The Mechanical Card Box
Another excellent contrivance, by the aid of which cards are made to vanish, appear or change, is the Mechanical Card Box, depicted in Fig. 50. The superiority of this box over that just described lies in the fact that the Mechanical Box, after being shown empty, is held and closed by a spectator who after opening it a minute later, discovers in it a card that the performer desired to have appear. The spectator is then invited to inspect the box and fails to find any indication of trickery in its construction.
Fig 50
A (Fig. 50) represents a slab, pivoted in the bottom corners of the box. At this place, hidden by the woodwork, is inserted a coiled watch spring that is fastened to one of the pivots of A, tending to force the slab against the back of the box. To set the apparatus for the trick, the card desired is placed on the real bottom of the box. By pushing a pin through a minute hole from the back of the box, the slab A is pushed inward as indicated in the diagram and folded down on the bottom of the box. Here catch B springs into place, preventing A from flying back to its normal position on the back of the box.
The box, thus prepared, may be shown empty with impunity, and in this condition is handed to a spectator with the request for them to lock it and close it themselves. In doing so the slot D in the cover engages and slightly moves latch C, which in turn causes catch B to move within the woodwork of the box. This releases A, which by means of the spring at one of its pivots noiselessly folds up against the back of the box. The upper edge of A is hidden under a slight projection of the box proper, so that now the apparatus may safely be passed for inspection with no danger of detection.
This trick is from the book “Card Tricks and How To Do Them”, published by A. Roterberg.
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- The Card Caught On The Plate
- The Ubiquitous Card
- The Card And Handkerchief