Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE MYSTERIOUS FUNNEL.--This is a little appliance on the same principle, which may be incidentally introduced with good effect in the course of a wine trick. It is a tin funnel, made double throughout, with a space of half-an-inch or so between its inner and outer sides. It is, in fact, a funnel within a funnel, joined at the upper edges. (See Fig. 210.) It has an air-hole, a, generally on the under side of the handle. When required for use, the hidden space is filled with wine. The simplest way of doing this is to stop the spout of the funnel with the finger, and then to fill it with wine, which, seeking its own level, will gradually rise to the same height in the outer space as it stands at inside the funnel. This must, of course, be done with the air-hole open. When the space is filled, the air-hole is stopped, and the wine remaining inside the funnel allowed to run out. The funnel will now appear perfectly empty, and may be used as a funnel in the ordinary way. The mode of using the funnel is somewhat after the following manner, subject, of course, to variation, according to the taste and invention of the performer:--