The Battle of the Barrels is a transportation illusion also known as Barricaded Barrels, Through the Eye of the Needle or the Black and White Barrels.
The illusion consists of two topless/bottomless barrels openly displayed on castered open framework supports. A female assistant then climbs inside a barrel and wooden bulls-eye targets are affixed to either end of the barrel. The second barrel is shown empty, sealed on one end and with four solid metal bars fixed across the other end.
The end of the lady assistant's barrel is placed against the barred opening of the empty barrel for a brief moment. As the barrels are again separated, the assistant can now be seen through the four solid metal bars, inside the barrel she was not in before.
The illusion was invented by PT Selbit. His original version consisted of two upright barrels and, the instead of the centre target through which the assistant passed through, Selbit used a cast iron manhole/drain cover. Since this upright version required on stage winch facilities later performers such as Dante made the effect more practical and fast paced by putting the barrels on the horizontal trucks and using wooden targets.
Famous quotes containing the words battle of, battle and/or barrels:
“The battle of the North Atlantic is a grim business, and it isn’t going to be won by charm and personality.”
—Edmund H. North, British screenwriter, and Lewis Gilbert. First Sea Lord (Laurence Naismith)
“I know no East or West, North or South, when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there shall I go.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“What is the good of a man and he
Alone and alone, with a speckled shin?
I would that I drank with my love on my knee,
Between two barrels at the inn.
Oro, oro!
To-morrow night I will break down the door.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)