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The
TRICK
BRAIN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
In considering the effect of attraction, or magnetic adhesion, we become aware immediately that this general classification very closely approaches the preceding one, anti-gravity. Curiously, this is one effect that I do not ever recall having heard of being performed with human beings. It is true that some years ago there is said to have been an act in which a girl walked upside down on a suspended platform. But this was not intended as a magic trick, as I understand it. Rather, the girl is said to have used rubber suckers on her feet, and it was more of an acrobatic feat. I have never found anyone who ever witnessed it.
In investigating methods of performing this effect we immediately, of course, find the old reliables from the anti-gravity section—invisible support, concealed support and magnetism. But a new one enters also. This is the use of an adhesive.
One of the oldest effects in this classification is that of a number of cards adhering to the outstretched palm. Usually one card is the key supporting the remainder, which are tucked above it. Most common is the use of a folding clip that blends with the back design of the cards. This clip is pinched between the middle knuckles of the second and third fingers.
A loop of human hair or very fine silk thread has been used also.
Malini made quite a feature of this effect in his impromptu demonstrations. He used an adhesive, such as lead plaster, which he rubbed into the pores of his fingers. Many light objects may be picked up in this way. These include cards, match folders, cigars, pencils and other like objects.
The floating cane—really the adhering cane—has been done in a variety of ways. The Arnold Cane Trick is one performed with a black thread loop. In this case, except for where the thread passes around the cane, the thread is not so much an invisible support as a concealed one. Actually, this particular trick is somewhat different from the conventional in the respect that stress is not laid on the seeming fact that gravity will not pull the cane away from the hand. Here the accent is placed upon the spectator's inability to lift the cane away from the hand. Of course, he cannot do it because the heavy thread loop completely encircles the cane, drops between the second and third fingers, thence goes up the sleeve, through the armhole and down to a trousers button at the side.
A very subtle method of gripping the cane, with the tips of the index and little fingers on one side and the fleshy cushions of the second and third fingers on the other, also makes possible an effect of this type.
Clips, which have a protruding pin that may be pinched between the extended fingers, are made of light metal. They are semi-cylindrical in shape, encircling the cane or wand, whichever is used, just a bit over half the circumference. These may be slipped on or off the cane at will. Various adaptations of the thread loop have been used, as well.
One very aged method of causing a wand or cane to adhere to the palm apparently is that of grasping the wrist with the second, third and fourth fingers of the opposite hand, extending the forefinger beneath the palm as a hidden support. Supports, strapped to the wrist and extending beneath the palm, have also been used.
Those small powerful magnets of the Alnico variety have been responsible for several tricks of attraction. In some cases the magnet is placed in the outside breast pocket and some thin non-insulating object is placed against the coat. Any small object, in which has been hidden a small piece of steel, will apparently adhere to the object, providing it is not too heavy and providing the first object is not too thick. One application of this principle was in gluing a portion of a deck of cards together and hollowing out a space sufficient to accommodate a magnet. Several loose cards were placed on the face of the deck. A small brad was inserted in a cigarette. This cigarette would adhere to the deck even as the cards immediately beneath it were slipped out one by one.
We cannot leave this classification without some discussion of the historic floating table. Where the table floats without contact with the operator, this trick, of course, belongs under the anti-gravity section. But where the operator's fingers are touching the top the magnetic adhesion classification is correct. Almost certainly the original method was in the use of a small flat-headed nail and a finger ring in which a V-groove had been cut. In performance, the nail head is engaged in the groove in the ring. A thin silk handkerchief may be spread over the tabletop, providing the material is sufficiently sheer. This does not interfere with the mechanical connection. Of course, in all cases the tables are made extremely light in weight.
One improved type of table is made so that the nail is flush with and hidden in the tabletop under normal conditions. For the performance of the trick, however, this nail may be protruded, after which it is retracted out of sight again. In other respects it operates similar to the original.
An extension arm, strapped to the wrist and concealed by the sleeve, has been used also. This arm slides beneath the tabletop for operating the trick. Rings equipped with rubber suckers have been used for this effect, too.
Tables have been caused to seem to cling to the fingers of operators who have deliberately pushed them about by applying oblique pressure.
The Oriental Vase Trick, discussed under the previous section, might be classed under this heading as well.
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