After the gentleman who has consented to bowl the pack of cards at the performer is in place, the performer picks up the bat, steps back a few feet, and says “Play.” The instant the flying cards touch the bat the performer turns it over, bringing into view the side of the bat to which the three cards are sticking, which appear to have been caught on the bat from the flying cards.
Until the pack of cards are thrown against the bat, the magician exercises the greatest care not to turn the side of the bat to which the cards are sticking toward the spectators. Properly presented, this trick has proved most illusive.
“Cupid Lighter than a Butterfly.”
The pleasing trick which forms the subject of our engravings owes its success to the ingenious application of mechanical principles. The magician presents for inspection to the audience a large pair of balance scales. The audience is allowed to examine the various parts of the balance before it is erected on the stage. It consists of a central column and a beam resting on a knife-edge, and two pans suspended by cords or chains. After the column has been put in position, the beam is put on and a pin inserted, thus making a center for the beam to work on. A gentleman is asked to stand in one of the scale pans, and then weights are gradually placed in the other pan until his exact weight is ascertained. The weights are removed, and the gentleman steps down off the stage. The audience is now convinced that the scale is to all intents and purposes like the ordinary balance which is so much used in groceries for weighing tea, coffee, etc., although, of course, in the present instance, it is built on a mammoth scale.
Fig. 64.—“Cupid Lighter than a Butterfly.”
The magician now goes on to say that he will prove the old assertion that “love is lighter than a butterfly” to be absolutely true. He introduces a little boy dressed as Cupid, with wings and a bow and a quiver of arrows. When the child steps on the scale pan, it immediately sinks to the floor by his weight. The conjurer now takes a butterfly, and, asking all to direct their attention to the scale, drops it on the opposite pan, which immediately descends to the floor, at the same time raising the pan with the Cupid high in the air. If he takes the butterfly off, the Cupid descends, and every time the prestidigitateur replaces the butterfly, Cupid is raised off the floor.
Fig. 65.—The Illusion Explained.
The trick depends for success upon a carefully devised and concealed mechanism. The balance beam is devoid of any preparation, but the mechanism is cleverly concealed in the column, and motion is imparted to the beam by means of a shaft and bevel gears. The hole in the beam is not perfectly round; it is slightly oval, but not enough so to be easily seen by a casual glance. The pin is also oval, instead of round, and it is made to fit tightly. It will be seen that, when this pin is rocked or tilted, the beam is moved, carrying one scale pan up and the other down. The top of the column is of considerable size, and one side of it is cut away to admit of a bevel gear, which also has an oval hole the same as the beam. When the balance is put together and the beam is placed in position, the oval pin passes through the bevel gear and the beam, forming a horizontal shaft. This vertical wheel meshes with a horizontal gear wheel, which is also secured in the head of the pedestal. A shaft runs through it to the space below the floor, where it terminates in a lever secured at right angles. The magician’s assistant, under the stage, grasps the lever, and, pulling it back and forth, transmits a seesaw motion to the beam through the medium of the shaft, the two bevel gears, and the oval pin.