Quite a few nice letters were received after I printed the instructions for the stamp on the ceiling effect in The Jinx for October (N°13). I’ve never seen the following idea in print and it was first explained to me by John Northern Hilliard in the fall of 1933. It takes quite a bit of practice to get onto the knack of it, but once mastered and when you have confidence, it will cause great comment wherever you do it. The effect consists merely of burning a common match from end to end and then tossing it to the ceiling where the burned match sticks and actually hangs by its head.

Doing it quite a few hundred times in the past two years, I’ve found that it will work with common kitchen matches, paper matches or safety matches equally as well. However, the ceiling best suited for it is the kalsomined type. The first part is to burn the match entirely to a piece of charcoal. Light the match with the right hand and hold it with head up for a few seconds to thoroughly burn the head out, and then, as the flame travels down the match towards the fingers, wet your left thumb and forefinger and very lightly apply to the head of the match to cool it. Thus you can then hold at this head end while the other end of the match burns out. There must be a good amount of moisture applied to the head but not enough to crush it. Now lay it on the right fingers parallel with the fingers and with the head nearly to the end of the fingers. Judge your distance to the ceiling and with an easy but long sweep, let the match fly up. Let your hand stop when about pointed to the corner of the room or where the wall meets the ceiling. The slightly heavier weight of the match head serves to take this end upward and you’ll find yourself looking at a burned match hanging downward by its head.

Just keep trying it until you get the hang of it. It is what I had to do but the effect has been worth it many times over. I can’t add to the above instructions in any way except to say it will take a little patience and experimenting. You’ll be crazy about it though when you do it.