Theo Bamberg claims to have invented this in 1891 by accident; see The Linking Ring, Vol. 27 No. 9, Nov. 1947, p. 17. However, the earliest published description of the trick seems to be “The Vanishing Wand” in the anonymous The Boy's Book of Magic, 1883, p. 189. Another source that predates Bamberg's claim is “The Bewitched Wand” in W. H. J. Shaw's Magic and Its Mysteries, 1893, p. 7.