is the lower part of the box. Put B, which is the outward shell, upon C, and both upon D, which arrangement puts all in readiness for the performance of the trick. Now call for an egg, and bid all the bystanders look at it, to see that it is a real egg. Then take off the upper part, B C, with your fore-finger and thumb, and placing the egg in the box, say, “Ladies and Gentlemen, you see it fairly in the box;” and, uncovering it again, say, “You shall see me fairly take it out;” putting it into your pocket in their sight. Now open your box again, and say, “There’s nothing;” close your hand about the middle of the box, and, taking B by the bottom, say, “There is the egg again;” which appears to the spectators to be the same that you put in your pocket; then clapping that on again, and taking the lid of C between your fore-finger and thumb, say, “It is gone again.”
The Penetrative Guinea.
Provide a round tin box, of the size of a large snuff-box, and likewise eight other boxes, which will go easily into each other, and let the least of them be of a size to hold a guinea. Each of these boxes should shut with a hinge, and to the least of them there must be a small lock, that is fastened with a spring, but cannot be opened without a key; and observe, that all these boxes must shut so freely, that they may be all closed at once. Place these boxes in each other, with their tops open, in the drawer of the table on which you make your experiments; or, if you please, in your pocket, in such a manner that they cannot be displaced. Then ask a person to lend you a new guinea, and desire him to mark it, that it may not be changed. You take this piece in one hand, and in the other you have another of the same appearance, and, putting your hand in the drawer, you slip the piece that is marked into the least box, and, shutting them all at once, you take them out. Then showing the piece you have in your hand, and which the company suppose to be the same that was marked, you pretend to make it pass through the box, and dexterously convey it away. You then present the box, for the spectators do not yet know there are more than one, to any person in company, who, when he opens it, finds another, and another, till he comes to the last, but that he cannot open without the key, which you then give him; and, retiring to a distant part of the room, you tell him to take out the guinea himself, and see if it be that he marked.
This trick may be made more surprising by putting the key into the snuff-box of one of the company; which you may do by asking for a pinch of snuff: the key, being very small, will lie concealed among the snuff. When the person who opens the box asks for the key, tell him that one of his friends has it in his snuff-box, which will cause much amazement and merriment. This part of the trick may be done with a confederate.
The Chest which opens at Command.
There is a little figure of Mahomet within the chest, in the body of which is a spring, made of brass wire, twisted in a spiral form. By this means the little figure, though higher than the chest, can, by the accommodation of the spring, be contained within when it is shut, as the spring in the body closes and shortens. The chest is placed on levers concealed in the table, which communicate their motions by the assistance of the confederate to the bolt and lock. As soon as the staple is disengaged, the spring in the body of the figure, finding no resistance but the weight of the lid, forces it open.
The Melting-Box.
The melting-box is made in the fashion of a screw, so that the lips may hang without discovery.
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