Modern Magic
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE ART OF
CONJURING
BY PROFESSOR HOFFMANN (1876)
CHAPTER I:
Introductory Observations
Introduction
The Magic Wand
The Magician’s Table
The Magician’s Dress
CHAPTER II:
General Principles of Sleight-of-Hand applicable to Card Tricks
Introduction
The Cards
To “Make the Pass”
To “Force” a Card
To Make a “False Shuffle”
To “Palm” a Card
To “Ruffle” the Cards
To “Change” a Card
To Get Sight of a Drawn Card
To “Slip” a Card
To “Draw Back” a Card
To “Turn Over” the Pack
To Spring the Cards from One Hand to the Other
To Throw a Card
The “Bridge”
CHAPTER III:
Card Tricks with Ordinary Cards, and not requiring
Sleight-of-Hand.
Simple Modes of Discovering a Given Card
Various Modes of Disclosing a Chosen Card
To Make a Card Vanish From the Pack, and be Found in a
Person’s Pocket
To Place the Four Kings in Different Parts of the Pack, and to
Bring Them Together by a Simple Cut
The Four Kings Being Placed Under the Hand of One Person, and the
Four Sevens Under the Hand of Another, to Make Them Change Places
at Command
Four Packets of Cards Having Been Formed Face Downwards on the
Table, to Discover the Total Value of the Undermost Cards
To Name All the Cards in the Pack in Succession
The Cards Being Cut, to Tell Whether the Number Cut is Odd Or
Even
The Whist Trick—To Deal Yourself All the Trumps
To allow a Person to think of a Card, and to make that Card
appear at such Number in the Pack as another Person shall Name
The Cards Revealed by the Looking-Glass
To Guess Four Cards Thought of by Different Persons
The Pairs Re-Paired
The Magic Triplets
Another Mode of Discovering a Card Thought of
To Guess, by the Aid of a Passage of Poetry Or Prose, Such One of
Sixteen Cards as, in the Performer’s Absence, has been
Touched or Selected by the Company
To Detect, without Confederacy, which of Four Cards has been
Turned Round in your Absence
To Arrange Twelve Cards in Rows, in Such a Manner That They Will
Count Four in Every Direction
To Place the Aces and Court Cards in Four Rows, in Such a Manner
That Neither Horizontally Nor Perpendicularly Shall There be in
Either Row Two Cards Alike Either in Suit or Value
The Congress of Court Cards
CHAPTER IV:
Tricks involving Sleight-of-hand, or the Use of Specially
Prepared Cards
The “Long Card.”
Biseauté or Tapering Cards.
Tricks Performed by the Aid of a Long Card, or biseauté
Pack—
A Card having been Chosen and Returned, and the Pack Shuffled, to
produce the Chosen Card instantly in various ways.
To Cut at the Chosen Card.
To Let all the Cards fall, save the One Chosen.
To Pick out the Card, the Pack being placed in a Person’s
Pocket.
To Fling the Pack in the Air, and Catch the Chosen Card.
To Change a Card drawn haphazard to the Chosen Card.
To Divide the Pack into several Packets on the Table, allowing
the Company to stop you at any Moment, and to cause the Top Card
of the Heap last made to Change into the Chosen Card.
To Teach the Company a Trick which they Learn without Difficulty;
then to allow them to Succeed or cause them to Fail at your
Pleasure.
To Distinguish the Court Cards by Touch.
To Name any Number of Cards in Succession without Seeing Them.
To Make Four Cards change from Eights to Twos, from Black to Red,
etc.
A Card having been Drawn and Returned, and the Pack Shuffled, to
make it Appear at such Number as the Company choose.
The same Trick with several Cards, and by a Different Method.
The “Three Card” Trick.
To Nail a Chosen Card to the Wall.
The Inseparable Sevens.
The Inseparable Aces.
Having placed the Four Aces in different positions in the Pack,
to make the two Black change places with the two Red ones, and
finally to bring all Four together in the Middle of the Pack.
A Card having been thought of, to make such Card Vanish from the
Pack, and be Discovered wherever the Performer pleases.
To cause a Number of Cards to Multiply invisibly in a
Person’s keeping.
The Pack being divided into two Portions, placed in the keeping
of two different Persons, to make Three Cards pass invisibly from
the One to the Other.
To allow several Persons each to draw a Card, and the Pack having
been Shuffled to make another Card drawn haphazard change
successively into each of those first chosen.
To make Four Aces change to Four Kings, and Four Kings to Four
Aces.
Having made Four Packets of Cards with an Ace at the bottom of
each to bring all Four Aces into whichever Packet the Company may
choose.
