Hinsdale, N.H.: Prestidigitation or Magic Made Easy
©1865 Hunter & Co.
Softcover, saddle-stitched 64 pages plus ads
Hinsdale: Prestidigitation or Magic Made Easy
Hunter & Co.: Prestidigitation or Magic Made Easy

Comments: Warning - some of the effects in this old book use chemicals that may be considered toxic today. "Being a complete handbook of Legerdemain, and 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 Prestidigitateurs. By an Old Conjuror."
Note: "Hinsdale, N.H." seems to be the town where Hunter & Co. Publishers resided, not the author's name. However, in Ellis Stanyon's Magic magazine, April 1902, it lists, "Hinsdale, N.H. Magic Made Easy. Complete Handbook of Legerdemain, 1871. 64 pp. Illstd. Wrapper."

Contents (from book):

3 Publisher's Preface
4 To The Young Conjuror
5 How To Cut A Man's Head Off, And Put It In A Platter A Yard From His Body
6 To Take Feathers Out of an Empty Handkerchief
7 How to Cut Off Your Nose
8 Houdin's Nut Trick (Robert-Houdin)
9 To Make a Room Appear on Fire
9 To Walk Upon a Hot Iron Bar
9 The Enchanted Cock
10 The Miniature River on Fire
10 To Make Sport With an Egg
10 To Boil a Liquid Without Fire
10 The Enchanted Coins
11 To Make a Loaf Dance While it is Baking in the Oven
12 The Invisible Chicken
13 How to Eat Fire
13 To Melt Lead In a Paper
13 The Magic Snowball
14 To Change Salt to Sugar
14 Turning a Glove Into a Bird, Etc.
15 To Put an Egg in a Bottle
15 The Magic Gun
15 To Kill a Bird and Restore it to Life Again
16 To Make Water Remain in a Vessel With Holes at the Bottom of it.
17 To Make Sport With a Tobacco-Pipe
17 To Make an Egg Stand on One End
18 To Tell at What Hour a Person Intends to Rise
18 How to Eat Tow, and Set it on Fire in Your Mouth
19 To Give a Party a Ghostly Appearance
19 How to Cut Glass
19 To Make a Bird Appear Dead
19 To Copy Writing
19 To Make a Shilling Out of a Handkerchief
20 To Melt Steel as Easily as Lead
20 To Make Fire Burn Under Water
20 To Make Fire-Proof Paper
21 Iron Transformed Into Copper
21 A Lamp That Will Burn for a Year
21 To Tell the Number That Any Person Thinks Of
22 Destruction of Two Fluid Bodies, and the Formation of One New Solid In Their Stead
22 To Take Impressions of Coins, Metals, Etc.
23 The Flying Dime
24 Another Method
25 To Put Nuts Into Your Ear
25 The Toper's Stratagem
25 The Disappearing Dime
26 The Dime in the Ball of Cotton
27 The Magic Quarter
27 To Change a Blue Liquid to White
28 Two Cold Liquids Make a Hot One
28 To Hold a Hot Tea Kettle on the Hand
28 Incombustible Linen
28 Laughing Gas
29 Green Fire
29 Brilliant Red Fire
30 Purple Fire
30 Flame Upon Water
30 Rose-Colored Flame Upon Water
30 To Set a Mixture on Fire With Water
31 To Make a Mouse Come Out of a Pack of Cards
31 Magic Money
32 The Magic Cups
32 The Doubled Coin
33 Magic Milk
33 The Ring Suspended by a Burnt Thread
34 A Color Which You Can Cause to Appear or Disappear
34 The Magic Portrait
35 The Wonderful Hat
35 The Self-Balanced Pail
36 To Raise Up a Heavy Metal Mortar or the Like, With a Wine Glass
36 To Produce Artificial Claps of Thunder
37 The Conjuror's Joke
37 To Lock a Padlock on Your Cheek
38 To Make a Card Jump Out of the Pack and Be Seen Upon the Table
38 To Prepare a Fountain of Fire
38 The Obedient Watch
39 To Make a Card Pass From One Hand Into the Other
40 To Bring a Person Down Upon a Feather
40 The Impossible Omelet
40 Go, If You Can
41 Magic Circle
41 To Tell the Hour of the Day or Night by a Suspended Shilling
42 The Gas Candle
43 To Keep a Stone in Perpetual Motion
43 To Crack Walnuts In Your Elbow
43 The Knotted Handkerchief
46 To Tell a Lady If She is in Love
46 Light Under Water
46 The Mysterious Bottle
47 The Old Woman and Her Eggs
47 The Tape Trick
48 Curious Method of Measuring the Height of a Tree
48 The Erratic Egg
48 Advantageous Wager
49 To Cause Wine and Water to Change Places
49 The Miraculous Apple
50 The Flying Coins
50 The Hatched Bird
51 Magic Breath
51 Two Bitters Make a Sweet
51 Visible and Invisible
52 To Change the Color of Flowers
52 The Magic Whirlpool
54 To Make Artificial Magnets
55 The Magic Coin
55 The Rope-Tying Feat
57 A Handkerchief Marked, Cut, Torn, Mended
58 To Guess The Card Thought Of
60 The Circle of Fourteen Cards
60 To Guess The Cards Which Four Persons Have Fixed Their Thoughts Upon
61 To Place Twelve Cards in Such a Manner That You Can Count Four in Every Direction
61 To Show in Your Hand a Card That You Have Just Thrown Out the Window
61 To Eat a Pack of Paper Shavings, and Convert Them Into Ribbon
63 To Raise Fire by Command
63 To Light a Candle Without Touching the Wick
64 The Three Spoons
65 Advertisements: to page 83


Previous