The expert reader must be prepared to find that a good many of the tricks I have yet to describe are, in general effect, identical with illusions with which he is already familiar, though differing from them in points of de-tail, or in the methods by which the desired result is produced. The explanation of this is twofold. In many instances Hartz was the pioneer, and the current ver-sion is an imitation (though not necessarily inferior) of his original. In other cases he himself borrowed the idea, but improved upon the working till it reached his own high standard of artistic completeness. The trick next following is an example of the latter class.
Readers of More Magic may recall a trick therein de-scribed (p. 181) under the title of The Climbing Coin, wherein a borrowed florin is made apparently to climb up the face of a wooden column, and deposit itself in a box placed on the top. Hartz made important mechani-cal improvements in this trick. To render them intelli-gible, it will be desirable briefly to recall the construction of the original apparatus.
The pillar, up which the coin climbs, is of polished mahogany, about nine inches in height, and in appearance as depicted in Fig 21. It consists of a rec-tangular plinth (with a drawer in its upper portion), from which springs a square column, flat on top. The face of the column is recessed in such manner as to al-low the upward passage of a florin, the woodwork
overlapping the coin about an eighth of an inch on each side. In conjunction with the column is used a second mahogany drawer, enclosed in a case of the same wood, about three inches in length by two and a half wide and one and a half deep. This is so constructed that when the drawer is placed in position and pushed fully home, a coin, previously concealed in a cavity above, is released by the opening of a hinged flap, and falls into the drawer.
But to return to the pillar, which is the portion of the apparatus to which Hartz’s improvements ap-ply. The plinth, it should be stated, is a reproduction, on a somewhat larger scale, of the familiar
“Davenport Cabinet,” being so constructed that when the appropriate drawer is inserted in its place and pushed home, its bottom, which is hinged to the forward edge, drops like a trapdoor, allowing anything previously placed in the drawer (in this case the borrowed florin), to fall through into the
hand of the person holding the pillar. The act of pulling the drawer out again raises the bottom to its original position. The coin which climbs up the face of the pillar is a dummy, which, till required, lies hidden at the foot of the recess up which it afterwards travels. A silk thread is attached to each side of the coin, covered by the overlapping woodwork, and the opposite ends of these threads are attached to a little leaden weight, which works up and down in a hollow shaft at the hinder side of the column. The shaft is at the outset filled with sand, on top of which the weightrests. When the performer desires that the dummy coin shall ascend, he pushes in a little metal tongue projecting at the back of the pillar. This opens a valve, which allows the sand to trickle down, through the tempo-rarily bottomless drawer, into the base beneath. The consequent sinking of the weight causes the coin to rise, finally passing out of sight behind the overlapping woodwork at top, professedly into the little box.
This form of the apparatus is subject to the draw-back that a heap of sand accumulates in the plinth, and this being bottomless, the column cannot be lifted up without disclosing the sand. To meet this difficulty, it is usual to place the apparatus on a plate or tray, professedly in order to cut off all com-munication with the table, but in reality, so that all may be carried away together.
Hartz set to work to remedy this, which is obviously a weak point in the trick. His first step was to divide the apparatus into two parts, the lower being simply a “Davenport Cabinet,” capable of being used separately for all purposes for which such a cabinet is available. Its only speciality was that it had a square mortise on the top, into which the lower end of the column could be fitted. This ar-rangement, of course, necessitated the mechanism for raising the coin being wholly contained in the column itself. The sand was accordingly stored at the outset in the upper half of the column, and when the valve was opened, trickled down into the lower half. This, however, limited the fall of the weight to half the length of the column, rendering it, under ordinary circumstances, insufficient to raise the coin the necessary distance.
Hartz got over this difficulty in an extremely ingenious manner. The two threads were attached at one end to the back of the column, at top. They were then passed through two loops at the top of the weight, and thence over a wire bar crossing the inside of the column, in front, to their points of at-tachment to the coin. Under these conditions, a fall of one inch on the part of the weight lifted the coin two inches, and so in proportion.
At bottom of the column there was a tin receptacle for the fallen sand. This could be removed at pleasure. In the benefit of the less instructed reader, I may briefly indicate the working of the trick.
A florin is borrowed, marked, and deposited in the drawer of the little cabinet. Ostensibly, it re-mains there, but actually passes into the possession of the performer holding the cabinet. The col-umn is now fixed on the top of the cabinet; and the little drawer-box, previously shown empty, is placed on the top of the column. The valve is opened, by pressure on the metal tongue, and a coin (professedly the coin) is seen to climb up the face of the column, and disappear. The little drawer-box is opened, and a coin (again professedly the coin) is thence produced, and exchanged for the original before it is handed for identification.
The following will be found a neat and easy way of effecting this change. The genuine coin should at the outset be concealed in the right hand, lying upon the second joints of the two middle fingers.
When the dummy coin has completed its ascent, take the little drawer-box in the same hand,
bring-ing it over the coin; the outer end of the drawer bebring-ing directed towards the wrist. Press the drawer home, and shake the box, to show by the sound that the coin has arrived. Then pull out the drawer in such a manner that it shall slide out over the concealed coin, which is then pressed by the fingers against its under side. Lay the outer case aside, and show the duplicate coin in the drawer, the
posi-tion of the hand being as in Fig. 22. Turn over the drawer, and make the movement of tilting the visi-ble coin into the left hand, but in reality secure it against the inside of the drawer by a quick movement of the thumb, and let the concealed coin slide out from beneath into the hand.