The peculiar gun shown in the cut is named after its inventor, Alessandro Scuri, of Liège, Belgium. M. Scuri is also known as the inventor of a unicycle and a quadruple cornet. The “scurimobile” is a gun with two barrels which can be aimed at different objects, the angle between the barrels being adjustable. The adjustment is effected by moving a ring located on the under side of the gun. The pivot of the barrels is so arranged that it is easy to sight two objects at the same time. Both cartridges are automatically ejected after each shot fired. It is also possible to use only one barrel in the ordinary way. In the cut the inventor is shown aiming at two balls placed about a yard apart. Another valuable feature of this new gun is its applicability as a range finder. The observer first sights two objects which are at about equal distances from him, and measures the distance or angle between the two barrels, a graduation being provided for this purpose. Then the same operation is made from a point more distant from the objects first sighted. If the observer steps back ten yards, and finds that the graduation indicates just one-half of the value obtained at first, he will know that in the second position he was just twice as far from the objects as in the first position, so that the objects are ten yards from the observer’s first position. This operation will give distances with sufficient accuracy in most cases, but more exact results can be obtained by means of a simple trigonometric formula when the angle between the barrels is measured.
“THE NEOÖCCULTISM.”
The X rays, after becoming the indispensable coadjutors of surgeons, and even of physicians, are now competing with the most noted mediums in the domain of the marvelous.
M. Radiguet, the well known manufacturer of physical apparatus, has been devoting himself for a long time to experiments with the Roentgen rays in the laboratory, which is encumbered with electric lamps, lamp globes, and glass apparatus of all kinds. One day he perceived that these glass objects, under the action of the X rays, shone in the darkness. Here again was an amusing and perhaps a useful experiment due to accident. Useful, because the radiographs obtained up to the present, by means of artificial screens, have been really good only when the sensitive bodies have been in small crystals. In a pulverulent state they are nearly insensible to the X rays, and it is almost impossible to obtain the grain of the screen upon the photographic plate. It is easy, on the contrary, to work the glass in such a way as to prevent any irregularity in the radiograph. Such experiments will certainly be made ere long, but, for the present, it is the fantastic side of the discovery that we shall present to our readers.
Porcelain, enamels, and diamonds, and also objects covered with platino-cyanides (used by Roentgen) and with calcium tungstate, zinc sulphate, etc., have, like glass, the property of becoming luminous in darkness under the action of the X rays. We have, therefore, only the trouble of selection in order to get up a “spirit séance” with every certainty of success, while genuine spiritual séances fail in most cases, as well known, because the spirits are in an ill mood and disposed to be coyish.
The following will prove a scene sufficiently weird to put the most intrepid worldlings in a flurry if some one of our friends takes it into his head to give them the mysterious spectacle thereof before they have read an exposure of the trick.
The first figure that we present herewith exhibits a Ruhmkorff coil, which is placed here to show the operation in its entirety. But, as the first effect of its vibrations would be to attract the attention, and consequently the suspicions of the spectators, whom it is a question of transporting into the domain of the marvelous, this apparatus is relegated to some distant room. The current that produces the X rays is led into the Crookes tube by wires. This apparatus, moreover, which is not very bulky, may be placed behind a door or be concealed under black cloth. The objects designed to become luminous are placed as near to the tube as possible. In the experiment under consideration a diner (who is doubtless near-sighted, since he wears eyeglasses) is about to do justice to his breakfast. Armed with a knife and fork, he attacks his beefsteak; but he is assuredly a greater eater than drinker, since he contents himself with water, while his light consists of a single candle.
A black curtain on the other side of the table conceals from the spectators a skeleton covered with zinc sulphide.
Let us now put out the light and set the Ruhmkorff coil in action. What a surprise! A plate, a glass, a water bottle, and a candle shine in space with the light of glow-worms.
A sinister guest in the form of a skeleton sits opposite the place occupied by the near-sighted gentleman, who has disappeared, and whose eyeglasses alone have held their own before this ghastly apparition. Finally, to complete the illusion, hands are seen moving over the heads of the spectators, and those multiply, and then disappear, only to appear anew.
