THE TRAVELING BOTTLE AND GLASS.
Upon a table, at the rising of the curtain, are observed a bottle and a glass, the latter full of wine up to the brim. The prestidigitateur pours into the bottle half of the liquid, “which otherwise,” he remarks, “might slop over during the voyage.” Then two cylinders of the same diameter as the bottle are made before the eyes of the spectators out of two sheets of paper and four pins.
TRICK WITH A BOTTLE AND A GLASS OF WINE.
These are designed to cover the bottle and the glass, which have been separated from each other by a short interval ([Fig. 1]). Instantaneously, and in an invisible manner, the two objects change places twice, and yet there is never anything in the paper cylinders, which are, ostensibly, torn into a hundred bits.
[Fig. 3] unravels the mystery. The bottle is of varnished tin, and bottomless. It covers a second bottle that is similar, but a little smaller, and in the center there is concealed a glass similar to the one that has been shown, but empty. It receives the half of the wine that was poured from the first glass. This operation necessarily contributes toward convincing the spectators that they have before them an ordinary bottle provided with a bottom and capable of containing a liquid.
The operator first covers the bottle with one of the paper cylinders as if to ascertain whether it has the proper diameter, but immediately removes it and places it upright upon the table.
What no one can suspect, however, he has at the same time lifted the first bottle by slightly compressing the paper. It is then the second bottle that is seen, and which is precisely like the other, the labels of both being turned toward the same side and exhibiting a slight tear or a few identical spots designed to aid in the deception.