Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

MORISON’S PILL-BOX.--In this trick (called by French conjurors La Pilule du Diable) the device of the “shell” is carried still further. The box in this case is spherical, standing upon a thin stem (see Fig. 130), and each part (box proper and lid) contains a half shell, the edge of one having a rebate or shoulder, so as to fit into the other, the conjoined having the appearance of a solid ball. The genuine ball is of such a size as just to fill the hollow shells when thus joined. The lower shell fits loosely in the box, the upper one a little more tightly, so as not to fall out unless pressed down by the button on the top of the lid, which not only loosens it from the lid, but presses it into union with the lower shell. The mode of using the apparatus is as follows:--It is first brought forward with the one half shell in the box, and the other in the lid, the true ball, which is of the same colour as the shell (generally black) being placed within the lower shell. The ball is ostentatiously removed, and the box closed. The ball is then either placed in some piece of apparatus adapted to cause its disappearance, or is made to vanish by sleight-of-hand in one or other of the modes already described. The ball is now ordered to return to the box, which, for greater certainty, is once more shown empty. The performer again closes it, pressing as he does so the button on the top of the lid, thus compelling the two half shells to coalesce; and on again re-opening the box, the ball has, to all appearance, returned as commanded. The ball-box now under consideration has this great advantage over the single-shell vases, that the sham ball can be completely removed from the box, and shown on all sides, thus (apparently) negativing the possibility of its being a shell only.