Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

The Bran and Orange Trick.—This trick is performed with a single coffer, in appearance very similar to those used in the last trick, but slightly different in construction. The false top is, in this case, bottomed with plain tin. The bottom of the coffer is moveable, being soldered to a circular rim or shoulder of tin about a quarter of an inch in depth, over which the coffer fits pretty tightly, though the projecting edge of the bottom enables the performer to remove it without difficulty. The performer must also be provided with an ordinary oblong wooden box. Its precise dimensions are unimportant, save that it should be a good deal larger than the coffer, but about an inch or so less in height. This box is filled with bran, as also is the false top of the coffer. A couple of oranges, as much alike as possible, must also be provided. One only of these is produced to the audience, the other being beforehand placed on the servante of the table.

The performer begins by placing upon the table the coffer and the box of bran. Removing the lid (with the false top), he brings forward the coffer, and shows that it is perfectly empty. In returning to his table, he loosens (though without removing) the moveable bottom, and replaces the coffer on the table. He next brings forward the box of bran, showing that there is no preparation about it, and in replacing it on the table, places it in front of the coffer, which, however, being the taller, remains visible behind it. He next introduces the orange, either palming it (from one of his pochettes), and magically producing it from some person’s nose or whiskers, or by the more prosaic method of having it brought in by his assistant. He now returns to his table, and, standing behind it, proceeds to fill the coffer with bran. This he does by placing the coffer upright in the box, holding it with one hand and ostentatiously pouring in bran with the other until it is full. In placing the coffer in the box, however, he takes it up quite without the bottom, so that he is, in reality, only filling an open tube. Meanwhile, he secretly picks up, with his disengaged hand, the second orange from the servante, and places it upon the bottom, which remains behind the box. Having filled the coffer, and remarking, “Pray observe that it is quite full,” he (before removing it from the box) covers it with the lid, and then lifting it out, again places it behind the box in such manner as to go neatly over the bottom and the orange upon it. (Of course, in the act of lifting the coffer, all the contents run back again into the box.) Having now got the second orange within the coffer, and having, by a gentle pressure, again settled the bottom in its place, the performer places the coffer on a second table or a chair close in front of the audience. He then says, “I am about to order the bran with which this coffer is filled” (here he raises the lid without the false top, and the coffer therefore appears full of bran) “to pass back again into the box from which it was taken, and this orange” (here he passes behind his table, and holding up the orange, replaces it six or eight inches from the hinder edge) “to pass into the coffer in place of it. Now, first for the bran. One, two, three! Pass! Did you see it fly from the coffer into the box? You didn’t? Well, at any rate, you shall see the orange pass. I take it up so” (here he places his two hands round it, and rolls it on to the servante in manner described at page [294], coming forward with the hands together, as though still containing it, and holding them over the coffer at a few inches’ distance), “and squeeze it smaller and smaller, in this manner, till it becomes small enough to pass right into the coffer, as you see.” Here he separates his hands, showing them empty, and immediately taking off the cover with the false top, rolls out the orange, and shows that the coffer is otherwise empty.

The trick as above described is susceptible of a good many variations. If the performer uses a trap-table, the orange may be made to pass through a trap instead of being rolled off at the back of the table, though the latter method, if neatly executed, can hardly be surpassed in illusive effect. A more substantial improvement may be made by causing the bran, instead of simply disappearing as above mentioned, to reappear in some other quarter. There are many pieces of apparatus which may be used for this purpose, perhaps as good as any being the improved sweet-bag (see page [248]). This should be previously filled with bran, and hooked to the back of the table. The performer in this case borrows a handkerchief, which he carelessly spreads on the table, and a gentleman’s hat, which he places mouth upwards beside it. Instead of announcing that the bran will return from the coffer to the box from whence it was taken, he states that it will, at command, pass into the handkerchief which he holds, and which as he speaks he picks up, with the bag beneath it, holding it, without apparent intention, just above the hat. At the word “Pass!” he slightly turns his wrist, thereby releasing the flap of the bag, and a shower of bran is instantly seen to pour down into the hat. This little addition greatly enhances the effect of the trick.

The Rice and Orange Trick.—In this feat rice and an orange are made to change places, but by wholly different means from those last above described.

Fig. 164.

Fig. 165.

The apparatus in this case consists of three japanned tin cones, about ten inches in height by five at the base, and each having a brass knob at the top—and an ornamental vase of tin or zinc, standing about the same height as the cones, and having a simple metal cover, or top. Of the cones (all of which are open at the bottom), two are hollow throughout, but the third has a flap or moveable partition halfway down, inclosing the upper half of the internal space. This flap works on a hinge, and is kept shut by a little catch, which is withdrawn by pressure on a little button outside the cone, when the flap drops down, and lets fall whatever has been placed in the enclosed space. (See [Fig. 164].) The cone is prepared for the trick by filling this space with rice, and closing the flap; and the three cones are then placed in a row on the performer’s table, the prepared one being in the middle. The vase (see [Fig. 165]) is constructed as follows:—Its depth inside is less by about an inch than its depth outside, leaving, therefore, between its true and false bottoms, an empty space, a. A circular hole is cut in the inner or false bottom, but this hole, in the normal condition of the vase, is kept closed by a circular disc of metal, b, exactly fitting it. This disc is soldered upon an upright wire rod, passing through the foot of the apparatus, and terminating in another disc, c, somewhat smaller in size. Round this rod is a spiral spring, whose action tends to press it down, and thereby to keep the disc or valve normally closed, though it rises, and thereby opens the valve (as shown by the dotted lines in the figure), whenever upward pressure is applied to c. The face of the upper disc, b, is slightly concave, corresponding with the rest of the interior of the vase. The vase is prepared for the trick by placing an orange in it, and in this condition it is brought forward and placed on the table by the performer or his assistant. A small paper bag full of rice is brought in at the same time, and completes the preparations.

With this introduction, we proceed to describe the trick as worked by Herrmann.