THE OBEDIENT KNIFE.
In a former work (The Secret Out) the secret spring literally to make a knife leap out of a cup at the conjuror’s call, was revealed. We give here several other modes of compassing the same end, that the performer may have several strings to his bow.
1. “You have objected,” says Panki-pan-ki, the Fakir of Hanki, “that I have executed this trick by hidden mechanism. Very well. At present I lay these three knives on the edge of the mouth of the cup, and yet at the instant named, that one which is chosen shall leap off in obedience,” and it does so.
It is answered, truly, that a magnet under the table is made to attract the knife, which is delicately poised on the rim, thanks to an unseen confederate.
2. “As you please,” proceeds the magician, taking the table up and setting it down in the centre of the room, to make it manifest that there was no wire of complicity attached. I now repeat the experiment with the same result. This being done, only the readers of our works—being the most intelligent body of perusers existent—could have seen that in lifting the table a thread of communication was snapped asunder, and that this second obedience of the knife was owing to the magnet again, set in motion by a wire acted on by a treadle.
3. Mr. Panky hastens then to show how ludicrous is the supposition that a magnet has anything to do with the feat, by doing the same on a chair. Few or none remark that the chair being shaky, a wedge of wood had to be put under the cup to steady it. A large watch movement, with a bit of magnetized iron at the end of the second-hand, which coming round under the knife in a minute, produced the desired effect.
4. Mr. Panky shrugs his shoulders in deprecation of such absurd solutions of the problem, and employs a glass table, mounted on glass legs. But the apparently unprepared transparent board is made of two sheets of glass, set a little apart so that the air, blown in between by one of the legs being hollow, shall go out by a minute hole in the upper plate, just under the cup, which is also perforated at the bottom. The magician in walking about, treads on one plank of the flooring, where a bellows is concealed. The wind goes up into the cup, and as the selected knife is delicately poised on the edge while the others rest on little interior cleats, it falls off at the first puff.
Observation.—The knife must be marked so that it can be placed exactly on its balance without delay. Also, the rim of the cup should be flattened a little so as to be the twenty-fourth of an inch broad.
5. With borrowed knives.—As these cannot be prepared, there must be a drop or two of mouth glue or other sticky substance, at a couple of places on the cup rim, on which the knives not to be moved are laid.
6. With pretendedly borrowed knives.—Let the audience furnish the knives, but to a great number, amongst which you mix three of your own, prepared for the performance. On taking up these, each owner of the knives will imagine that his remains on the table and his neighbours’ are being used. Even if he suspected a substitution, that would not account for the trick.
Ingenious Variation.—One knife is laid on the cup with its handle outside to maintain the balance; a long knitting-needle, fastened to the knife-handle with a lump of sealing wax, while a leaden bullet at the other end and knife point serves as counterpoise. The glass table is used, and the Magician withdraws to a distance. All of a sudden though, the knife leaps off from the cup.
Explanation.—The column of air is again employed, for which the cup is set a little way from the hole in the glass plate, and the knife-handle bearing the sealing wax is adjusted over it. The air is heated this time, and on melting the wax the released needle is dragged into the cup by the bullet, and the knife falls.
7. Instead of the glass table, have a sheet iron case in the shape of a book, and painted and gilt to resemble one. This is put on top of two or more real books, on which the cup is placed, to be the better seen by the audience. One end of the mock book contains a lamp, which heats the iron above it, and the rays of caloric act on the wax as before.
8. With a Silver Cup.—The knife is poised, as before, on the rim of a silver cup, and leaps out at command. Mr. Panky had stuck the point in a lump of tallow, and a lamp in the base of the cup had no sooner melted it, than the loss of its weight made the knife-handle bear itself down.
9. Mechanically.—The knife is again laid on the cup, to show that there is no machinery attached to it; a candle is placed each side of the cup, fully illuminating it. Nevertheless the same result follows.
Fig. 37.
Fig. 38.
Explanation.—One of the candlesticks is hollow, and contains in the upper part, A, some fine sand, which escapes by the hole, B, to run down into the receiver, C. When the latter is full up to D, it runs out by that hole, and falls on the blade of the knife to destroy its equilibrium. As the time of the sand reaching the level of the outlet is regulated by the dimensions of the receptacle, C, its bottom, E, is made movable, and consequently by fixing it at certain points the moment of action can be timed to one, two, or three minutes.
10. The Loaded Knife.—The handle is hollow, and divided into three compartments.
In the section A, is quicksilver, running by a hole, B, into the division, C. So far the knife remains balanced, but when the mercury rises as far as D, it overflows into the part G, when the end being overweighted, the knife must fall.
Fig. 39.
