This is a technique to vanish an object by giving it three large taps. On the third tap, the object is secretly left behind the performer's ear or on his hat.

The idea was published by Ed—“The Kardells”—Lew in The Sphinx, Vol. 3 No. 11, Jan. 1905, p. 139. In it, the performer would tap a coin three times on his outstretched hand, and on the upswing of the third tap, secretly leave the coin on the brim of his hat. It's not apparent whether Lew is the originator of this technique. He included this vanish in larger contribution he called, “Coin Vanishes That Are Not Well Known”. This might suggest that he's trying to gain a wider audience for existing techniques that never caught on, rather than contributing material original to him.

Harry Crawford later extended this concept into the now-common exposé of the technique, which affords the performer misdirection for an additional vanish. This appeared as “Ear It Is” in The Tarbell Course in Magic, Vol. 7, 1972, p. 199.