PREFACE.

The publishers of this interesting volume do not conceive that it requires an elaborate introduction to the reading public. Some brief remarks, however, may not be inappropriate as a preface to The Magician's Own Book, since the " black art," as in lessen lightened ages the practice of all these innocent and interesting feats was termed, is not yet as popularly understood in this country as it is abroad. There is a charm in legerdemain, or sleight of hand, that all, whether young or old, can readily appreciate. There is a mystery in it that piques the understanding as well as provokes the curiosity of the spectator. If the trick be executed with address, it excites our admiration; and the simpler it appears, the more it engages our fancy and fascinates our attention. And it is not only when we are mystified in public, cajoled in great saloons, and in the presence of crowds, that these effects are developed. They are called forth by the performances even of some humble artist in the family circle, whose ingenuity of mind has enabled him to gather up the more available of these practical puzzles. It would seem, therefore, a useful thing to place this source of harmless amusement within the reach of all who can relish its eccentricities, and instead of leaving it in the hands of "professors," as a pecuniary speculation, to enable the domestic group to master and enjoy it in all its ever-varying phases of novelty and gratification. To do this is what the publishers propose in the issue of this volume; and they flatter themselves, that if carefully studied, it will prepare the Toung Conjuror to convert the parlor, at any desirable moment, into a place of genuine entertainment for himself and his companions, and ample repay him for the little time and thought he may devote to the acquisition of the necessary skill and dexterity. Sleight of hand, magic, necromancy, &c., are all terms of art applicable to the same series of performances. The parlor student, therefore, once familiar with the general principles upon which these "experiments" are effected, will find little difficulty in comprehending at a glance, notwithstanding all the show of gorgeous paraphernalia and auxiliary machinery employed, the modus operandi of every one of them he may witness in public. This will be a new source of pleasure to him, independent of his ability to turn "Conjuror" on his own account at home. Nor can we well conceive of any rational objection likely to be urged against a kind of knowledge, so unimpeachable in its nature, and so mirth provoking in its results. Acting Charades are common, even among the most fastidious families. Enigmas and puzzles, in pantomime and speech, afford innoxious amusement to thousands. The publishers only consider The Magician's Own Book a new addition to the current list of entertainments of that character; for what is a sleight of hand feat but an enigma placed before the spectator for solution ? What is a trick in "natural magic" but a puzzle repeated to those who behold it, each one of whom is tacitly expected to guess how it is accomplished, while the little practitioner only holds the key to the mystery? In truth, the parlor needs some increase in its means of social amusement. The number it embraces is extremely limited. They soon weary. This weariness creates an appetite for outside attractions, not always wholesome, and too often insidiously pernicious. The Magician's Own Book nicely fills up, therefore, the void in the category of parlor recreations. It may be made to present an ever-changing, always tempting, stay-at-home inducement, and in this shape becomes a moral assistant of no unimportant description, as well as the piquant source of good humored bamboozlement.

INDEX.

