The publishers of this interesting volume do not conceive that it requires an elaborate introduction to the reading public. Some brief remarks, however, may not be inappropriate as a preface to THE MAGICIAN'S OWN BOOK, since the "black art," as in lessen lightened ages the practice of all these innocent and interesting feats was termed, is not yet as popularly understood in this country as it is abroad. There is a charm in legerdemain, or sleight of hand, that all, whether young or old, can readily appreciate. There is a mystery in it that piques the understanding as well as provokes the curiosity of the spectator. If the trick be executed with address, it excites our admiration; and the simpler it appears, the more it engages our fancy and fascinates our attention. And it is not only when we are mystified in public, cajoled in great saloons, and in the presence of crowds, that these effects are developed. They are called forth by the performances even of some humble artist in the family circle, whose ingenuity of mind has enabled him to gather up the more available of these practical puzzles. It would seem, therefore, a useful thing to place this source of harmless amusement within the reach of all who can relish its eccentricities, and instead of leaving it in the hands of "professors," as a pecuniary speculation, to enable the domestic group to master and enjoy it in all its ever-varying phases of novelty and gratification. To do this is what the publishers propose in the issue of this volume; and they flatter themselves, that if carefully studied, it will prepare the Young Conjuror to convert the parlor, at any desirable moment, into a place of genuine entertainment for himself and his companions, and ample repay him for the little time and thought he may devote to the acquisition of the necessary skill and dexterity.
Sleight of hand, magic, necromancy, &c., are all terms of art applicable to the same series of performances. The parlor student, therefore, once familiar with the general principles upon which these "experiments" are effected, will find little difficulty in comprehending at a glance, notwithstanding all the show of gorgeous paraphernalia and auxiliary machinery employed, the modus operandi of every one of them he may witness in public. This will be a new source of pleasure to him, independent of his ability to turn "Conjuror" on his own account at home. Nor can we well conceive of any rational objection likely to be urged against a kind of knowledge, so unimpeachable in its nature, and so mirth provoking in its results. Acting Charades are common, even among the most fastidious families. Enigmas and puzzles, in pantomime and speech, afford innoxious amusement to thousands. The publishers only consider THE MAGICIAN'S OWN BOOK a new addition to the current list of entertainments of that character; for what is a sleight of hand feat but an enigma placed before the spectator for solution? What is a trick in "natural magic" but a puzzle repeated to those who behold it, each one of whom is tacitly expected to guess how it is accomplished, while the little practitioner only holds the key to the mystery? In truth, the parlor needs some increase in its means of social amusement. The number it embraces is extremely limited. They soon weary. This weariness creates an appetite for outside attractions, not always wholesome, and too often insidiously pernicious. THE MAGICIAN'S OWN BOOK nicely fills up, therefore, the void in the category of parlor recreations. It may be made to present an ever-changing, always tempting, stay-at-home inducement, and in this shape becomes a moral assistant of no unimportant description, as well as the piquant source of good humored bamboozlement.
In conclusion we would say, that the THE MAGICIAN'S OWN BOOK contains a great variety of curious tricks and deceptions, many of which have never before appeared in print, and for many of which the publishers beg to acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr. John Wyman, Junior, the celebrated magician, that gentleman having kindly furnished clear and simple explanations to many of his most surprising parlor feats and fancies.
