pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 180
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 180 | THE CABALISTIC CLOCK The mechanic walked off the stage winking at me in the most roguish manner. Robert-Houdin worked The Mystic Bell trick in con- nection with The Clock. This was manipulated in the same way. The bell was worked with thread, pulling a small pin, which in turn caused the handle to fall against the glass bell. Naturally, having electricity at his command at that time, he made use of that force whenever it suited his fancy. I am positive that Robert-Houdin presented the elec- trical clock, because T. Bolin, of Moscow, visited Paris and bought the trick from Voisin, the French manu- facturer of conjuring apparatus. The trick which Robert- Houdin presented, according to his claims, was with the clock hanging in midair to prove that it was not electri- cally connected, but the truth of the matter is that the strings which held the clock suspended in midair con- cealed the wires through which his electrical current ran. In my library of old conjuring books the thread meth- od is ably described by Hofrath von Eckartshausen, mentioned earlier in this chapter. In fact in the pictorial appendix of this work he gives this trick prominence by mi- nutely illustrating the same. He makes use of two hands, and to make the trick infallible he explains that the best way would be to use two glass disks, have them held together by a brass rim, and your threads will work with absolute certainty. The spectators imagine that they are seeing only one glass clock. Johann Conrad Gutle, the well-known delver after secrets of natural magic, also explains several cabalistic clock tricks in his book published in 1802. [ 163] |