Sleight of Band Tricks

The Flying Dime
The Flying Dime, (another method,)
The Beads and Strings
To get a Ring out of a Handkerchief
To tie a Knot in a Handkerchief which Cannot be drawn Tight
The Three Cups
To tie a Handkerchief round your Leg, and get it off Without Untying the Knot
The Magic Bond tc
The Old" Man and his Chair
To tie a Knot on the Left Wrist, with-out letting the right hand approach it
The Magic Handcuffs
To pull a String through your Button-hole
The Cut Strig Restored
The Gordian Knot
The Knot Loosened
To Conjure Nuts in your Ear
To Crack Walnuts in your Elbow
To Take Feathers out of an Empty Handkerchief
The Knotted Handkerchief
Houdin's Nut Trick
Conjuring a Ring
The Erratic Egg
The Obedient Dime
The Prisoner Released
Advantageous Wager
The Double Meaning
The Three Spoons
The Jugglers Joke
To Cause Water and Wine to Change Places
The Wizard's Wit, or Is it Possible
The Toper's Stratagem
The Impossible Omelet
New Perpetual Rotary Motion
The Miraculous Apple
An Omelet Cooked in a Hat
The Infallible Prophet
Philosophy Cheated
The Disappearing Dime
The Hat and Die Trick
The Penetrative Cents
The Doll Trick
The Flying Coins
The Vanished Half Dime
The Restored Document
The Magic Rings
The Fish and Ink Trick
The Hat and Cannon Ball Trick
The Dime in the Ball of Cotton
The Egg and Bag Trick
The Dancing Egg
The Bell and Shot Trick
The Burned Handkerchief Eestored
The Fire Eater
The Egg Box Trick
The Globe Box Trick
The Coffee Trick
The Handkerchief Trick
The Magic Funnel
The Magic Bottle
The Bottle Trick
The Magic Quarter
To change a Dime to a Quarter
Wyman's Gun Trick
The Hatched Bird,
The Apple and Orange Trick
A Magician's Box Explained
The Enchanted Coin,
The Mysterious Coin, or How to Make Dollars pass through a Wine Glass, a China Plate, a Table, and fall into the Hand
The Egyptian Fluids, or Impossibilities Accomplished
The Magician's Snow Ball
The Magnetized Cane
Wyman's Mode of performing the Egg Bag Trick
The Dancing Automaton
The Invisible Sprines
The Flight of the Ring
The Magic Book
The Tape Trick
The Knotted Thread
The Transposable Pieces


Tricks and Deceptions with Cards.

To Make the Pass,
To Tell a Card by its Back
The Card named without being seen
The Card told by an Opera Glass
The Four Kings
The Four Accomplices
To Tell the Card thought of, in a Circle of Ten
To guess the Card thought of
To tell the number of Cards by Weight
Audacity
The Card found at the second guess
The Card found under the Hat
To call the Cards out of the Pack
Heads and Tails
The Surprise
The Revolution
The Slipped Card
The Nailed Card
To ascertain the number of Points on three unseen Cards
To tell the numbers on two unseen Cards
The Knaves and the Constable
The Pairs Repaired
The Queens Digging for Diamonds
The Triple Deal
The Quadruple Deal
The Card Discovered by the Touch or Smell
The Ingenious Confederacy
Hold it Fast
The Charmed Twelve
The Trick of "Thirty-one"
To tell the Names of the Cards by their Weight
The Cards in the Vase
The Metamorphosis
To hold Four Kings, or Four Knaves in your Hand, and to Change them suddenly into Blank Cards, and then to Four Aces
To Change a Card in a Person's Hand
The Card in the Egg
The Fifteen Thousand Livres
Hints to Amateurs
Cure for Troublesome Spectators
To make a Card jump out of the Pack
The Tell-Tale Cards
The Double Dozen
The Housebreakers


The Magic of Chemistry.

