Method
The bird cage is designed to collapse if it is not supported from both ends. Two of the opposite corners of the cage pull away from each other so that the box becomes somewhat of a tube, about 18 inches long and only one or two inches thick, that resembles a bundle of wire that is thicker in the middle than at the ends. An elastic cord attached to one end of the cage runs up the sleeve of the magician's jacket so that when the cage collapses, it is drawn up his sleeve and hidden from view. As a living bird is likely to be injured or killed when the cage collapses, fake birds are most commonly used in modern presentations of the vanishing bird cage.
Read more about this topic: Vanishing Bird Cage
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“A method of child-rearing is not—or should not be—a whim, a fashion or a shibboleth. It should derive from an understanding of the developing child, of his physical and mental equipment at any given stage, and, therefore, his readiness at any given stage to adapt, to learn, to regulate his behavior according to parental expectations.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“We have not given science too big a place in our education, but we have made a perilous mistake in giving it too great a preponderance in method in every other branch of study.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best 20-20 hindsight. It’s good for seeing where you’ve been. It’s good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can’t tell you where you ought to go.”
—Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)