Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE VANISHING PLATE, OR SALVER.--This is a most useful and ingenious piece of apparatus. In appearance it is an ordinary japanned tin tray, of about ten inches in diameter; but it has the faculty of causing money placed upon it to disappear in a most surprising manner. A number of coins, collected from the company, are placed upon the salver. The performer, standing but a few feet from the spectators, openly takes them off one by one, but each, as his fingers grasp it, vanishes utterly. His sleeves (which in conjuring come in for a vast amount of undeserved suspicion) may be rigorously examined; but even though, as a concession to popular prejudice, he should bare his arm to the shoulder, the result would still be the same. A closer inspection of the salver (which the performer takes good care not to permit) would reveal the fact, that though apparently consisting, like any other, of only one thickness of metal, it is in reality made double, allowing sufficient space between its upper and under surface for the concealment of any number of coins laid singly. The centre portion of the upper surface, though apparently of a piece with the rest, is in reality moveable, though pressed upwards and kept in its place by the action of four small springs. When the performer apparently picks up a coin (which he takes care shall be on this centre portion), he presses smartly upon it, at the same moment drawing it sharply towards the outer rim. The moveable portion of the salver yielding to the pressure, the effect is as shown in the figure (Fig. 98), and the coin is shot under the outer rim, between the upper and under surface of the salver, the moveable portion rising again to its place as soon as the momentary pressure is removed. The tray is japanned in such manner that the circular lines of the pattern correspond with the outline of the moveable portion, and will bear any amount of mere ocular inspection, so long as it is not permitted to be handled.