The Magician's Own Book, or, the Whole Art of Conjuring / Being a complete hand-book of parlor magic, and containing over one thousand optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, together with all the most noted tricks of modern performers.

by George Arnold; Frank Cahill

Pour sparkling champagne into a glass, until it is half full, when the glass will lose its power of ringing by a stroke upon its edge, and will emit only a disagreeable and puffy sound. Nor will a glass ring while the wine is brisk, and filled with air-bubbles; but as the effervescence subsides, the sound will become clearer and clearer, and when the air-bubbles have entirely disappeared, the glass will ring as usual. If a crumb of bread be thrown into the champagne, and effervescence be reproduced, the glass will again cease to ring. The same experiment will also succeed with soda water, ginger wine, or any other effervescing liquid.

MUSIC OF THE SNAIL.

Place a garden snail upon a pane of glass, and in drawing itself along, it will frequently produce sounds similar to those of musical glasses.

THE TUNING-FORK A FLUTE PLAYER.

Take a common tuning-fork, and on one of its branches fasten with sealing-wax a circular piece of card, of the size of a small wafer, or sufficient nearly to cover the aperture of a pipe, as the sliding of the upper end of a flute with the mouth stopped: it may be tuned in unison with the loaded tuning-fork (a C fork), by means of the moveable stopper or card, or the fork may be loaded till the unison is perfect. Then set the fork in vibration by a blow on the unloaded branch, and hold the card closely over the mouth of the pipe, as in the engraving, when a note of surprising clearness and strength will be heard. Indeed, a flute may be made to "speak" perfectly well, by holding close to the opening a vibrating tuning-fork, while the fingering proper to the note of the fork is at the same time performed.

MUSICAL BOTTLES.

Provide two glass bottles, and tune them by pouring water into them, so that each corresponds to the sound of a different tuning-fork. Then apply both tuning-forks to the mouth of each bottle alternately, when that sound only will be heard, in each case, which is reciprocated by the unisonant bottle; or, in other words, by that bottle which contains a column of air, susceptible of vibrating in unison with the fork.

THEORY OF WHISPERING.

Apartments of a circular or elliptical form are best calculated for the exhibition of this phenomenon. If a person stand near the wall, with his face turned to it, and whisper a few words, they may be more distinctly heard at nearly the opposite side of the apartment, than if the listener was situated near to the speaker.