To Change the Four Aces, held tightly by a Person, into Four
Indifferent Cards.
The Shower of Aces.
Several Persons having each drawn Two Cards, which have been
Returned and Shuffled, to make each Couple appear in Succession,
one at the top and the other at the bottom of the Pack.
To make Two Cards, each firmly held by a different Person, change
places.
To change Four Cards, drawn hap- hazard, and placed on the Table,
into Cards of the same Value as a Single Card subsequently chosen
by one of the Spectators.
Two Heaps of Cards, unequal in Number, being placed upon the
Table, to predict beforehand which of the two the Company will
choose.
A Row of Cards being placed Face Downwards on the Table, to
indicate, by turning up one of them, how many of such Cards have
during your absence been transferred from one end of the Row to
the other.
Several Cards having been freely chosen by the Company, Returned
and Shuffled, and the Pack placed in a Person’s Pocket, to
make such Person draw out one by one the chosen Cards.
The Cards having been freely Shuffled, and cut into three or four
Heaps, to name the top Card of each Heap.
To allow a Person secretly to think of a Card, and, dividing the
Pack into three Heaps, to cause the Card thought of to appear in
whichever Heap the Company may choose.
To allow a Person secretly to think of a Card, and, even before
such Card is named, to select it from the Pack, and place it
singly upon the Table.
A Card having been secretly thought of by one of the Audience, to
place two Indifferent Cards upon the Table, and to change such
one of them as the Audience may select into the Card thought of.
A Card having been Drawn and Returned, and the Pack shuffled, to
divide the Pack into several Heaps on the Table, and to cause the
Drawn Card to appear m such Heap as the Company may choose.
To change a Drawn Card into the Portraits of several of the
Company in succession.
A Card having been Drawn and Returned, and the Pack shuffled, to
place on the Table six Rows of six Cards each, and to discover
the chosen Card by a throw of the Dice.
A Card having been withdrawn and replaced, to call it from the
Pack, and to make it come to you of its own accord.
Mode of Preparing specially adhesive Wax for Conjuring Purposes
The Whist Trick (Improved Method) To deal yourself all the Trumps
the three other Players holding the usual mixed Hands.
CHAPTER V:
Card Tricks Requiring Special Apparatus
The Magic Sword. A Card being drawn and replaced, and the Pack
flung in the Air, to catch the chosen Card on the point of the
Sword.
The Rising Cards. Several Cards having been drawn, returned, and
shuffled, to make them rise spontaneously from the Pack.
The Jumping Card. Two or three Cards having been drawn, returned,
and shuffled, to make them jump out of the Pack.
To Make a Card Stand upright
“Changing” Card Boxes
The Mechanical Card Box
The “Card and Bird” Box
The Card Tripod
The “Torn Card”
Mechanical Changing Cards
CHAPTER VI:
Principles of Sleight-of-hand more especially Applicable to Coin
Tricks.
Palming
Passes
Changes
CHAPTER VII:
Tricks with Coins, without Apparatus.
A Quater being spun upon the Table to tell blindfolded whether it
falls head or tail upwards
Odd or Even, or the Mysterious Addition
To change a Quarter into a Penny, back again, and then to pass
the same invisibly into the Pocket of the Owner
To make a marked Quater and Penny, wrapped in separate
Handkerchiefs, change place at Command
To make two marked Coins, wrapped in separate Handkerchiefs, come
together in one of them
To pull Four Quarters or Half-crowns through a Handkerchief
To pass a marked Quater (or Half-crown) into the Centre of two
Oranges in succession
The Flying Money.To make a Coin pass invisibly from the one Hand
to the other, and finally through the Table
To rub One Sixpence into Three
The Multiplication of Money
To Make a Marked Sixpence vanish from a Handkerchief, and be
found in the Centre of an Apple or Orange previously examinded
The Travelling Counters
The Wandering Sixpence
CHAPTER VIII:
Tricks with Coins requiring special Apparatus.
The Heads and Tails Trick
The Magic Cover and Vanishing Halfpence
The Animated Coin, which answers Questions, etc.
Appliances for Vanishing Money:
The Vanishing Halfpenny Box
The Rattle Box
The Pepper-box
The Brass Money-box
The Brass Box, known as the “Plugbox”
The Handkerchief for Vanishing Money
The Demon Handkerchief
The Davenport Cabinet
Appliances for Reproducing Vanished Money:
The Nest of Boxes
The Ball of Berlin Wool
The Glass Goblet and Cover
The Glass without Cover
The Miraculous Casket
The Half-Crown or Quarter Wand
The Shower of Money
The Vanishing Plate, or Salver
The “Changing” Plate
The Tray of Proteus
CHAPTER IX:
Tricks with Watches
To indicate on the Dial of a Watch the Hour secretly thought of
by any of the Company
To Bend a Borrowed Watch Backwards and Forwards
The Watch-mortar and the Magic Pistol
The “Snuff-box Vase”
The “Watch Box”
The “Watch Target”
The Mesmerised Watch (To Make any Watch a Repeater)
CHAPTER X:
Tricks with Rings.