PAGE | |
Sleight of Hand Tricks. | |
The Flying Dime, | 3 |
The Flying Dime, (another method,) | 4 |
The Beads and Strings, | 5 |
To get a Ring out of a Handkerchief, | 5 |
To tie a Knot in a Handkerchief which Cannot be drawn Tight, | 6 |
The Three Cups, | 7 |
To tie a Handkerchief round your Leg, and get it off Without Untying the Knot, | 8 |
The Magic Bond, | 8 |
The Old Man and his Chair, | 8 |
To tie a Knot on the Left Wrist, without letting the right hand approach it, | 10 |
The Magic Handcuffs, | 11 |
To pull a String through your Button-hole, | 11 |
The Cut String Restored, | 12 |
The Gordian Knot, | 12 |
The Knot Loosened, | 13 |
To Conjure Nuts in your Ear, | 13 |
To Crack Walnuts in your Elbow, | 14 |
To Take Feathers out of an Empty Handkerchief, | 14 |
The Knotted Handkerchief, | 14 |
Houdin's Nut Trick, | 16 |
Conjuring a Ring, | 17 |
The Erratic Egg, | 18 |
The Obedient Dime, | 19 |
The Prisoner Released, | 19 |
Advantageous Wager, | 19 |
The Double Meaning, | 20 |
The Three Spoons, | 20 |
The Juggler's Joke, | 20 |
To Cause Water and Wine to Change Places, | 21 |
The Wizard's Wit, or Is it Possible, | 21 |
The Toper's Stratagem, | 21 |
The Impossible Omelet, | 21 |
New Perpetual Rotary Motion, | 22 |
The Miraculous Apple, | 22 |
An Omelet Cooked in a Hat, | 23 |
The Infallible Prophet, | 23 |
Philosophy Cheated, | 24 |
The Disappearing Dime, | 26 |
The Hat and Die Trick, | 27 |
The Penetrative Cents, | 27 |
The Doll Trick, | 29 |
The Flying Coins, | 30 |
The Vanished Half Dime, | 30 |
The Restored Document, | 30 |
The Magic Rings, | 31 |
The Fish and Ink Trick, | 32 |
The Hat and Cannon Ball Trick, | 32 |
The Dime in the Ball of Cotton, | 33 |
The Egg and Bag Trick, | 33 |
The Dancing Egg, | 34 |
The Bell and Shot Trick, | 34 |
The Burned Handkerchief Restored, | 35 |
The Fire Eater, | 35 |
The Egg Box Trick, | 36 |
The Globe Box Trick, | 36 |
The Coffee Trick, | 37 |
The Handkerchief Trick, | 38 |
The Magic Funnel, | 41 |
The Magic Bottle, | 41 |
The Bottle Trick, | 42 |
The Magic Quarter, | 44 |
To change a Dime to a Quarter, | 44 |
Wyman's Gun Trick, | 46 |
The Hatched Bird, | 46 |
The Apple and Orange Trick, | 47 |
A Magician's Box Explained, | 47 |
The Enchanted Coin, | 48 |
The Mysterious Coin, or How to Make Dollars pass through a Wine Glass, a China Plate, a Table, and fall into the Hand, |
49 |
The Egyptian Fluids, or Impossibilities Accomplished, | 50 |
The Magician's Snow Ball, | 51 |
The Magnetized Cane, | 52 |
Wyman's Mode of performing the Egg Bag Trick, | 52 |
The Dancing Automaton, | 354 |
The Invisible Springs, | 355 |
The Flight of the Ring, | 356 |
The Magic Book, | 360 |
The Tape Trick, | 360 |
The Knotted Thread, | 361 |
The Transposable Pieces, | 362 |
Tricks and Deceptions with Cards. | |
To Make the Pass, | 55 |
To Tell a Card by its Back, | 55 |
The Card named without being seen, | 56 |
The Card told by an Opera Glass, | 56 |
The Four Kings, | 58 |
The Four Accomplices, | 58 |
To Tell the Card thought of, in a Circle of Ten, | 59 |
To guess the Card thought of, | 59 |
To tell the number of Cards by Weight, | 60 |
Audacity, | 61 |
The Card found at the second guess, | 61 |
The Card found under the Hat, | 61 |
