A complete handbook of legerdemain, containing all the latest optical, chemical, mechanical, and magical tricks and deceptions, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, together with all the noted tricks of modern magicians and prestidigitators.
If you always wanted to make a mouse come out of a pack of cards, change salt to sugar, or make fire burn under water, this may be just the book for you. The author only identifies himself as 'An Old Conjuror'.
Excerpt from the publisher's preface:
The following pages are not intended to make the reader either a cheat or trickster. In the long winter's evening, at Merry Christmas time, or on a wet day in the country, the young folks are often at a loss how to amuse themselves. To furnish the ingenious with the means to enable them to provide entertainment, to qualify the hero of his little circle to divert and astonish his friends, and to inform, without being dryly scientific, are the principal objects of this work. To those who mingle in society, and yet can neither tell a good story or sing, this little book will be invaluable. Those who have been mystified by professional magicians will here find the mysteries explained, and that, too, without any help from the "old gentleman" of whom it is not polite to speak.
- Publisher's Preface
- To The Young Conjuror
- How To Cut A Man's Head Off, And Put It In A Platter A Yard From His Body
- To Take Feathers Out Of An Empty Handkerchief
- How To Cut Off Your Nose
- Houdin's Nut Trick
- To Make A Room Appear On Fire
- To Walk Upon A Hot Iron Bar
- The Enchanted Cock
- The Miniature River On Fire
- To Make Sport With An Egg
- To Boil A Liquid Without Fire
- The Enchanted Coins
- To Make A Loaf Dance While It Is Baking In The Oven
- The Invisible Chicken
- To Render Faces Hideous In Appearance
- How To Eat Fire
- To Melt Lead In A Paper
- The Magic Snowball
- To Change Salt To Sugar
- Turning A Glove Into A Bird, &c.
- To Put An Egg In A Bottle
- The Magic Gun
- To Kill A Bird And Restore It To Life Again
- To Make Water Remain In A Vessel With Holes At The Bottom Of It
- To Make Sport With A Tobacco-Pipe
- To Make An Egg Stand On One End
- To Tell At What Hour A Person Intends To Rise
- How To Eat Tow, And Set It On Fire In Your Mouth
- To Give A Party A Ghostly Appearance
- How To Cut Glass
- To Make A Bird Appear Dead
- To Copy Writing
- To Take A Shilling Out Of A Handkerchief
- To Melt Steel As Easily As Lead
- To Make Fire Burn Under Water
- To Make Fire-Proof Paper
- Iron Transformed Into Copper
- A Lamp That Will Burn For A Year
- To Tell The Number That Any Person Thinks Of
- Destruction Of Two Fluid Bodies, And The Formation Of One New Solid In Their Stead
- To Take Impressions Of Coins, Metals, &c.
- The Flying Dime
- Another Method
- To Put Nuts Into Your Ear
- The Toper's Stratagem
- The Disappearing Dime
- The Dime In The Ball Of Cotton
- The Magic Quarter
- To Change A Blue Liquid To White
- Two Cold Liquids Make A Hot One
- To Hold A Hot Tea Kettle On The Hand
- Incombustible Linen
- Laughing Gas
- Green Fire
- Brilliant Red Fire
- Purple Fire
- Flame Upon Water
- Rose-Colored Flame Upon Water
- To Set A Mixture On Fire With Water
- To Make A Mouse Come Out Of A Pack Of Cards
- Magic Money
- The Magic Cups
- The Doubled Coin
- Magic Milk
- The Ring Suspended By A Burnt Thread
- A Color Which You Can Cause To Appear Or Disappear
- The Magic Portrait
- The Wonderful Hat
- The Self-Balanced Pail
- To Raise Up A Heavy Metal Mortar Or The Like, With A Wine Glass
- To Produce Artificial Claps Of Thunder
- The Conjuror's Joke
- To Lock A Padlock On Your Cheek
- To Make A Card Jump Out Of The Pack And Be Seen Upon The Table
- To Prepare A Fountain Of Fire
- The Obedient Watch
- To Make A Card Pass From One Hand Into The Other
- To Bring A Person Down Upon A Feather
- The Impossible Omelet
- Go, If You Can
- Magic Circle
- To Tell The Hour Of The Day Or Night By A Suspended Shilling
- The Gas Candle
- To Keep A Stone In Perpetual Motion
- To Crack Walnuts In Your Elbow
- The Knotted Handkerchief
- To Tell A Lady If She Is In Love
- Light Under Water
- The Mysterious Bottle
- The Old Woman And Her Eggs
- The Tape Trick
- Curious Method Of Measuring The Height Of A Tree
- The Erratic Egg
- Advantageous Wager
- To Cause Wine And Water To Change Places
- The Miraculous Apple
- The Flying Coins
- The Hatched Bird
- Magic Breath
- Two Bitters Make A Sweet
- Visible And Invisible
- To Change The Color Of Flowers
- The Magic Whirlpool
- To Make Artificial Magnets
- The Magic Coin
- The Rope-Tying Feat
- A Handkerchief Marked, Cut, Torn, Mended
- To Guess The Card Thought Of
- The Circle Of Fourteen Cards
- To Guess The Cards Which Four Persons Have Fixed Their Thoughts Upon
- To Place Twelve Cards In Such A Manner That You Can Count Four In Every Direction
- To Show In Your Hand A Card That You Have Just Thrown Out Of The Window
- To Eat A Peck Of Paper Shavings, And Convert Them Into Ribbon
- To Raise Fire By Command
- To Light A Candle Without Touching The Wick
- The Three Spoons
1st edition 1870, 64 pages; PDF 43 pages.
word count: 18727 which is equivalent to 74 standard pages of text
