Endless Amusement / A Collection of Nearly 400 Entertaining Experiments in Various Branches of Science; Including Acoustics, Electricity, Magnetism, Arithmetic, Hydraulics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Hydrostatics, Optics; Wonders of the Air-Pump; All the Popular Tricks and Changes of the Cards, &c., &c. to Which is Added, a Complete System of Pyrotechny; Or, the Art of Making Fire-works.

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This amusement may be performed with a single person, by letting him fix on three, four, or more cards. In this case you must show him as many parcels as he is to choose cards, and every parcel must consist of that number, out of which he is to fix on one; and you then proceed as before, he telling you the parcel that contains each of his cards.

To name the Rank of a Card that a Person has drawn from a Piquet Pack.

The rank of a card means whether it be an ace, king, queen, &c. You therefore first fix a certain number to each card; thus you call the king four, the queen three, the knave two, the ace one, and the others according to the number of their pips.

You then shuffle the cards, and let a person draw any one of them; then turning up the remaining cards, you add the number of the first to that of the second, the second to the third, and so on, till it amounts to ten, which you then reject, and begin again; or if it be more, reject the ten, and carry the remainder to the next card, and so on to the last; and to the last amount add four, and subtract that sum from ten, if it be less, or from twenty, if it be more than ten, and the remainder will be the number of the card that was drawn; as for example, if the remainder be two, the card drawn was a knave; if three, a queen, and so on.

To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any two Cards drawn from a common Pack.

Each court card in this amusement counts for ten, and the other cards according to the number of their pips. Let the person who draws the cards add as many more cards to each of those he has drawn as will make each of their numbers twenty-five. Then take the remaining cards in your hand, and, seeming to search for some card among them, tell them over to yourself, and their number will be the amount of the two cards drawn.

For example.—Suppose the person has drawn a ten and a seven, then he must add fifteen cards to the first, to make the number twenty-five, and eighteen to the last, for the same reason; now fifteen and eighteen make thirty-three, and the two cards themselves make thirty-five, which deducted from fifty-two, leave seventeen, which must be the number of the remaining cards, and also of the two cards drawn.

You may perform this amusement without touching the cards, thus:

Let the person who has drawn the two cards deduct the number of each of them from twenty-six, which is half the number of the pack, and after adding the remainders together, let him tell you the amount, which you privately deduct from fifty-two, the total number of all the cards, and the remainder will be the amount of the two cards.

Example.—Suppose the two cards to be as before, ten and seven; then the person deducting ten from twenty-six, there remain sixteen, and deducting seven from twenty-six, there remain nineteen; these two remainders added together make thirty-five, which you subtract from fifty-two; and there must remain seventeen for the amount of the two cards, as before.