To call the Cards out of the Pack, | 61 |
Heads and Tails, | 62 |
The Surprise, | 62 |
The Revolution, | 63 |
The Slipped Card, | 63 |
The Nailed Card, | 63 |
To ascertain the number of Points on three unseen Cards, | 64 |
To tell the numbers on two unseen Cards, | 64 |
>The Knaves and the Constable, | 64 |
The Pairs Re-paired, | 65 |
The Queens Digging for Diamonds, | 66 |
The Triple Deal, | 67 |
The Quadruple Deal, | 67 |
The Card Discovered by the Touch or Smell, | 67 |
The Ingenious Confederacy, | 67 |
Hold it Fast, | 69 |
The Charmed Twelve, | 69 |
The Trick of "Thirty-one," | 70 |
To tell the Names of the Cards by their Weight, | 71 |
The Cards in the Vase, | 73 |
The Metamorphosis, | 74 |
To hold Four Kings, or Four Knaves in your Hand, and to Change them suddenly into Blank Cards, and then to Four Aces, |
76 |
To Change a Card in a Person's Hand, | 76 |
The Card in the Egg, | 77 |
The Fifteen Thousand Livres, | 78 |
Hints to Amateurs, | 79 |
Cure for Troublesome Spectators, | 80 |
To make a Card jump out of the Pack, | 357 |
The Tell-Tale Cards, | 357 |
The Double Dozen, | 358 |
The Housebreakers, | 359 |
The Magic of Chemistry. | |
Sympathetic or Invisible Inks, | 84 |
The Silver Tree, | 85 |
Cleopatra's Pearls, | 86 |
Wonderful Experiments in Combustion, | 86 |
Mimic Rain, | 86 |
Marine Illumination, | 87 |
The Mimic Explosion, | 88 |
The Shower of Fire, | 88 |
The Magical Heat, | 88 |
The Magic Lamp, | 89 |
Surprising Experiments with Potassium, | 89 |
The Water Demon, | 89 |
A Flame produced with Ice, | 89 |
The Chemical Chimney Sweep, | 90 |
The Magical Illumination, | 90 |
The Chemical Chameleon, | 91 |
Crystallizations of Metals, | 92 |
Beauties of Crystallization, | 93 |
To Crystallize Camphor, | 93 |
To do. Tin, | 94 |
Crystals in Hard Water, | 94 |
Varieties of Crystals, | 94 |
A Liquid Changed to a Solid, and Heat from Crystallization, | 94 |
Beautiful Experiment, | 95 |
A Solid Changed to a Liquid, and intense Cold from the Liquefaction, | 95 |
Magic of Heat, | 95 |
Sublimation by Heat, | 96 |
Heat Passing through Glass, | 96 |
Metals unequally Influenced by Heat, | 97 |
Spontaneous Combustion, | 97 |
Inequality of Heat in Fire Irons, | 97 |
Expansion of Metal by Heat, | 97 |
Evaporation of a Metal, | 98 |
A Floating Metal on Fire, | 98 |
Ice Melted by Air, | 98 |
Splendid Sublimation, | 98 |
Magic Inks, | 98 |
Chameleon Liquids, | 99 |
The Magic Dyes, | 99 |
Wine Changed into Water, | 99 |
Two colorless Transparent Liquids become Black and Opaque, | 100 |
Two colorless Fluids, Make a colored one, | 100 |
Change of Color, by colorless Fluids, | 100 |
To Change Blue Liquid to White, | 100 |
Veritable "Black" Tea, | 100 |
Restoration of Color by Water, | 101 |
Two Liquids Make a Solid, | 101 |
Two Solids Make a Liquid, | 101 |
A Solid, Opaque Mass, Makes a Transparent Liquid, | 101 |
Two cold Liquids Make a Hot one, | 101 |
Quintuple Transmutation, | 102 |
The Same Agent may Produce and Destroy Color, | 102 |
Union of two Metals without Heat, | 102 |
Magic Breath, | 102 |
Two Bitters Make a Sweet, | 103 |
Visible and Invisible, | 103 |
To Form a Liquid of two Solids, | 103 |
The Spectral Lamp, | 104 |