It must be remarked that, in order to render the experiment more conclusive, it is allowable for the most incredulous members of the party to tie the gentleman tightly to his chair, and, if they desire, to hold his hands and feet during the entire time of the experiment. It is scarcely necessary to explain how the latter is performed. The X rays pass through the black cloth on the door that conceals the Crookes tube and also through the body of the gentleman, and render luminous the glass objects covered with zinc sulphide. As for the mysterious hands, those are simply gloves covered with the same substance and fixed to the extremity of long sticks that are moved in all directions by confederates.
Such scenes may naturally be varied to infinity; and the spirit of invention is so fertile, there is no doubt that before long ladies will be giving a place in the programme of their soirées to this up-to-date spiritualism.
“THE MASK OF BALSAMO.”
This illusion is a variation of the enchanted “death’s head” which was for a long time the attraction of the Robert-Houdin Theater. Our engraving shows both the “death’s head,” the “mask of Balsamo,” and the method of producing the illusion. Under the influence of the passes of the prestidigitateur the skull on the glass plate bends forward and seems to salute the spectators. The nodding of the “death’s head” was utilized in a number of ways, as, to indicate the number when dice was thrown. This trick was performed as follows: Upon a table near the magician was placed a ball of soft wax attached to a string which ran to the side scenes, where it could be pulled by a confederate. After passing the skull around to be examined, the prestidigitateur, in laying it upon the table, fixed the ball of wax at the top of it. After the experiment a simple scraping with the finger nail removed every trace of the trick. The Isola Brothers used electricity in a somewhat similar illusion. The skull is replaced by a wooden mask laid flat on a small table and the mask answers questions by rocking slightly. The magician then brings the table into the midst of the spectators, and the mask still continues to move, to the astonishment of the onlookers. The secret of the trick is that part of the wood which forms the chin is replaced by a small strip of iron which is painted the same color as the mask so that it cannot be seen; an electro-magnet is let into the top of the table so that the cores shall be opposite the strip of iron when the mask is laid upon the table. Contact is made by means of a push button somewhere in the side scenes, the wires run under the stage, and connection is made through the legs of the table when the legs are set on the foreordained place. Upon the same principle is Robert-Houdin’s heavy chest and magic drum. A rapping and talking table may be made by carrying out the same idea. The battery is carried in the lower part of the table, where the three legs join. The top of the table is in two parts, the lower of which is hollow and the top being very thin. In the center of the hollow part is placed an electro-magnet, one of the wires of which connects with one of the poles of the battery, while the other is connected with a flat metallic circle glued to the cover of the table. Beneath this circle and at a slight distance from it there is a toothed circle connected with the whole pole of the battery. When the table is pressed lightly upon, the cover bends and the flat circle touches the toothed one. This closes the circuit, and the electro-magnet attracting the armature produces a sharp blow. When the hand is raised the circuit is broken, producing another sharp blow. By running the hand lightly over the table the cover is caused to bend successively over a certain portion of its circumference. Thus contact is made at a number of places, and the sharp blow is replaced by a quick succession of sounds. This table is very useful for spirit rappings; as the table contains all of the mechanism in itself, it can be moved to any part of the room. The table may be also operated from a distance by employing conductors passing through the legs of the table and under the carpet. By substituting a small telephone receiver for the electro-magnet, the rapping spirits may be made talking ones.
Electric insects may be constructed on the same plan and give a very life-like appearance when placed on an artificial bunch of flowers in a flower pot. The battery is concealed in the top. When the pot is raised a drop of mercury which occupies the bottom of the pot will roll over the bottom, closing the circuit successively on different insects, keeping them in motion until the pot has been set down.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN.