Sympathetic or Invisible Inks
The Silver Tree
Cleopatra's Pearls
"Wonderful Experiments in Combustion
Mimic Rain
Marine Illumination
The Mimic Explosion
The Shower of Fire
The Magical Heat
The Magic Lamp
Surprising Experiments with Potassium
The Water Demon
A Flame produced with Ice
The Chemical Chimney Sweep
The Magical Illumination
The Chemical Chimeleon
Crystallizations of Metals
Beauties of Crystallization
To Crystallize Camphor
To do. Tin
Crystals in Hard Water
Varieties of Crystals
A Liquid Changed to a Solid, and Heat from Crystallization
Beautiful Experiment
A Solid Changed to a Liquid, and intense Cold from the Liquefaction
Masfie of Heat
Sublimation by Heat
Heat Passing through Glass
Metals unequally Influenced by Heat
Spontaneous Combustion
Inequality of Heat in Fire Irons
Expansion of Metal by Heat
Evaporation of a Metal
A Floating Metal on Fira
Ice Melted by Air
Splendid Sublimation
Magic Inks
Chameleon Liquids
The Magic Dyes
Wine Changed into Water
Two colorless Transparent Liquids be-come Black and Opaque
Two colorless Fluids, Make a colored one
Change of Color, by colorless Fluids
To Change Blue Liquid to White
Veritable "Black" Tea
Restoration of Color by Water
Two Liquids Make a Solid
Two Solids Make a Liquid
A Solid, Opaque Mass, Makes a Transparent Liquid
Two cold Liquids Make a Hot one
Quintuple Transmutation
The Same Agent may Produce and Destroy Color
Union of two Metals without Heat
Magic Breath
Two Bitters Make a Sweet
Visible and Invisible
To Form a Liquid of two Solids
The Spectral Lamp
Curious Change of Colors
The Protean Light
The Chameleon Flowers
To Change the Colors of Flowers
Changes of the Poppy
Changes of the Rose
Light changing White into Black
The Visibly Growing Acorn
Colored Flames
Orange colored Flame
Emerald Green Flame
Instantaneous Flame
To Cool Flume by Metal
Proof that Flame is Hollow
To Hold a Hot Tea Kettle on the Hand
Incombustible Linen
The Burning Circle
Water of different Temperatures in the same Vessel
Warmth of Different Colors
Substitute for Fire
Laughing Gas
Flame from Cold Metals
Phosphorus in Chlorine
Magic Vapor
Gas from the Union of Metals
Camphor Sublimated by Flame
Green Fire
Brilliant Red Fire
Purple Fire
Silver Fire
Fiery Fountain
Cumbustion without Flame
Combustion of Three Metals
To Make Paper Apparently Incombustible
Heat not to be estimated by Touch
Flame upon Water
Rose Colored Flame upon Water
To Set a Mixture on Fire by Water
Waves of Fire on Water
Water from the Flame of a Candle
Porniation of "Water by Fire"
Boiling upon Cold Water
Currents in Boiling Water
Hot Water Lighter than Cold
Expansion of Water by Cold
The Cup of Tantalus
The Magic Whirlpool
Artificial Fire Balls
To Melt Steel as Easily as Lead
To Tell a Lady if She is in Love
To put an Egg in a Phial
To Astonish a Large Party
Magical Test Papers
Infinite Divisibility
Chemistry an Agent in Secret Writing
To Melt a Piece of Money in a Walnut Shell, without Injuring the Shell
The Pyramid of Alum


Experiments in Electricity.

The Rotary Tobacco Pipe
The Erratic Feather
The Attractive Sealing Wax
The Unneighborly Balls
The Electrified Paper
The Sociable Feather
The Eccentric Feather
The Discontented Pith Ball
The Dancing Bran,
The Electrical Cat
Electrical Shock from a Sheet of Pape
Light under Water
Simple means of Producin? Electricity
Attraction and Repulsion Exhibited
How to Make an Electrical Machine
Conductor
The Plate Electrical Machine
How to Draw Sparks from the Tip the Nose
How to Get a Jar full of Electricity
The Electrical Battery
Dancins: Balls and Dolls
The Electrical Kiss
Pnging Bells
Working Power of Electricity
The Electrified Wig
Imitation Thunder Clouds
The Lightning Stroke Imitated
The Sportsman


Experiments in Galranism.

Singular Galvanic Shock
The Flash of Light
The Magical Cup
The Prisoner Leech
The Metamorphosed Knife
With Plates in Water
To Make a Magnet by Galvanism
Effects of Galvanism on a Magnet
Change of Color by Galvanism
The Galvanic Shock
A Galvanic Tongue
Influence of Galvanism on Porter and Ale
The Galvanized Flounds


Experiments in magnetism.

The Impromptu Magnet
The Merry Iron Filings
Test of Magnetic Power
To Make Artificial Magnets
How to Magnetize a Poker
To Show Magnetic Attraction and Re-pulsion
Variation of the Needle
Dip of the Needle
To Suspend a Needle in the Air, by Magnetism
Magnetism by Hammering
Power of the Electro-Magnet
The Mariners Compass
To Make Artificial Magnets without the Aid of either Natural Load-stone, or Artificial Magnets
The Watch Magnetized
North and South Poles of the Magnet
Polarity of the Magnet
Magnetic Action and Reaction
To Pass Magnetism through a Table
The Magnetic Table
Interesting Particulars Concerning the Magnet
Exaggerated Magnetism


The Magic of Pneumatics and Aerostatics.

