Download or read book Our Magic written by Nevil Maskelyne and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-08-05 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Books like this contain what may be called the raw material of the art, the processes which the magician can employ at will in building up his larger experiments in magic, each of which should be a complete play in itself. Then, when the student has found out how tricks can be done, he would do well to turn his attention to Our Magic, by Mr. Maskelyne and his associate, Mr. David Devant. And from this logical treatise he can learn how experiments in magic ought to be composed. It is from this admirable discussion of the basic principles of modern magic that more than one of the points made in this paper have been borrowed. Mr. Devant calls attention to the fact that new tricks are common, new manipulative devices, new examples of dexterity and new applications of science, whereas new plots, new ideas for effective presentation, are rare. He describes a series of experiments of his own, some of which utilize again but in a novel manner devices long familiar, while others are new both in idea and in many of the subsidiary methods of execution. One of the most hackneyed and yet one of the most effective illusions in the repertory of the conjurer is that known as the Rising Cards. The performer brings forward a pack of cards, several of which are drawn by members of the audience and returned to the pack, whereupon at the command of the magician they rise out of the pack one after the other in the order in which they were drawn. In the oldest form in which this illusion is described in the books on the art, the pack is placed in a case supported by a rod standing on a base, and the secret of the trick lies on this rod and its base. The rod is really a hollow tube and the base is really an empty box. The tube is filled with sand, on the top of which rests a leaden weight, to which is attached a thread so arranged over and under certain cards as to cause the chosen cards to rise when it descends down the tube; and in putting the cards into the case the conjurer released a valve at the bottom of the tube, so that the sand might escape into the box, whereby the weight was lowered, the thread then doing its allotted work, and the cards ascending into view, no matter how far distant the performer might then be standing. It seems likely that the invention of this primitive apparatus may have been due to the fact that some eighteenth century conjurer happened to observe the sand running out of an hour-glass and set about to find some means whereby this escape of sand could be utilized in his art. The hollow rod, the escaping sand, and the descending weight have long since been discarded; but the illusion of the Rising Cards survives and is now performed in an unending variety of ways. The pack may be held in the hand of the performer, without the use of any case, or it may be placed in a glass goblet, or it may be tied together with a ribbon and thus suspended from cords that swing to and from almost over the heads of the spectators; and however they may be isolated the chosen cards rise obediently when they are bidden. The original effect subsists, even though the devices differ.... The Bookman: A Review of Books and Life, Volume 40

Download or read book Sharps and Flats written by John Nevil Maskelyne and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Maskelyne written by Rebekah Higgitt and published by Robert Hale Limited. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in association with Royal Museums Greenwich.

Download or read book Maskelyne s Book of Magic written by Jasper Maskelyne and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A charming glimpse of stage magic in the early twentieth century, this engaging manual's time-honored tricks range from sleight of hand with coins, cards, and rope to thought-reading and juggling. Written by a famous magician, its tried-and-true feats and performance tips are illustrated by sixty figures and thirteen vintage photographs. A British stage magician of the 1930s and '40s, Jasper Maskelyne was a third-generation performer in a well-known family of illusionists. During World War II, Maskelyne assembled a squad known as the “Magic Gang” to misdirect Axis bombers and camouflage the activities of the Allied forces with illusions of tanks, battleships, and armies. This new edition of his captivating classic features an introduction by magic historian and author Edwin A. Dawes that recounts Maskelyne's larger-than-life career and exploits.

Download or read book Wireless written by Sungook Hong and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new look at the early history of wireless communication.

Download or read book Longitude written by Dava Sobel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

Download or read book The Fraud of Modern Theosophy Exposed written by John Nevil Maskelyne and published by Books Ulster. This book was released on 2014-06-04 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stage magician and inventor John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917) made it his mission to expose fakes and charlatans who claimed supernatural abilities for personal gain. In 'The Fraud of "Theosophy" Exposed' (1912) he applied his fine mind and acerbic wit to debunking the founding gurus of the Theosophical Society and, most particularly, the outrageous hoaxer Helen Petrovna Blavatsky, or 'Madame Blavatsky' as she was commonly known. He regarded her as the greatest impostor of all time: "Hypnotism may account for the extraordinary influence and fascination which Madame Blavatsky was able to exercise over some people, and yet she was one of the most repulsive women one can imagine. A glance at the excellent sketch of her in this pamphlet will show that she had the appearance of being a gross, vulgar, sensual adventuress. (She turned the scale at 17 stone.) The enormous ring upon her hand, she said, possessed magical power. She had an enormous appetite, consuming vast quantities of fat meat, although her doctrine teaches that it is a deadly sin to eat meat. She had an insatiable love for tobacco, and was seldom seen without a cigarette in her mouth. Her language at times was too bad for publication." This new edition, with the text reset, includes notes that provide some additional background information.

