THE VANISHING SIXPENCE.
Having previously stuck a small piece of white wax on the nail of your middle finger, lay a sixpence on the palm of your hand, and addressing the company, state that it will vanish at the word of command. “Many persons,” you observe, “perform this feat, by letting the sixpence fall into their sleeve; but to convince you that I shall not have recourse to any such deception, I will turn up my cuffs.” You then close your hand, and bringing the waxed nail in contact with the sixpence, it will firmly adhere to it. You then blow your hand, and cry “Begone!” and suddenly opening it, and exhibiting the palm, you show that the sixpence has vanished. If you borrow the sixpence of any of the company, take care to rub off the wax, before you restore it to the owner.
TO MAKE A SIXPENCE BALANCE AND SPIN ON ITS EDGE, ON THE POINT OF A NEEDLE.
Procure a common wine-bottle, two forks, two corks, a needle, a sixpence, and a penknife. Having corked the bottle, force the eye of the needle into the cork perpendicularly, leaving more than half the needle sticking up. You next cut a small slit with the penknife in the centre of the bottom of the second cork, into which you insert the sixpence edgewise; then stick the forks into the upper cork, and, with a steady hand, place the edge of the sixpence on the point of the needle, and it will immediately find its balance. You may now take the upper cork between the finger and thumb, and spin it round as fast as you please, as the sixpence will not fall off. When it goes slow, hit one of the forks with your finger as it goes round, to increase its velocity.
THE MULTIPLYING COIN.
Let a tumbler be half-filled with water; put a sixpence in it; and holding a plate over the top, turn the glass upside down. The sixpence will fall down on the plate, and appear to be a shilling; while at the same time a sixpence will seem to be swimming in the water. If a shilling is put in the glass, it will have the appearance of a quarter of a dollar and a shilling; and if a quarter of a dollar were put in, it would seem to be half a dollar and a quarter of a dollar.
MAGIC RAT TRAP.
Prepare a pasteboard circle, upon one side of which draw a figure of a cage, and on the other side that of a rat. Near the outer edge of the circle fasten two strings opposite each other. So that they may be held between the fore finger and thumb in such manner that the circle may be made to revolve rapidly. When it is set in motion the transition is so quick, that it presents the appearance of a rat in the cage.
