Addition Test

In 1787, the Italian conjurer, Signior Falconi, featured a prediction of “the

Combination or Arrangements of four different Numbers” made by an audience
member. (See Item 8 in his November 20th, 1787, broadside, reproduced in
Milbourne Christopher's Illustrated History of Magic, 1973, p. 55.) By January 14,
1794, the feat had grown to the prediction of “the sum of six columns of numbers
written by as many spectators,” (see “The Fabulous Falconi” by Christopher in The
Sphinx, Vol. 40 No. 9, Nov. 1941, p. 269.

The earliest example of the Addition Test in print seems to be one by H. B. Wilton
in The Somatic Conjuror, 1870, p. 32. The sum of three gentlemen's numbers
appears written on the performer's forearm.

Frank W. Thomas uses the idea as one component of a book test methodology in
his “Confessions of a Mind Reader” series in Ellis Stanyon's Magic, Vol. 2 No. 10,
July 1902, p. 76. Two more tests, framed as predictions, are given by David P.
Abbott in Behind the Scenes with the Mediums, 1907 p. 160. Both involve number
switches (one being on the flyleaf of a book).

Another early example is “A Good Slate Trick” in Elbiquet's A Text Book of Magic,
1913, in which the slate plays a part in producing the total. The selected numbers
are written on a sheet of paper that is switched in a flap card-box before being
added.

In The Magician Monthly, Vol. 11 No. 3, Feb. 1915, p. 49, there appears “Tip for
the 'Sum Trick'” (presumably by Will Goldston) with a switching method involving
a pack of postcards. The opening sentence leads with, “In working any kind of sum
trick…” which clearly suggests that it is, by then, an established and well-known
plot. This is amply underscored in The Magician Monthly, Vol. 11 No. 4, July 1915,
p. 126, wherein H. C. Mole describes “The 'Daily Mail' Trick,” a newspaper test that
involves a switched-in total as part of its method. On this point, Mole writes: “This
requires no description; each performer has his own way of working…”

The above is based in part on research provided by Max Maven.

Blindfold Drive
Washington Irving Bishop was the first to drive a vehicle through public streets
while blindfolded. He drove a horse-drawn carriage through the streets of Boston
on November 20, 1886. The feat was reported in the November 21, 1886 issue of
the New York newspaper The Sun, p. 10. Bishop performed the stunt in the
context of finding a small article that a committee had hidden somewhere in the
city. Subsequent performers in the early twentieth century adapted this publicity
stunt to automobiles and dropped the location of a hidden object, making the
effect one purely of eyeless vision.
Chair Test
The Chair Test first appeared in parapsychological experiments done at the Institut
Métapsychique International in Paris, conducted by Dr. Eugéne Osty with Pascal
Forthuny as the subject. These experiments took place from 1922 to 1926 and
were detailed in Osty's book, Pascal Forthuny, 1926, p. 102. Roughly forty years
later, Gerard Croiset from Holland, whose career as a psychic flourished
internationally during the 1960s and 1970s, garnered publicity by doing similar
tests. Croiset's version differed in a few details from the usual manner in which the
effect is performed today. He would be asked to describe the person who would sit
in a certain seat in a lecture hall, weeks before Croiset's appearance there. His
predictions were recorded, sealed in a bag and locked in a safe until it was time to
confirm the prediction. These events are described in Wilhelm H.C. Tenhaeff's De
Voorschouw, 1961.

The first appearance of the Chair Test in magical literature was “Tele-hypnose” in
Aage Darling's Danish book Mentale Mysterier, 1948. The same year, Darling's
“Tele-hypnose” appeared in Bruce Elliott's magazine The Phoenix, No. 155, July
16, 1948, p. 623. Darling's book was translated into English by C. Steffensen and
published as I'll Read Your Mind! in 1953.

Stanley Jaks also toyed with the idea of such a test, which Martin Gardner
described in Ibidem, No. 24, Dec. 1961, p. 30, as “Magical Chairs.”