The Crystal Cash-Box.—This is a mahogany box with glass top and bottom, the wooden portion of it being lined with velvet. (See [Fig. 307].) In dimensions it is about eight inches long, by six wide, and three and a half deep, and it has a brass ring at either end.
Fig. 307.
The performer commences by borrowing (say) eight half-crowns, the owner of each being requested to mark it for the purpose of identification. With these the performer exhibits any trick whose leading feature is the passage of the coin from some one place to another. The trick having been performed, and the money identified, the operator, still retaining it, returns to the stage, and placing the coins upon the table, addresses the audience to the following effect: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have given you a slight specimen of the certainty and speed with which I can make money travel. Who would go to the trouble and expense of Post-office orders when by simply taking the money in his hand, and saying, ‘Pass,’ he might make it fly direct into the pocket of his correspondent? But I will give you another and a still more surprising illustration.” (Here the assistant brings in the crystal cash-box.) “Here is a wooden box, closed on all sides, but with glass top and bottom, so that you may see for yourselves that there is no mechanism or preparation about it. Now I propose to pass these eight half-crowns, the identical half-crowns marked by yourselves, into this closed box. Where shall I place the box, so as to be at a distance from me, and at the same time in full view of all present? Perhaps the best thing I can do with it will be to fasten it to these two silk cords hanging from the ceiling. I will set the box swinging” (he does so), “so that you can all see that it is empty. Now I will take the money, and stand in any part of the room you like.” (He walks to the chosen spot.) “Will some one oblige me by counting three in a distinct voice.” One of the spectators does so, and the performer at the last word makes the motion of throwing the money towards the cash-box, in which it is instantly seen and heard to fall, his hand at the same moment appearing empty. The cash-box is taken down, and the money returned to the owners, who identify it as that which they had marked.
As the reader will doubtless have anticipated, the coins are already in the cash-box when the latter is hung to the cords. They are concealed by a moveable flap lying close against one of the wooden sides, in which position it is maintained by a spring, until an electric current is despatched along the cords. This brings into action an electro-magnet, hidden in the thickness of the box, thereby causing the flap to be momentarily lifted, and the coins to escape into the interior of the box.
When the performer, having exhibited the preliminary trick with the borrowed coins, places them apparently upon the table, he in reality exchanges them, and places the substitutes on the “money-trap” described at page [446], leaving the genuine coins within reach of his assistant, who forthwith carries them off behind the scenes, and places them in readiness under the flap of the cash-box. The performer having attached the box to the cords, and set it in motion, apparently picks up the heap of coins, which really sink into the table.[O] When the word “Three” is spoken, he opens the right hand, which is seen empty, and the assistant behind the scenes, taking the same word as a signal, presses the connecting stud, and completes the circuit. The flap is momentarily lifted, and the borrowed coins are heard and seen to fall within the box.
[O] If his table is not provided with the money-trap, the performer may really pick up the coins with his left hand, and thence, by the tourniquet, apparently take them in the right, keeping the right hand closed as if containing them. While the attention of the spectators is thus drawn to the right hand, the left may fall carelessly to the side, and deposit the coins in the pochette.
Fig. 308.
There is another box (the invention of Robert-Houdin) which goes by the same name, and with still better title, inasmuch as not only the top and bottom, but the sides and ends, are of glass, held together by a light metal framework. In appearance it is as shown in [Fig. 308], and, being transparent throughout, it appears physically impossible that any object should be concealed in it; and yet, when the box is suspended, and set swinging, the operator has only to take the (supposed) borrowed coins in his hand, and to pronounce the mystic “Pass,” when the eight half-crowns are seen and heard to fall into the box, and may be taken from thence by the owners themselves, without even this near inspection of the apparatus revealing the secret of their appearance.