pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 92
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 92 | THE ORANGE-TREE TRICK ciliate his contemporaries, either magicians or writers on magic. He issued one book, whose title-page reads: "Amusements Physiques et Differentes Expériences Di- vertissements, Composées et Executées, tant a Paris que dans les diverses Courts de l'Europe. Par M. Joseph Pinetti de Willedal, Romain, Chevalier de l'Ordre Mérite de Saint-Phillipe, Professeur de Mathématiques et de Physiques, Protégé par toute la Maison Royale de France, Pensionnaire de la Cour de Prusse, etc., 1785.' The work, however, was not a clear and lucid explana- tion of his methods and tricks. In fact some of his con- temporaries claimed that he deliberately misrepresented his methods of performing tricks. Among these writers was Henri Decremps, a brilliant professor of mathematics and physics in Paris, who proceeded to expose all of Pinetti's tricks in the book referred to in the preceding chapter, "La Magie Blanche Dévoilée." This work was in five volumes and was so popular in its day that it was translated into nearly every modern language. The fol- lowing explanation of the trick is taken from page 56 of the English translation, entitled "The Conjurer Unmasked : "The branches of the tree may be made of tin or paper, so as to be hollow from one end to the other in order that the air which enters at the bottom may find its exit at the top of the branch. These branches are so adjusted that at intervals there appear twigs made from brass wire, but the whole so decorated with leaves made from parchment that the ensemble closely resembles nature. "The end of each branch is dilated to contain small pieces of gummed silk or very fine gold-beater's skin, [75] |