Do you know what a Jacob's Ladder is?
If you have never seen one, I suggest you to take some time and build one:
http://www.woodcraftarts.com/jacob.htm
It's awesome, and it can be used, as suggested in the same page, as a prop for a magical trick. I was thinking to build one with different playing cards on the faces of the blocks and use it as a revelation of some sort.
Anyway, it's a beautiful toy that you should play with.

Dave

Jacob's Ladder has a flip-flop action, and it is being used in magic for e.g. as a forcing prop.

Seen this many years ago and always promised myself to get one.
It is ingenious.

I remember one that my grandfather made. I used to flip it back and forth for hours at a time (ok, that's an exaggeration, but it sounds better than the truth).

This is really a great toy.

It is essentially the same mechanism upon which the H*mb*r W*ll*t works.

You may want to look up my "Mental Flip Flop" routine published in the IBM Ring 103 Parade in the June 2012 issue of _Linking Ring_. It basically explains how to construct a Jacob's Ladder that shows four different sides: 1) five ESP symbols and a blank panel, 2) all blue backs except one yellow one on the back of a "freely" selected symbol; 3) the backs change to six different colors; and 4) the front side changes to all the same "freely" selected ESP symbol.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez