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The
TRICK
BRAIN
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Animation tricks comprise those in which actual movement of an inanimate subject is seen, or those in which movement is implied. In the latter case the ultimate result, as shown, could only be achieved through self-movement, apparently, of the inanimate objects used.
Since movement is necessary, obviously, it must follow that all movement is the result of some type of mechanical energy. Impartation of supernatural power is naturally out, or there are animation tricks of which I am unaware.
By far, the great bulk of animation tricks depend upon an invisible connection between the source of power, always secret, and the subject. You do not need be told, I think, that thin black, or suitably colored otherwise, cords, strings, threads and hairs furnish the most common type of invisible connection.
Human hairs are used for causing cards to rise from packs, to climb over the edge of hats and to impart movement to many objects whose size and weight are not too great.
Threads have imparted movement to rising cards, to decks that cut themselves, to wiggling handkerchiefs, to the hair on an assistant's head, to rocking chairs, to talking skulls, to rapping hands, to spirit bells, to ghosts and spooks without number, and to almost everything under the sun. The size and color of the thread depends upon the conditions of visibility and the nature of the amount of power required.
But oblique applications of the power—as, for example, where a vertical thread might be suspected, the use of a horizontal application—have made it possible to demonstrate to the spectator that such connections apparently do not exist.
Also, in some few tricks a secret blast of air has been used to impart movement where the subject has been relatively light, as for example, gently, but secretly, blowing upon a small round object to cause it to roll.
Next to the invisible connection between the subject and the source of power would come the principle of concealed connection.
The connecting lever concealed within the hook that suspends the spirit bell is an example. So, too, is the connecting mechanism supporting several types of talking skull, or that built into the board upon which rests the Dr. Q Rapping Hand. Similar in principle is Seller's Rising Cards. Here, a rubber-tipped wand, held in the armpit, presses against the back of the card to rise, holding it, while either the wand is levered upwards surreptitiously or the houlette is dropped gradually.
A great many animation effects are achieved by the application of clockwork mechanisms. These may be concealed within the objects used in the trick, as, for instance, the clockworks built into a pack of cards, as in the Willman type rising cards. Here a spring mechanism actuates driving wheels that push the desired cards upwards. Or the clockworks may be built into a supporting accessory, such as the table upon which is placed the basket containing the rising snake. In this case a piston, coming up from the center leg of the table, provides the various movements conforming to the antics of the cloth snake.
But motive power is also supplied by means of stored up power that may be released later. The Jumping Spoon is an example. A small spring device is depressed and held in that position by means of a piece of sugar. The spoon is placed on top of it. When the coffee melts the sugar the spring is released. This catapults the spoon from the cup. Similar is The Jumping Card. A rubberband, built into the pack, stretches as the card is pushed into the pack. The fingers grip the cards, holding the desired card in position, until the release is desired. A relaxation of the fingers allows the card to be thrown upwards.
Almost the same application is achieved through sleight—of—hand method when the selected card is slightly bent, having been placed on the back of the deck, and held with the fingers. Sudden release of the card at the top, while still holding its position at the bottom, causes the card to jump upwards.
Indirect connections, such as pistons built into table tops, are utilized both for direct applications of power to cause movement, or for releasing stored up power. However, these releases may be achieved through an infinite variety of applications. Threads, hairs and the like may supply an invisible control of the mechanism that may release stored power. Or induction or magnetic fields may operate the necessary triggers.
Apparent movement may be achieved also by control of light and shade. So far, there have been few practical applications of this principle. But moving light and shadow may be utilized to simulate an apparent movement in the subject.
The slate trick known as The Invisible Hand Writes must be included as an example of animation. In this trick evaporating chemicals causes the development of the writing. So, at least in this one instance, chemicals may impart movement.
Movement may be achieved through black art principles. A human operator is concealed by means of the familiar covering. Unseen, this operator imparts the desired movements to the objects used. This writer has long harbored a desire to utilize this principle in connection with a haunted house demonstration. For this purpose the conventional dollhouse is almost ideal. All that is necessary is to line the interior of the house in black and to put a row of lights around the open front. The usual compartment is sufficient in size to conceal the assistant. Yet, with the lights on in front, marvelous demonstrations of animation are easily available.
Movement may also be achieved by substituting a duplicate of the performer's hand or hands. The Futi Light Seance illustrates this. A cloth square is held up in front of a number of objects whereupon they begin to move about mysteriously. Actually, connected with a stick held by the opposite hand, a duplicate fake hand seems to hold the opposite corner of the drape, while one hand secretly imparts the necessary movement.
Some years ago in The Thirteenth Chair, a hit mystery show of the time, the medium, seated in a circle holding hands, managed to release her hands by pretext and in the darkness joined the hands of the people on either side of her. This released the medium's own hands and person to impart movement to many things.
The power of gravity has supplied motive power for many tricks. The Penetrating Glass, explained before, has apparent animation imparted to the slowly penetrating hat by means of a gradually sinking piston. A valve regulating the flow of sand, liquid, small shot or other fluid material that normally restrains the movement controls the speed of the movement.
Indirect applications of the principle of objects seeking the center of gravity will also cause mysterious movement. The Imp Bottle rises to its center of gravity when the restraining weight is taken from the neck of the bottle. Spirit hands, pulled off of their centers of gravity by means of a horizontal thread, are brought back into position by means of unbalanced weight.
Some years ago a spirit hand trick was achieved by using a delicately balanced hand. Movement resulted when slight shifts or movement of the board or plate upon which it rested resulted in tipping the hand one way or the other.
The movement of the hand of the spirit clock, swinging back and forth, finally coming to rest at the desired number is caused entirely by a weight at the center seeking its center of gravity. Curiously, this weight need not be kept at the center of the hand. It will work equally well, set in the exact manner, if the weight is placed at one end of the hand.
Kellar used the weighted clock hand, but combined it with an invisible thread wrapped around a pulley connected to a spindle upon which the hand was jammed. This permitted of much more elaborate movement such as the hand spinning in either direction. Operation was achieved by means of a human operator at each end of the thread. The same may be accomplished by using a human operator on one end of the thread and some type of take-up like an elastic cord, a sliding weight or a spring reel on the other.
Another trick, very puzzling indeed as to method, is the swinging pendulum in a bottle. This, too, relies upon controlled center of gravity. A rubber bulb, connected to another at the opposite end of a rubber tube, supplies the power. When the bulb, which has been placed beneath a leg of the table upon which the bottle rests, is inflated it lifts the table slightly and shifts the center of gravity. The pendulum swings from side to side under this almost imperceptible impetus.
Applications of the thread to supply motion invisibly have taken a variety of forms to accomplish a diversity of movements. Two operators on either side of a horizontal black thread enable Blackstone to present one of his most striking effects, The Dancing Handkerchief. And a black thread, its end secured to the floor, causes a silk to untie. Or a similar effect may be achieved by means of a black thread connected to a spring reel that is concealed within the hand.
The motors used need not be exclusively spring driven. They may be electric, gravity drive—even gasoline or steam if the desired result and other conditions demand their use and overcome the objections. Even elastic-powered motors have been used, with heavy oil or grease acting as the governor to control the speed. One rising card method used this type of motor.
Stored up power, represented by such things as stretched elastics or springs, by tautened spring reels, by slightly bent cards, by suspended weights and the like have many interesting applications. Not the least unique among these applications is the definitely oblique application as shown by a rising card method sold as far back as 1910. The edges of the card were lubricated by means of a coating of soap or wax. The glass utilized was tapering and somewhat narrower than the card used. When the card was placed in the glass it was definitely curved. In its natural tendency to straighten, the power represented in the elasticity of the card was applied to the wedge sides of the glass in such a manner that the card gradually climbed upwards. An unlubricated card, placed in the glass with the treated one, would remain where placed while the other slowly moved upwards.
Of course, any of the secret compartment methods, discussed at length repeatedly in this work, will supply a place of concealment of a human operator, or even of a suitable motor, in such a manner that movement may be imparted through the use of an invisible or concealed connection. To what extent other sources of energy may be employed in imparting movement mysteriously to objects used in animation effects is a matter for a seer, considering the years still before the performance of magic.
Certainly animation effects have not been performed with a considerably great variety of objects as yet. This field seems to afford a fertile territory for invention.
I cannot leave the division of animation effects without some discussion of tricks where animation is implied. I refer particularly to such tricks as The Sympathetic Silks, where the foulards seem to tie and untie themselves, and the needle or razor blade threading tricks.
In the former case, the effect is accomplished through the use of pretense and sleight-of-hand. In the original tying the silks are actually joined. One method substitutes three separate silks for three joined one. Another method depends upon handling the three tied silks as if they are separate—pretending they are separate. Still another is based on hiding the knots behind a bar of a stand or behind a decorative braid on a table, giving a false appearance of being separate while actually being tied.
Later in the routines, knots are untied by sleight-of-hand and apparently tied by means of rubber bands snapped about the ends, or by using snap fasteners.
Both of the threading tricks, either the razors or the needles, rely upon substituting duplicate tied packets for the originals.
Really, there are so few of these implied animation tricks at present that no hard and fast series of possible methods can be compiled.
There is still another class of animation that has had considerable historic background. This is the automaton. In the past these were apparently spontaneously self-moving machines, particularly those imitating the movements of men or animals. Many of these were presented as having reasoning powers.
Undoubtedly, there were a number of automata that were actually mechanisms of great ingenuity. But those that required some indication of reasoning power had to have human operators controlling their movements. This would not be difficult in these days of advanced electrical controls. But in the past the operator was usually ingeniously concealed within a secret compartment built into the device. Yet these secret compartments were so contrived that an apparent thorough scrutiny would convince the spectator that concealed confederates were impossible. Such a device is The Golem that was still catalogued by Bartl just previous to the outbreak of the present war.
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