(I’m not sure anyone older than about 12 “truly believes” that magicians are actually performing magic)

See Melies, Georges. Many basic filmmaking techniques are magic tricks at heart.

(Does anyone older than about 12 “truly believe” those ribbons come out of nowhere? They don’t question it too hard, appreciate the skill involved in creating the illusion, and/or they enjoy trying to figure out the trick.)

I have discovered a truly marvelous process for this, which this comment is too narrow to contain.

Take a box of cards, carefully remove the cellophane wrap and seal. Remove the cards, then put the wrap and seal on the box and put the box in the bottle. A lot less time and effort, and who would know the difference? After all, if you’re buying this bottle for $100, you’re not going to break the seals to verify that the box has playing cards in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOz0HE5Uygk 

Do playing cards grow on trees?

P.S. Was supposed to be in reply to Kimmo. Guess I’ll have to write a proof that this is a Klein reply and actually nested under Kimmo.

But I reckon someone needs to raise the stakes and do it with a Klein bottle.

However, just like with film, you can still enjoy a magic performance because that is the artistic layer on the science of magic. Like with Jamie’s bottles, where the performance is hiding them and people discovering this impossible-seeming object on their own – the wonder is inspired by not knowing how to do it themselves, but if they do then they can still just not question it too hard and enjoy the performance.

That’s why magicians famously never reveal their tricks – because once you know how the trick is done it stops being MAGIC; it no longer has the power to inspire wonder because you’ve stopped your suspension of disbelief.

1) Insert only objects which can fit through the neck in their final shape: pencils, marbles, etc. This is what most people do.

2) Have the thing so that it is compressible or collapsible so that it is small enough to fit through the bottle, then can resume its final shape once inside. This is what most people assume when seeing something strange in a bottle.

3) Assemble the thing in the bottle, putting each component in one by one. this is how ships are typically inserted.

4)  Assemble the bottle around the objects. This is tricky because even the lowest melt glass is about 450C, so you have to keep the objects cool while you form the bottle around them. Waterproof items (or items sealed in waterproof plastic) can be immersed in the bottom of the bottle while the neck is cooled. This is almost never done, partly because it’s felt to be “cheating”, and partly because it’s tricky to make a convincing bottle neck without a lot of equipment. But remember, magicians are *all about* putting more work in than you’d think the trick would be worth.