OT : Trying to figure this out....

I came across this Youtube video on facebook, and there's obviously something going on we can't see.

I embedded the link above, for those who want to see the link, here it is in full, and I've attached a still from the video...

https://www.facebook.com/247780222780071/videos/198406591493956/

My best guess so far is that each switch cap has a transmitter in it, telling which bulb to come on. and the transmitter gets its power when the knife-switch is closed.

That would obviously make it a modern set-up, and not the 1920's claimed.

One thing I did notice was the board appeared to have a lot of screws ON THE BOTTOM face, which indicates to me that it is hollow, which would be a good hiding place for the circuitry needed to do this.


Anyone have any other ideas ?

that base does seem suspicious. And rather thick for just a mounting plate.

It must use a receiver. Then either the guy is using his feet to stomp on the right foot switch for each colour or someone off camera does it. I noticed he pushes down the switch quite slowly...

The supply to the lamp probably comes in through the base of the holder and isn't reliant on the surface mount switch.

As with many things "unbelievable", there's a trick...

Microcontroller in the base. In this example the lights come on in the same sequence, so as switch is turned on it's corresponding lamp is memorised. Memory is reset if all switches are off for an extended time.

It could also be as simple as someone under the table turning on the correct lights. Pre-scripted. This is a "magic" trick, not a engineering marvel.

I once saw a woman sawed in half too.

Ok, so I should have done some research before jumping in with something I have never seen before.

There are loads of videos of the "Magic Switchboard", mostly on YouTube, and some are even MORE impressive than the one I posted.

Transparent bases, even one where the coloured lights were determined by pieces of cardboard, and in this one, if a switch wasn't assigned a colour, it would turn on all the lights that weren't assigned a colour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussajBGj9b4


very impressive ! and I want to make one .... grr can't find the secret ...

So, it seems like it's an mcu controlled sequence that the "performer" has to match the pre-programmed actions, but I've found another "transparent" switchboard that seems to knock that idea out of the ball-park, because the performer gets someone else to assign the colours. But he could be a stoogie, of course....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ShZQepZ0o

Google, you forget Google



https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2021161

Lare said:

Google, you forget Google



https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2021161

Click to expand...

I did ! I was so amazed I jumped in ...

I highly recommend everyone to learn a little bit of magic trick. It's a great way to learn to think critically.

Cool project, btw. I'm in the process of building myself a "levitating table"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80uQSWkdevQ

A few observations
This may be a reproduction but no way was it built in the 1920’s
The base looks to be 3/4” finished plywood. They would have never used plywood for this type of project if they even had plywood back then. Plywood would have been expensive.
They would have used a plain pine board .
There are no age marks on the base wood, if it was built in the 20’s the wood would show age marks and some age cracking at the very least. I would also expect to see finger stains from frequent handling.

The lamps used are candelabra base I don’t think they were even available until at least the 50’s they would have been Edison base lamps in the 20’s
The ceramic lamp bases look brand new, even a ceramic base would be expected to show some ageing after a 100 years, darkening, surface cracks something they look brand new.

The knife switches are not of the time period all the ones I have seen are in straight line wire terminals in line with the blade on these the terminals are mounted to the side with no visible connection to the blade. I believe they are using the switch bases to hide the real controls
The blades on the switches would have been much wider at least 3/8”

Let’s look at the connection wires they appear to be PVC insulated wires. PVC insulated wires were not available in the 20’s they would have been cotton asphalt insulated.
I have worked on houses built and wired in the 50’s using knob and tube wiring. The wire insulation was still cotton asphalt if PVC was available they would have used it then.

The battery holder appears to be using 4 Eveready AA battery’s the AA battery was not commonly available until the 50’s they most likely would have used the 4”x 4” X 6” 6V railroad lantern battery. The battery holder appears to be molded plastic for that era I would have thought it would be made of wood or at best Bakelite not plastic.

I would like to see the real circuit, my guess is that it’s a resistance divider network with switches to jumper around the resisters the resistance and using 1.5 volt lamps
The lamps could be different voltages 1.5V, 3V, 5V and 6V would have been available a combination of voltages and resisters could be used.
There can be no diodes in this circuit, the only diodes available in the 20’s were selenium and they would have been too large to hide.
But resistance wire was and still is available. So hiding it in the switch base would be doable

This first thing I noticed in the first video was the delay between the switches closing and the bulbs starting to light.


If the switch was wired to the bulb it would start lighting unperceptably fast. The human brain would not even notice that delay.

I_Automation said:

This first thing I noticed in the first video was the delay between the switches closing and the bulbs starting to light.


If the switch was wired to the bulb it would start lighting unperceptably fast. The human brain would not even notice that delay.

Click to expand...

That is one reason for my thinking there is a "man behind the curtain" in this one.