At the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, a very curious experiment, and one which was looked upon as marvelous by the credulous, was wonderfully popular at Paris. The representation took place at the old Capuchin convent. The spectator entered a well lighted hall in which, in part of a window, there was a box suspended by four brass chains attached by bows of ribbon. The box, which was surrounded by a grating, was provided with two panes of glass that permitted of seeing that it was absolutely empty. To one of the extremities was fixed a speaking trumpet. When a visitor spoke in the latter, he was answered by a hollow voice; and when he placed his face near the box, he even felt upon it the action of a mysterious breath. When he presented any object whatever in front of the mouthpiece, and asked the voice to name it, an answer immediately came from the speaking tube. The box was suspended freely from the ceiling, and it could be made to swing at the extremity of the chains; it was empty and isolated in space. People were lost in conjecture as to the secret of the experiment. Among the unlikely theories that were put forth was that of the invisibility of a person obtained by unknown processes.
As usual in these kinds of impostures, there was here merely an ingenious application of a scientific principle. A physicist, E. J. Ingennato, revealed the mystery in a pamphlet published in 1800 under the title of “The Invisible Woman and Her Secret Unveiled.” This tract, now rare, had for a frontispiece the engraving which we reproduce herewith and which explains the whole experiment. The invisible woman of the Capuchin convent was named Frances, and the following is the explanatory legend appended to the original engraving:
“Questioner: ‘Frances, what is this that I have in my hand?’
“Frances (after looking through the little peep-hole, D): ‘A stick with a crooked handle.’
“The entire assembly at once: ‘It is incomprehensible!’”
Ingennato, in his pamphlet, explains that above the ceiling there was a low, darkish chamber, in which Frances was concealed, and that she looked at the object presented to her through a small aperture, D, which was skillfully hidden by a hanging lamp, and then answered through the speaking tube, B B B, hidden in the wall. The sound traversed a space of about six inches, that separated the speaking tube from the speaking trumpet.
MAGIC HARPS.
The experiment which we are about to describe, while it is thoroughly scientific, was taken up under the name of “Æolian Harps” by Robert-Houdin, who introduced several modifications of it. When the experiment was performed by Wheatstone in 1855, four harps were arranged in a semi-circle on the stage of the Polytechnic Institution. These harps, at the pleasure of the experimentor, vibrated as if they were made to resound by invisible hands. This effect was produced by fixing to the sounding board of each of them vertical rods of fir-wood which passed through the floor of the stage and ceilings, into the cellar of the Institution, where one of them was fixed upon a sounding board of a piano, another upon the sounding board of a violoncello, and two others upon the sounding boards of violins. In order to render it possible to interrupt the vibrations between the instruments and the harps, the rods supporting the latter were divided at two inches above the floor. Each harp could be cut off from communication with the instrument below by turning it around upon its axis. When Robert-Houdin introduced the illusion, he used a stage elevated in the very midst of the spectators. This stage was traversed by two fir-wood rods which, after passing through the floor, rested upon harps placed in the hands of skillful players. At the command of the prestidigitateur two other harps supported upon the upper extremity of the rods executed a concert which was very successful, thanks to the careful preparations and the elegant mise en scène. Of course the harps were supposed to operate through the intervention of mediumistic spirits.
CHAPTER IV.
CONJURING TRICKS.
Having described some of the illusions which are produced with the aid of elaborate outfits, we now come to the more simple tricks which are produced with smaller and less expensive apparatus, and, sometimes, with no apparatus at all. In the old days the man of mystery appeared on the stage clad in a robe embroidered with cabalistic figures, the ample folds of which could well conceal a whole trunkful of paraphernalia. The table in the center of the stage was covered with a velvet cloth embroidered with silver, and its long folds, which reached the ground, suggested endless possibilities for concealment. All of these things have now passed away, and the modern magician appears clad in ordinary evening dress, which is beyond the suspicion of concealment. The furniture is all selected with special reference to the apparent impossibility of using it as a storeroom for objects which the prestidigitateur wishes to conceal. Some of the easiest and simplest of modern tricks that anyone with little or no practice can perform are very effective. The tricks in this chapter are far from being all which have been published in the Scientific American and the Scientific American Supplement, but they are believed to be the best which have been published in those journals.
