Magical Originalities
Ernest E. Noakes
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Pots of Flowers ProductionANOTHER very neat flower production is to obtain three or four pots of feather flowers from an empty cylinder, shown empty between each production. This trick I made up in November 1908. It consisted of a cylinder 18 inches long and 6 inches across. The idea you will at once perceive is adapted from the ancient coffee vase.
The faking of the cylinder is accomplished by an inner lining which is really a cone, see drawings. It is attached to one end of the cylinder, just fitting it, but the other end of the cone is three-quarters of an inch away from the outer edge of the cylinder. This permits the closed end to be pointed towards the audience, and the fact that the interior of the cylinder is not parallel cannot be noticed.
In the space between the cone and cylinder are hidden three or four sections of a cone, of the same rake as the fixed cone. These are painted brick red to represent flower pots. To one inner side of each of these "flower pots" is fixed a piece of steel spring, adjusted to permit of the feather flowers standing out from the middle of the "flower pot" when it is produced, see drawing.
The "pots" with their flowers are lightly stacked one at a time into the cone. When the trick is started, the performer has the fake end of the cylinder away from audience, and by having a polished interior, the cylinder appears quite genuine. To work out the loads, the first "pot" is eased off by the fingers, and the cylinder placed upon a plate, and when the cylinder is lifted, the flowers have, of course, assumed a central position. By using a plate for each production the "pots of flowers" can be better handled.
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