Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Dribble Force

The technique of dribbling or dropping cards, and stopping at a particular location in the deck, to produce a known or chosen card, came before the idea to use the concept as a force. Two handlings are described in the anonymous Asti Manuscript, c. 1700, p. 114-115 of the Pieper translation. This manuscript was translated in Gibecière, Vol. 8 No. 1, Winter 2013, p. 29-234. The first method uses an angled card; the second method uses a form of break.

In J. N. Ponsin's Supplément a la Sorcellerie ancienne et Moderne Expliquée (1859, p. 445), a prototype of the Stop Trick is described, using a long or wide card to accomplish the necessary control for stopping at the desired card while dropping packets or dribbling cards off the bottom of the deck. (Also see, Maxwell Pritchard's English translation in Gibecière, Vol. 17 No. 99, Summer 2022, p. 116.)

Dating the idea of using the concept to force a card has yet to be ascertained.