Download or read book The Principles of Mr Harrison s Time keeper written by John Harrison and published by . This book was released on 1768 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Description of Harrison's chronometer which provided the technical means of solving the centuries old navigational problem of establishing longitude at sea.

Download or read book The War Magician written by David Fisher and published by Penguin Adult HC/TR. This book was released on 1983 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Art of Magic written by Thomas Nelson Downs and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Tables Requisite to be Used with The Nautical Ephemeris written by Great Britain. Commissioners of Longitude and published by . This book was released on 1802 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Transcendental physics an account of experimental investigations from the Scientific treatises tr by C C Massey written by Johann Carl Friedrich Zöllner and published by . This book was released on 1880 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Magic by Misdirection written by Dariel Fitzkee and published by Ravenio Books. This book was released on 1975 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Down and Out in Eighteenth Century London written by Tim Hitchcock and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-11-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London in the 18th century was the greatest city in the world. It was a magnet that drew men and women from the rest of England in huge numbers. For a few the streets were paved with gold, but for the majority it was a harsh world with little guarantee of money or food. For the poor and destitute, London's streets offered little more than the barest living. Yet men, women and children found a great variety of ways to eke out their existence, sweeping roads, selling matches, singing ballads and performing all sorts of menial labor. Many of these activities, apart from the direct begging of the disabled, depended on an appeal to charity, but one often mixed with threats and promises. Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London provides a remarkable insight into the lives of Londoners, for all of whom the demands of charity and begging were part of their everyday world.

Download or read book The Secret History of Magic written by Peter Lamont and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pull back the curtain on the real history of magic – and discover why magic really matters If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt, with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic. It is a history of people from humble roots, who made and lost fortunes, and who deceived kings and queens. In order to survive, they concealed many secrets, yet they revealed some and they stole others. They engaged in deception, exposure, and betrayal, in a quest to make the impossible happen. They managed to survive in a world in which a series of technological wonders appeared, which previous generations would have considered magical. Even today, when we now take the most sophisticated technology for granted, we can still be astonished by tricks that were performed hundreds of years ago. The Secret History of Magic reveals how this was done. It is about why magic matters in a world that no longer seems to have a place for it, but which desperately needs a sense of wonder.

Download or read book Clocking the Mind written by Arthur R. Jensen and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2006-07-10 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mental Chronometry (MC) comprises a variety of techniques for measuring the speed with which the brain processes information.First developed in mid-1800, MC was subsequently eclipsed by more complex and practically useful types of psychometric tests stemming from Alfred Binet. This class of mental tests, however, has no true metric relating the test scores to any specific properties of the brain per se. The scores merely represent an ordinal scale, only ranking individuals according to their overall performance on a variety of complex mental tasks. The resulting scores represent no more than ranks rather than being a true metrical scale of any specific dimension of brain function. Such an ordinal scale, which merely ranks individuals in some defined population, possesses no true scale properties, possessing neither a true zero or equal intervals throughout the scale. This deficiency obstructs the development of a true natural science of mental ability. The present burgeoning interest in understanding individual differences in mental abilities in terms of the natural sciences, biology and the brain sciences in particular, demands direct measures that functionally link brain and behavior. One such natural ratio scale is time itself - the time it takes the brain to perform some elementary cognitive task, measured in milliseconds. After more than 25 years researching MC, Jensen here presents results on an absolute scale showing times for intake of visual and auditory information, for accessing short-term and long-term memory, and other cognitive skills, as a function of age, at yearly intervals from 3 to 80 years. The possible uses of MC in neurological diagnosis and the monitoring of drug effects on cognition, the chronometric study of special time-sensitive talents such as musical performance, and presents a theory of general intelligence, or g, as a function of the rate of oscillation of neural action potentials as measured by chronometric methods. Finally, Jensen urges the world-wide standardization of chronometric methods as necessary for advancing MC as a crucial branch of biopsychological science. - Provides a different scale to report Mental Chronometry (MC) findings - Argues for the global adoption of an absolute scale as opposed to the traditional ordinal scale - An important contribution to MC researchers and psychologists and neuroscientists

Download or read book The Comet Sweeper written by Claire Brock and published by Icon Science. This book was released on 2017-01-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having escaped domestic servitude in Germany by teaching herself to sing, and established a career in England, Caroline Herschel learned astronomy while helping her brother William, then Astronomer Royal. Soon making scientific discoveries in her own right, she swept to international scientific and popular fame. She was awarded a salary by George III in 1787 -- the first woman in Britain to make her living from science. But, as a woman in a male-dominated world, Herschel's great success was achieved despite constant frustration of her ambitions. Drawing on original sources -- including Herschel's diaries and her fiery letters -- Claire Brock tells the story of a woman determined to win independence and satisfy her astronomical ambition.