TRICK WITH AN EGG AND A HANDKERCHIEF.
In this trick we have an egg in an egg-cup, which the prestidigitateur covers with a hat, and then he rolls a small silk handkerchief between his hands, as shown in Fig. 1. As soon as the handkerchief no longer appears externally, he opens his hands and shows the egg, which has invisibly left the place that it occupied under the hat, while the handkerchief has passed into the egg-cup (Fig. 3). We shall now explain how these invisible transfers are effected.
Two eggs, genuine and entire, were truly placed in plain view in a basket, but it was not one of those that served for the experiment. Behind the basket was placed a half shell, C, of wood (Fig. 2), painted white on the convex side, so as to represent the half of an egg, and on the concave side offering the same aspect as the interior of the egg-cup, A, to which it can be perfectly fitted in one direction or the other, as may be seen in the section in Fig. 2. It is this shell, inclosing a small handkerchief exactly like the first, that the prestidigitateur placed upon the egg-cup (Fig. 2). Then, while with the left hand he covered the whole with a hat with which he concealed the operation, he with the right hand quickly turned the shell upside down. The shell, therefore, by this means disappeared in the egg-cup, and the handkerchief, spreading out, assumed the appearance that it presents in Fig. 3.
The prestidigitateur, having afterward secretly seized with his right hand a hollow egg of metal, containing an oval aperture (F, Fig. 2), stuffed into it the handkerchief that he seemed simply to roll and compress between his hands. It is almost useless to add that the metallic egg may be easily concealed either with the palm of the hand that holds it, or with the handkerchief.
THE CONE OF FLOWERS.
In prestidigitation flowers have in all times played an important part, and they are usually employed in preference to other objects, since they give the experiments a pleasing aspect. But, in most cases, natural flowers, especially when it is necessary to conceal their presence, are replaced by paper or feather ones, the bulk of which is more easily reduced. Such is the case in the experiment which we are about to present, and which, it must be confessed, requires to be seen from some little distance in order that the spectators may, without too great an effort of the imagination, be led into the delusion that they are looking at genuine flowers. However, even seen close by, the trick surprises one to the same degree as all those that consist in causing the appearance of more or less bulky objects where nothing was perceived a few moments previous.
The prestidigitateur takes a newspaper and forms it into a cone before one’s eyes. It is impossible to suppose the existence here of a double bottom, and yet the cone, gently shaken, becomes filled with flowers that have come from no one knows where. The number of them even becomes so great that they soon more than fill the cone and drop on and cover the floor.
The two sides of the flowers employed are represented in Fig. 2, where they are lettered A and B. Each flower consists of four petals of various colors, cut with a punch out of very thin tissue paper. Upon examining Fig. A, we see opposite us the petals 1, 2, 3, and 4 gummed together by the extremities of their anterior sides, while Fig. B shows us the petals 2 and 3 united in the same manner on the opposite side. A small, very light and thin steel spring, D, formed of two strips soldered together at the bottom, and pointing in opposite directions, is fixed to the two exterior petals, 1 and 4, of the flower, and is concealed by a band of paper of the same color, gummed above. It is this spring that, when it is capable of expanding freely, opens the flower and gives it its voluminous aspect.
Quite a large number of these flowers (a hundred or more), united and held together by means of a thread or a rubber band (Fig. 2, C) makes a package small enough to allow the operator to conceal it in the palm of his hand, only the back of which he allows the spectators to see while he is forming the paper cone.
THE MAGIC ROSEBUSH.
In lectures on chemistry, the professor, in speaking of aniline colors, in order to give an idea of the coloring power of certain of these substances, performs the following experiment:
Upon a sheet of paper he throws some aniline red, which, as well known, comes in the form of iridescent crystals. He shakes the surplus off the paper into the bottle, so that it would be thought that nothing remained on the paper. If, however, alcohol, in which aniline colors are very soluble, be poured over the paper, the latter immediately becomes red.
