The secret lies in the use of an ingenious little piece of apparatus, which is placed in the waistcoat pocket of the performer, and from which the sound proceeds. This apparatus, which is represented in [Fig. 105], consists of a short brass cylinder (about an inch and a quarter in depth, and two inches in diameter), containing a small clock-bell, with the necessary striking mechanism, which is wound up beforehand with a key, after the manner of a watch. This mechanism is set in motion by pressure on the button a, the hammer continuing to strike as long as the pressure is continued, but ceasing as soon as the pressure is removed. The cylinder, which is perforated all round, in order to give free passage to the sound, is placed upright in the left pocket of the performer’s waistcoat, which should be just so tight around the ribs that the mere expansion of the chest shall cause the necessary pressure against the button a, the pressure ceasing when the chest is again contracted. (The placing of a playing-card in the pocket for a to rest against will be found to facilitate the arrangement.) This is the whole of the secret. In working the trick the performer has only to take care to hold the watch in a tolerably straight line between the pocket and the audience, when, the line in which the sound travels being the same as if it actually came from the watch, it will be almost impossible to detect the deception.
Some performers, instead of placing the apparatus in the pocket, as above described, hold it in the right hand (the wand being held in the same hand) and cause it to strike by the pressure of the fingers. This is in one sense less effective, inasmuch as you cannot show the hands empty, but it is a very much more easy and certain method, so far as the striking is concerned.
The striking apparatus is generally made to give from fifty to sixty strokes. The performer must be careful not to prolong the trick until the whole are expended, or the unexpected silence of the watch may place him in an embarrassing position.
It is hardly necessary to remark that the drawn cards are forced. Where the watch is made to disclose the numbers thrown by a pair of dice, the dice are either loaded, and thus bound to indicate certain given numbers, or a box is used in which a pair of previously-arranged dice take the place, to the eyes of the audience, of the pair just thrown.
CHAPTER X.
Tricks with Rings.
The Flying Ring.—The majority of ring tricks depend upon the substitution at some period of the trick of a dummy ring for a borrowed one, which must be so nearly alike as not to be distinguishable by the eye of the spectator. This desideratum is secured by using wedding-rings, which, being always made plain, are all sufficiently alike for this purpose. You may account for your preference of wedding-rings by remarking that they are found to be imbued with a mesmeric virtue which renders them peculiarly suitable for magical experiments; or give any other reason, however absurd, so long as it is sufficiently remote from the true one. As, however, many ladies have a sort of superstitious objection to remove their wedding-rings, even for a temporary purpose, it will be well to provide yourself with an extra one of your own, so as to meet a possible failure in borrowing.
There is a little appliance, exceedingly simple in its character, which may be used with advantage in many ring tricks. It consists of a plain gold or gilt ring, attached to a short piece of white or grey sewing-silk. This again is attached to a piece of cord elastic, fastened to the inside of the coat-sleeve of the performer, in such manner that, when the arm is allowed to hang down, the ring falls about a couple of inches short of the edge of the cuff. Some, in place of the elastic, use a watch barrel, attached in like manner; but the cheaper apparatus, if properly arranged, is equally effective. It is obvious that if a ring so prepared be taken in the fingers of the hand to whose sleeve it is attached, it will, on being released, instantly fly up the sleeve. This renders it a useful auxiliary in any trick in which the sudden disappearance of such a ring is an element, and a little ingenuity will discover numerous modes of making it so available.
One of the simplest modes of using it is as follows: Producing a small piece of paper, to which you direct particular attention, you state that a wedding-ring wrapped up therein cannot be again extracted without your permission. A wedding-ring is borrowed in order to test your assertion, and you meanwhile get in readiness the flying ring, which is attached, we will suppose, to your left sleeve. Receiving the borrowed ring in your right hand, you apparently transfer it to the other hand (really palming it between the second and third fingers, and at the same moment exhibiting your own ring), and immediately afterwards drop the borrowed ring into the pochette on that side. You must take care so to stand that the back of your left hand may be towards the spectators, that the thread, lying along the inside of your hand, may not be seen. Spreading the paper on the table, and placing the ring upon it, you fold the paper over it, beginning with the side away from you, and pressing it so as to show the shape of the ring through it. As you fold down a second angle of the paper you release the ring, which forthwith flies up your sleeve. You continue to fold the paper, and repeating your assertion that no one can take the ring out without your permission, hand it to a spectator, in order that he may make the attempt. On opening the paper he finds that you were very safe in asserting that he could not take the ring out of it, inasmuch as the ring is no longer in it.