The first description of this effect appears to be in D. H. A. Kerndörffer's 1820 German text, Der kleine Taschenspieler und Magier, p. 256 (according to Reinhard Müller in his Buckley 30 Escorial 2004, p. 18. Two methods were given: a crude center deal technique done from an injog (later reinvented by Max Katz in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 14, No. 7, Dec. 1956, p. 505), and the use of a one-way forcing deck. Robert-Houdin also features a method in The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic, 1868, p. 269, under the title “NOW!”.