Magic No Mystery

Conjuring tricks with cards, balls and dice, magic writing and performing animals, with many illustrations. Credited to the Prussian magician Wiljalba Frikell and edited by W. H. Cremer, it includes an early ball vase that magicians trace to the modern chop cup.

What’s inside

1. Modern magic by sleight of hand and mechanism — rope and handkerchief tricks, the Davenport cabinet, Anderson’s magic portfolio, automata
2. Tricks with cards and gamblers’ tricks exposed — the three-card trick, the self-restoring card, card-sharpers’ dodges
3. Deceptions with dice, thimblerig, etc. — loaded dice, the doctor dice-box, spring tables
4. Miscellaneous magic — puzzles, curious letters, the ring in an egg, Robert-Houdin’s watch trick
5. Mysterious magic — illusions of touch, coin tricks, animated dolls, automata, tricks with words
6. The mystery of magic writing — historic ciphers, cipher by a pack of cards, invisible inks
7. The mystery of training animals — performing dogs, wild animals, trained monkeys

Wiljalba Frikell, 1876 · John Grant. Complete 342-page PDF. Free to download: check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page.

This classic is in the public domain. Scans come from library copies, so expect the odd stain or stamp of an old book.