Tile Deal (Magic Tile Puzzle) by Martin Duffy, Winston Freer

Wow! Winston Freer was a Genius! What an incredible miracle this effect is! Very different in method from anything similar that I have seen. This is based on a principle developed by Paul Curry called the Curry Paradaox c. 1953. However Freer adds an ingenious allowance for the area lost by redistribution which allows you to show the area to be EXACTLY THE SAME, before and after the removal of three tiles.

This is a really great version of the Tile Deal or Magic Tile Puzzle by Winston Freer built by Martin Duffy of the UK. It is very nicely made and finished.  It is very similar in size and dimensions to the John Rogers version, but this is all wood instead of Corian tiles.  It could even be an early version of John Rogers version.

To be honest although the definitive collector’s version is probably the John Rogers version, if you want to perform this effect, then this all wooden version is easier to perform.  It is about 10oz lighter and the tiles are easier to get out by hand instead of having to tip them out.  If you are a casual performer it won’t matter, but if you were doing this a lot I think the Corian would be harder to use.  Also I think the Corian might in fact be more brittle because in the instructions is says perform on a soft mat to avoid chipping the tiles.)

(Notice: the three final photos show a comparison with the John Rogers version, but of course you only get this wooden one.)

Effect: The tile pieces are displayed (7 by 9) in a frame and dumped out. The pieces are reassembled outside the frame three times and one piece is left out each time. The puzzle still forms 63 squares a ll 3 times. Finally the pieces are put back into the frame filling the frame without the 3 pieces just removed.

Now for the good news, nothing is added or taken away, the props and moves look clean, and there are no false compartments or slides. It really is as clean as it looks and reset is as easy as counting from 1 to 10! Learning to actually do the moves will take five minutes or so, however, performing it will take a little longer so that the presentation flows nicely with the amazing effect.

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