reading this very document

and it’s that easy to fix.

Seeing is believing. The
hand is quicker than the To illustrate how we are so
eye. It’s the eyes that have confused by the images our
it. The mind’s eye. Do my eyes present to us, you now
eyes deceive me? A trick have in your hands an
of the eye. An optical intriguing little instrument
illusion. It’s all done with of fun. It is the Magic
mirrors. Vision Tester. To be
truthful, it tests your
The human race has pretty perception rather than your
well got it covered. Saying eyes.
upon saying upon saying
suggest that we’re not sure In my early years as a
that our eyes are telling the magician, a kindly mentor
truth. Why is it that we do gave me one of these little
not believe our eyes? We lenses. There were no
seem to have much more instructions so I had to
faith in our ears and all the puddle around to discover
other senses. its strange effects. So what
you’re about to read comes
When an adult finally admits after a lifetime of
they need glasses, it seems experimentation. It is only
to come as an enormous now that my research has
relief. Perhaps we believe, come to any fruition. The
finally, that our eyes won’t Vision Tester is not the sort
be so deceitful. And this is of thing that I would use as
the very reason that part of any performance
inexpensive, fashionable and this is possibly the last
reading glasses picked up at time this knowledge will be
your local chemist shop of any use to me. If the
make a deal of good sense. Sigma people had not come
“Hmm, these look good, along with Magnavision
they might solve my little then all of this peculiar
problem, no one will know!” information would be lost.
Another convert. Within
days they’ll be flaunting. The lens you have in your
“Yes, they are nice, only hands was developed in the
twenty dollars or something early nineteen forties by
at the chemists ... you Joe Karson, a prolific
should get some ...” inventor of magic and
illusions.
You might even be The advertisement for the
experiencing a bit of trouble prop comes from an
 2

American magic catalogue Instructi ons.

issued in 1947. You may
have seen junior magicians This curious lens takes
on television talent advantage of the little-
programmes making a large understood fact that certain
silver ball float around a letters and figures are
black piece of cloth; this symmetrical in respect to
was also an invention of either their horizontal or
Karson. Like everything vertical axis. The former
else he produced, the appear unreversed when
‘Zombie Floating Ball’ is upside-down printing is
thought to be a classic of looked at through the vision
magic and as a result tester. The latter appear
completely overworked. unreversed when viewed
right side up through the
When confronted by the lens.
Magnavision idea, it
suddenly hit me that Other letters and figures
Karson’s Vision Tester might are so constructed that
be the perfect gift for those they change to different
attending the launch. I letters and figures when
went about trying to track they are reflected. These
down a source. An old facts make possible a
American magic company number of peculiar
[started in the twenties by distortive paradoxes.
an Australian, Percy Abbott]
thought they had “Maybe, The classic trick of this type
ten of them”, but suddenly involves the words ‘CHOICE
discovered a dusty box from QUALITY’ on the side of a
1947 with the original Camel cigarette packet.
lenses and packaging by The word ‘QUALITY’ is
Karson himself. These are reversed and jumbled. The
collectables, so be very word ‘CHOICE’ is unaltered.
careful even with the
envelope. Note that the The following capital letters
printing is hand letterpress. are symmetrical with
respect to their horizontal
Magic Vision Testers will not axis - B, C, D, E, H, I, K, O, X,
be made again. We took and the script forms of
their entire supply for you. capital J and lower case F.
There’s a handful still in [Symmetrical numbers are
Britain ...but that’s it. 0, 1, 3, and 8]. Words and
number sums formed with
I am sure this old novelty all of these appear
item will give you many unreversed through the
moments of pleasure. lens.

© Ian Buckland. Monday, 17 Jan, 1994

 3

‘CHOICE’ is one of the one word but not the other.

