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Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
274
The
plug-box
may
be
used
in
a
variety
of
different
ways--to
vanish,
reproduce,
or
exchange.
For
the
first
purpose,
the
coin
to
be
got
rid
of
is
dropped
into
a.
When
the
plug
is
inserted,
and
pressed
home,
the
coin
falls,
with
b,
into
the
hand
of
the
performer;
and
on
the
plug
being
again
withdrawn,
nothing
is
seen
but
the
interior
of
d,
which
is
of
course
empty.
Where
it
is
desired
to
use
the
box
for
the
purpose
of
reproducing
a
coin,
such
coin
is
placed
beforehand
within
d.
The
box
is
first
shown
empty,
but
has
only
to
be
closed
and
re-opened,
and
the
coin
is
found
within
it.
For
exchanges,
the
substitute
is
placed
in
d,
and
the
genuine
coin
in
a.
This
latter
falls
out
with
the
bottom,
and
the
substitute
is
in
due
course
discovered.
A
half-crown
may
thus
be
changed
to
a
penny,
or
a
sovereign
to
a
shilling.
But
the
chief
use
of
the
plug-box
is
as
an
auxiliary
in
those
more
important
tricks
in
which
the
coin,
apparently
remaining
up
to
the
last
moment
in
the
spectator’s
own
possession,
is
suddenly
made
to
appear
in
some
quarter
to
which
(if
it
had
really
so
remained)
it
could
not
possibly
have
been
transported
by
natural
means.
The
performer
in
this
case
places
a
similar
coin
beforehand
in
d.
Dropping,
or
allowing
the
owner
to
drop,
the
marked
coin
into
a,
he
closes
the
box,
which
he
shakes
to
prove
that
the
coin
is
really
there.
Giving
the
box
to
some
one
to
hold,
he
is
then
enabled,
without
exciting
the
smallest
suspicion,
to
retire,
and
make
what
disposition
he
pleases
of
the
marked
coin,
which
he
has
thus
got
into
his
own
possession.
When
he
has
completed
his
arrangements,
he
again
takes
the
box,
and,
opening
it,
takes
out
the
substitute,
which
the
audience
naturally
believe
to
be
the
genuine
coin;
and
getting
rid
of
this
by
sleight-of-hand
or
otherwise,
passes
the
coin
(at
that
very
moment,
so
far
as
the
audience
can
judge)
to
the
place
where
it
is
ultimately
destined
to
be
found.
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