Weight of the Air Proved by a Pair of Bellows
The Pressure of Air Shown by a Wine Glass
The Pressure of Air Shown by a Glass Jar
Elasticity of the Air
The Air Pump
To Prove that Air has Weight
To Prove Air Elastic
Air in the Egg
The Descendihff Smoke
Half Eagle and Feather
The Soundless Bell
The Floating Fish
The Mysterious Circles
The Diving Bell
The Air Balloon
How to Make an Air Balloon
How to Fill a Balloon
To Make Fire Balloons
The Mysterious Bottle
How to Make a Parachute
Caoutchouc Balloons
The Bacchus Experiment


The Magic of Optics.

Light as an Effect
Refraction
The Invisible Coin Made Visible
The Multiplying Glass
Transparent' Bodies
The Prism
To Make a Prism
Composition of Light
A Natural Camera Obscura
Bullock's Eyes Experiment
The Camera Obscura
The Magic Lantern
The Camera Lucida
Painting the Slides
To Exhibit the Magic Lantern
Effects of the Magic Lantern
Ten-pest at Sea
The Phantasmagoria
Dissolving Views
How to praise a Ghost
The Thaumatrope
The Bird in the Cage
Construction of the Phantasmaescope
Curious Optical Illusion
Another
Another
The Picture in the Air
Breathing Light and Darkness
To Show what Pays of Light do not Obstruct each other
To See through a Philadelphia Brick
The Stereoscope
Ocular Spectra
Brilliant Water Mirror
Optics of a Soap Bubble
The Kaleidoscope
Simple Solar Microscope
Anamorphoses
The Cosmorama
Distorted Landscapes
The Magic Coin
The Magician's Mirror
The Perspective Mirror
The Artificial Landscape
The Boundless Prospect,
The Enchanted Palace


Tricks in Mechanics.

Importance of Mechanics
The Laws of Motion
Experiment of the Law of Motion
Balancing
The Prancing Horse
To Construct a Figure, which, being Placed on a Curved Surface, and Inclined in any Position, shall, when left to itself, Return to its Former Position
To Make a Carriage Run in an Inverted Position, without Falling
To Cause a Cylinder to Roll of its own Weight, up Hill
The Balanced Stick
The Chinese Mandarin
To Make a Quarter Dollar Turn on its Edge on the Point of a Needle
The Self-Balanced Pail
To Lift a Bott'e with a Straw
The Dancing Pea
The Toper's Tripod
The Magical Snake, or the Obliquity of Motion
The Bridge of Knives
Sand in the Hour Glass
Resistance of Sand
The Magical Gyroscope


Tricks in Hydraulics and Hydrostatics.

The Science of Hydraulics
The Fountain and Pump
The Hydraulic Dancer
The Syphon
The Water Snail, or Archimedean Screw
The Bottle Ejectment
The Magic of Hydrostatics with the Ancients
To Empty a Glass under Water
The Mysterious Bottle
Boiling upon Cold Water
Currents in Boiling Water
Hot Water Lighter than Cold
Expansion of Water by Cold
The Magic Whirlpool
The Cup of Tantalus
To Weigh Water without Scales
More than Full


Tricks in Acoustics.

The Science of Acoustics
Difference between Sound and Noise
Visible Vibration
Transmited Vibration
Double Vibration
Champagne and Sound
Music of the Snail
The Tuning Fork a Flute Player
Musical Bottles
Theory of Whispering
Theory of the Voice
To Tune a Guitar without the Assistance of the Ear
Progress of Sound
To Make an Aeolian Harp
The Invisible Girl
Magic of Acoustics with the Ancients
The Secret of Ventriloquism
To Show how Sound Travels through a Solid
To Show that Sound depends upon Vibration
Musical Figures Resulting from Sound


The Magic of Numbers, or Curious Tricks in Arithmetic.

