Note 24 — SOME OLD-TIME CONJURERS.

“It is remarkable how many of the illusions regarded as the original inventions of eminent conjurers have been really improvements of older tricks. ‘Hocus Pocus Junior,’ the Anatomy of Legerdemain (4th edition, 1654), gives an explanatory cut of a method of drawing different liquors out of a single tap in a barrel, the barrel being divided into compartments, each having an air-hole at the top, by means of which the liquor in any of the compartments was withheld or permitted to flow. Robert-Houdin applied the principle to a wine-bottle held in his hand, from which he could pour four different liquids, regulated by the unstopping of any of the four tiny air holes which were covered by his fingers. A large number of very small liquor glasses being provided on trays, and containing drops of certain flavoring essences, enabled him to supply imitations of various wines and liquors, according to the glasses with which he poured syrup from the bottle.”—Encyclopedia Britannica.