Science and Mechanics: Magic Handbook 1961 For Sale

From the library of the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls Canada:

Rare and Collectible Science and Mechanics: Magic Handbook 1961 Science and Mechanics Publishing Co., IL. 6.5” x 9.25", 152 pages

Offered here is not the pdf sold online. Nor is it the 1968 reprint. This is the actual version from 1961. You will not find another for sale on or elsewhere.

The book gives away illusion secrets. The book caused a storm of protests from magicians for exposing many illusions to the public. Walter Gibson was responsible for most of the text and Sidney Radner, as one of the collaborators, was expelled from the Society of American Magicians for "exposure".

The book has been rebound on cardboard many years ago. Pages are worn and brittle commensurate with age, spine is loose, some small folding. See all photos.

This is the only all magic issue of Science and Mechanics magazine. It includes a cross section of magic effects from illusions with building instructions, to various close-up effects and mentalism. The emphasis with this magazine was to encourage readers to build their own. It therefore has a distinct DIY feel. Walter B. Gibson is listed as William B. Gibson. “The magic consultants for this issue were William B. Gibson (sic), Sidney H. Radner, Litzka Raymond, and Victor D. Dressner.”

• COVER STORY: Famous Knife Box Illusion

• EXCLUSIVE FEATURE: Escapes—Special Form of Magic

• GENERAL FEATURES

o About Magic

o Magic Black-Art Table

o Magical Appliances

o Present Your Own Magic Show

• 40 MAGIC PROJECTS TO BUILD AND PERFORM

o Sliding Die Box

o Cabalistic Cube

o Wrist Chopper

o Baffling Blocks

o Cake in a Hat

o Three Silk Tricks

o Card Found in a Balloon

o Candle from the Pocket

o Crystal Casket

o Strange Riddle of Magnetic Milk

o Mental Pack

o Flash Production Tube

o Glass Balanced on Card

o Penetration of Solid Through Solid

o Appearing Card in a Frame

o Chemical Magic

o Vanishing Glass of Water

o Tube and Ropes

o Traveling Wand

o Escape from a Packing Box

o Vanishing Made Easy

o Wrist Stock Escape

o Vanishing Glass of Milk

o 3-Dimensional Jigsaw Perplexture

o Evaporating Milk

o Ink into Water

o Small Silk to Full-Size Egg

o Flying Handkerchief

o Breakaway Vanishing Box

o Making and Solving Puzzles

o Matchbox and Ribbon Mystery

o Chinese Rice Canisters

o Close-up Rising Cards

o Confetti Becomes Candy

o Handkerchief Production Cabinet

o Produce Beautiful Silks

o Spirit Slate Trick

o Vanishing Bowl of Water

o Spooky Card Trick

o Block, Frame, and Ribbon Trick

• TABLE-TOP MAGIC

o 68 Table-Top Tricks

 Record Lights Tube

 The Six Pile

 The Reappearing Ball

 Balanced Water

 Cord-Arm Escape

 Drink Up

 Obedient Matchbox

 Juice Writing

 Card Sharp

 Pull the Pacer

 The Floating Straw

 Chew Two Strings into One

 What Brand?

 Rearranging Molecules

 Tug of War

 Written in the Cards

 Cutting the Cards

 Name the Coin

 A Light Matter

 Perfect Balance

 Confetti from an Egg

 Three Coins into Four

 Dry Sand

 A Floating Filter

 Hot Money?

 Box Up Your Sleeve

 Pocket Mind Reading

 Make Dimes Disappear

 Cord Through Wrist

 Pick the Card

 Matches Meet Their Match

 Reverse Shell Game

 Card Stands on End

 Carry Fire in Your Hands

 Where Does the Money Go?

 Disk Meets Coin

 Magnetic Personality?

 Flip a Coin

 Pop!— Goes the Pencil

 Magnetic Fingertips

 Ball Space Rider

 Disappearing Match

 N o Strings on These Rings

 Domino Numbers

 N ow You See It; Now You Don't

 Match Tongs

 Quick-Change Checkers

 Water-Drinking Spirits

 What Makes It Float?

 Cigarette Follows Lead

 Diving Eye Dropper

 Coin from an Empty Box

 One or Two Balls

 Disappearing Sugar

 "Thin Air " Force

 Shifting Dice

 Flaming Fission

 The Shell Game

 Human Egg Factory

 Matches Obey Command

 Pencil-in-the-Box

 Orange Picking

 Seeing with Your Hands

 Stand Match on End

 Magnetic Paper

 The Uncut Paper

 Name the Color

 Drop the Coin

o Sleight-of-Hand Tricks

• 8 FAMOUS STAGE ILLUSIONS

o Egyptian Torture Cabinet

o Thurston's Spirit Cabinet

o Thurston's Rising Card Trick

o Floating Piano

o Cannon and Trunks

o Million Dollar Mystery

o Upside Down Mystery

o How to Saw a Woman in Half

1st edition 1962, No. 589, 152 pages.