Audley Walsh first conceived a method for seemingly inserting multiple cards—usually the four Aces—into separate locations a fan, while in reality the inserted cards lay together in the middle of the fan. This was published in the context of “Audley Walsh's Ace Assembly” in the Tarbell Course in Magic, Vol. 5, 1948, p. 133.

Within a year of the publication of Walsh's control, Paul LePaul published a variant in his routine “Handpicked Aces” in The Card Magic of Le Paul, 1949, p. 200. For his purpose, he used the same illusion of separation to control three Aces, with one indifferent card lying secretly between each pair (A–X–A–X–A).

Neither Walsh (through Tarbell) nor LePaul mention the other man, which may indicate independent invention.