The trick next described will introduce to the reader a changing caddy of another and special construction.
Fig. 183.
The Magic Vase and Caddy. (To make peas change places with a handkerchief.)—For this trick two special pieces of apparatus are necessary. The first is a tin vase, of the shape shown in [Fig. 183], and generally of about ten inches in height. It consists of three parts, the vase proper a, the cover b, and a moveable compartment or well, c, which is constructed upon a principle which we have had frequent occasion to notice, the cylindrical portion of a passing between the inner and outer wall of this moveable compartment. It is coloured exactly similar to that portion of a which it covers, which therefore looks exactly the same to the ordinary spectator, whether c be in its place or removed. The internal depth, however, of c is little more than half as deep as that of the actual vase, a. The cover b exactly fits over c, and by means of a little appliance called a “bayonet-catch,” will either lift c with it when removed, or release c and leave it upon a.
Fig. 184.
As this “bayonet-catch” is of constant use in magical apparatus, it will be desirable to describe it somewhat minutely. A rectangular cut or slit (see the enlarged view in [Fig. 184]) is made in the lower edge of the cover b. Its perpendicular arm is about a quarter of an inch in length, and its width about an eighth of an inch. A small pin or stud, about an eighth of an inch in length, projects perpendicularly from the lower edge of c, at such a height that when b is placed over c, the upper or horizontal arm of the slit shall be just level with it. If the upright arm of the slit be brought immediately over this pin, the latter will, as the cover sinks down, travel upward along the opening as far as the junction with the transverse portion of the slit. If the cover be now again lifted, the pin will, of course, offer no obstruction to its removal; but if the cover be first slightly turned to the right, the pin will become engaged in the transverse portion of the slit, and upon then lifting the cover, it will carry with it the pin, and all connected with it. When it is desired to lift off the cover alone, it will only be necessary to turn the cover a little to the left, thus bringing the pin again over the upright portion of the slit.
Fig. 185.
The second piece of apparatus is a caddy ([Fig. 185]), in appearance not unlike an ordinary tea caddy, with three equal-sized compartments, each having its own lid. Upon close inspection it will be discovered that the internal depth of these compartments is somewhat shallow in comparison with the external measurement of the caddy, leaving a space about an inch deep between the inner and outer bottoms. A sliding drawer, working from end to end of the caddy, as already explained, occupies the space of two compartments. Supposing this for the moment removed, it would be found that the external caddy, in the space occupied by the two end compartments, a and c, has a false bottom covering the hollow space we have already mentioned, but that the space occupied by the middle compartment b has none. Of the two moveable compartments, which together constitute the sliding tray already mentioned (see [Fig. 186]), the one d has a bottom, the other e has not.