Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The thread may be drawn in various ways. Sometimes this is done by the performer himself, standing behind or beside the table. Another plan is to have the thread attached to a small cylindrical weight within the pillar, which is made hollow, and filled with sand. The weight rests on the sand until the operator desires the cards to rise, when, by moving a trigger at the foot of the pillar, he opens a valve, which allows the sand to trickle slowly down into a cavity at the base; and the weight, being thus deprived of its support, gradually sinks down, and pulls the thread. (The pillar in this case is made about two feet high, as the weight must necessarily travel six times the length of a card.) Others, again, draw the thread by means of a clockwork arrangement in the table, or in the pillar itself, answering the same purpose as the sand and weights. The arrangement which we ourselves prefer, where practicable, is to have the thread drawn by an assistant, who may either be placed behind a screen, or may even stand in full view of the audience, so long as he is at some little distance from the table. The silk thread is quite invisible, if only you have a tolerably dark background. The only portion as to which you need feel any anxiety is that immediately connected with the cards. To conceal this it is well, if you use a special table, to have a small hole bored in the top, through which the thread may pass. The card-stand being placed immediately in front of the hole, the thread will pass perpendicularly downward for the first portion of its length, and will thus be concealed behind the pillar. In default of a hole, a ring of bent wire attached to the table will answer the same purpose. The great advantage of having the thread pulled by a living person instead of a mechanical power is, that you can take your own time in the performance of the trick; whereas, if you use a weight or clockwork, there is always a danger of a card beginning to rise before you have called for it, or possibly not rising at all--either contingency being rather embarrassing.