Hanky Panky

THE POTATO MANNIKIN.

For an impromptu puppet to answer questions about cards, concealed watches, and so forth, cut a hole in a potato at one end for a forefinger to enter. Scoop out for eyes, nose, and mouth; put on a horsehair wig and beard. Drape the hand in a handkerchief to represent the cloaked body, while the thumb and middle finger play the part of arms, and you have such an improvised Talking Hand as Edmund Kean employed to hold Byron spellbound for hours, and as is described of more elaborate manufacture in the “Art of Amusing.”

A MASQUERADE TRICK.

At the height of the merriment of a grand ball in an opera house, there suddenly is heard in an upper tier, a sound as of a violent quarrel, amidst which uproar such shouts of terrible import as, “Over with him!” “Turn him out!” “Throw him over!” are distinguishable.

Suddenly a tumultuous group are seen from below to approach the railing, among the furious combatants of which one figure is seen battling fiercely. But all his frantic resistance is seen to be useless; his hold is detached from the seats, and slowly but surely he is bent over the rail, and—as a cry of horror breaks from the onlookers’ pale lips—is flung over upon the mass of spellbound revellers beneath.

Dashed to the floor? Dear, no! for his descent is abruptly suspended at about the height of a man, and he swings calmly above the plumes and head-dresses.

It was but a puppet with a rope round under the armpits regulated to prevent it from falling among the people in the pit.

The negro minstrels excite much laughter by a burlesque anatomical lecture upon a ludicrous skeleton drawn on a slate or blackboard.

Having traced the figure with chalk, after a short introductory speech, proceed with the lecture, and at the end express amazement that the audience should not have been impressed with the solemnity of your discourse, you, of course, being unaware that the drawing has mysteriously become animated.

You suddenly perceive that the figure has taken to dancing, and, inexpressibly shocked, you endeavour to quell its Terpsichorean propensities. Finding that in vain, you cut the Gordian knot by seizing the board, and running out of the room with it, despite the vigorous kicking of the anatomy.

The next instant you return, and, making your bow, say gravely:

“Ladies an’ gemblemen: If de skillingtums ack dis yere way wid de perfessers, what will dey do when de medical men is all lady doctors?” And exit.

Explanation.—The black board has both sides alike. On the one not seen at first by the audience a skeleton, drawn on black cardboard, is cut and pinned up by the head. The thread connecting the limbs at the joints and the pulling string should be black.

After making a few chalk marks on the board, you turn it and chalk the edges of the skeleton, the limbs, the ribs, &c., without moving it. Then take the pulling string in your left hand, held behind the board, whilst your right gesticulates and points out the osteological peculiarities, and set the figure dancing as you please.

If made of metal, strings can be adjusted to shake the head, unfold the fingers, &c.

Dolls with ball-and-socket joints to the limbs make excellent marionettes. Suspend them as in figure 148.

The rod A is held in the left hand, and the different threads are worked with the right fingers. If the figure has many articulations and threads to control their movements, hang the stick on a hook at its centre, and use both ends.

A proscenium is constructed, with “a scene flat” set far enough back to let your hands play freely in the intervening space.

THE GYROSCOPE.

This instrument illustrates the law, that the axis of rotation is preserved, in any fixed direction, immovable, while the particles surrounding it are in rapid rotary motion. Hence the humming and the peg-top stand erect, the axis of rotation—the spike or the peg—being kept in a vertical position while in motion; it falls as soon as this motion sinks below a certain rate. This power may be illustrated by placing a disc of wood, or of metal, upon one end of a weighing beam, from which one of the scales has been removed. The disc being equipoised by weights in the opposite scale, place the beam at an angle of 45—the disc being the lowest end—then, by striking the disc, get it into rapid rotation. It will be found that, while spinning, the beam is preserved rigidly in its position; but, as the disc comes to rest, the beam is restored to its horizontal position. Several small weights may be placed in the scale, while the disc is rotating, without disturbing the position of the beam.