This experiment may be varied as follows: Instead of scattering the aniline over paper, it is dusted over the flowers of a white rosebush, and the flowers are shaken so as to render the dust invisible, and then when a visit is received from an amateur of horticulture, we tell him that we have a magic rosebush in our garden, the flowers of which become red when alcohol or cologne is poured over them. The experiment is performed with the aid of a perfumery vaporizer, and the phenomenon causes great surprise to the spectators who are not in the secret.
“MAGIC FLOWERS.”
A trick that has contributed much toward making one of our leading magicians such a favorite with the fair sex, is one in which a bush filled with genuine rosebuds is caused to grow in a previously-examined pot that contained nothing but a small quantity of white sand.
After the bush is produced, the flowers are cut and distributed to the ladies, and by many recipients of the magician’s favors these buds are looked upon as a production of fairy land. For many years this trick has occupied a prominent position on the programme of the magician in question, and mystifies the audience as much to-day as ever, thus proving how well magicians keep their secrets from the public. The trick is not a difficult one by any means, yet, regardless of its simplicity and the ease with which it may be performed, the florist would find it anything but an economical method of raising roses, as a perusal of the following will show.
On the stage is seen two stands with metal feet, and with long rich drapery trimmed with gold fringe. On each of the stands is a miniature stand on which are flower-pots.
The magician passes the pots for inspection, then places them on the stands, and plants a few flower seeds in each pot. A large cone, open at both ends, is shown, and can be carefully examined. One of the pots is covered for a moment with the cone, and on its removal a green sprig is seen protruding from the sand, the seed having sprouted, so the magician says. Now the second pot is covered for a moment with the cone, on the removal of which a large rosebush is seen in the pot, a mass of full-blown roses and buds. The first pot is again covered for a moment with the cone, and when uncovered a second rosebush is seen, equally as full of roses as the other. The cone is once again shown to be empty.
A small basket or tray is now brought forward, on which the roses and buds are placed as the performer cuts them from the bushes, after which they are distributed to the ladies.
The stands are not what they appear, as the drapery does not extend entirely around them, but quite a space at the back of the stand is open. There is a small shelf attached to the stand leg, near the bottom of the drapery. Three cones are used, of which the audience see but one.
The rosebushes are merely stumps to which are attached a base of sheet lead, cut of such a size as to fit nicely in the flower-pots, resting on the sand. To the stumps the genuine roses are attached by tying with thread. When the bushes are prepared they are suspended inside of cones, by means of a stout cord that is fastened to the stump by one end and to the other end of which is attached a small hook, which hook is slipped over the edge of the upper opening of the cone. When the bushes are placed in the cones, these cones are placed on the shelves at the back of the stands. Reference to the second engraving will make the arrangement of the shelf, back of stand, and position of concealed cone plain to all. There is a variance in the size of the cones. The cone shown to the audience is slightly larger than the cone that is behind the first stand, and the cone behind the second stand is a fraction smaller than either of the others. Thus the cones will fit snugly one in the other, in the order named.
After the performer has shown the pots, planted the seed, and placed the pots on the small stands, which are used to convince the spectators that there is no connection between the pot and the large stand, he shows the large cone, which is nicely decorated, and covers the top of the pot on the first stand, as he says, to shut out the light, that the seed may germinate. Between the fingers of the hand holding the cone, he has concealed a small metal shape, painted green, which he drops through the cone into the pot. In a moment he removes the cone from over the pot, and in a most natural manner passes it down behind the stand and over the concealed cone containing the rosebush, and carries this cone away inside of the larger one. At the same moment he picks up the flower-pot and carries it down and shows the green sprout in the sand.
The performer now steps to the second stand and covers the flower-pot on it with the cone. As soon as the pot is covered, he slips off the small hook supporting the rosebush, which drops into the pot; the weight of the lead base keeps it in position while the cones are being removed.
