Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The pedestal above described is a very useful piece of apparatus, being available either to produce, change, or vanish any article of appropriate size. A very effective trick may be performed therewith by causing an empty tumbler to appear full, or vice versâ. In this case, however, it should by no means be admitted that an exchange takes place, as the supposed filling of an empty glass with water by covering it with an evidently unsophisticated cover, is rather the more surprising phenomenon. THE FLYING GLASS OF WATER.--This capital trick was, we believe, first introduced to the public by Colonel Stodare, to whom the profession is indebted for many first-class illusions. The necessary apparatus consists of a couple of ordinary glass tumblers, exactly alike, with an india-rubber cover just fitting the mouth of one of them, and a coloured handkerchief of silk or cotton made double (i.e., consisting of two similar handkerchiefs sewn together at the edges), with a wire ring (of the size of the rim of one of the tumblers, or a fraction larger) stitched loosely between them, in such manner that when the handkerchief is spread out the ring shall be in the middle.