Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

TO PASS A RING THROUGH THE TABLE.--This also is a juvenile trick, but a very good one. The necessary apparatus consists of an ordinary glass tumbler, and a handkerchief to the middle of which is attached, by means of a piece of sewing-silk about four inches in length, a substitute ring of your own. Borrowing a ring from one of the company, you announce that it will at your command pass through the table; but as the process, being magical, is necessarily invisible, you must first cover it over. Holding the handkerchief by two of the corners, you carelessly shake it out (taking care to keep the side on which is the suspended ring towards yourself), and wrapping in it apparently the borrowed, but really the suspended ring, you hand it to one of the company, requesting him to grasp the ring through the handkerchief, and to hold it securely. A word of caution may here be given, which will be found more or less applicable to all magical performances. Have the room in which you perform as brilliantly lighted as you please, but take care so to arrange the lights, or so to place yourself, that all the lights may be in front of you, and none behind you. The trick we are now describing affords a practical illustration of the necessity for this. If you have any light behind you, the handkerchief, as you shake it to show that it is not prepared, will appear semi-transparent, and the spectators will be able to see the suspended ring dangling behind it. For a similar reason, you should always endeavour to have a dark background for your performances, as any thread, or the like, which you may have occasion to secretly use will then be invisible at a short distance, while against a light background--e.g., a muslin curtain or white wall-paper--it would be instantly noticeable.