Part 3
Add in your mind thus: 7 and 8 are 15, and 9, 24; and 7, 31; and 8, 39; and 8 more, 47: in 47 there is 5 times 9, as 9 times 5 make 45; there remains 2, therefore in order to complete 9, 7 are to be added; consequently the sum to be multiplied will be 7,897,887.
Then give this sum, which has been increased by a 7, to the person who has presented it to you: and tell him to chuse whatever multiplier he pleases; then retire while he does the multiplication, recommending him to strike out the figure he pleases, as usual, and to set down on a piece of paper the remaining sum, the figure being defalcated, and the remaining figures ranged as he pleases; and in order to guess the number that was struck out, you are to proceed as it has been explained for the first manner of operating, and with the same tricks.
CHAP. XXXII.
_To make any Pen-knife out of three jump out of a Goblet, agreeable to the Option of the Company._
Take a silver goblet, as, on account of its opacity, it will hide the means you will employ to make the pen-knife jump out at the desire of the assembly.
This operation consists in a small spring, about an inch broad, by two inches and a quarter long.
You are to take care to subject or bend this spring before you begin the trick with a little bit of sugar, which being compressed between the two ends of the spring, will prevent it from unbending.
Then ask the company, shewing your three pen-knives of different colours, which of them they chuse to see jump out of the goblet.
Put afterwards your three pen-knives in the goblet, taking care to lay the end of the handle of the chosen pen-knife in a little round hole that is in the upper end of the spring, confined by the bit of sugar; and before you withdraw your hand from the goblet, which must contain in the bottom some drops of water, take a little of it with the tip of your finger, and put it dexterously on the sugar, which by melting will leave the spring at liberty to extend and make the pen-knife jump out.
While the sugar is melting, you may stand far from the goblet, and command the pen-knife to jump out; and this will be done to the great astonishment of the spectators. Yet nothing is so simple as the means to make this experiment succeed, without the least assistance from any confederate.
N. B. These little springs, fit for use, may be had of Mr. PINETTI, Hay-Market.
CHAP. XXXIII.
_To pull off any Person’s Shirt, without undressing him, or having Occasion for a Confederate._
This trick requires only dexterity; and nevertheless, when I performed it at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market, every body imagined that the person whom I had tricked out of his shirt was in a confederacy with me.
The means of performing this trick are the following; only observing that the cloaths of the person whose shirt is to be pulled off be wide and easy.
Begin by making him pull off his stock, and unbuttoning his shirt at the neck and sleeves, afterwards tye a little string in the button-hole of the left sleeve; then, passing your hand behind his back, pull the shirt out of his breeches, and slip it over his head; then pulling it out before in the same manner, you will leave it on his stomach; after that, go to the right hand, and pull the sleeve down, so as to have it all out of the arm: the shirt being then all of a heap, as well in the right sleeve as before the stomach, you are to make use of the little string fastened to the button-hole of the left sleeve, to get back the sleeve that must have slipt up, and to pull the whole shirt out that way.
To hide your way of operating from the person whom you unshirt, and from the assembly, you may cover his head with a lady’s cloak, holding a corner of it in your teeth.
In order to be more at your ease, you may mount on a chair, and do the whole operation under the cloak. Such are the means I used when I performed publicly this trick.
CONTENTS.
Page PREFACE 5
CHAP. I. Curious Method of restoring to Life, in two Minutes, a Fly that has been drowned even twenty-four hours 11
CHAP. II. To make a Colour that will appear or disappear by Means of the Air 12
CHAP. III. Method of drawing a deformed Figure, which will appear well proportioned from a certain Point of View ibid.
CHAP. IV. To change the Colour of a Rose 13
CHAP. V. To render hideous the Faces of all the Company 14
CHAP. VI. Method of Engraving in Relief on the Shell of a new-laid Egg ibid.
CHAP. VII. To shoot a Swallow flying, with a Gun loaded with Powder, as usual; and after, to find Means to bring it to life again 15
CHAP. VIII. To make a Calve’s Head bellow as if alive, when dressed and served up 16
CHAP. IX. A puzzling Question to be proposed for Solution 17
CHAP. X. To dispose two little Figures, so that one shall light a Candle, and the other put it out 19
CHAP. XI. A curious Secret to make a Card pass from one Hand into the other 20
CHAP. XII. To change a Card which is in the Hand of a Person, recommending him to cover it well 23
CHAP. XIII. To guess a Card that has been thought of by any body, by writing before-hand on a Paper or Card a Number, which will certainly be that of the Card that has been thought of 25
CHAP. XIV. A mathematical Combination for guessing, in a whole Pack composed of Fifty-two Cards, how many Points will make the Cards under each Parcel, which Parcels are to be made by one of the Company, observing to him that each Parcel he makes is to compose the Number of Thirteen, to begin from the Point of the first Card which he takes to form each Parcel 28
CHAP. XV. To guess the Thoughts of any Person, assuring him, that you will write before-hand on a Piece of Paper the Amount of the Parcel of Cards he shall happen to chuse out of the two placed on the Table 32
CHAP. XVI. A curious and agreeable Wager, which you are sure of winning 34
CHAP. XVII. A trick with Cards; uniting the double Advantage of being very easy and infallible, it being on a little numerical Combination 35
CHAP. XVIII. Sympathetic Inks 36
CHAP. XIX. To make an Addition before the Figures are set, by knowing only how many Figures are in each Row; as likewise how many Rows compose the whole; and then adding yourself some Figures equal to those that had been set 38
CHAP. XX. An artificial Spider, which moves by Electricity 42
CHAP. XXI. To extinguish two Wax Candles, and light two others, distant about three Feet, by the firing of a Pistol, loaded with Powder, as usual 43
CHAP. XXII. To compose a red Colour, imitating the Colour of Blood 44
CHAP. XXIII. To extinguish a Wax Candle, at eighty or a hundred Paces distance, by firing a Gun loaded with Ball, and to be certain of not missing, however unskilful may be the Marksman 47
CHAP. XXIV. To cut a Glass, a Looking-glass, or even a Piece of Crystal, let it be ever so thick, without the Help of a Diamond, in the same Shape as the Mark of the Drawing made on it with Ink 49
CHAP. XXV. To melt a Piece of Steel, as if it was lead, without requiring a very great Fire 50
CHAP. XXVI. To unite Wax and Water, (Things absolutely opposite to each other); this Union, made in the twentieth Part of a Minute, forms a good Pomatum to clean the Skin, and render it soft and white. It is a fine Cosmetic 52
CHAP. XXVII. A curious Method of sealing a Letter, so as not to be opened, by variegating the Seal with different coloured Species of Wax 53
CHAP. XXVIII. To make fine blue Wax, which is very difficult to be had 54
CHAP. XXIX. A philosophical Mushroom 55
CHAP. XXX. To make a Ring shift from one Hand to another, and to make it go on whatever Finger is required on the other Hand, while somebody holds both your Arms, in order to prevent any communication between them 57
CHAP. XXXI. To guess by smelling, which has been the Number struck out by a Person in the Company, in the Product of a Multiplication given him to do 59
CHAP. XXXII. To make any Pen-knife out of three jump out of a Goblet, agreeable to the Option of the Company 63
CHAP. XXXIII. To pull off any Person’s Shirt, without undressing him, or having Occasion for a Confederate 64
THE END.
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Transcriber’s Notes:
The single footnote has been moved to the end of its chapter and relabeled.
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.