Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Some performers prefer to use the actual coin borrowed. The arrangements in this case are the same as above described, save that the silk thread, instead of having a substitute coin attached to it, has merely a pellet of wax at its end. The performer having handed round the glass for inspection, and standing in front of the table with his left side turned towards the audience, picks up a pellet of wax with his right hand at the same moment that, holding the borrowed coin in his left hand, he begs the spectators to take especial notice that he really uses the borrowed coin, and no other. Having said this, he transfers the coin, by a perfectly natural movement, to his right hand, and pressing against it the waxen pellet, drops it into the glass. The third and last mode of performing the trick is by means of a special glass, with a hole drilled through its foot. This is placed on a suitable pedestal (see Fig. 82), in which works up and down a steel needle, forming the upper portion of a kind of loose piston, a. The top of the pedestal is covered with green baize, allowing free passage to the needle, which when pushed upward strikes the coin from below, with much the same effect as the thread pulling it from above. This pedestal is only available with one of the mechanical tables which will be described in connection with “stage tricks.” Such tables contain, among other contrivances, what are called “pistons,” being small metal rods, which, by pulling a string, are made to rise vertically an inch or so above the surface of the table, sinking down again as soon as the cord is released. The pedestal is placed immediately above one of these, whose movement is in turn communicated to the loose piston in the pedestal, and thence to the coin.