FAMILY FUN
TRICKS AND ILLUSIONS. (Special to the N.Z. Tablet by Mahatma.) The Climbing Ring.—The materials required for this mystifying illusion are a stick and a borrowed ring. Having borrowed the latter the performer drops it over his stick, which is held in a perpendicular position. Then addressing the ring very solemnly he commands it to climb up the stick. When it gets half-way up he orders it ,to go back, and when it has descended a few inches to again continue its'upward climb. Finally it jumps right off the end of stick, and is caught in' the performer’s hand. The method of working the illusion is as follows:—To one end of the stick is attached a black silk thread-about twice the length of the stick. ■ It is secured by means of a stout knot.. The performer holds the stick in the left hand and the end of the thread in the right. After it has . been passed over the end of the stick, the ring can, by an almost imperceptible motion of the performer’s right hand, be made to move either up or down the stick, or by giving the thread an extra tug to jump right off the stick. Mesmeric Influence.—A very effective trick is the following. The performer makes some mysterious passes over a small table or chair, and then placing his hand flat, upon, it, he raises the object bodily , into the air, presumably by some magnetic force. The method employed is very subtle. A tack is driven beforehand into the seat of the chair or object it is intended to deal with. This tack must be driven in at an angle. It should project about an eighth of an inch above the surface. The performer has upon the third finger of his right hand a ring. This should fit loosely. After making the mesmeric passes, which may be left to the performer’s fancy, he lays the palm of his hand flat upon the top of the object, and inserts ring underneath the tack. It will be an easy matter now to raise the object high in the air: By using the ring as a lever the tack may be withdrawn-and the chair or table handed for examination. The effect of the illusion is as fine as could be wished for. The Rising Coin.—A very tall, narrow, cylindrical, and transparent glass vessel is given for examination, and a half crown is placed in the empty vessel which is now filled with water. At the performer’s word of command the coin rises from the bottom of the cylinder to the performer’s finger tips. This is a novel combination of two principlesfirst that aluminium floats, and secondly that a concave disc if wetted and placed on a slightly convex surface will adhere by suction to that surface. The glass vessel used in the experiment is quite free from preparation. The bottom of this latter should be slightly concave and moist. The halfcrown is exchanged by the performer for a disc of aluminium the size and shape of the coin. This disc must have a concave side and to this surface a piece of black silk cotton is fixed by solder. The substitute is dropped into the glass, which up to this time is empty, where it adheres by its concave side. Care must be taken that the thread, is held to the bottom of the vessel by the weight of the disc on top. If the cylinder be now filled with- waiter, the disc will hold fast to the bottom, but if, during some mesmeric passes on the part of the performer, a slight tug be given to the thread, the disc will become detached from the bottom and will float upwards through the water. During this trick it is best to place the cylinder against some black background which will serve to show up the substituted coin during its ascent.
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New Zealand Tablet, 17 July 1913, Page 62
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653FAMILY FUN New Zealand Tablet, 17 July 1913, Page 62
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