The Invisible Transit.—This is a remarkably effective coin trick. Several coins are inclosed in a little box, which is stood in a position close to the audience. An empty tumbler is placed upon a chair or table far away on the stage, and the performer, abstracting the coins one by one from the box, "passes" them into the distant glass, into which they are heard to fall. On the glass being brought forward, the coins are poured from it, and the box into which they were put is found to be empty.
The tumbler used should be coloured and opaque, or semi-opaque. Into it is fitted a zinc plate, depicted at [Fig. 46]. This plate is, it will be seen, divided into two unequal portions, which are then hinged together. B is an arm which, in the position shown in the sketch, prevents the flap C from opening; and E is a tiny pin fitted into C for the purpose of preventing the arm B going too far, and so becoming difficult to control. At D is a pin which, first connected with the arm B, runs through the plate, and then through the bottom of the tumbler. Underneath, it is provided with another arm (A, [Fig. 47]), the position of which should correspond with that of B. The pin D should be considerably larger than the holes (they should be round ones) in the glass and zinc plate, and those portions of it which are to pass through the said holes must be filed down to the necessary thinness. By this means two shoulders will be formed, which will prevent the plate from coming down too far, and thus keep a space clear between it and the bottom of the tumbler. This space should be about three-quarters of an inch in depth. The best method for fixing A to D is to have a tiny hole through the protruding end of the latter, through which a cross-pin can be passed. It will be seen that so long as the arm B is kept against the pin E, or anywhere near it, the flap C cannot possibly open, even though the tumbler be inverted. The shifting aside of the arm A will cause a simultaneous and equal movement on the part of B, and, when the glass is again inverted, whatever has been concealed in the space beneath C will fall out.
Fig. 46.
Fig. 47.
The performer will also require two little boxes, resembling each other in every particular. If nothing else be at hand, then little fancy cardboard boxes may be used, but it is by far the best to have a couple turned out of some light wood. The turner should receive directions to turn them both out of the same length of wood, which should have some slight imperfection running through it, as this will cause each box to be naturally marked in a similar manner. Should one lid have a little knot in it and the other be without such a blemish, it can be faithfully imitated by making a hole in the wood and running a little shellac into it. The boxes should be turned as lightly as possible, consistent with strength, and should just admit a half-crown. The interior depth should be that of six half-crowns. One of these boxes the performer conceals under the vest band. The tumbler he loads with four or five half-crowns, placed in the space under C, and the arm B is turned into position against E. This glass is placed upon the table. In one outside trouser pocket is a half-crown.
The preparations made, the performer advances with five other half-crowns and one of the little boxes, and gives the whole into the hands of a member of the audience, with the request to have the box examined and the coins placed in it. Whilst this is being done, the concealed box is got down from the vest into the left hand. The box, with the money in it, is taken by the right hand, and apparently put into the left. It is, however, palmed, and the empty box shown instead. The performer executes this movement as he is passing to another portion of the audience, to whom he will explain matters briefly. This passing about the room is highly essential in concealing many movements, and the conjuror's actions should be well mapped out beforehand, and not left to accident. As I am describing the trick, the money should be put in the box by someone on the conjuror's right. It then becomes natural for the performer to place the box in his left hand, in order to exhibit it to those on that side of the room. The learner will find, as he progresses, how highly important it is to pay attention to these apparently small, but by no means insignificant matters. The performer's motions should balance, as it were; and his great study should be to make actions that are absolutely indispensable to him appear to be perfectly natural, if not the only ones that could be suitable to the occasion.