The Magician's Own Book

The great Victorian handbook of parlour magic, with over 500 woodcuts. Card deceptions, sleights, tricks with numbers, chemical and mechanical experiments and puzzles, plus the best-known tricks of the performers of its day. This scan is the New York edition of 1862.

What’s inside

1. Sleight of hand tricks — the flying dime, the cut string restored, the egg bag, the coffee trick
2. Tricks and deceptions with cards — the pass, the four kings, the card in the egg, hints to amateurs
3. The magic of chemistry — invisible inks, colour changes, coloured flames, crystallizations
4. Experiments in electricity — making an electrical machine, dancing balls and dolls, the electrical kiss
5. Experiments in galvanism — galvanic shocks, making a magnet by galvanism
6. Experiments in magnetism — artificial magnets, the mariner’s compass, the magnetic table
7. The magic of pneumatics and aerostatics — the weight of air, the diving bell, balloons, parachutes
8. The magic of optics — the prism, the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria, the stereoscope, the kaleidoscope
9. Tricks in mechanics — balancing, the Chinese mandarin, the bridge of knives
10. Tricks in hydraulics and hydrostatics — the fountain and pump, the syphon, the Archimedean screw
11. Tricks in acoustics — musical bottles, the Aeolian harp, the invisible girl, ventriloquism
12. The magic of numbers — numbers thought of, magic squares, arithmetical puzzles
13. Curious tricks in geometry — the five geometrical solids, squaring the circle
14. Curious and amusing puzzles — the Chinese cross, the puzzle wall, Rosamond’s bower, with answers
15. The magic of art — drawing ovals and figures, caricature, comic profiles, magic lantern slides
16. The magic of secret writing — ciphers and invisible writing
17. The magic of strength — feats of Eckeberg and Thomas Topham, pyramids of men
18. Miscellaneous curious tricks and fancies — an artificial memory, the magician’s mirror, foretelling the weather

George Arnold, 1857 · Dick & Fitzgerald. Complete 396-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.