The ordinary gyroscopic action takes place when the lever D is held, the weight F being carried horizontally round the vertical axis, passing through the pivots C C. When the wheel is not spinning, the weight F turns the ring A A into the vertical position, so that the weight pulls downwards in the vertical line passing through the centre of the wheel. The parts carried by the lever D are then accurately balanced by means of the adjustable weight H. The ring A A is next held, in the position shown, by the thread G being hooked on the pivot screw opposite the weight F. If now the ring B is turned round on the pivots C C, the gyroscope or the weight H will preponderate accordingly as the weight F is further from or nearer to the supporting point of the pillar E than the centre of the wheel. Finally, spin the wheel, and throw off the thread G. It will then be found that although the weight F, in being carried round by the gyration, is continually altering its distance from the point of support, the apparatus keeps in balance. The gravitation of the weight F is not, as some think, annihilated or converted into horizontal action, but still tells fully, doing so, however, as though acting at the centre of the wheel. If any of my readers should wish to try this experiment, they must have the apparatus very carefully made; and they must bear in mind that the conditions required for the experiment cannot be maintained for many seconds, as the friction of the pivots and other resistances cause the introduction of forces which, slowly at first, but with increasing rapidity, change the relative positions of the parts.—E. H.

In two corks, A and B, insert four wing-feathers from any bird, so as to be slightly inclined, like the sails of a windmill, but in opposite directions to each set. A round shaft is fixed in the cork A, which ends in a sharp point. At the upper part of the cork B is fixed a whalebone bow, having a small pivot-hole in its centre, to receive the point of the shaft. The bow is then to be strung equally on each side to the upper portion of the shaft, and the little machine is completed. Wind up the string by turning the bow, so that the spring of the bow may unwind the corks, with their anterior edges ascending; then place the cork, with the bow attached to it, upon a table, and with a finger pressed on the upper cork, press strongly enough to prevent the string from unwinding, and taking it away suddenly, the instrument will rise to the ceiling.—Dr. Piesse.

Make a “flyer” by attaching three vanes to a common centre, mounted perpendicularly on a pin. These vanes are segments of a circle of which the obliquity increases as they recede from the centre of motion.

A stand is made to hold it while a cord is wound round the spindle. On pulling the string, it will ascend.

The vanes must be adjusted angularly for the best effect.

ARTIFICIAL SNAKES.

String on three parallel threads a number of small wooden scales, somewhat thick in the middle, and rounded at the edges, to form a length tapering to a point, while the other end is furnished with a carved head as of a serpent. Fasten the threads so that they are moderately tight. When taken up by the middle horizontally the two ends have a tendency to sink, but being prevented by the connection, they move to one side or the other. They can also be made of flat pieces, with one thread running straight through all to form a length, and a thread to run through them all alternately on one side and the other, opposite each other. If turned, boxwood is better than ivory, which easily breaks.

If one of the mechanical singing-bird toy-boxes is opened so that the machinery is laid bare, the mystery will disappear.

The little bird who pops up on his feet when the lid of the box is opened, flutters his wings, and opens his mouth as the trill comes forth, has nothing to do with the sound.

That comes from a short tube, which has a supply of air from a little bellows, regulated by a piston. Its action is controlled by a lever, acted on by the same clockwork which works the bellows, and turns a barrel set with pins for the tune like any barrel-organ.

To make one, get a toy bird, and mount it on a box, concealed in which is such an instrument as is found in musical albums and valentines; the opening of its bill and wings needs a very simple connection with the wheel of the barrel.

THE WONDERFUL WELL.

A little model well, mounted on a stand, is shown to the company, and is held upside down to prove that it is empty. Four different kinds of seed, as rape, hemp, canary, millet, and so on, are mixed together (or coloured sweetmeats, those called “hundreds-and-thousands” being suitable), and the mass is thrown down the well. The company then decide in what order they will have the sorts of seed separately drawn up, and this had better be written down to prevent difficulties, as

1st, Hempseed; 2nd, canary; 3rd, rape; 4th, millet.

A little bucket attached to a revolving beam above the well is let down, and each time that it is drawn up, bring up the seeds in the order prearranged.

Explanation.—In the lower half of the well, level with each other, are four cells, at the height of the bucket from the bottom of the well. The floor of these cells is inclined towards the well, so that, on the doors of these cells being opened, their contents must slide out into the well. In each cell is one sort of seed. The doors are valves opened by pressure on secret springs on the outside of the well, like the keys of a flute. The well narrows at the bottom so as to only admit the bucket. At the bottom of the well is a secret trap, down which the mixed seed falls and is no more seen.