When the performer removes the cone—or cones, we should now say, as we have two now in place of one, although this fact is unknown to the audience—he passes it down behind the stand, over the concealed third cone, picking it up with the second rosebush inside. He now returns to the first stand, covers the pot, and by slipping off the hook holding the rosebush in position, and removing the cone, or cones, properly, from the pot, shows the second rosebush. He now turns the large cone so the audience can see through it, and as the upper and lower edge of each cone is blackened, there is no danger of the inside cones being seen. The rear of the stand tops are something of a crescent shape, to facilitate the passing of the large cone down behind the stand in a graceful manner.
THE “BIRTH OF FLOWERS.”
The trick that we are about to describe, although old, is very interesting. The prestidigitateur comes forward, holding in his hand a small cardboard box which he says contains various kinds of flower seeds.
“Here there is no need of moisture, earth, or time to cause the seed to germinate, the plant to spring up, and the flower to bloom. Everything takes place instantaneously. Would not a rose in my buttonhole produce a charming effect? A stroke of the wand upon the seed deposited in the desired place, and see! the rose appears. A few seeds are in this little box (Fig. 1, A) that we shall cover for an instant so that it cannot be seen how flowers are born. It is done; let us take off the cover; violets, forget-me-nots, and Easter daisies are here all freshly blown.
“You are suspicious, perhaps, and rightly, of the little tin box, and more so of its cover. Well, then, here is a small goblet, the transparency of which is perfect, and this borrowed hat with which I cover it can have undergone no preparation. Let us remove it quickly, for the flowers—What! no flowers? Ah! it is because I forgot to sow the seeds. Let us begin the operation over again. What flowers do you want—a mignonette, a violet, a marigold? Here is a seed of each kind, which I shall put into the glass. Now let each one tell me the flower that he prefers. Now I cover the glass and count three seconds. See the magnificent bouquet!” (Fig. 3.)
Finally the trick is finished by taking from the hat a number of small bouquets that are offered to the ladies. The following is an explanation of the various tricks, beginning with that which involves the boutonnière of the magician himself.
I. The Buttonhole Rose.
This is a stemless artificial rose of muslin, which is secured by a strong black silk thread arrested by a knot. To this thread, which should be five or six inches in length, is attached quite a strong rubber cord capable of being doubled if need be. The free extremity of the rubber traverses, in the first place, the left buttonhole of the coat, and then a small eyelet formed beneath, and then passes over the chest and behind the back, and is fixed by the extremity to one of the right-hand buttons of the waistband of the trousers.
When the prestidigitateur comes upon the stage, the rose is carried under his left armpit, where he holds it by a slight pressure of the arm. At the proper moment he raises his wand toward the right, and looks in the same direction in order to attract the eyes of the spectators to that side; but at the same time he separates his arms slightly, and the rose, held by the taut rubber, suddenly puts itself in place. The magic effect produced by the instantaneous appearance of this flower, coming whence no one knows where, could not be appreciated without having been seen.
II. The Flowers in the Small Box.
In the second appearance of flowers, produced by means of the small apparatus shown in Fig. 2, there is really nothing very mysterious. The special object of it is to bring into relief the experiment that is to follow, and in which, evidently, there can be no question of double bottom. Moreover, the diversity of the means employed contributes powerfully toward astounding the spectators.
Fig. 2 shows in section the three pieces of the apparatus, which are placed separately upon the table in Fig. 1. A is the cylindrical tin box in which the seeds are sown, and B another box of slightly larger diameter, but in other respects just like the first, which it entirely covers. To the bottom of B is fixed a small bouquet of artificial flowers. By slightly squeezing the cover, C (which is of thin brass), toward the bottom, the box, B, with the bouquet, is lifted. If, on the contrary, the box is left upon the table, the spectators do not perceive the substitution made, and think that they all the time see the first box, whence they believe the flowers started.
III. The Bouquet in the Glass.
This is the most interesting part of the experiment.
