The Fidgety Poker Chips
By Nelson C. Hahne

The performer exhibits three ordinary poker chips, which can be examined by the audience, and a flat wooden tube. This tube is about six and one-half inches long. The chips are of different colors, such as red, white and blue. They are allowed to fall through the tube several times previous to the experiment. Finally, one end of the tube is held shut by the fingers of one hand. The chips are inserted in the opposite end in this order: red, white and blue. If this were not magic, the chips would be in the same order when they were permitted to slide out the other end. But here again the impossible happens! When the chips emerge they appear blue, first, red second, and white last. When the principle is understood the above routine might be enlarged by further similar effects. Remember the chips are unprepared. The audience may look through the tube before and after the feat. The chips may be slid through the tube previous to and following the experiment. Can this be possible?

You will need four ordinary poker chips. One red, one white and two blues. The tube is prepared. This preparation is simple and cannot be detected by the audience. See the drawing. The opening of this flat tube is only large enough for one chip to slide through at a time. The tube should be about six and a quarter or, better, seven inches long. It should be painted black on the inside. On the inside, about three-quarters of an inch from one end, is an indentation which will hold one chip in the wall of the tube. This is where the extra blue chip is concealed. If the tube is black on the interior the audience cannot see this preparation. The extra blue chip is in this space before the experiment begins. This side of the tube is kept nearer the floor so that the chip will not close the opening of the slide or slip out of the end of the tube. When the other chips are inserted they slide right over the concealed chip.

After the chips have passed through the tube several times, the tube is turned over so that the concealed blue chip falls out of the indentation into the channel of the slide. The tube is held upright in the left hand, and the chips are put in the opening. Red first, then white and blue. Now the tube is tilted so that the last blue chip falls into the cut-out space the other blue chip previously occupied. The chips are now allowed to slide out of the bottom. The impossible has been accomplished. Their order is changed.