Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

In this trick also the spring pistons of the Magic Harlequin were used. The real oranges were fixed on pins and hidden by the leaves. A string or wire opened the leaves, gradually disclosing the oranges, which appeared at a distance to grow in size as the leaves spread wider. Another set of wires, worked by another string, pushed the blossoms up fine tubes, and as the paper emerged from the tube the separate parts spread out, giving the appearance of growing blossoms. As soon as the two halves of the sham orange in the centre were released, the butterflies, attached by wires to the stalk, and fixed upon delicate spiral springs, sprang out of their own accord, and presented the appearance of fluttering on the wing. The bona fide handkerchief was pushed into the halves of the orange through a hole in the back while Houdin was taking off the real oranges. A rose-tree, similar in its effects, was also exhibited by Houdin. This clever mechanician was, I believe, the inventor of the Electric Bell, or, to be more precise, he produced it as a magical trick, long before the electric bell came into use. The Magic Drum, swung from the ceiling by means of wires looking like cords, of which Houdin was the first exhibitor, was constructed on precisely the same principles as the modern continuous electric bell, only worked with a much stronger battery and a more powerfully made electro-magnet.