Part 27

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.