FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 12 June 1913, Page 62

FAMILY FUN

TRICKS AND ILLUSIONS. ; - J (Special to the N.Z. Tablet by Mahatma.) • t . A Chemical Trick.—Obtain from your chemist a shilling’s worth of phenol-pthalien, dissolved in methy- - lated spirits. Take a tumbler of water and drop a very small quantity of the solution into it. Two or three drops will be quite sufficient. It Will not affect the color of the water. A second tumbler is rinsed out with strong washing soda, or potash. Ammonia would do, but it gives the trick away by its smell. You are now ready to perform. Take the tumbler of ‘water’ and pour its contents into the second tumbler. As fast as the water flows into the empty tumbler it will become changed to a delicate claret or darker port-wine color according to the strength of the solution used. The result is immediate, striking, and most realistic. The ‘ wine ’ can be turned back again to water by pouring into a third tumbler which has previously been rinsed out with an acid, which must, of course, be sufficiently strong to neutralise the alkali used. The results obtained from this experiment are well worth the, small expense required to bring them about. The Villain’s Hand-shake.—This is another trick performed with the same solution as the above experiment. Pour a little of the solution on a friend’s hand, telling, him to rub it in well. The performer does the same with an alkaline solution. The hands appear quite clean and unstained so far, but when the two shake hands with a good grip both are covered with a vivid red,' as if ■ the pressure had been great enough to force blood from the hands. The stain is quite harmless and easily washes off,, particularly so if a little vinegar is used. The Magnetized Knife.—This is a very old effect, but worked in a new and decidedly better way. A knife is placed on the performer’s left hand. The hand is turned over quickly but the knife does not fall. In the old method the left wrist was grasped by the right hand, the little finger of which' kept the knife' from falling. In the improved method a second knife must be placed up the left sleeve. When the first knife is in position across the hand this second knife is dropped down over it, thus keeping it in position. If* your sleeve is not a small one it will be necessary to. grasp the handle of the second knife with the left hand, but as it is placed so much further up the arm the effect is much better than in the old version. To Pass Yourself Through a Playing Card.—lt appears ridiculous when you tell your audience that you can pass your body through a playing card, but such a feat is quite -simple to perform if you follow these instructions. Take a playing card and a sharp knife. Carefully cut the card down the middle leaving about a sixteenth of an inch uncut at each end. Having done this fold the card along the slit, take a pair of scissors and cut the- doubled card alternately from the edges to within a sixteenth of an inch of the middle, and then from the middle to the same distance from the edges. When this is done the card is opened out into a zigzag band which will be quite wide enough to pass your body through. Electricity on the Spot.—lt is said that great electricians are born not made, but you may some evening produce the potent power for the amusement of your friends in the following simple manner: Take a glass tube — gas chimney will serve the purpose admirably. Take also a piece of tinfoil— as chocolates are often wrapped up in. You require also a silk handkerchief and a brushone that fits into the glass. All these things must be quite dry. Warm the glass by the fire so that all possible moisture may - evaporate, and place round the middle on the outdare of the glass a strip of tinfoil, half an inch wide. Secure this with stamp edging. Now from the bottom of the glass to within an inch of the circular tinfoil gum another strip of straight tinfoil. Cover the brush with the handkerchief as if you were going to clean the glass, and insert it. s Now turn it round vigorously, and at every revolution a spark of electricity will flash in the space between the two pieces of tinfoil. To see these sparks to advantage the gas should be turned low.