As we have said, the glass is first covered with a hat, and the prestidigitateur feigns astonishment upon seeing that the flowers have not appeared, but at the very instant at which the hat is lifted, when all eyes are fixed upon the glass, looking for the bouquet announced, the operator, who, with the right hand, holds the hat carelessly resting upon the edge of the table, suddenly sticks his middle finger in the cardboard tube fixed to the handle of the bouquet, which has been placed in advance upon a bracket, as shown in Fig. 1, and, immediately raising his finger, introduces the flowers into the hat, taking good care (and this is an important point) not to turn his gaze away from the glass to the bouquet or hat, as one might feel himself led to do in such a case. This introduction of the bouquet should be effected in less than a second, after which the hat is held aloft, while with the left hand some imaginary seeds, the kinds of which are designated in measure as they are taken, are selected from the cardboard box and successively deposited in the glass. So, this time, be certain of it, the flowers will appear.
IV. The Small Bouquets in the Hat.
There is not a second to be lost; the spectators are admiring the bouquet and are astonished to see it make its appearance. The operator very quickly profits by this moment of surprise to introduce, by the same process as before, a package of small bouquets tied together with a weak thread that will afterward be broken in the hat. We have not figured these bouquets upon the bracket, in order to avoid complication. Of course, a skillful operator will not hasten to produce the small bouquets. He will advance toward the spectators as if the experiment were ended, and as if he wished to return the hat to the person from whom he borrowed it. Afterward making believe answer a request, he says: “You wish some flowers, madam? And you too? And are there others who wish some? I will, then, empty into the hat the rest of my wonderful seeds, and we shall see the result.” It is at this moment that the spectators are attentive and that all eyes are open to see the advent of the flowers.
TRICKS WITH A HAT.
Prestidigitateurs frequently borrow from their spectators a hat that serves them for the performance of very neat tricks which are not always easily explained. We shall describe some of the most interesting of these.
The operator will begin by proving to you that the felt of your hat is of bad quality, and, to this effect, he will pierce it here and there with his finger, his magic wand, an egg, and with a host of other objects.
This is all an illusion, the mystery of which is explained by our first engraving. (See the finger B.) It is either of wood or cardboard, and terminates in a long slender needle. The prestidigitateur, who has concealed the finger in his left hand, thrusts the point into the top of the hat, whose interior is turned toward the spectators. Afterward raising the right hand, the forefinger of which he points forward, he seems to be about to pierce the top of the hat, but instead of finishing the motion begun, he quickly seizes in the interior, between the thumb and forefinger, the point of the needle, wiggles it around in all directions, turns the hat over, and the cardboard finger, which moves, seems to be the prestidigitateur’s own finger. The same operation is performed with the wooden half egg, C, and the rod, A, which, like the finger, appear to traverse the hat, in the interior of which are hidden the true rod and egg. We may likewise solder a needle to a half of a five-franc piece, and thus vary the objects employed for this recreation to infinity.
In order to take from a hat a large quantity of paper in ribbons, and then doves, and even a duck or a rabbit, there is no need of special apparatus nor of a great amount of dexterity, and still less of the revolving bobbin or of the mysterious machine whose existence is generally believed in by the spectators when they see the paper falling regularly from the hat, and turning gracefully of itself as the water from a new sort of fountain would do.
Nor is there here any need of a high hat; a simple straw hat (or a cap, at a pinch) will suffice. The prestidigitateur holds close pressed to his breast and hidden under his coat a roll of the blue paper prepared for the printing apparatus of the Morse telegraph, and which is so tightly wound that it has the aspect and consistence of a wooden disk with a circular aperture in the center. In turning around after taking the hat, the opening of which rests against his breast, the operator deftly introduces into it the roll of paper, which has the proper diameter to allow it to enter by hard friction as far as the top of the hat, and stay where it is put even when the hat is turned over.
Were it needed, the paper might be held by a proper pressure of the left hand exerted from the exterior. The introduction of the paper is effected in a fraction of a second.
“Your hat, my dear sir, was doubtless a little too wide for your head, for I notice within it a band of paper designed to diminish the internal diameter,” says the prestidigitateur, while, at the same time, he draws from the hat the end that terminates the paper in the centre of the roll. Then he reverses the hat so that the interior cannot be seen by the spectators. The paper immediately begins to unwind of itself and to fall very regularly and without intermission to the right.