Curious Change of Colors, | 105 |
The Protean Light, | 105 |
The Chameleon Flowers, | 105 |
To Change the Colors of Flowers, | 105 |
Changes of the Poppy, | 106 |
Changes of the Rose, | 106 |
Light changing White into Black, | 106 |
The Visibly Growing Acorn, | 106 |
Colored Flames, | 107 |
Orange colored Flame, | 107 |
Emerald Green Flame, | 107 |
Instantaneous Flame, | 107 |
To Cool Flame by Metal, | 108 |
Proof that Flame is Hollow, | 108 |
To Hold a Hot Tea Kettle on the Hand, | 108 |
Incombustible Linen, | 108 |
The Burning Circle, | 108 |
Water of different Temperatures in the same Vessel, | 109 |
Warmth of Different Colors, | 109 |
Substitute for Fire, | 109 |
Laughing Gas, | 109 |
Flame from Cold Metals, | 110 |
Phosphorus in Chlorine, | 110 |
Magic Vapor, | 111 |
Gas from the Union of Metals, | 111 |
Camphor Sublimated by Flame, | 111 |
Green Fire, | 111 |
Brilliant Red Fire, | 112 |
Purple Fire, | 112 |
Silver Fire, | 112 |
Fiery Fountain, | 112 |
Combustion without Flame, | 112 |
Combustion of Three Metals, | 113 |
To Make Paper Apparently Incombustible, | 113 |
Heat not to be estimated by Touch, | 113 |
Flame upon Water, | 113 |
Rose Colored Flame upon Water, | 113 |
To Set a Mixture on Fire by Water, | 114 |
Waves of Fire on Water, | 114 |
Water from the Flame of a Candle, | 114 |
Formation of Water by Fire, | 114 |
Boiling upon Cold Water, | 114 |
Currents in Boiling Water, | 114 |
Hot Water Lighter than Cold, | 115 |
Expansion of Water by Cold, | 115 |
The Cup of Tantalus, | 115 |
The Magic Whirlpool, | 116 |
Artificial Fire Balls, | 117 |
To Melt Steel as Easily as Lead, | 118 |
To Tell a Lady if She is in Love, | 118 |
To put an Egg in a Phial, | 118 |
To Astonish a Large Party, | 118 |
Magical Test Papers, | 119 |
Infinite Divisibility, | 119 |
Chemistry an Agent in Secret Writing, | 327 |
To Melt a Piece of Money in a Walnut Shell, without Injuring the Shell, | 355 |
The Pyramid of Alum, | 354 |
Experiments in Electricity. | |
The Rotary Tobacco Pipe, | 123 |
The Erratic Feather, | 123 |
The Attractive Sealing Wax, | 124 |
The Unneighborly Balls, | 124 |
The Electrified Paper, | 124 |
The Sociable Feather, | 124 |
The Eccentric Feather, | 124 |
The Discontented Pith Ball, | 124 |
The Dancing Bran, | 124 |
The Electrical Cat, | 124 |
Electrical Shock from a Sheet of Paper, | 125 |
Light under Water, | 126 |
Simple means of Producing Electricity, | 126 |
Attraction and Repulsion Exhibited, | 127 |
How to Make an Electrical Machine, | 127 |
Conductor, | 128 |
The Plate Electrical Machine, | 129 |
How to Draw Sparks from the Tip of the Nose, | 129 |
How to Get a Jar full of Electricity, | 129 |
The Electrical Battery, | 130 |
Dancing Balls and Dolls, | 131 |
The Electrical Kiss, | 131 |
Ringing Bells, | 131 |
Working Power of Electricity, | 132 |
The Electrified Wig, | 132 |
Imitation Thunder Clouds, | 133 |
The Lightning Stroke Imitated, | 133 |
The Sportsman, | 134 |
Experiments in Galvanism. | |
Singular Galvanic Shock, | 135 |
The Flash of Light, | 135 |
The Magical Cup, | 135 |
The Prisoner Leech, | 136 |
The Metamorphosed Knife, | 136 |
With Plates in Water, | 136 |
To Make a Magnet by Galvanism, | 137 |
