Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

User Tools

Site Tools


Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revisionPrevious revision
Next revision
Previous revision
Next revisionBoth sides next revision
misc:forcing_watch [2014/05/15 17:51] stephenminchmental:forcing_watch [2020/05/26 21:51] – Added Korem and Weber citations. stephenminch
Line 1: Line 1:
 ====== Forcing Watch ====== ====== Forcing Watch ======
  
-The idea of having a neutral position built into the winding-setting stem of pocket watches was used by magicians during the time when such watches were in vogue (and sometime after). Other forcing approaches with watches were Robert Stull's multiple-setting pocket watch and Herbert Milton's double-faced hunter's case watch. Richard Himber updated the idea of the neutral stem-position in the 1960s with a specially altered wristwatch he sold as "Time Capsule". At the same time, he released a wristwatch adaptation of the Stull watch, marketed as the "Ducatillon Mental Watch". John Pomeroy found a diver's watch ready-made with a neutral stem position and explained that other wrist watches could be altered for the job by having a diver's crown installed. He published the idea in 1973, in //Mentology// (see "A Matter of Time", p. 37). Bev Bergeron'contribution was discovering a cheap and popular brand of watches by Seiko with the required type of crown built in. Bergeron claimed to have run across this type of Seiko in 1969 (four years before Pomeroy's book was published, although probably not before he came up with the idea), but didn't publish the idea until 1989, in a manuscript, //[[http://askalexander.org/display/26561/Predicting+Time|Predicting Time]]//. Pomeroy's book is included in Bergeron's bibliography.+The idea of having a neutral position built into the winding-setting stem of pocket watches was used by magicians during the time when such watches were in vogue (and sometime after). Other forcing approaches with watches were Robert Stull's multiple-setting pocket watch and Herbert Milton's double-faced hunter's case watch. Richard Himber updated the idea of the neutral stem-position in the 1960s with a specially altered wristwatch he sold as "Time Capsule". At the same time, he released a wristwatch adaptation of the Stull watch, marketed as the "Ducatillon Mental Watch". John Pomeroy found a diver's watch ready-made with a neutral stem position and explained that other wrist watches could be altered for the job by having a diver's crown installed. He published the idea in 1973, in //Mentology// (see "A Matter of Time", p. 37). 
 + 
 +Danny Korem discovered that certain watches that display the day and date as well as the time could be used in the same manner, the stem position for setting the calendar serving the same purpose as a neutral stem position. Korem published a trick using this idea, "Stull-ess Watch Stunner", in Jon Racherbaumer'//Lost Pages of the Kabbala//, 1981, p. 17. Michael Weber is known to have independently made the same discovery around this time. 
 + 
 +Bev Bergeron, following a similar train of thought, found a cheap and popular brand of watches by Seiko with the required type of crown built in for an alarm feature, and later found the Swatch brand wristwatch could also be used. Bergeron claimed to have run across the Seiko watch in 1969 (four years before Pomeroy's book was published, although probably not before he came up with the idea), but Bergeron didn't publish the idea until 1989, in a manuscript, //[[http://askalexander.org/display/26561/Predicting+Time|Predicting Time]]//. Pomeroy's book is included in Bergeron's bibliography.
  
 {{tag>prop}} {{tag>prop}}