Water Wizardry Part 8

The exact quant.i.ties of the chemicals required can only be determined by experiment. Having settled that matter the conjurer has only to carry out the instructions already given. The second and fourth gla.s.ses will then have "wine" in them, and the first and third water. The contents of the first and second mixed together will be "wine," and when poured into the jug will cause the water left in the jug to change into "wine." The oxalic acid in the third gla.s.s does the trick of taking all the colour out of the contents of the fourth gla.s.s, and when he has poured that into the jug the conjurer finishes, as he began, with a "jug of water."

The jug should be taken away at once, because the water will probably become dull and clouded in the course of a few minutes. The "water," by the way, is poisonous; to avoid any chance of an accident the conjurer should pour it away at once, and should also see that the gla.s.ses and jug are well washed.

If fairly large tumblers are used the steel drops can be "rinsed" round the two tumblers (the second and fourth) just before the performance begins, and those tumblers can then be placed upside down on a tray; this position negatives the idea that there is anything in the tumblers at the beginning of the trick.

The Vanishing Gla.s.s of Water

To cause a gla.s.s of water to vanish is hardly a complete trick, but it may well form part of many magical experiments. Thus, if you are presenting the "Rice Bowls" (see Chapter V) you can proceed with the trick up to the point when the rice has been secretly removed and the water is in readiness for the final effect. Leave the bowls as they are, one inverted on the other, and show a silk hat to the audience, letting them see inside it.

Now pick up a jug of water with your right hand and throw a large handkerchief over your right arm. With the left hand take a tumbler from the table, pour some water into it, and take it with the disengaged fingers of the right hand, so that with your left hand you can take the handkerchief from your right arm and throw it over the gla.s.s.

Directly you have done this, hold the gla.s.s, through the handkerchief, with the left hand and put the jug down on the table. The right hand drapes the handkerchief round the gla.s.s. Pause for a second, and then flick the handkerchief into the air. The gla.s.s of water has vanished.

Go to the silk hat and take from it a gla.s.s full of rice. The gla.s.s is apparently that which has just vanished and the rice is that which the audience think is in the lower bowl. Then go to the bowls and "discover"

the missing water.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

{jug in one hand with gla.s.s of water in the other, then place jug on table and drop gla.s.s, while covered with handkerchief, into jug} _FIRST POSITION_

_Cloth or rubber bag_

_THE VANISH_

Fig. 13]

The disappearance of the gla.s.s of water is managed in this way. The handkerchief is really made of two handkerchiefs sewn together; sewn between them, in the centre, is a round piece of cardboard of the size of the top of the gla.s.s. When you throw the handkerchief over the gla.s.s you get the disc of cardboard exactly over the top of the gla.s.s. Take the gla.s.s in the left hand and tap it once against the top of the jug--just to let the audience be convinced that it is there. Then, as you take it away, drop it into the jug, which has been provided with a cloth or india-rubber bag for its reception. The bag is stiffened at the top. Of course, the cardboard disc conveys the impression that the gla.s.s is still under the handkerchief. The jug must be either a china or a metal one.

If you wish to use the vanish of the gla.s.s of water in the way I have suggested--in conjunction with the rice bowls--it will be necessary to have an opera hat with a hinged flap in the centre. Cut a piece of stiff cardboard of the size of the crown of the hat. To the centre of this fasten, by means of strips of black linen, a small, semicircular piece of cardboard, which will thus be hinged to the other piece. Cover the whole of this "fake" with black silk and put it into the open hat. The top of the hinged flap should be about half-way down the hat when the flap is resting against one side of the hat. It is an easy matter to hide a gla.s.s under the flap, and that gla.s.s is nearly filled with rice, which is prevented from coming out by means of a little plug of paper.

By holding the fingers against the flap and the thumb on the brim of the hat it is an easy matter to prevent the gla.s.s from falling out when you casually hold the hat up for inspection by the audience. Keep the hat moving, and the audience will not see the flap. Put the hat down, letting the flap swing over to the other side of the hat. Then, when you wish to produce the gla.s.s of rice all you have to do is to pull out the plug of paper, leave it in the hat, and take out the gla.s.s. Pour the rice out on to a tray and then produce the water from the bowl, and pour it backwards and forwards from one bowl to another.

