Crazy candle project

How about 'faking' the candle - see electic candle project on my website listed below.

Sorry, here's the site:

Very simple, but how would you "simply" pull/press the ignitor trigger?

I forgot another trick. If the candle were anchored... maybe a match head glued to the wick or a wick impregnated with sulpur and phosphorus powder from a match... wrap/rubberband a match striker around the trick wick and use the cup or a spring trigger to pull the striker off the wick.

For this, you'd need a trick table. A sensor pad for your finger, maybe.

If there's any sound or discontinuity at all while lifting the cup, the customers will immediately spot it. At least the smart ones. Then again, who needs smart customers when you're pulling tricks on them?

Good Luck! Rich

Easier perhaps, though not as neat would be a conventional electronic lighter, with mechanics rearranged inside the cup.

A mdoern magic show usually has music for effect. Even a drum roll/cymbal clash would mask the sound.

I wonder if the smoke from the match head will stay in the cup.

...

Kids? Then the whole trick is a wash. Who cares about a candle?

Performer: "And now, under this very cup A BURNING CANDLE!!! " Audience: "[Yawn]"

If you want to impress kids, do the three-rope trick or any viable card trick. The easiest card trick to learn is the three columns of seven, as far as I know.

Or stick a fork in your eye[0]. >:->

Me, I wanna learn the moving-hole-in-the-business-card trick. If the guy wants to do illusions, he should check with a competent illusionist. Engineers make notoriously poor illusionists. Sorry.

Break a Leg! Rich

The problem I can see with this is that lifting the cup won't reveal an already lit candle, but one with a match head striking next to it - not the effect he is looking for.

I recommend just having a lit candle under the cup.

Pearce Consulting

They'd still spot it. What he needs to do is get a high-powered laser, pointed at the wick, and make the cup out of IR-transparent material, like LDPE. (just this morning, I changed channels by remote through a black shopping bag.) Have an assistant/cohort light the candle with the laser, on cue.

Grand illusions are seldom a one-man show.

Sorry, Rich

Actually, it'd be pretty much right, apart from the wax pool not going down right, and maybe smoke.

That sound extremely complicated. Does the project have to involve electricity? If not, how about mounting a match onto the cup, a sriking surface onto the candle. Lift the cup, the match strikes, and as it passes the wick, lights it....

The

the

Are you actually trying to sell this?

Even worse: Are you even considering buying this????

To whom are you replying?

Kinda the opposite of one of my suggestions

That's not what he said. The match is in the cup. The striker's on the candle. You use your x-ray vision to light the candle as the cup is ascending.

That's why I suggested perhaps impregnating the wick with powdered match head. You'd have to make the strike with a short, quick motion and lift the cup the rest of the way slowly, to give it time.

Not very impressive for a magic trick.

1. You can't show the audience a previously unlit candle.
2. You need air in the cup. The cup would need holes.
3. The candle will leave soot in the cup. Can't show the audience the inside to prove it's "not a trick".

This trick almost begs for a chemical ignitor. I wouldn't post the details of that here. Too dangerous.

I think the electronics and match should be molded into the candle. That would be easier to hide.

BTW. The friggin' OP multi-posted this to seb, so if you missed something, it's there.

But just think of what the trick gains my way - clouds of sooty smoke and a magician jumping around the stage sucking his fingers and shouting "ow - f*$%!".

Which do you think the kids would prefer?

Pearce Consulting

Here's your solution:

1. Get a brand new candle and cut it so that the wick will touch the bottom of the cup when placed over the candle. It's important that there is no wax in the wick at the start, or you will not be able to. . . .

1. Impregnate the wick with a saturated solution of potassium chlorate.

2. Put a few drops of concentrated sulphuric acid in the bottom of the cup. (It will not be visible in practice.)

1. When you place the cup over the candle, the wick will touch the sulphuric acid, and the candle will light. Don't leave it for long or the candle will consume all the oxygen in the KClO3 plus whatever is in the cup!

Cheers,

Norm Strong

Hey you guys are awesome. This is for a magic trick as was spotted and engineers are responsible for some of the greatest illusions ever which is why I came here first. I am sorry about the multiple postings (also on sci.electronics.basics) but I saw this group later and thought it would be better here. So to clarify the trick , a cup (4inches by 4 inches) made of copper is secretly loaded with a candle and placed on a table and then revealed a few minutes later.

Mike posted a simple solution on the other group : "Such complex and potentialy dangerous solutions to a simple problem. Take a match and slice into the head with a sharp razor blade. Slip a piece of fine wire into the slit and wrap it around the head. Solder some larger gauge wires to the fine wires so the joint is below the head. Secure the wires to the paper match stick with masking tape.

The larger wires won't fuse when you apply a voltage, but the fine wire will light the match. Fudge and practice until you can just tilt the cup enough to let in light and get the flame near the wick

- if the whole contraption is inside the cup. You could hide it behind the candle. Don't use a flammable cup. Placing the cup on the table will extinguish the match, if it's in the cup. If you want your audience to see that the cup is empty and there's nothing behind the candle, make your own candle around everything - battery, sensor, ignitor.

You should be able to set the match off with 1 or 2 batteries - like the old 000 steel wool firestarter trick. Mike

Followed up by : How about use a lunar ignitor for a model rocket motor. It would only need about 6V... maybe tie a CDS cell in there for the light sensor.

Ray"

I think Mike's idea would work pretty well and not get me killed. I'd plan to encase the whole rig inside the wax. I dont know a lot about light sensors (except that they exist). Whats a CDS cell that Ray mentioned and where online can I buy one. Any better ideas?

Sincerely,

Andy

Blowtorch style lighter. Heavy cup, spring trips when lifted, and triggers the torch. A straight slow lift should allow enough time.

Hmm. I don't think it's going to be convincing. However, take a standard butane lighter, rearrange so that the gas comes out of a ~1mm bit of perforated bent pipe capped at the end, and starts when a weight (the cup) is lifted off the pipe. Bits are concealed in the candle.