CHAPTER XXIX
PLATE-SPINNING AND WALTZING
An Exciting Entertainment
Few things are productive of such literally breathless interest as plate-spinning. In what a state of agonized anxiety your audience will be as they watch you imperturbably spinning a soup-plate on the end of a rod. How they will catch their breaths as they expect it to fall, and how surprised they will be when it keeps its position! Yet if you inform them that it is not so difficult as it looks, you will be stating a fact, although the art is acquired only after considerable practice and at the cost of several plates.
To minimize the breakage of crockery it will be as well to begin your experiments with a mattress laid upon the floor, or failing this, with a good substantial down comforter. The first attempts will not then be accompanied by such mortality amongst the plates.
Procure a rod or wand upon which the plates are to be spun. A round stick, about 2 feet long, is the most suitable for the purpose. Care should be taken to see that it is straight, and it must be well sand-papered in order to remove any roughness ([Fig. 1]).
Fig. 1.—Spinning wand.
Now reduce one end of the stick to a dull point, which must further be prepared by a rather strange process. Place this pointed end in your mouth and moisten it until it is quite soft and all the hardness of the wood has been removed. When properly softened the fiber of the wood will remain whilst all the “starch”—if one may so call it—has disappeared. This preparation gives the stick a certain grip on the plate which is indispensable for successful spinning.
Next take a soup-plate, as in [Fig. 2], and make it revolve rapidly upon the dull end of the rod. To do this the following instructions and hints should be noted.