The interior of the table should be well padded with wadding or hay, that the animal may not be hurt by its sudden descent.
Fig. 269.
Each of the traps above-mentioned should be so made as to be capable of being secured, when necessary, by a bolt, or there would be considerable risk of a trap giving way unexpectedly under any article carelessly placed on it. The mode of bolting, however, varies considerably. Some traps are fastened by little bolts on the under side, which, being only get-at-able from the inside of the table, must be bolted or unbolted for good before the curtain rises, occasioning considerable embarrassment in the case of a slip of the memory. Others again are secured by means of long bolts, or wire rods extending across the under surface of the top of the table, each terminating in a hook at the back, within reach of the performer’s hand. A third, and, we think, the best, plan is to have the bolt (as shown in [Figs. 261] and [262], and therein marked c) worked backwards and forwards by means of a little pin projecting upwards through the surface plate and the cloth of the table. By the adoption of this plan the performer is enabled to draw back the bolt with the finger-tip in the very act of placing the article upon the trap. It will readily suggest itself to the reader that some provision must be made within the table for making the various articles drop noiselessly through the traps. The best plan of effecting this is to use what is called a “railway.” This is a wooden frame just large enough to lie within the table, with a piece of black serge or alpaca stretched all over its under side. This is so placed within the table, as to slope gently down to the level of the servante, with a fall of three or four inches. Any article dropped through a trap will not only fall noiselessly upon the surface of the stretched alpaca, but will immediately roll down the incline towards the servante, so that it is instantly get-at-able, should the performer have occasion to reproduce the same article at a later stage of the trick.
4. “Changing” Traps.—The traps which we have hitherto discussed have only had the faculty of causing the disappearance of a given article. Those which we are about to describe will not only do this, but will, moreover, produce an article on the surface of the table where a moment previously there was nothing, or will replace a given object by another.
Fig. 270.
Fig. 271.
The trap for this purpose is a somewhat complicated arrangement, of the appearance shown in [Figs. 270] and [271]. The surface-plate, a a a a, is oblong, measuring about twelve inches by six, with a circular opening b b in the centre. Below it are fixed vertically two brass cylinders c and d, which are so arranged as to work backwards and forwards on a kind of railway e f e f, in the direction of the length of the surface-plate, just so far in either direction as to bring c or d in turn immediately under b. The two cylinders are soldered together, so that the one cannot move without the other. If, therefore, the cylinders are drawn back to the utmost by means of one of the bent iron rods or handles g h, the cylinder c will be below the opening b, as in [Fig. 272]. If, on the contrary, they be pushed forward, d will in turn be below the opening, as in [Fig. 273]. Each cylinder contains a brass piston, faced with zinc on its upper surface, and moved up and down by a lever attached at right angles to one or other of the iron handles g h already mentioned, and working through a vertical slot in the side of the cylinder. A piece of clock-spring, attached to the iron handle at the point of junction, gives the piston a gentle upward tendency, which is so regulated, that if either of the cylinders be brought under the opening b, the piston belonging to that cylinder is made to rise into the opening, its upper surface resting just flush with that of a a a a. The piston of the forward cylinder c is made to work very easily within it, so as to rise spontaneously by the action of the spring; but that of the hinder cylinder, d, for a reason which will presently appear, works a little more stiffly, so as to require a little assistance from the lever to make it rise into its proper position. The action of the handles g h is outwards, in the direction of the arrows in [Fig. 274], the movement of either handle in the direction so indicated drawing down the piston to which it belongs.