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Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
682
MODERN
MAGIC.
APPENDIX.
CONTAINING
EXPLANATIONS
OF
SOME
OF
THE
BEST
KNOWN
SPECIALTIES
OF
MESSRS.
MASKELYNE
AND
COOKE.
BY
ARPREY
VERE.
ANCIENT
AND
MODERN
MAGIC.
CHAPTER
I.
INTRODUCTION.
The
wonder
excited
by
the
marvellous
automatons
of
Messrs.
Maskelyne
and
Cooke
has
caused
many
inquiries
into
the
art
of
mechanical
conjuring.
Although
the
productions
of
those
gentleman
at
the
Egyptian
Hall
have
been
thought
by
the
general
public
to
be
unprecedented,
we
shall
see
that
their
marvels
have
been
produced
in
ages
long
gone
by,
and
that
the
art
of
conjuring,
or
producing
apparently
unaccountable
and
magical
results
by
means
of
mechanism,
was
an
art
brought
to
great
perfection
hundreds
of
years
ago,
and
long
before
“Psycho”
astonished
the
metropolis.
My
readers
will
perceive
that
the
automatic
figures
of
these
caterers
of
wonders
are
neither
original
nor
novel.
I
hope
that,
as
the
art
of
magic
is
so
very
popular,
a
brief
exposition
of
the
subject
will
be
found
interesting
to
many
readers.
It
is
my
intention
in
this
and
the
following
chapters
to
give
a
brief
summary
of
the
history
of
mechanical
magic
in
ancient
and
modern
times,
and
then
to
furnish
a
full
explanation
of
how
the
apparently
marvellous
results
of
sleight
of
hand,
second
sight,
and
the
mysterious
movements
of
automata
of
the
present
day,
are
attained;
and
my
readers
will
no
doubt
reap
a
harvest
of
information
on
the
subject,
and
will
be
able
not
only
to
perform
many
of
the
numerous
tricks
at
which
they
have
before
been
astonished,
but
will
also
be
in
a
position
to
explain
to
the
uninitiated
“How
it
is
done.”
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