Note: These egg projects involve hot wax and fine shot, and therefore must be done carefully under close adult supervision. Really, these projects are for experienced adults only! Readers may make these trick eggs at their own risk. This fun Victorian magic trick dates to the 1890s. We at studenthandouts.com are not foolhardy enough to try these ourselves. Do not attempt at home!

Puncture the shell of a raw egg with a pin. Through the sole thus made, extract the contents. When this shell has become thoroughly dry, pour fine sand through the pinhole until the egg is about one-fourth filled. Then seal up the hole with white wax, and your imitation egg will be as real in appearance as a real one.

The next time boiled eggs are served at breakfast, substitute your sand egg for the one that you take from the dish. Tell your companions that you are going to make the egg obey your slightest wish. You may make it stand on the edge of a knife or on the rim of a glass, no matter whether you put it sideways or endways.

The only precaution necessary is to tap the egg gently every time you desire to place it in any position, so as to make the sand settle at the bottom, and the weight of the sand will keep it as you wish it to be. This is called the Obedient Egg.

For a Disobedient Egg, with which you may have even more fun than with the obedient one, make the hole in the shell large enough to allow you to introduce half an ounce of fine shot, together with a little powdered sealing wax.

This done, seal up the hole neatly with white wax, and then warm the egg gently over the fire. This will give you a fixed center of gravity in the egg, and no matter how you may pretend to place it, the weight of the shot, held in a mass by sealing the wax, will drag it away from its position just as soon as you release it.