WATCH DIAL THE HOUR WHEN A PERSON INTENDS TO RISE.

The person is told to set the hand of his watch at any hour he pleases, which hour he tells you; and you add in your own mind 12 to it. You then desire him to count privately the number of that addition on the dial, commencing at the next hour to that at which he intends to rise, and including the hour at which he has placed the hand; which will give the answer; for example,

A intends to rise at 6 (this he conceals to himself;) he places the hand at 8, which he tells B, who, in his own mind, adds 12 to 8, which make 20. B then tells A to count 20 on the dial, beginning at the next hour to that at which he proposes to rise; which will be 7, and counting backwards, reckoning each hour as 1, and including in his addition the number of the hour the hand is placed at, the addition will end at 6, which is the hour proposed; thus,

The hour the hand is placed at is 8

The next hour to that which A intends to rise at is 7, which counts for 1

Count back the hours from 6, and reckon them at 1 each, there will be 11 hours, viz. 4, 3, 2, 1, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 11 —— Making 20

TO MAKE A RING SUSPEND BY A THREAD, AFTER THE THREAD HAS BEEN BURNED.

Soak a piece of thread in urine, or common salt and water. Tie it to a ring, not larger than a wedding ring. When you apply the flame of a candle to it, it will burn to ashes, but yet sustain the ring.

TO MELT A PIECE OF MONEY IN A WALNUT-SHELL, WITHOUT INJURING THE SHELL.

Bend any thin coin, and put it into half a walnut-shell; place the shell on a little sand, to keep it steady. Then fill the shell, with a mixture made of three parts of very dry pounded nitre, one part of flowers of sulphur, and a little saw-dust well sifted. If you then set light to the mixture, you will find, when it is melted, that the metal will also be melted in the bottom of the shell, in form of a button, which will become hard when the burning matter round it is consumed; the shell will have sustained very little injury.

THE MAGICAL MIRRORS.

Make two holes in the wainscot of a room, each a foot high and ten inches wide, and about a foot distant from each other. Let these apertures be about the height of a man’s head, and in each of them place a transparent glass in a frame, like a common mirror.

Behind the partition, and directly facing each aperture, place two mirrors, inclosed in the wainscot, in an angle of forty-five degrees.[A] These mirrors are each to be eighteen inches square: and all the space between them must be enclosed with pasteboard painted black, and well closed, that no light can enter; let there be also two curtains to cover them, which you may draw aside at pleasure.

When a person looks into one of these fictitious mirrors, instead of seeing his own face, he will see the object that is in front of the other; thus, if two persons stand at the same time before these mirrors, instead of each seeing himself, they will reciprocally see each other.

There should be a sconce with a lighted candle, placed on each side of the two glasses in the wainscot, to enlighten the faces of the persons who look in them, or the experiment will not have so remarkable an effect.

[A] That is, half-way between a line drawn perpendicularly to the ground and its surface.

THE ENCHANTED BOTTLE.

Fill a glass bottle with water to the beginning of the neck; leave the neck empty, and cork it. Suspend this bottle opposite a concave mirror, and beyond its focus, that it may appear reversed. Place yourself still further distant from the bottle; and instead of the water appearing, as it really is, at the bottom of the bottle, the bottom will be empty, and the water seen at the top.

If the bottle be suspended with the neck downwards, it will be reflected in its natural position, and the water at the bottom, although, in reality, it is inverted, and fills the neck, leaving the bottom vacant. While the bottle is in this position, uncork it, and let the water run gradually out: it will appear, that while the real bottle is emptying, the reflected one is filling. Care must be taken that the bottle is not more than half or three parts full, and that no other liquid is used but water, as in either of these cases, the illusion ceases.

THE ARMED APPARITION.

If a person with a drawn sword place himself before a large concave mirror, but further from it than its focus, he will see an inverted image of himself in the air, between him and the mirror, of a less size than himself. If he steadily present the sword towards the centre of the mirror, an image of the sword will come out from it, point to point, as if to fence with him; and by his pushing the sword nearer, the image will appear to come nearer to him and almost to touch his breast. If the mirror be turned 45 degrees, or one-eighth round, the reflected image will go out perpendicular to the direction of the sword presented, and apparently come to another person placed in the direction of the motion of the image, who, if he be unacquainted with the experiment, and does not see the original sword, will be much surprised and alarmed.