Effects of Galvanism on a Magnet, | 137 |
Change of Color by Galvanism, | 137 |
The Galvanic Shock, | 138 |
A Galvanic Tongue, | 138 |
Influence of Galvanism on Porter and Ale, | 188 |
The Galvanized Flounder, | 188 |
Experiments in Magnetism. | |
The Impromptu Magnet, | 139 |
The Merry Iron Filings, | 140 |
Test of Magnetic Power, | 140 |
To Make Artificial Magnets, | 140 |
How to Magnetize a Poker, | 140 |
To Show Magnetic Attraction and Repulsion, | 141 |
Variation of the Needle, | 141 |
Dip of the Needle, | 141 |
To Suspend a Needle in the Air, by Magnetism, | 141 |
Magnetism by Hammering, | 142 |
Power of the Electro-Magnet, | 142 |
The Mariner's Compass, | 142 |
To Make Artificial Magnets without the Aid of either Natural Loadstone, or Artificial Magnets, | 143 |
The Watch Magnetized, | 144 |
North and South Poles of the Magnet, | 144 |
Polarity of the Magnet, | 144 |
Magnetic Action and Reaction, | 145 |
To Pass Magnetism through a Table, | 145 |
The Magnetic Table, | 145 |
Interesting Particulars Concerning the Magnet, | 145 |
Exaggerated Magnetism, | 146 |
The Magic of Pneumatics and Aerostatics. | |
Weight of the Air Proved by a Pair of Bellows, | 148 |
The Pressure of Air Shown by a Wine Glass, | 148 |
The Pressure of Air Shown by a Glass Jar, | 148 |
Elasticity of the Air, | 149 |
The Air Pump, | 149 |
To Prove that Air has Weight, | 150 |
To Prove Air Elastic, | 150 |
Air in the Egg, | 150 |
The Descending Smoke, | 151 |
Half Eagle and Feather, | 151 |
The Soundless Bell, | 152 |
The Floating Fish, | 152 |
The Mysterious Circles, | 152 |
The Diving Bell, | 154 |
The Air Balloon, | 154 |
How to Make an Air Balloon, | 155 |
How to Fill a Balloon, | 156 |
To Make Fire Balloons, | 156 |
The Mysterious Bottle, | 157 |
How to Make a Parachute, | 157 |
Caoutchouc Balloons, | 157 |
The Bacchus Experiment, | 362 |
The Magic of Optics. | |
Light as an Effect, | 159 |
Refraction, | 159 |
The Invisible Coin Made Visible, | 159 |
The Multiplying Glass, | 160 |
Transparent Bodies, | 160 |
The Prism, | 160 |
To Make a Prism, | 161 |
Composition of Light, | 161 |
A Natural Camera Obscura, | 162 |
Bullock's Eyes Experiment, | 162 |
The Camera Obscura, | 162 |
The Magic Lantern, | 163 |
The Camera Lucida, | 164 |
Painting the Slides, | 164 |
To Exhibit the Magic Lantern, | 164 |
Effects of the Magic Lantern, | 165 |
Tempest at Sea, | 165 |
The Phantasmagoria, | 166 |
Dissolving Views, | 167 |
How to Raise a Ghost, | 167 |
The Thaumatrope, | 168 |
The Bird in the Cage, | 168 |
Construction of the Phantasmascope, | 168 |
Curious Optical Illusion, | 169 |
Another, | 170 |
Another, | 170 |
The Picture in the Air, | 171 |
Breathing Light and Darkness, | 171 |
To Show what Rays of Light do not Obstruct each other, | 172 |
To See through a Philadelphia Brick, | 172 |
The Stereoscope, | 173 |
Ocular Spectra, | 175 |
Brilliant Water Mirror, | 175 |
Optics of a Soap Bubble, | 176 |
The Kaleidoscope, | 176 |
Simple Solar Microscope, | 177 |
Anamorphoses, | 178 |
The Cosmorama, | 180 |
Distorted Landscapes, | 180 |
The Magic Coin, | 181 |
The Magician's Mirror, | 344 |
The Perspective Mirror, | 345 |
The Artificial Landscape, | 348 |
The Boundless Prospect, | 350 |