To avoid misconception, it may be well to state at once that the
peculiar spelling of the word “od” in the above title is not a printer’s
error. The explanation will be found in the patter, which is founded
on a discovery claimed to have been made by a scientist at one time of
world-wide renown, and the responsibility for so spelling the word rests
with him. For programme purposes the reader is at liberty to re-name
the trick according to his own fancy. “Mysterious Motion,” or “Moved
by Magic” would fairly represent the effect produced, which consists
in causing a borrowed coin to move automatically at the will of the
operator, in various directions.
The requirements for the trick are as follows:
(1) The “tramway” whereon the coin is to be made to travel. This consists
of a slab of wood thirteen inches long by four wide, and three-eighths
of an inch thick and covered as to its upper side with fine black cloth.
To the cloth-covered side of this is attached, by means of a screw at
each corner, a parallelogram of brass or copper wire enclosing a space
two inches wide. The four screws, which are likewise of brass, and which
are of the round-headed kind, are within the parallelogram and serve to
keep the wire extended. Midway at each end is another screw, driven in
_outside_ the wire, in such manner as to make all taut. These last two
screws, for a reason connected with the working of the trick, stand up a
shade higher than the other four, but the difference is not great enough
to be noticeable. See Fig. 35.
[Illustration: FIG. 35]
(2) A special “pull” carried on the person of the performer. This
consists of a fine black thread, to one end of which is attached a weight
travelling up and down the trouser leg, after the manner described (in
connection with a self-suspending wand) at page 111 of “Later Magic.”
In the present case, however, the weight is much smaller, being in fact
just large enough to rather more than counterbalance the coin used in the
trick, _plus_ the friction to be overcome by the thread in the working
of the trick. The degree of such friction is an uncertain quantity, as
it will largely depend on the nature of the operator’s underwear and its
closeness to his own body. The precise weight most effective must be
ascertained by previous experiment, and regulated accordingly.
It will be found convenient to use by way of weight a glass tube, closed
at the bottom like a test-tube and loaded with buckshot, more or less
in quantity according to the weight required. The mouth of the tube
is closed by a cork, through which one end of the thread is passed,
and secured on the under side by a knot and a spot of gum. When the
minimum weight that will effectually serve the desired purpose has been
ascertained, any vacant space above the leaden pellets should be filled
with cotton wool (to prevent rattling) and the cork should then be
cemented into the tube. If preferred, the wool may be interspersed among
the buckshot.
The opposite end of the thread, which will be somewhere about thirty
inches in length (this again being a point to be determined by
experiment), is passed through the curled end of a good-sized safety pin.
This, for use in the trick, is attached to the inside of the performer’s
vest, just within the lowest part of the opening. To the free-end of the
thread, after passing through the loop of the pin, is attached a disc of
copper or zinc, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, against which,
on one side, is pressed and flattened out a pellet of conjurer’s wax,
in good adhesive condition. If the length of the thread has been duly
regulated, the little disc will rest normally just within the vest, but
can be drawn out the extent of a couple of feet or so, returning swiftly
to its hiding place the moment it is released.
(3) A glass ball--professedly crystal.
(4) An ordinary match-box, empty.
Instructions for the working of the trick will be most conveniently given
step by step with the patter, which may run as follows:
“In the early days of Queen Victoria’s reign, when the oldest of us here
present were good little boys or girls, and the rest were not born or
thought of, there lived a celebrated scientific gentleman, called the
Baron von Reichenbach. I am sorry to say he was a German, but he couldn’t
help it. As his father and mother were Germans, he had to be one too. It
shows how careful children ought to be in the choice of their parents.
He invented a lot of useful things, among them creosote and paraffin.
Neither of them smells very nice, but they don’t trouble about that in
Germany.
“Besides being a great chemist, Von Thingany dabbled in what are called
the occult sciences, and he claimed to have discovered a new force (a
sort of magnetism, only different) and which, he declared, pervaded every
thing in nature, especially crystal. Directed by a strong will, like his
own, or mine, it would do all sorts of wonderful things. It seemed to
me that such a force would come in very handy for magical purposes, and
I set to work to invent it over again, and I have at any rate produced
something very like it. The Baron called his force ‘odd,’ but he spelt it
‘od,’ which is odd too. You must judge for yourselves whether my force is
the same as his, and you can spell it which way you like.