If you are using the metal bowls this vanish of the gla.s.s of water helps to fill in the time occupied by the water running from the top bowl to the one underneath it.

The Vanishing Water

Pour some water into a tumbler until it is about half full. Place a short cardboard cylinder over the gla.s.s; when you lift the cylinder the gla.s.s is empty, and the cylinder is held with one end facing the audience; there is nothing inside it.

This is a very simple "vanish." The gla.s.s has a detachable lining of transparent celluloid which will hold water. The presence of the lining in the gla.s.s is not noticed. All that the conjurer has to do is to take care not to put too much water into the "gla.s.s," because if he does he may find a difficulty in lifting the lining out in the only way in which it can be lifted out. The cover is placed over the gla.s.s. In removing the cover the conjurer holds it with his thumb outside and his middle finger, which should be moistened, inside. Two fingers pull up the celluloid lining and hold it tightly against the cover, which, of course, hides it for a moment while the conjurer picks up the gla.s.s and shows that the water has vanished. While he does this he puts the cover down on his table for a moment and lets the celluloid lining sink gently down into a "well" in the table. A "well" is the conjurer's name for a hole in the top of the table. The top of the table is covered with black velvet, and the inside of the hole is lined with the same material. If there is a pattern of gold braid on the top of the table--though even this is not necessary if one is performing on a stage--the hole cannot be seen by the audience, even if they are a few feet away from the table.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

_GLa.s.s WITH CELLULOID LINING_

_REMOVING LINING FROM GLa.s.s._

Fig. 14]

The action of putting the cover down in a natural way, and not gingerly, as though the conjurer was afraid of something inside it, must be practised and, of course, the cover must be raised again at the earliest possible moment and shown to be empty.

The mere vanishing of water in this way is not a complete trick in itself; it should be combined with other tricks. The milk can, explained later on in this chapter, will serve for the purpose of the reproduction of the water, and if the conjurer will provide himself with an extra celluloid lining, load it with three or four handkerchiefs and place it behind a hat or some piece of apparatus on the table, he can easily build up a little trick.

Having shown the milk can to be empty, he fills the gla.s.s, covers it, and leaves it covered for a few moments while he shows some silk handkerchiefs similar to those in the "fake." He "vanishes" these handkerchiefs magically and shows his hands empty, or, if he prefers to do so, he can have another prepared gla.s.s similar to the first and put the handkerchiefs in that, so that he has a gla.s.s containing handkerchiefs on one side of his table and a gla.s.s containing water on the other, and the milk can in the centre. He lifts the cover from the handkerchiefs and shows that they have disappeared; of course, the "vanish" is managed in the same way, the celluloid lining of the gla.s.s containing the handkerchiefs going down another "well" in the table.

Then the conjurer vanishes the water in the way described and having got rid of the "fake," lifts the cover to show that it is empty and puts it down over a similar fake (but containing handkerchiefs similar to those which have been vanished). This fake can be standing behind an opera hat on the table, and the conjurer should take away the hat as he puts the cover down over the fake. He must not convey the impression that he is trying to hide the cover behind the hat. He then replaces the cover over the empty tumbler.

The position of things at this stage of the trick should be clear to the audience. The milk can was shown to be empty; the conjurer has caused some handkerchiefs and some water to vanish from two tumblers, one of which is left uncovered. Going to the uncovered one the conjurer lifts the cover and shows the handkerchiefs, and he can at once pour the water from the milk can.

I do not suggest for a moment that that would be a particularly good trick to do; I merely describe it in order to start you thinking of some other article which might be added to the water and the handkerchiefs to make a still more puzzling trick. A glance through any catalogue of tricks will surely enable you to concoct a very fair trick on these lines.

