Chinese Cyclotron by Eddy Taytelbaum

This effect is based on a an old children’s toy of the 1930’s: “The man in the barrel”. Others, including: Fred Kaps, Ken Brooke, Herbert Martin Paufler (called Hing Fong, c. 1967), Tony Lackner, Vienna Magic, Gary Ouellet’s Thingamagig, and more recently Francois Danis, have also created effects with the same basic principle.

Of the ones I have seen up close there is no doubt Eddy’s is the prettiest and most reliable.  It works perfectly.

Effect: A device called the Chinese Cyclotron and a small Chinese head with braided hair are both displayed. The spectator selects a card from a shuffled deck and places it back in the deck. The performer shuffles the deck and removes one card. He asks the spectator if this is his card. The spectator replies, “No.” This card is placed on the cyclotron face down. The performer picks up the Chinese head by the braid and drops it on the cyclotron. The card jumps up and changes to the selected card.

Eddy got the idea for this effect from seeing Fred Kaps perform this on television. The original effect was much cruder of course. Eddy liked the idea so he made his beautiful version of this effect. The first cyclotrons were square. The next type he made was round with a Chinese chip.  The final stage was the cyclotron with Chinese head. These were made in the 1960’s. The cyclotrons were made of wood. They were painted and beautifully pinstriped. The face of the Chinese head was painted by hand. The cyclotron measures 1-3/4″ in diameter and 1-1/4″ tall. He told me painting the face was very tedious work.

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