TO EXTRACT THE SILVER OUT OF A RING, THAT IS THICK GILDED, SO THAT THE GOLD MAY REMAIN ENTIRE.

Take a silver ring that is thick gilded. Make a little hole through the gold into the silver; then put the ring into aqua-fortis, in a warm place: it will dissolve the silver, and the gold will remain whole.

CURIOUS EXPERIMENT WITH A GLASS OF WATER.

Saturate a certain quantity of water in a moderate heat, with three ounces of sugar; and when it will no longer receive that there is still room in it for two ounces of salt of tartar, and after that for an ounce and a drachm of green vitriol, nearly six drachms of nitre, the same of salammoniac, two drachms and a scruple of alum, and a drachm and a half of borax.

A LUMINOUS BOTTLE, WHICH WILL SHOW THE HOUR ON A WATCH IN THE DARK.

Throw a bit of phosphorous, of the size of a pea, into a long glass phial, and pour boiling oil carefully over it, till the phial is one-third filled. The phial must be carefully corked, and when used should be unstopped, to admit the external air, and closed again. The empty space of the phial will then appear luminous, and give as much light as an ordinary lamp. Each time that the light disappears, on removing the stopper it will instantly re-appear. In cold weather the bottle should be warmed in the hands before the stopper is removed. A phial thus prepared may be used every night for six months.

RUSES.

THE WONDERFUL HAT.

Place three pieces of bread, or other eatable, at a little distance from each other on a table, and cover each with a hat; you then take up the first hat, and removing the bread, put it into your mouth, and let your company see that you swallow it; then raise the second hat, and eat the bread which was under that, and do the same with the third. Having eaten the three pieces, give any person in company liberty to choose under which hat he would wish those three pieces of bread to be; when he has made choice of one of the hats, put it on your head, and ask him if he does not think that they are under it.

TO BRING A PERSON DOWN UPON A FEATHER.

This is a practical pun:—You desire any one to stand on a chair or table, and you tell him that, notwithstanding his weight, you will bring him down upon a feather. You then leave the room, and procuring a feather from a feather-bed, you give it to him, and tell him you have performed your promise,—that you engaged to bring him _down_ upon a feather, which you have done; for there is the feather, and, if he looks, he’ll find _down_ upon it.

THE APPARENT IMPOSSIBILITY.

You profess yourself able to show any one what he never saw, what you never saw, and what nobody else ever saw, and which, after you two have seen, nobody else ever shall see.

After requesting the company to guess this riddle, and they have professed themselves unable to do so, produce a nut, and having cracked it, take out the kernel, and ask them if they have ever seen that before; they will of course answer, No; you reply, neither have I, and I think you will confess that nobody else has ever seen it, and now no one shall ever see it again; saying which, you put the kernel into your mouth and eat it.

AN OMELET COOKED IN A HAT, OVER THE FLAME OF A CANDLE.

You ask the company if they would like an omelet cooked; then you break four eggs in a hat, place the hat for a short time over the flame of a candle, and shortly after produce an omelet, completely cooked, and quite hot.

Some persons would be credulous enough to believe that by the help of certain ingredients you had been enabled to cook the omelet without fire; but the secret of the trick is, that the omelet had been previously cooked and placed in the hat, but could not be seen, because the operator, when breaking the eggs, placed it too high for the spectators to observe the contents. The eggs were empty ones, the contents having been previously extracted, by being sucked through a small aperture, but to prevent the company from suspecting this, the operator manages, as if by accident, to let a full one fall on the table, which breaking, induces a belief that the others are also full.

THE IMPOSSIBLE OMELET.

You produce some butter, eggs, and other ingredients for making an omelet, together with a frying-pan, in a room where there is a fire, and state, that the cleverest cook will not be able to make an omelet with them. The wager is won by having previously caused the eggs to be boiled very hard.

