HOME MADE MAGIC

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 17

HOME MADE MAGIC

Here is another very good trick t" practise for your Christmas parties. You must make quite sure that you hare got it exactly right, and then I can promise that you will really puzzle your audience. You three tumblers —they must be glass. Fill the first nearly to the top with ordinary water; fill the second with brine. (Brine is made by dissolving as much salt as ever it will hold in water. You must be careful about this. If there is too much salt your audience will notice it and suspect. If there is too little the treik will not work. I should make it up in a jug beforehand.) Then till the third half-way up with brine, and then the rest of the way with water. The brine, being much heavier than the water, will stay at the bottom. Then take three ordinary uncooked eggs. (You can tell mother you won’t break them.) Stand the glasses on the table or on a tray in front of you, and be quite sure you know which is which, or the laugh will be on you.

Then tell your audience that you have three magic eggs, although they look quite ordinary. Explain that they have been trained to do whatever you ask them to, and make the most of this little preliminary speech, as it adds to the effect. Then take the first egg. hold it just over the glass containing pure water, and say solemnly: “Egg, sink to the bottom.” Then drop the egg gently in. aud it will sink slowlv to the bottom. Take the second egg, and hold it over the glass containing brine, and say: “Egg, iloat on the top.” Put the egg in, and it will just stay on the top of the brine Take the third egg, and hold It over the glass containing half water and half brine. Say to it, “Egg, sink to the bottom,” and put rlie egg in. When it is nearly half-way down say suddenly, “Stop, egg!” and It will stop half-way down. This is because an egg is heavier than water, but lighter than brine, so that as soon as it reaches the level of the brine it must stop, anyway. So be careful to get your command in just “efore it would stop, or your audience will suspect. I should practise this last one very carefully.