Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE CHANGING LADLE.--This is a piece of apparatus designed for secretly obtaining possession of a chosen card or piece of writing. The bowl, so to speak, of the ladle is in the form of a segment of a cylinder (see Fig. 192), the size of its opening being about four inches by two and a half, and its depth three inches. It is made of tin, with a thin, cylindrical handle. The edges of the bowl are turned inwards all round to the extent of about a sixteenth of an inch, thereby serving to disguise a moveable slab of tin, a, which moves backwards and forwards like the leaf of a book within the ladle, working upon a hinge at its lower edge. This is made to work backwards and forwards by a wire rod passing through the whole length of the handle, and terminating in a little knob or cap at its outer end. The normal position of a is to lie against the inner or handle side of the bowl (see Fig. 193), being retained in that position by the effect of a spiral spring in the handle, which draws the wire back. If, however, pressure be applied to the knob or cap at the end of the handle, the wire is forced downwards, thereby bringing the moveable leaf a against the outer side of the bowl, as shown in Fig. 194.