Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The money-slide is a flat tin tube, about eight inches in length, an inch and a quarter in width, and of just such depth as to allow a half-crown or florin (whichever coin may be used) to slip through it freely, edgeways. It is open at the top, but is closed at the lower end by a lever, acting like the lever of a shot-pouch. (See Fig. 96, which shows the external appearance of the tube, and Fig. 97, which represents, on a somewhat larger scale, a section of its essential portion.) The normal position of the lever (which works on a pivot, a) is as shown in Fig. 97, being maintained in that position by a small spring. Under such circumstances, the passage of the tube is barred by the pin d (which works through a small hole in the face of the tube); but if ac, the longer arm of the lever, be pressed down, the pin d is withdrawn, but the extreme lower end of the tube is for the moment barred by the bent end of ac. The pressure being withdrawn, the lever returns to its former condition. When required for use, four or five half-crowns are dropped into the tube from the upper end, and the tube is fastened, by a hook affixed to it for that purpose, inside the waistcoat of the performer, so that its lower end hangs just above the waistband, the lever side of the tube being next the body. If the tube be lightly pressed through the waistcoat, the longer arm of the lever is thereby pressed down. The pin d is lifted, and the row of half-crowns slide down to the bottom of the tube, where, however, they are arrested by the bent end of ac. As soon as the pressure is removed, the lever returns to its position. The mouth of the tube is left open, and the first of the half-crowns drops out, and would be followed by the others, but the pin, d, which at the same moment returns to its position across the tube, stops their further progress. Thus each time the lever is pressed and again released, one half-crown, and one only, drops out at the mouth of the tube.