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Magnum New user 89 Posts |
When I was in chemistry, my professor showed that if you painted an egg with Sodium Nitrate and boiled it. The message would stain the egg, but be invisible prior to breaking the egg. I thought this would be a cool card prediction for kids, but I have found it impossible to obtain sodium nitrate (it requires a prescription). Does anyone know of anything else that may do the trick?
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Vandy Grift Inner circle Milwaukee 3504 Posts |
I think this trick is in Scarne on Card Tricks. I'm at work so I'm not sure but I believe it is. I'll look it up tonight and see what was suggested in the book. It was just as you described. The chosen card was shown to be on a hard boiled egg.
Anyone got a copy of Scarne on Card Tricks handy to help Magnum out? It may have also suggested Sodium Nitrate but I'm not sure. Do you live near a Military Base? You might find some there
"Get a life dude." -some guy in a magic forum
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evolve629 Inner circle A stack of 3838 Posts |
Magnum, you can get Sodium Nitrate at some of your local garden nursery - it's one of the fertilizers that professional gardeners use. Or else, you can check out ScienceLab.com/ It's not cheap but you don't need a Rx.
One hundred percent of the shots you don't take don't go in - Wayne Gretzky
My favorite part is putting the gaffs in the spectators hands...it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling inside! - Bob Kohler |
Curtis Kam V.I.P. same as you, plus 3 and enough to make 3498 Posts |
Magnum, if you actually saw this work, you're the first. Café member Craig Matsuoka did extensive research and experimentation with this, and reported all in an article in Genii. He could not make it work. There was a lot of discussion about modern procedures clogging the pores of the shell, and the difficulty in finding the chemicals described in the really old texts that first described this.
One question Craig tried to answer was why anyone would want to do this. One possible answer was that it was a way of transmitting messages to people in prison. Which made sense, if it worked. But so far, it hasn't. If you've got the secret to this effect, please PM craig.
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Vandy Grift Inner circle Milwaukee 3504 Posts |
In light of what Curtis has posted it seems that this may not be possible. But I looked it up for you in Scarne on Card Tricks anyway.
The trick is called Egg A La Card, the procedure in there is as follows; "Dissolve one ounce of alum in one ounce of vinegar. dip a small brush into this solution and print the name of the card you are going to force...on the egg shell. Let the egg dry until no signs of writing remain. Then boil the egg for about ten to sixteen minutes(preferably sixteen), and let the egg cool off. That's all there is to it. You are now set to perform Egg A La Card." If you try it, let us know how it goes. Vandy
"Get a life dude." -some guy in a magic forum
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Craig Matsuoka Loyal user Kailua, Hawaii 271 Posts |
Magnum,
Are you certain it was Sodium Nitrate? It doesn’t seem possible to me that Sodium Nitrate could discolor egg whites, since it has long been used as a preservative in the food industry. It’s even used to preserve the color of meats. As far as I’m aware, the only thing it can do to egg albumen is coagulate it. Perhaps you’re thinking of Silver Nitrate? Silver Nitrate solution reacts with organic materials (like egg whites), staining them black. In the proper concentration, these solutions are colorless. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but others will probably want to if they have access to the chemical. Toxic stuff, and renders the egg inedible. Anent transmitting messages to Inquisition prisoners: A very dubious claim. My experiments show that egg shells aren’t porous enough to permit small detailed lettering. The best results come when the letters are quite large. And when I say large, I mean humungous (the photos in my Genii article bear this out). You’d have to send a whole coops worth of eggs to your heretic pals just to send a single message. Of course, you could pre-arrange a code system where entire phrases are represented by single letters, but why bother? There are much better (and simpler) steganographic techniques at your disposal. Lets face it. Prison takes all the fun out of Heliocentrism. So why make it worse for your tormented buddies by making them eat crate loads of eggs? Craig |
Magnum New user 89 Posts |
I did mean silver, sorry I misspoke.
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Mister MoLoToV New user Destelbergen 67 Posts |
I am searching for the right articles, because I bought Vincent Vulture at Maxtell's. A Vulture Puppet. I want it to make a prediction in the egg of the card a spectator is going to choose. It's a whole comedy-mentalism-act. But I can't seem to make it work.
I used ALUM, and it didn't work, now I used Ammonium Iron Suphate. Mixed with vinegar it colors red. So I used it to paint a big heart on an egg, and let it dry for about 3 houres, boiled it, but nothing. Please is there somebody who can help me??? I really would like to perform this with the bird, hillarious!!! |
Steve V Inner circle Northern California 1878 Posts |
Well...hate to tell you this but folks have been making real effort to get the writing through the egg shell w/out damaging the shell and so far no luck. I even asked a UC Berkeley science professor about it and he couldn't think of anything that would work. My goal was for him to get his students working on the problem but no luck. Basically, Mister Molotov, you are SOL.
Steve V |
Spellbinder Inner circle The Holy City of East Orange, NJ 6438 Posts |
In a Christmas discussion in the Mentalists Section on The Magic Nook Forum, I offered an idea for finding a prediction in a clear glass ornament found hanging openly on the Christmas Tree room or stage decoration. A similar solution could be found with a clear plastic Easter Egg containing a prediction. The egg could be randomly (really!) chosen from several in a basket and when broken open, is found to contain the prediction (card or whatever). If you would rather use a real egg, there is a solution for finding a lady's ring in an egg from Hoffman's Modern Magic that we discuss on The Magic Nook Forum in the Close-Up section. Several members found ways to bring it up to date with modern materials, and adding a prediction in the form of a tiny playing card (or the torn corner of a card) would be well within the realm of possibility.
Professor Spellbinder
Professor Emeritus at the Turkey Buzzard Academy of Magik, Witchcraft and Wizardry http://www.magicnook.com Publisher of The Wizards' Journals |
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