GO IF YOU CAN.

You tell a person that you will clasp his hands together in such a manner, that he shall not be able to leave the room without unclasping them, although you will not confine his feet, or bend his body, or in any way oppose his exit.

The trick is performed by clasping the party’s hands round the pillar of a large circular table or other bulky article of furniture, too large for him to drag through the doorway.

THE FIGURE PUZZLE.

You assert that you can prove the half of nine to be either four or six; and the half of twelve to be seven. To make this manifest you have only to draw a nine or a twelve in numerals, and fold the paper across the middle, as in the margin.

THE VISIBLE INVISIBLE.

You tell the company that you will place a candle in such a manner that every person in the room, except one, shall see it; yet you will not blindfold him, nor in any way restrain his person, or offer the least impediment to his examining or going to any part of the room he pleases. This trick is accomplished by placing the candle on the party’s head; but it cannot be performed if a looking-glass is in the room, as that will enable him to turn the laugh against you.

THE DOUBLE MEANING.

Place a glass of any liquid upon the table, put a hat over it, and say: “I will engage to drink the liquid under that hat, and yet I’ll not touch the hat.” You then get under the table, and after giving three knocks, you make a noise with your mouth as if you were swallowing the liquid. Then getting from under the table, you say: “Now, gentlemen, be pleased to look.” Some one, eager to see if you have drunk the liquid, will raise up the hat, when you instantly take the glass, and drink the contents, saying: “Gentlemen, I have fulfilled my promise. You are all witnesses that _I_ did not touch the hat.”

QUITE TIRED OUT.

You undertake to make a person so tired, by attempting to carry a small stick out of the room, as to be unable to accomplish it, although you will add nothing to his burthen, nor lay any restraint upon his personal liberty. To perform this manœuvre, you take up the stick, and cutting off a very small sliver, you direct him to carry it out of the room, and return for more; concluding by telling him, that you mean him to perform as many similar journeys as you can cut pieces off the stick. As this may be made to amount to many thousands, he will of course gladly give up the undertaking.

SOMETHING OUT OF THE COMMON.

Having picked a stick or stone off a common, you tell a person that you are about to show him something which will surprise him,—something, in fact, _quite out of the common_. Having thus excited his curiosity, you produce the stick or stone, or whatever else you may have picked up, which of course he will examine very intently, and at length observe, that he sees nothing extraordinary in it. “That may be,” you reply, “and yet, I assure you, that it is really something out of the common.” This will, no doubt, set him upon a fresh examination, which will naturally end in his asking for an explanation. This you give, by telling him that “though not _uncommon_, it is _out of the common_, for it is _out of —— Common_;” and no doubt, the company present will indulge in a hearty laugh at the querist’s expense.

TO RUB ONE SIXPENCE INTO TWO.

Previously wet a sixpence slightly, and stick it to the under edge of a table, (without a cover,) at the place where you are sitting. You then borrow a sixpence from one of the company, and tucking up your sleeves very high, and opening your fingers, to show that you have not another concealed, rub it quickly backwards and forwards on the table, with your right hand, holding your left under the edge of the table to catch it. After two or three feigned unsuccessful attempts to accomplish your object, you loosen the concealed sixpence with the tips of the fingers of the left hand, at the same time that you are sweeping the borrowed sixpence into it; and rubbing them a little while together in your hands, you throw them both on the table.

MAGIC CIRCLE.

You tell a person you will place him in the centre of a room, and draw a circle of chalk round him, which shall not exceed three feet in diameter, yet out of which he shall not be able to leap, though his legs shall be perfectly free. When the party has exhausted his ingenuity in trying to discover by what means you can prevent his accomplishing so seemingly easy a task, you ask him if he will try, and on his assenting, you bring him into the middle of the room, and having requested him to button his coat tightly, you draw with a piece of chalk, a circle round his waist, outside his coat, and tell him to jump out of it!

It will greatly improve this trick if the person be blindfolded, as he will not be aware of the mode of performing it till the bandage is removed, provided his attention be diverted while you are drawing the line round him.