The Flying Ring
To Pass a Ring from the one Hand to either Finger of the other
Hand
To Pass a Ring through a Pocket handkerchief
To Pass a Ring through the Table
To Pass a Ring invisibly upon the Middle of a Wooden Wand, the
Ends being held by two of the Spectators
The Magic Ball and Rings
To Pass a Borrowed Ring into an Egg
The Magic Rose
CHAPTER XI:
Tricks with Handkerchiefs.
Introductory Remarks
The Handkerchief that cannot be Tied in a Knot
The Handkerchief that will not Burn
The Vanishing Knots
To Exchange a borrowed Handkerchief for a Substitute
The Locked and Corded Box, and the Washerwoman’s Bottle
The Reversible Canister
The Burning Globe
The Transformed Handkerchief
The Handkerchief cut up, burnt, and finally found in a Candle
The Shower of Sweets
The Feathers from an Empty Handkerchief
The Flying Plume
The Magic Laundry
The Egg and the Handkerchief
The “Hand-Box,” for Vanishing a Handkerchief
CHAPTER XII:
Tricks with Dominoes and Dice.
To Arrange a Row of Dominoes face downwards on the Table, and on
returning to the Room to turn up a Domino whose points shall
indicate how many have been moved in your absence.
To Allow any Person in your absence to arrange the Dominoes in a
Row, face downwards, and on your return to name blindfold, or
without entering the Room, the end numbers of the Row.
To Change, invisibly, the Numbers shown on either Face of a Pair
of Dice.
To Name, without seeing them, the Points of a Pair of Dice.
CHAPTER XIII:
The Cups and Balls.
Introductory Remarks.
Principles of Sleight-of-hand applicable to Ball Tricks.
To Palm the Ball.
To Reproduce the Palmed Ball at the End of the Fingers.
To Secretly Introduce the Palmed Ball under the Cup.
To Simulate the Action of Placing a Ball under a Cup.
To Produce a Ball from the Wand.
To Return a Ball into the Wand.
To Pass one Cup through Another.
Burlesque Address to the Spectators.
Pass I. Having Placed a Ball under each Cup, to draw it out again
without Lifting the Cup.
Pass II. To make a Ball Travel invisibly from Cup to Cup.
Pass III. Having placed a Ball under each of the end Cups, to
make them pass successively under the Middle Cup.
Pass IV. Having placed two Bails under the Middle Cup, to make
them pass under the two Outer Ones.
Pass V. To pass three Balls in succession under One Cup.
Pass VI. To place three Balls one after the other upon the top of
one of the Cups, and to make them fall through the Cup on to the
Table.
Pass VII. To pass three Balls in succession upwards through the
Table into one of the Cups
Pass VIII. To pass two Balls in succession from one Cup to
another without touching them.
Pass IX. To make three Balls in succession pass under the Middle
Cup
Pass X. The “Multiplication” Pass.
Pass XI. To Transform the Small Balls to Larger Ones
Pass XII. To again Transform the Balls to still Larger Ones
CHAPTER XIV:
Ball Tricks requiring Special Apparatus.
Further principles of Sleight-of-hand applicable to Ball
Tricks—
To Palm a large Ball
To Vanish a Large Ball with the aid of the Table
The Ball Box
The Red-and-Black-Ball Vases
Morison’s Pill-box
The Ball which changes to a Rose
The Obedient Ball
CHAPTER XV:
Hat Tricks.
The Cannon-balls in the Hat.
Multiplying Balls.
The “Hundred Goblets” from a Hat.
A Dozen Babies from a Hat.
The Magic Reticules.
The Drums from the Hat.
The Birdcages from the Hat.
The Cake (or Pudding) in the Hat.
The Welsh Rabbit.
CHAPTER XVI:
Miscellaneous Tricks.
The Cut String Restored.
My Grandmother’s Necklace.
The Bonus Genius, or Vanishing Doll.
The Dancing Sailor.
The Bottle Imps.
The Vanishing Gloves.
The Egg Bag.
To Produce Eggs from a Person’s Mouth.
The Pillars of Solomon and the Magic Bradawl.
The Magic Coffers.
The Bran and Orange Trick.
The Rice and Orange Trick
The Magic Whistle.