longest words of this type. If a friend’s name is DICK,
A partial listing of other EDDIE, or BOB, you can print
words includes - BOB, this name in colour and his
BOBBIE, BOX, BOOK, BOOB, last name in ordinary pencil.
BOO HOO, BEECH, CODE, COKE, The lens reverses his last
COOKIE, COOK, COB, CHOKE, name only.
CHEEK, CHECK, CHICK, CHIDE,
CHIC, CHOO CHOO, DOCK, The phrase HE CHECKED BOX C-
DECK, DICK, DEED, DO, DIED, O-D’ [Remembering not to
DID, DICE, DIXIE, ED, ECHO, put the full stops between
EXCEED, HOCK, HOBO, HIDE, the C the O and the D],
HE, HECK, HEED, HICK, HOOD, appears plainly unreversed
HOOK, ICE, IKE, I, KICK, KID, through the vision tester.
KIDDIE, OX, OH, ODE, OBOE. Better phrases than this can
probably be formed from
An interesting presentation the required letters.
is to print a group of these
words on a sheet of paper, The following letters change
using coloured pencils or to other letters when
fine-tipped markers. With viewed upside down
an ordinary pencil, print a through the lens. M
series of words that we changes to W [and W to M],
know will appear reversed lower case ‘b’ to ‘p’ [and
through the magic tester. vice versa], lower case ‘d’
Explain [with tongue to a pass-able ‘g’, but must
pressed daringly in cheek], be written with a straight
that your coloured markers line for a tail. Also ‘n’
are a new scientific idea changes to ‘u’ and the other
[“Did you see, Beyond way round.
2000?”] - pens capable of
writing letters that are not Among figures, 2 can be
reversed when viewed printed so it becomes 5, and
through a ‘magic’ lens. vice versa. These changes
make possible a number of
And yes, all the penciled stunts. For example, print
words will look jumbled and the phrase ‘Bob kicked pop’
those printed in colour like this: bob KICKED pop
remain the same.
To find out what happened
A phrase such as ‘CHOICE next, look through your
WATERMELON’ can be lens.
printed, using a coloured
marker for ‘CHOICE’ and ‘Choice dice - 50 dollars’
black pencil for ‘WATER- may be printed so that
MELON’. The lens reverses through the lens the price is

© Ian Buckland. Monday, 17 Jan, 1994

 4

mysteriously lowered to 20 If words such as TOMATO are

cents although the rest of printed horizontally, the
the phrase remains the letters remain the same
same. through the tester, but the
order of the letters will be
CHOICE DICE - $50 reversed unless the words
are palindromes [that is,
Words also may be printed spelled backwards as
vertically down the page, forwards]. The lens will
and then held upside down obviously not change TUT TUT
for viewing through the or TOOT TOOT, and perhaps
lens. A word like ‘dig’ in palindrome sentences of
lower case will remain ‘dig’, this type can be
for example, whereas a constructed. Some words
word like ‘big’ changes to will change to other words.
‘dip’. For example MA and AM are
mirror images, suggesting
The following capital letters sentences that may read as
are symmetrical concerning different sentences through
their vertical axis: A, H, I, the lens.
M, O, Y, U, V, W, X, Y, lower
case and script forms of Although no capital letters
letters already cited. change to other letters
[Among the numerals, 0, 1, when viewed right-side-up
and 8.] Words formed from in the lens with the
the letters can be printed exception of Z and S [which
vertically on the page and can be formed so they are
will be unreversed through mirror images of each
the lens. For example, other], among lower case
print ‘Tomato’ in coloured letters ‘b’ and ‘d’ are mirror
fine-tip marker and ‘Celery’ images, as well as ‘g’ and ‘p’
in black pencil. [when ‘g’ is written with a
straight tail]. Also script
forms of ‘f’ and ‘j’. This
opens up still wider
possibilities, since capital
and lower case forms of
letters may be mixed
together and still be
readable. For example,
words such as ‘bid’ and ‘pig’
The lens reverses ‘Celery’ can be printed horizontally
and ‘Tomato’ is uncorrupted. so they remain the same in
And a good thing too. reflected form. Other
words will change to
different words, such as

© Ian Buckland. Monday, 17 Jan, 1994

 5

‘bib’ becomes ‘bib’

regardless of whether it is
written horizontally or
vertically. ‘Bad’ remains
‘bad’ when horizontal, but
changes to ‘dab’ when
printed vertically. ‘Tag’
changes to ‘tap’ when
vertical, and to ‘pat’ is
printed horizontally.

Certain numbers can be

formed in such manner that
their reversed images are
letters, namely: 1 [I], 2 [S],
3 [E], 4 [N, P, or H], 6 [J], 7
[T], 8 [G], 9 [P], 0 [O]. Thus
306 and 314436 can be
written oddly to form JOE
and JENNIE in lens
perspective.

In case you’re having

difficulty working out the
words hidden within the
numbers, here are the
Columns of numbers can be answers:
worked out which appear to
be sums but when held
behind the lens become
amusing sentences, as for
example, these sums:
And that concludes the
research into this odd topic.
I hope you agree that it was
worth the analysis. Explore
away.

Here are a few more

reversibles for you to be
going on with; BIKE, KO,
HIKE, HIKED, BOXED, COX
COXED, CEDED [In ‘Preceded’
the ‘Pre’ will be reversed as

© Ian Buckland. Monday, 17 Jan, 1994

 6

will ‘SUPER’ in superceded.],

CODED, BIB, ICED, BED. ICED,
COKED.

Naughtily I might suggest

that in some circles of the
drug culture, those who are
‘coked’ are referred to as
‘iced’. Make of that what
you will. Reversal of
perception then becomes a
touch ironic.

© Ian Buckland. Monday, 17 Jan, 1994