Operation.—When the mixed seed has been thrown down and falls into the secret receptacle, the performer takes the well in his hand, and places his fingers on the little slightly projecting pins which work the valves of the cells. All that is now to be done is to make that valve open which will open the cell of the seed demanded.

Mr. Panky brings forward a cage in which are two birds, perched on different branches of a tree, which sing, one the first part, the other the second, of a piece of music, which would hardly let anyone to believe them live birds trained to so exquisite a degree.

But when their bodies are found to be covered with shells, and their eyes made of precious stones, that illusion cannot for a moment be entertained. And yet it is unreasonable that mechanism should impel their action, when they are seen to spring from one bough to another, while perfectly detached from the cage itself.

The smallness of their size, and the multiplicity and variety of their movements, preclude the supposition of their tiny bodies being the cases of clockwork.

Explanation.—The birds are really attached by wires of communication.

Their perches, on which they alternately alight, join at one end so as to form an angle of forty-five degrees. The birds are in no wise attached to either of them, but at the outer extremity of fine tubes—the other end being on a joint at the place of junction of the two perches—which tubes contain the fine wires which open the bill and wings. The outer point carries the bird, in each case, along the line of an arc of forty-five degrees. It passes so quickly through the air that a forewarned spectator would hardly perceive it; but as the exchange of position is made when attention is diverted by Mr. Panky, no clue is given.

This movement is a great improvement on the ordinary twin singing-birds of the conjurors, which simply stand on a cross-handled perch, or fixed tube, through which the wires pass.

Mr. Panky introduces to the audience his young friend, a puppet, arrayed as the secretary to royalty, in an exquisite court dress of the time of Louis XV., and removes him from a sideboard to his table set in front of the audience, that they may see no deception is possible.

The mannikin has a little table before him, on which his hands rest, but can be lifted up.

Mr. Panky furnishes him with paper and a pencil, and begs the audience to suggest a subject for the exercise of his artistic skill.

The ladies’ voice is for a rose or a bird. The secretary moves his eyes, bows, and at once sets to tracing before him an excellent picture of the objects voted for.

He also writes down answers to questions, tells the time to a second, the age of the inquirer, and all without the least vestige or sound of hidden mechanism.

At the end, Mr. Panky takes the figure up bodily from his little chair, and pops him into a hat, whence he mysteriously vanished.

Explanation.—A pantograph is required, and upon that a preliminary description is given.

Four rules are mounted as a square, so as to move freely on the nails D, E, F, G; when the instrument is fastened on a table at the point C, and a pin at B traces the lines of a picture, the pencil placed at A duplicates the marks double that size. By shifting the slide attached to the fixed point C and the slide carrying the pencil along their respective arms, the proportion will be varied.

A fixed arm from F to G would conduce to the steadiness and reliability of the apparatus.

However, it suffices for Mr. Hanky Panky’s experiment.

The puppet seems to be completely isolated from any underhand management, because it can be detached from its seat and the table; but a real communication exists between its right arm and that of a confederate in the room beneath.

When the automaton is in his seat, the needle A B is thrust up through the floor, carpet, and table, E F, to enter the cylinder, C D, concealed in the chair at the part of the pantograph B.

Then the part A B, hidden in the room below, forms one with the part C D, within the figure, and the two united become the end of the pantograph.

Performance.—All the drawing done by the assistant unseen must be repeated at the point K. Now, the pantograph being within the body of the automaton, and setting its arm in motion, it seems as if it was drawing of its own volition.

Observation.—The needle A B, and the cylinder C D, when in junction, form a kind of lever with its fulcrum in the room below, and, consequently, all the movements given to the point B are first repeated in miniature at B of the pantograph in reverse, and then large at A.

Make a puppet with its arms inflexible at the elbow; put on a ball-and-socket joint at the shoulder; the arms are bent as shown in the illustration.

At the points G H and L M on the bar are tubes, covering it; with the joins hidden by mock garlands of flowers; the tube can, however, enter the two supports. To this tube the figure is fastened by the forearms.