Aphorisms of Number
Palpable Arithmetic
The Abacus
Napier's Rods,
The Arithmetica Boomerang
To Find a Number Thought of
Second Method
Third Method
Fourth do.
Fifth do.
Sixth do.
To Discover two or more Numbers that a Person has Thought
How many Counters have I in my Hands?
The Mysterious Halvings, to tell a Number a Person has Thought of
Second Method
Who Wears the ring?
What is Probable?
Variations
Amusing Combinations
The Visitors to the Crystal Palace
How many Changes can be Given to Seven Notes of a Piano?
The Arithmetical Triangle
How many Different Deals can be made with Thirteen Cards out of Fifty two
The Three Graces
Second Method
Third Method
The Fortunate Ninth
The Ten Ten's
Dividing the Beer
The Difficult Case of Wine
Decimation of Fruit
The Wine and the Tables
The Three Travelers
What Counter has been Thought of out of Sixteen
Magic Squares
Odd Magic Squares
The Square of Gotham
The Mathematical Blacksmith
Curious Properties of some Figures
The Industrious Frog
The Council of Ten
The Two Travelers
Arithmetical Trick
The Money Trick
The Philosopher's Pupils
To Discover a Square Number
The Sheep, and the Sheep Fold
The Countrywoman and the Eggs
To rub out Twenty Chaiks at Five Times, Rubbing out every Time an Odd one
The Impossible Triangle Odd or Even
The Figures, up to 100, arranged as to make 505 in each Column, when Counted in Ten Columns Perpen dicularly, and the Same when Counted in Ten Files Horizontally
The Old Woman and Her Eggs
The Mathematical Fortune Teller
The Dice Guessed Unseen
The Sovereign and the Sage
The Knowing Shepherd
The Certain Game
The Astonished Farmer
The Magical Century
The Hatter Cheated
The Basket of Nuts
The United Digits
December and May
The Two Drovers
The Basket and Stones
The Famous Forty-Five
Trick in Subtraction
The Expunged Figure
The Mysterious Addition
To tell at what Hour a Person Intends to rise
To find the Difference between Two Numbers, the Greater of which is Unknown
The Magic Remainder
A Person having an equal Number of Counters, or Pieces of Money, in each Hand, to find how many he has altogether
The Three Jealous Husbands
The False Scales
The Apple Woman
The Graces and Muses
The Jesuitical Teacher
Nine Quaint Questions
The Fox, Goose and Corn
Multiplying Money by Money
The Unfair Division
A Popular Fallacy


Curious Tricks in Geometry.

The Inventor of Geometry
Geometrical Definitions
The Five Geometrical Solids
How to Make Five Squares into a large one without any Waste of Stuff
Deceptive Vision
The Carpenter Puzzled
The Bricklayer Puzzled
Triangular Problem
To Form a Square
Squaring the Circle
The Perplexed Cabinet Maker


Curious and Amusing Puzzles.

Alexander the Great's Puzzle
The Chinese Cross
The Parallelogram
The Divided Garden
The Endless String
Chinese Maze the Willow Pattern Plate
The Vertical Line Puzzle
The Three Rabbits
The Accommodating Square
The Circle Puzzle
The Cardboard Puzzle
The Button Puzzle
The Quarto Puzzle
The Puzzle of Fourteen
The Square and Circle Puzzle
The Scale and Ring Puzzle
The Hart Puzzle
The Cross Puzzle
The Yankee Square
The Card Puzzle
The Three Square Puzzle
The Cylinder Puzzle
The Four Tenants
The Puzzle Wall
The Twenty-Four Nuns
The Horse Shoe Puzzle
The Card Square
The Dog Puzzle
Puzzle of the Two Fathers
The Triangular Puzzle
Cutting out a Cross
Another Cross Puzzle
The Fountain Puzzle
The Puzzle of the Stars
The Counter Puzzle
Japan Square Puzzle
The Cabinet Maker's Puzzle
String and Balls Puzzle
Double Headed Puzzle
Arithmetical Puzzle
Grammatical Puzzle
The Tree Puzzle
Puzzling Epitaph
Curious Letter
A Puzzling Inscription
Puzzling Kings
The Knights Puzzle
Another Method
Another Method
Rosamond's Bower
The Labyrinth
The Chinese Puzzle
Trouble-Wit


Answers to Puzzles.

