Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The picture-frame, which is of the appearance shown in Fig. 292, and stands altogether about two feet high, is backed by a sort of wooden box, an inch and a half in depth, and a little smaller than the external measurement of the frame. The inside of this box is covered with black cloth, and in fact forms the true back of the frame; and it is upon this that the borrowed objects are fastened by means of small sharp hooks, the back opening on hinges to facilitate the doing so. An ordinary spring roller-blind, also of black cloth, works up and down just behind the opening of the frame. We have said an ordinary spring blind, but, in truth, the usual check at the side is wanting, and the blind therefore, if drawn down, instantly flies up again, unless held down from below. The blind terminates at bottom in a square lath, five-eighths of an inch in length by three-eighths in thickness, with a wire pin, half-an-inch in length, projecting at right angles from its hinder side. The ends of this lath, when the blind is drawn down, sink into two upright grooves, one at each side of the frame, thereby keeping the latter square, and the pin in a horizontal position. The catch a (an enlarged view of which is shown in Figs. 293, 294) is now hooked over the pin, as in Fig. 293, thus holding the blind down. A wire rod, attached to this catch, passes down the column on which the frame stands, and terminates in the usual disc or pedal at bottom. When an upward pressure is applied to this, the catch assumes the position shown in Fig. 294, thereby releasing the pin, and allowing the blind to fly up. The blind is represented in Fig. 292 in the act of flying up, but, in truth, its rise is so rapid as to be practically invisible.