The money magically caught as above may be used for the trick of the Multiplication of Money, described at page [176], the two forming a natural and effective sequence.
The Vanishing Plate, or Salver.—This is a most useful and ingenious piece of apparatus. In appearance it is an ordinary japanned tin tray, of about ten inches in diameter; but it has the faculty of causing money placed upon it to disappear in a most surprising manner. A number of coins, collected from the company, are placed upon the salver. The performer, standing but a few feet from the spectators, openly takes them off one by one, but each, as his fingers grasp it, vanishes utterly. His sleeves (which in conjuring come in for a vast amount of undeserved suspicion) may be rigorously examined; but even though, as a concession to popular prejudice, he should bare his arm to the shoulder, the result would still be the same.
Fig. 98.
A closer inspection of the salver (which the performer takes good care not to permit) would reveal the fact, that though apparently consisting, like any other, of only one thickness of metal, it is in reality made double, allowing sufficient space between its upper and under surface for the concealment of any number of coins laid singly. The centre portion of the upper surface, though apparently of a piece with the rest, is in reality moveable, though pressed upwards and kept in its place by the action of four small springs. When the performer apparently picks up a coin (which he takes care shall be on this centre portion), he presses smartly upon it, at the same moment drawing it sharply towards the outer rim. The moveable portion of the salver yielding to the pressure, the effect is as shown in the figure ([Fig. 98]), and the coin is shot under the outer rim, between the upper and under surface of the salver, the moveable portion rising again to its place as soon as the momentary pressure is removed. The tray is japanned in such manner that the circular lines of the pattern correspond with the outline of the moveable portion, and will bear any amount of mere ocular inspection, so long as it is not permitted to be handled.
The vanishing salver may be introduced with good effect in many tricks, as, for instance, that of the Multiplication of Money, above referred to, the coins to be magically added being placed upon the salver, whence they are taken off one by one, and commanded to pass into the hands of the person who holds the money. It may also be advantageously used in conjunction with the glass described at page [201], each coin, as it vanishes from the salver, being heard to drop into the glass.
The “Changing” Plate.—The student has already been made acquainted with various methods of exchanging a marked coin, etc., for a substitute. There are still one or two appliances for this purpose remaining to be described, all taking the form of metal plates or trays, but greatly varying in their construction.
The first, which we only mention for the sake of completeness, as it is now superseded by later and better inventions, consists of a small circular tin tray, with a round hole or well in the centre, of about an inch and a half in diameter and a quarter of an inch in depth. The lines of the pattern are so arranged as to make this cavity as little noticeable as possible. The well is moveable, forming, in fact, a portion of a sliding piece below the tray, in which sliding piece two such wells are excavated, the one or the other in turn corresponding to the opening in the tray, according as the sliding piece is pushed backwards or forwards. When the tray is required for use, the substitute coin is placed beforehand in one of the two wells, which is then pushed out of sight, and the other brought below the opening. The borrowed coin is received on the plate, and allowed to drop into the empty well. As soon as this is done, the operator, with his forefinger, which is naturally beneath the plate, draws back the slide, and brings the other coin in sight, while the genuine one drops into his hand. The construction of the plate, though simple enough in itself, is a little difficult to explain; but as we only allude to it in order to counsel the student to avoid it, any obscurity in our description is of little importance.
The instrument now used for the same purpose is known as the French changing-plate, and may be described as a combination of the vanishing salver (page [209]) and the multiplying money-plate (page [177]). It is round, and has beneath it a flat tube similar to that of the multiplying plate; and it is in this tube that the substitute coins are placed. The upper surface of the plate is similar in appearance to that of the vanishing plate; but in this case the centre portion is divided across the middle, and one half only is moveable, sinking downwards to the depth of a quarter of an inch all along the dividing line, whenever pressure is applied to a particular portion of the under surface of the plate. The coins to be changed are received by the operator on this moveable portion, and immediately handed to some person to hold, the performer sloping the plate, and (apparently) pouring the coins into the hands or hat held out to receive them. In reality, in the act of sloping the plate, he depresses the moveable portion of the surface, and, as a natural consequence, the coins, instead of sliding, as they appear to do, right off the plate, slip between the upper and under surface, while the substitutes fall from the tube below into the hands of the person who is to take charge of them. The whole movement is so rapid, and the fall of the substituted coins coincides so exactly with the disappearance of the genuine ones, that the eye is completely deceived. The tray, having apparently served its purpose, is carried off by the magician or his servant, with ample opportunity to make any necessary disposition of the genuine coins.
A still later improvement is that which is known as