The Chinese Cross
The Parallelogram
The Divided Garden
The Endless String
Chinese Maze
The Vertical Line Puzzle
The Three Rabbits
The Accommodating Square
The Circle Puzzle
The Cut Card Puzzle
The Button Puzzle
The Quarto Puzzle
The Puzzle of Fourteen
The Square and Circle Puzzle
The Scale and Ring Puzzle
The Heart Puzzle
The Cross Puzzle
The Yankee Square
The Card Puzzle
The Three Square Puzzle
The Cylinder Puzzle
The Four Tenants
The Puzzle Wall
The Twenty-Four Nuns
The Horse Shoe Puzzle
The Card Square
The Dog Puzzle
The Two Fathers
The Triangular Puzzle
Cutting out a Cross
Another Cross Puzzle
The Fountain Puzzle
The Star Puzzle
The Counter Puzzle
Japan Square Puzzle
Cabinet Maker's Puzzle
String and Balls Puzzle
Double Headed Puzzle
Arithmetical Puzzle
Grammatical Puzzle
The Tree Puzzle
Puzzling Epitaph
A Curious Letter
A Puzzling Inscription


The Magic of Art.

To Trace an Oval
An Endless Source of Amusement
The Magic of the Oval
Variations of the Oval
"What may be done with a Square
How to make a Circle
Importance of the Circle in Drawing
Variation of the Square and Circle
Importance of the Triangle
How to Construct a Triangle
The Triangle Works Wonders in Perspective
Exaggerated Drawing
The Parallelogram and Triangle in Combination
Two Parallelograms in Combination
Magic of the Parallelogram
The Secret of Comic Drawing
Caricature Sketching
Simple Elements of "the Profile
Comic Profiles
"Punch," and "Mother Hubbard"
Comical Beards
The Human Figure
Proportions of the Human Figure
Standard Height of the Body
Comical Drawing of the Human Figure
The Centre of Gravity
A Central Line through Everything
The Curved Line Pervades all Nature
The Droll Landscape
Attitude Formed upon the Curved Line
How to Draw upon Glass, for Magic Lantern Slides


The Magic of Secret Writing.

The Art of Secret Writing very Ancient
Various Modes of Communicating Secret Intelligence
Chemistry an Agent in Secret Writing
Ingenious Mode of Secret Writing
The Chiffre Indechiffrable
A Lock for Mr. Hobbs to Pick
The Circular Cypher
Another Method
The Musical Cypher


The Magic of Strength.

Mechanical Inventions of the Ancients few in Number
Ancient and Modern Feats of Strength
Feats of Eckeberg particularly described
One Man Drawing against Two Horses
Breaking the Rope
The Anvil Feat
Breaking Stones
The Chair Feat
The Knee Feat
The Cannon Feat
Twisting Iron Bars
General Explanation on all the Above Feats
Real Feats of Strength Performed by Thomas Topham
Remarkable Power of Lifting Heavy Persons when the Lungs are Inflated
Pyramids of Men


Miscellaneous Curious Tricks and Fancies.

An Artificial Memory
The Magician's Mirror
The Perspective Mirror
The Magical Gyroscope
Artificial Landscape
Easy and Curious Method of Foretelling Rainy or Fine Weather
The Magical Measure
The Boundless Prospect
The Magical Watch Lamp
The Hour of the Day or Night told by a Suspended Shilling
The Enchanted Palace
To Know which of Two Different
Waters is the Lightest, without any Scales
To Know if a Suspicious Piece of Money is Good or Bad
The Pyramid of Alum
The Dancing Automaton
To Melt a Piece of Money in a Walnut
Shell without Injuring the Shell
The Invisible Springs
The Flight of the Ring
Musical Figures resulting from Sound
To Make a Card Jump out of the Pack
The Tell-Tale Cards
The Double Dozen
The Housebreakers
The Magic Book
The Tape Trick
More than Full
Floating Needles
The Knotted Thread
The Bacchus Experiment
Curious Method of Measuring the Height of a Tree
The Transposable Pieces