I first heard of the MT as a paired r/s deck. Then I found out that the original MT was with l/s. I don't know what a r/s paired deck is being called.

A note to the history, and to the condition from Whaley's Encyclopedic Dictionary:

"A mechanical deck made up with pairs, one a short card, the other ordinary; the self-shifting deck (obsolescent).
Invented by Burling Hull as a variation on his Svengali Deck but not marketed by him until 1910. First marketed in 1909 by Boston magic dealer W.D. Le Roy with the title "Mene-tekel". That name was coined by LeRoy on a suggestion of his employee, Herman Hanson."

But who came up with the idea of using r/s? And is that deck also called Mene Tekel?

See:

Hilliard, John Northern: Greater Magic, Carl Waring Jones, Minneapolis, 1947, pp. 438 – 441

Wow! I am glad I started this thread! Maybe there IS life in the old gal still

There is a good routine in the Kaufman era Genii published several years ago.

Please give us a more detailed information ....

The term Mene Tekel is sorta generic for "paired duplicates". They could be marked, roughed, or non roughed Mene Tekel decks but I'd still consider them all Mene Tekel decks.

I think they should be called Conradi Decks as he was the first to publish the idea but that may get too confusing. : )

Hi Muecard,

I will search my Genii's and hopefully find it. If memory is correct, it was within the first two years of RK's reign.

- Jon

Hi Jon,

Thanks for your troubles in advance,
Muecard

The one thing that I do like about the MT deck is that it only takes 2 decks of cards for me to make two MT decks, as opposed to the whopping number of 26 decks that are needed for me to make 26 complete Svengali decks.

I still prefer the Svengali decks overall, but I guess that I'm partial to the Svengali routine's that I have allready learned.

Hugard's "Ency. of Card Tricks" book....has a whole chapter devoted to "Mene-Tekel".



(A Must book for both beginners & sleight-of-hand guys....whole chapters devoted to "key cards","short cards", "slick cards", sleights, gimmicked packs, etc.)

I Have the Kranzo's DVD and it's quite good. See you!!!

Woody Aragon from Spain has a whole book ("Cosas Mias") about his "Mnemonica Siamesa" (only in spanish...).
The "Mnemonica Siamesa" is a close relative to the MT (actually a kind of crossing between a MT deck and a MD) with very interesting possibilities...
If anyone has read that book except me, I'd really like to share ideas and thoughts on it with You!

Check David Britlands' blog for some cute ideas

Tommy Wonder had a very nice routine with an MT deck - I believe it was Elizabeth IV but not totally sure. It was on one of his DVDs for L&L. Not sure if it is also in hi Books of Wonder.

A bit of background to the name of the deck for some of the history buffs(if it is not already in some of the books) :

If you look up the book of Daniel (Chapter 5) it talks about king of the Babylonians called Belshazzar who did not humble himself before God and hence one night at a banquet an inscription appeared on the wall:

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

Here is what these words mean:

Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres(the singular of Parsin): Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain (this is also where the phrase "the writing is on the wall" came from).

So if you are looking for a name to call a deck with paired duplicates with r/s then some suggestions would be the "Peres" deck, "Parsin" deck or even the "Belshazzar" deck.

Groucho

Nathan lectured for IBM Ring 266 (Tyler, Texas) last night....and spent a' lot of time on the Mene Tekel deck.....y'know, it's one of those "things-that-I've always-wanted" but have never bought....well, I bought one last night!! Cool stuff, man!! So many little things that you can do with one!

Why would you want to make 26 Svengali decks? Where would you carry them all?

Pitch/sell them.