Review: Second Sight Secrets and Mechanical Magic

Second Sight Secrets and Mechanical Magic by Herman Pinetti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short book by a magician, well known in his own time, about how some of the more common medium tricks and mind-reading acts worked. Debunking fake mediums was a popular hobby among magicians during the days when spiritualism was popular.

While, in these days of electronics, mentalism acts are easier than ever before, the basic technique is no doubt still the same: an assistant, usually a woman, is placed into a situation which seems to make it impossible that she could see whatever is being examined by the performer. Using a prearranged code worked into the performer's patter, or a second assistant who can see the object and communicate in some way with the receiver, the receiver correctly gives the number, or the details of the written note, or the identity of the object being held up where she can't see it, or whatever it may be. It's still clever even when you know how it's done. I saw a particularly spectacular example on a Britain's Got Talent magician special, where the assistant was enclosed in a glass tank of water and yet was able to write the serial number of a random banknote (which she couldn't see) on the glass.

Less common today are acts where a person is apparently restrained and yet is able to manipulate objects when hidden inside a "cabinet" defined by curtains. This was a favourite of mediums, who claimed that the spirits were doing it, but used an assistant reaching up through a hollow leg of the cabinet, or freed themselves somehow or gave themselves enough slack in the ropes that they could do it.

The old, but still popular, levitating lady illusion is also explained. I'd already seen it explained in another book ( The Old and the New Magic , which put me on to Pinetti), but I think Pinetti does a better job of his explanation. His explanations, in fact, are all very clear and easy to understand, and my only complaint about the book is that I wish it was longer and covered a larger variety of tricks.

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