Читать книгу Water Wizardry - Arthur Wellesley Pain - Страница 6

You pretend to be in difficulties and encourage the "knowing ones" in your audience to jeer at you as you try the trick again and again. You explain that there is a way of resting the glass on the paper in such a way that the paper shall not sink down. Some brainy person will then say, "Impossible!"—or it is to be hoped that they will—because that will give you the opportunity of saying:

"Thank you. I remember it now. 'Impossible' happens to be the name of the trick; thanks for giving me the clue. It won't be such a bad trick—will it?—if I make a bridge between these two glasses with this piece of paper and then place the other glass on the bridge. . . ."

"With the water still in the glass," says one of your victims.

"Of course—with the water still in the glass."

Some members of your audience will be sure to say that it cannot be done; others will beg to be allowed to think it out. You will probably hear whispering:

"The water in the glasses has something to do with it. Why was he so jolly careful to get the same quantity of water in each glass? Now, wait a minute. . . ."

This is where you chuckle secretly. You invite anyone to come and try the experiment. Your audience will suggest putting something under the paper—a strip of cardboard or something of that kind. You work up the excitement as you say: "No cardboard is used in the trick."

Your audience will jump to the conclusion that something besides the articles they see is used, but they are wrong. The trick can be done when you know how to do it.

When everyone has "given it up" fold the paper in pleats lengthwise, open out the pleats a little, and rest the paper on the tops of two of the glasses. The paper is then in corrugated form and it will bear the weight of the third glass, half full of water, upon it. You have achieved the "impossible."

Of course you could do the trick in about half the time by merely asking: "Can you do this?" and then proceeding to do it, but by working up the trick in the way I have suggested you make it more effective.

You will now see the necessity of a little private rehearsal with the glasses and the paper that you are going to use. You have to make sure that the paper is sufficiently thick, that the pleats are folded properly (they must not be too wide) and that the glass is not too heavy. The trick is quite simple with a "pony" glass, but as the base of the glass is small the pleats of the paper must also be small; otherwise you will have difficulty in balancing the glass on the paper.