MOUNTEBANK SWALLOWING BURNING TOW.
Another trick of the fire eaters is when they pretend to drink burning oil. A little kerosene oil is poured into an iron ladle. The oil is now lighted, and while the ladle is held in the left hand, an iron spoon is dipped into the oil as though to take a spoonful; but in reality the spoon is only wet, and when it is brought blazing to the mouth the operator throws back his head as though to swallow it, and at the same time a slight puff is given by the breath, which blows it out. This trick is very effective if well done, but the reader is especially cautioned against trying any experiments in tricks of this kind, as the results are apt to be dangerous except in the hands of experts. This will be seen by what is called the sponge trick. Two or three small sponges are placed in an iron ladle, gasolene is poured over them, only a sufficient quantity being used to wet them; they must in no case drip. The sponges are now set on fire, and the experimenter takes up one of them with his tongs, and, throwing his head back, drops the blazing sponge into his mouth. He expels his breath quickly all the time. Suddenly he closes his mouth; this cuts off the oxygen necessary for combustion, and the flame immediately goes out. Performers who present fire tricks for the amusement of a company frequently try experiments which give a ghastly appearance to the audience. This is done by pouring a few ounces of alcohol into a basin containing a handful of salt. When this is lighted the complexion of everyone is hideous. A slightly different effect is used by infusing saffron in alcohol for a number of hours, and then adding salt as before; it is usually poured upon tow which is lighted. There are some liquids that have the property of taking fire and burning without injuring the object upon which they are poured and without producing any painful sensation upon the skin. As a usual thing such liquids are very volatile and consist of essential oils, ether, etc. The reason that some substances can be burned without injuring them, or upon the skin without burning, are explained as follows: These substances are very volatile, and their tension is considerable, and, in reality, when they are burning, it is merely their vapor which is on fire. This vapor then tends to borrow heat from the liquid, whence the latter may remain at a relatively low temperature while the surface is on fire. This is a reasonable explanation of the curious phenomenon of the burning liquid.
SWORD TRICK—A STAB THROUGH THE ABDOMEN.
The sword employed is a simple, thin, flexible blade of steel, not at all sharp, and the plan of which is seen at A in the accompanying [cut]. The point is sufficiently blunt to prevent it from doing any harm.
As for the prestidigitateur, whose body the sword will simply pass around, but not pierce, he carries concealed beneath his vest a sort of sheath that consists of a tube of rectangular section, and semicircular in shape, and the two extremities of which are bent in contrary directions in such a way that they are situated in the same straight line, the two orifices opening in front and behind at right angles with the abdomen. This apparatus, B, is held in place by cords attached to two small rings at the two extremities of the tube.
It is the prestidigitateur himself who, appearing instinctively to grasp the point of the sword as if to protect himself, directs it into the metallic tube. It makes its exit between the tails of the coat. It might be made to come out at the center of the back, but in this case it would be necessary to have an aperture formed in the seam of the coat. The illusion produced is complete, seeing that the flexible blade straightens out on making its exit from the tube, on account of the form of the latter’s extremity. It is necessary to operate rapidly, so that the spectators shall not have time to see that the length of the sword has diminished at this moment, the curved line that it follows not being the shortest passage from one point to another.
