Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

When the target is required for use, the bull’s-eye is twisted round, so that the side a is turned towards the back, and in this position it is fixed by the catch. The borrowed watch is then hooked on the same side of the bull’s eye. The assistant, in bringing forward the target, takes care to keep the face turned towards the spectators, so that the watch, being behind, is unseen. At the moment of firing the pistol the disc is pressed upwards, and the catch being thus withdrawn, the bull’s-eye instantly spins round, and the side a, on which is the watch, takes the place of side b on the face of the target. The movement is so instantaneous that the quickest eye cannot follow it, and the explosion of the pistol at the same moment aids still further to baffle the vigilance of the spectators, to whom it appears as if the borrowed watch had really passed from the pistol to the face of the target. This forms an effective conclusion to the Watch-Mortar Trick, the fragments (supposed to be those of the borrowed watch) being placed in the pistol, and remaining there. Where the watch-box, above described, is used, you merely go through the motion of taking the watch out, invisibly, through the top of the box, and in like manner placing it in the pistol.