The Aquarius Tube

Now, here is a trick of a different kind, one which is quite complete in itself. The inventor is unknown to me and I have not been able to discover his name. In common with some other conjurers I have always been under the impression that Mr. Claude Chandler invented this trick, but he tells me that he is not the inventor and he does not know by whom the trick was originated.

The effect is quite simple and not difficult to obtain. The conjurer comes forward with a small piece of brown paper in his left hand. He shows both sides of it, rolls it into a tube and pours water into the tube. To the surprise of the audience the water remains in the tube. The conjurer puts two fingers into the lower end of the tube and draws out a quant.i.ty of coloured paper ribbons, perfectly dry; when all the ribbons are on the table there is quite a little mound of them. The conjurer afterwards unrolls the paper and throws it on one side, showing that it is not prepared in any way for the trick.

That is the trick known as the Aquarius tube, but most conjurers would naturally wish to extend it by producing flags from the paper ribbons, and this would not be a difficult matter.

In order to do this trick a small metal tube, closed at both ends, with a hole in one end is required. The tube is about the height of a pony gla.s.s, with a slightly smaller diameter. When the trick was first invented the tube was made in the form of an "unspillable" ink-well.

(See ill.u.s.tration A.) Thus, when the water was poured in (in a way which I will describe presently) there was no risk that the water would run out even if the tube was inverted. The tube in that form was "safe," but a little too safe, because of the difficulty of emptying it after a performance; it had to be shaken vigorously to clear it of water.

Mr. Harry Leat, therefore, improved the tube. (See ill.u.s.tration B.) It will be seen that in the improved tube there is a short length of a very small tube attached to the hole in the top of the tube, and in order to facilitate the task of emptying the tube there is a hole at the other end; this hole is closed during the performance of the trick by an india-rubber plug. It will be noticed that in both tubes the base is not flush with the lower edge, but is fastened about half an inch from the edge. Thus, there is s.p.a.ce at the bottom of the tube for a small coil of paper ribbons. (The rubber plug comes in the centre of the coil.)

[Ill.u.s.tration:

_Sections of Water Fakes_

_Type B_

_Paper coil_

_Type A_

_External appearance_

Fig. 15]

If a small quant.i.ty of water is poured into this tube it can be inverted without any fear of the water running out, but, of course, if too much water is used and the tube is turned upside down a small quant.i.ty of water is bound to escape. For myself, I see no object in turning the tube upside down. After the conjurer has made a tube of paper and has poured water into it and has shown that the water does not run out from the other end, I do not see that he gains anything by turning the tube upside down. (It will be understood, of course, that the metal tube is secretly introduced into the paper tube. I am coming to that.)

Having poured the water into the tube the conjurer makes one or two mystic pa.s.ses over it and then pulls out the paper ribbons; directly these have been well started they will uncoil and fall from the tube in a heap on the table.

How does the conjurer manage to get rid of the "fake" containing the water? By camouflage. The "fake" tube is painted to match the ribbons.

When the ribbons have been produced the conjurer holds up a handful near the end of the tube and calls attention to their colours. He then lets the tube slide down out of the paper tube behind the ribbons and puts the lot on the table again. The "fake," being the same colour as the ribbons, is not noticed. If the conjurer has two or three handkerchiefs on the table to act as a pad he can let the tube fall down on the table, but he must bring the end of the paper tube as near to the table as possible when the metal "fake" is to fall, otherwise there will be an audible "thud."

The "fake" is introduced into the paper tube in a very simple manner.

The piece of brown paper should be about fifteen inches square. The conjurer holds this in his left hand with his fingers behind the paper and thumb in front of it. Unknown to the audience the conjurer is holding the "fake" behind the paper. In order to show both sides of the paper the conjurer brings up the free end with his right hand until it reaches the left thumb, which then takes it. At the same time he releases the end which he has been holding with his left thumb and that end naturally falls down. The audience have seen both sides of the paper, but the "fake" is still behind the paper in the left hand. This "move" is quite a natural one, and is very easy; if the conjurer will try it in front of a mirror he will see that it is also deceptive.