The Magic Mill
Pieces of Apparatus of General
Utility:—
The Drawer-Box.
The Dissecting Drawer-Box.
The Changing Card-Drawer.
Changing Caddies.
The Cover, to pick up and replace any Article.
The Changing Cover.
The Changing Ladle.
The Magic Vase and Caddy
The Cone, or Skittle.
The Cone and Bouquet.
The Flying Glass of Water .
The Bowls of Water and Bowls of Fire produced from a Shawl.
The Bowl of Ink changed to clear Water, with Gold Fish swimming
in it.
The Inexhaustible Bottle.
The Bottle and Ribbons.
The New Pyramids of Egypt, or Wine and Water Trick.
The Mysterious Funnel.
The Box of Bran transformed to a Bottle of Wine.
The Bran Bottle.
The Bran Glass.
To Fire Borrowed Rings from a Pistol, and make them Pass into a
Goblet filled with Bran and covered with a Handkerchief the Bran
disappearing, and being found elsewhere.
The Domino-Box (sometimes called the Glove-Box).
The Coffee Trick.
The Inexhaustible Box.
The Japanese Inexhaustible Boxes.
The Feast of Lanterns.
The Butterfly Trick.
The Wizard’s Omelet.
The Rose in the Glass Vase.
The Chinese Rings.
The Charmed Bullet.
The Birth of Flowers.
The Mysterious Salver.
The Vanishing Die.
The Die Dissolving in a Pocket Handkerchief.
The Die and Orange.
The Vanishing Canary Bird and Cage.
The Crystal Balls.
The Flags of all Nations.
The Umbrella Trick.
The “Passe-Passe” Trick.
CHAPTER XVII:
Stage Tricks.
The Tables in use in Stage Tricks.
The “Plain ”Trap.
The “Wrist” or “Pressure” Trap.
The “Rabbit” or “Dove” Trap.
“Changing” Traps.
The “Money” Trap.
“Pistons” (for working mechanical apparatus).
“Bellow” Tables.
The Rabbit Trick.
The Fairy Star.
The Card Bouquet.
The Demon’s Head.
The Magic Picture Frame.
The Flying Watches and the Broken Plate.
The Magic Picture and the Chosen Cards.
The Magic Portfolio.
The Glove Column.
The Pocket-handkerchief, found in a Candle.
The Sphinx.
The Cabinet of Proteus.
The Indian Basket Trick.
Electrical Tricks.
The Light and Heavy Chest.
Spirit-Rapping.
The Magic Bell.
The Crystal Cash Box.
The Magic Drum.
The Aërial Suspension.
CHAPTER XVIII:
Concluding Observations.
Hints as to Working up Tricks.
Arrangement of Programme.
Stage Arrangements.
Parting Counsels.
APPENDIX
CONTAINING EXPLANATIONS OF SOME OF THE BEST KNOWN
SPECIALTIES
OF MESSRS. MASKELYNE AND COOKE.
BY
ARPREY VERE
CHAPTER I:
Introductory.
CHAPTER II:
Kempelen
Kempelen’s Speaking Figure.
Its Construction.
His Talking Figure.
The Magic Harlequin and Construction.
The Magic Clock.
The Performing Clown.
The Cook of the Palais Royal.
The Orange and Rose Trees.
Electric Bell and Drum.
Suspension in the Air.
CHAPTER III:
Theodin.
Robin and Anderson.
The Magic Windmill.
Anderson’s Old Man.
Col. Stodare’s Living Head.
Pepper and Tobin.
Proteus; or, We’re Here and Not Here.
Fatima.
CHAPTER IV:
Automata:—Psycho.
Automaton of Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke.
Psycho and its Imitators.
Zoe.
Fanfare.
CHAPTER V:
Marionettes.
Taking a Man to Pieces.
The Living Marionettes.
CHAPTER VI:
Clairvoyance.
Clairvoyance, or Second Sight.
The Clairvoyance of the Superstitious Ages and the Clairvoyance
of the Day. Questions and Answers.
The Reading of Concealed Writing.
The Addition of Unseen Figures.
CHAPTER VII:
Spiritualism.
Mediums and their Pretences.
Their Tests.
Various Tying Tests.
The Sealed Accordion.
Floating in the Air.
Floating Tambourines, Guitars, etc.
The Spiritual Musical Box.
Writing on the Ceiling.
Invisible Writing.
The Floating Table, etc.
CHAPTER VIII:
Parlor Magic.
A Surprise.
Indian Sand Trick.
The “Q” Trick.
The Bleeding Thumb.
The Marked Florin in Oranges.
The Chinese Pictures.
Bautier’s Great Ink-and-Water Trick.
Carrying Fire in the Hands.