“I have only been able so far to work up a very small amount of the
force, say about six mouse-power, so it won’t turn tables, or lift
pianos. I can only get it, so far, to move a small weight like a florin
or a half-dollar, and that only for a very short distance. For greater
conveniences I have made this little tramway for the coin to perform
upon. These wires which you see are not for it to travel on, but merely
to get more equal distribution of the force. There is nothing out of the
way about it, nor with this ball, except that it is crystal. Examine
both as much as you please.”
The two articles are accordingly offered for inspection. The performer
takes back the tramway in the left hand, holding it by one end in such
manner that it is gripped in the fork of the thumb, leaving the thumb
itself comparatively free. Taking back the ball with the right hand and
remarking “Now to develop the force,” he rubs it on his left coat-sleeve,
and strokes the surface of the tramway two or three times with it.
“Having now established a proper degree of ‘oddity’ between the tram and
the crystal, I will ask for the loan of a half-dollar (or florin as the
case may be) marked in any way the owner pleases.”
He replaces the ball on the table, and in the act of again turning to the
audience gets hold of the waxed disc and draws it away from the body,
holding it clipped between the ends of the first and second fingers, the
left thumb pressing the thread against the cloth top of the tramway, and
acting for the time being (and indeed throughout the trick) as a brake
neutralising at pleasure the pull of the weight.
He receives the coin on the tramway; then picking it up with the right
hand, makes some observation as to the mark, meanwhile pressing the waxed
side of the disc against it, then replacing it, disc down, in the middle
of the tramway.
“I shall now, by means of the ‘od’ force, compel the coin to move towards
me.” This he does accordingly, by relaxing the pressure of the thumb upon
the thread and merely bringing the pull of the weight into operation.
When the coin has all but reached the nearer end of the tramway, he says,
“We will now see if we can make it travel a little longer distance.” So
saying he draws the thread out again and lays the coin on the farther end
of the tram, and again makes it travel slowly back. A good effect may be
here produced by making it stop halfway, and (after remarking in a casual
way that the power is hardly strong enough) picking up the ball, again
rubbing it upon the sleeve and moving it, a few inches distance, in the
direction in which the coin is to travel, when it resumes its journey
accordingly.
Once more picking up the coin, he replaces it at the farther end of the
tramway, but in so doing passes the thread outside and around the screw
at that end. He then remarks, as if bethinking himself: “By the way, a
lady suggested the other night that the coin was attracted towards me by
my personal magnetism. I know I am an attractive man: I have been told so
frequently but that is not the explanation in this case, as I will prove
to you by making the coin travel _away_ from me.” So saying, he draws the
coin towards him, easing off the pressure on the thread to enable him to
do so, and leaves it at the inner end. The ball is now moved away from
himself, and the pressure of the brake being relaxed, the coin is now
drawn in the same direction.
“‘_Quod erat demonstrandum_,’ as our old friend Shakespeare (or was it
Euclid) used to say.” (To the lender of the coin.) “You must take care
of this coin, Sir; it is now charged with a minute quantity of the ‘od’
force, and so long as you keep it you can never be ‘stony-broke.’ I will
show you just one more effect with it before I return it to you.”
While speaking, he has carelessly picked up the coin, and replaced it on
the _inner_ side of the screw so that this shall be no longer encircled
by the thread. Picking up the match box from the table, he pushes out the
“tray” portion with the forefinger; then throwing aside the outer case,
he picks up the tray, and inverts it over the coin.
“I will now show you that the ‘od’ force still operates even though
it is cut off from any direct connection with the subject of the
experiment: but in this case a little more power is required.” So
saying he rubs the glass ball again on his coat-sleeve, and, moving the
ball accordingly, causes the coin to travel towards him, the match-box
naturally moving with it. In again picking up the coin, to return it to
the owner, he detaches it from the disc, which flies back to its original
resting-place.