Fig. 223.
The vase a requires a special description. A shallow saucer of tin, d, just fits the interior of the vase, working up and down therein piston-fashion, but prevented from coming out altogether by the fact that the upper edge of a is slightly turned inwards all round. Below d is a spiral spring, whose action tends to force d to the top of the vase, as shown in [Fig. 222]. From the centre of d, however, there extends downwards through the spiral spring a piece of stiff wire e, with a crook, f, at the end. The foot of the vase is hollow throughout. If the saucer d is forced down by pressure from within, this wire, as soon as it reaches the position shown in [Fig. 223], will hook itself within the foot of the vase, and so keep down d, until the crook is again released, when the whole will instantly return to the condition shown in [Fig. 222]. The bottom of the foot is open, so that the fingers can without difficulty find and release the crook when necessary.
The vases are prepared by pressing down d in each as shown by the dotted lines in [Fig. 223], and filling the well of the one with hot coffee, and that of the other with loaf-sugar. Their respective covers are then placed over them. The attention of the audience is first directed to a couple of wooden boxes, each about half as long again as the vases, and ten or twelve inches in depth, one of which is filled with coffee-berries, and the other with white haricot beans. The performer now uncovers the vase which contains the coffee, first turning the bayonet-catch so as to lift off the well b with the cover, and shows, by holding the vase upside down and rattling his wand within it, that it is perfectly empty. He now fills it with coffee-berries, laying it down in the box to do so, and holding it by the foot with one hand while he shovels the berries into it with the other. Having completely filled it with the berries, he holds it aloft, and, to show that there is “no deception,” tilts it, and lets them run back again into the box. Again he dips it into the box, but, as he does so, releases the crook (which the fingers of the hand holding the vase are just in position to do), and thus lets d fly up to the top of the vase. Again he brings up the vase, apparently full as before, but really having only a mere layer of berries, of the depth of d, at the top. He now puts on the cover, the well in which again forces d and the superposed layer of coffee-berries down to make way for it, and causes the crook again to catch beneath the hollow of the foot. The same operation is now gone through with the vase whose well contains the sugar, and the box of white beans. The performer lastly takes from the third vase a handful of bran, which he scatters to show its genuineness, and then places the cover over it. The trick is now really completed. On removing the respective covers (taking care of course, first to turn the bayonet-catches in the right direction), the wells are released from the covers and locked to the vases, which are thus found full respectively of hot coffee and sugar, and, on removing the cover of the third vase, the bran is lifted off with it, and the milk is revealed.
Fig. 224. Fig. 225.
Some coffee vases, and more particularly those of French make, dispense with the bayonet-catch, replacing it by a peculiar arrangement inside the top of the cover. The upper edge of the well is slightly turned in all round, and the turning of the knob at the top of the cover causes three flat bolts or catches to shoot out circularly from the edges of a hollow disc, soldered to the top of the cover inside, and insert themselves under this projecting edge. (See [Figs. 224, 225].) The mechanical arrangement by which this is effected is almost impossible to explain in writing, though it becomes readily intelligible upon an actual inspection of the apparatus, and will be understood without much difficulty after a slight study of the above diagrams, the arrow in each case indicating the direction in which the knob must be turned, in order to bring the bolts into the condition shown in the opposite diagram.
The Inexhaustible Box.—The inexhaustible box is, to all outward appearance, a plain wooden box, of walnut, mahogany, or rosewood, in length from twelve to twenty inches, and in depth and width from nine to fifteen inches. Whatever its dimensions, its width and depth, exclusive of the lid, must be alike. To prove that it is without preparation within, the performer turns it over on the table towards the spectators, and, lifting the lid, shows that it is perfectly empty. Again he closes it, and, turning it right side upwards, opens it once more, and instantly proceeds to take from it a variety of different articles. At any moment the box is again turned over towards the audience, and shown to be empty; but it is no sooner replaced, than the performer recommences taking from it toys, bonbons, etc., the supply being many times larger than could possibly be contained at one time in the box.
Fig. 226.