Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Small round tables (for the disappearance of a rabbit, or the like) are sometimes made on the same principle. The following will be found a simple and convenient arrangement:--Let the table be of the form shown in Fig. 281, and two feet seven inches high. Let the uppermost eight inches of the pillar be a plain cylinder a a, an inch and a half in diameter. Below this the pillar may increase in size, and may be of an ornamental character. Take two circular boards of deal or mahogany, each eighteen to twenty inches in diameter, and five-eighths of an inch thick. In the centre of one of them, b, cut a circular hole an inch and three-quarters in diameter. This will form the under side of the “bellows,” the object being to allow the board to slide freely up and down on a a. The other board, which we will call c, is screwed firmly on to the pillar, to form the top of the table. Next take a strip of black alpaca, ten inches in width, and nail its opposite edges round b and c, leaving a small space at one side to give access to the interior. Tie a piece of cord elastic round the centre of the alpaca, tightly enough to exercise a considerable degree of tension. Fix such traps as may be desired in c, and glue over it a fancy-patterned cloth, with a fringe or border hanging down nine or ten inches round the sides. The performer, before executing any trick with this table, may pointedly draw attention to the fact that it contains no drawer or other place of concealment. In doing this (see Fig. 282) he with one hand raises the lower board level with the upper (the action of the elastic drawing in the alpaca between the two), while with the other hand he raises the fringe, and shows, apparently, that the top of the table is but a single board.