An assistant of Mr. Panky is concealed on the side C, where he turns the crank R, to make the figure execute a quarter turn to the left. The automaton now moves, from having his arms parallel with the horizon; rises gradually until his arms are placed vertically and parallel to the rest of his body.

If another quarter turn be made in the same direction, the upper arms then lean towards the spectator, and necessarily drag the body after them. The limbs offer no resistance, as they are jointed at the hip and knee.

The confederate, being on the watch, can take advantage of the moment when one leg passes before the other to let the mannikin drop astride the bar. Then he makes him swing, and finally execute a somersault; all to the movements of a piece of music.

As a finish, a jerk is given to a wire, and the figure is detached and falls to the floor. It will be believed thereby that mechanism made it grasp the bar, perform, and detach itself.

As the tube wraps the bar in all places except where the figure is attached, and hides all the turnings of the bar, no complicity is ever suspected.

Figure 158 represents the only motor of a little figure which, placed in a cell on top of a flight of stairs, will, upon the bell of his residence being pulled, fly out heels over head, and, tumbling somersaults down the steps, alight in a chair at the bottom, in order to be at his ease before his visitor.

It is a small piece of light wood, two inches long, one-sixth of an inch thick, half an inch broad.

At its two ends are two holes, C and D, which receive two pins, around which the legs and arms of the figure play. At each end also is a small receptacle, nearly concentric with the holes C and D, having an oblique prolongation towards the middle of the piece of wood. From their ends proceed two grooves, G and F, in the wood, a-twelfth of an inch wide.

Nearly fill one of these receptacles with quicksilver, and glue pasteboard on the sides to close it up.

To the axis passing through C fix two legs with long feet. The other has the arms with hands so placed as to become a base when the figure is turned backwards. On the G H part a head of elder-pith is glued, painted and dressed with a wig and cap. The body is made of the same substance, and a silk petticoat or skirted coat is added.

To prevent the figure or its legs turning any more after reaching the resting-place of the feet, two small pegs are made to meet a prolongation of the thighs.

To make the arms present themselves firmly and horizontally when the figure turns backwards, furnish the arms with two small pulleys, concentric to the axis of the motion of these arms, over which run two silk threads, uniting under the front of the figure, and fixed to a small cross-bar joining the middle of the thighs. Adjust these threads till there is no unsteadiness in the figure when it is placed up or down on its four supporters.

Generally a box is made to contain this figure, and open out into being the flight of stairs to be performed upon.

A figure is made of about quarter life size. (Vaucanson’s stood five feet and a half.) In it and its pedestal are contained these works:—A strong spring, which, when wound up, moves nine bellows, three rows of three each. One set is soft, one medium, and one forte. Three separate reservoirs receive the air from each series, each by a valve letting it then into a single pipe ending in the figure’s mouth.

The same spring makes a barrel, on which is mounted an air, as usual in organs, revolve. Its pins set three levers in play, which connect, by chains, with the three valves, and so control the force required, whether natural, forte, or piano.

Another lever moves a chain which opens or shuts a tongue in the figure’s mouth, in order to emit or stop all sounds.

Of four other levers, one opens the lips, one closes them; one draws them back, and one moves them forward.

Seven other levers communicate with the seven fingers, which do all the fingering, and make them move properly.

As there will be breaks in the direct line of action, use bell-levers where required.

Explanation of the Action.—To sound the mi base, the cylinder-pin for that note would move that lever of the right third finger, which opens the first flutehole; another pin moves the lever of the tongue; a third, the piano valve; a fourth is the lip-opener, and a fifth draws the lips back from the flutehole. In all, five movements, executed at the same time.

This figure is worked after the same plan. But it has been superseded for magicians by the “Spirit Drum.”

Performance.—If the machine can play but one tune, the following trick is devised to make it seem that it plays at will any one of twelve airs. Twelve blocks are shown to the company, on which are written the titles of as many airs for the flute or drum. These are put into a bag, and any one in the company is allowed to insert his hand and draw out one at random, the music on which the automaton will play. The bag is double, and the part where the hand is thrust contains twelve blocks, like the others, except that all have the same named tune on them.