When the fall of the paper begins to slacken, that is, in general, when no more than a third of the roll remains, the prestidigitateur turns the hat upside down, and with the right hand pulls out and rapidly revolves in the air the paper ribbon, whose capricious contours, succeeding one another before the first have had time to fall to the floor, produce a very pretty effect, as shown in our second engraving. The quantity of paper extracted from the hat appears also in this way much greater than it really is, and at length forms a pile of considerable bulk.
This experiment may be completed in the following manner: The operator, approaching his table, which, upon a board suspended behind it, carries a firmly bound pigeon, quickly seizes the poor bird in passing, and conceals it under the pile of paper, while he puts the latter back into the hat in order to see, says he, whether all that has been taken out can be made to enter anew.
Having thus introduced the pigeon or any other object into the hat, the paper is taken out, and it is at the moment that the hat is restored to its owner that he pretends to discover that it still contains something.
A CAKE BAKED IN A HAT.
This old trick always amuses the spectators. Some eggs are broken into a porcelain vessel, some flour is added thereto, and there is even incorporated with the paste the eggshells and a few drops of wax or stearine from a near-by candle. The whole having been put into a hat (Fig. 1), the latter is passed three times over a flame, and an excellent cake, baked to a turn, is taken out of this new set of cooking utensils. As for the owner of the hat, who has passed through a state of great apprehension, he finds with evident satisfaction (at least in most cases) that his head gear has preserved no traces of the mixture that was poured into it.
Fig. 2 shows the apparatus employed by prestidigitateurs to bake a cake in a hat. A is an earthen or porcelain vessel (it may also be of metal) into which enters a metallic cylinder, B, which is provided with a flange at one of its extremities and is divided by a horizontal partition into two unequal compartments, c and d. The interior of the part d is painted white so as to imitate porcelain. Finally, when the cylinder, B, is wholly inserted in the vessel, A, in which it is held by four springs, r, r, r, r, fixed to the sides, there is nothing to denote at a short distance that the vessel, A, is not empty, just as it was presented at the beginning of the experiment.
The prestidigitateur has secretly introduced into the hat the small cake and the apparatus, B, by making them fall suddenly from a bracket affixed to the back of a chair. That at least is the most practical method of operating.
The vessel, A, about which there is nothing peculiar, is, of course, submitted to the examination of the spectators. The object of adding the flour is to render the paste less fluid, and to thus more certainly avoid the production of stains.
The cake being arranged under the apparatus, B, in the space d, the contents of the vessel, A, poured from a certain height, fall into the part c of the apparatus; then the vessel, gradually brought nearer, is quickly inserted into the hat in order to seize therein, and at the same time remove, the receptacle, B, with its contents, and leave only the cake.
Fig. 3 shows this last operation. We have intentionally shown the part, B, projecting from the vessel, A, but it will be understood that in reality it must be inserted up to the base at the moment at which the vessel, A, introduced into the hat, is concealed from the eyes of the spectators. The prestidigitateur none the less continues to move his finger all around the interior of the double vessel as if to gather up the remainder of the paste, which he makes believe throw into the hat, upon the rim of which he even affects to wipe his fingers, to the great disquietude of the gentleman to whom it belongs.
The experiment may be complicated by first burning alcohol or fragments of paper in the compartment c of the apparatus. Some prestidigitateurs even add a little Bengal fire. But let no one imitate that amateur prestidigitateur who, wishing to render the experiment more brilliant, put into the receptacle such a quantity of powder that a disaster supervened, so that it became necessary to throw water into the burning hat in order to extinguish the nascent fire.
The following method of baking a cake in a hat is a decided improvement over the old trick with the porcelain vessel. It has the advantage of being able to be employed anywhere and of producing a complete illusion.
Before beginning the experiment, take three eggs, and having blown two of them, close the apertures with white wax. Place the three eggs upon a plate.
Within the left-hand side of your waistcoat place a flat cake, and then make your appearance before the spectators.