Harbin's Production Box
By Robert Harbin

There must have been thousands of production boxes invented, but here is one which is different--and deceiving. More important, it holds an enormous quantity of silk.

An elongated box with no bottom is shown completely empty, a wand is pushed through holes in the top and sides when the box is facing the audience, as in Figure 4. Nothing could be more empty. Then, as illustrated--Figure 1--large silks are produced from the the holes in the sides and from inside. There is no hesitation. They are produced at once. The construction is cheap and simple. Figure 2 is the secret container, which slides up and down and is stopped in the center of the box by the stops shown in figure 3. The holes in the container correspond with those in the outer case. There are six holes in the container--four in the sides, two in the bottom. These are one inch in diameter and are closed with two strips of elastic as shown. The holes in the outer case have star traps made of rubber and are one and one-half inches in diameter.

The container, or sliding box, has a piece of one inch tubing in the center so that a wand or stick can be thrust through when the box is shown to be empty. When the box is inverted, the first finger prevents the sliding section from falling into place until the right moment.

Each silk has a black bottom sewn to a corner which makes it easy to get at through the star traps. The silks are loaded from the outside so that the buttons are flush against the elastics in the container, which hold them in position. The interior of the box is painted black. The outside is coated with any desired color and with any pleasing decoration.