Tippler by GEM Magic

This is based upon the Robert Harbin effect The Little Tippler (hence the name Tippler for this version) that was featured in Abra (Vol. 8, No. 207, January 1950), this was the effect:

A small painted block of wood is produced and placed precariously on the edge of the table. After some talkie-talkie, the block falls to the floor. The performer—but no one else—can repeat the business indefinitely.

There have been a number of versions of this basic effect, including: Haunted Wood, The Poltergeist Block, Telekinetic Timber and The Block of Fu Manchu (thank-you Mark Strivings in Mind Blasters USA).  However, most of them appear to require a certain amount of warming up to work well and then the time they take can vary quite a lot.  What I really like about the original Harbin version is that it uses a mechanism based on a timer which allows for a much more consistent falling block delay.  If you have used any of the “modern” versions you’ll notice they don’t always work the way you would expect.

Effect: The effect for this version is basically the same.  Two blocks of wood are shown and the larger one is balanced in a “T” shape on top of the smaller.  After a few magical incantations the top block mysteriously falls to the table, even though the magician is nowhere near the block.

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