Material Handling Makes Magic Happen (Literally)

By Alex Batty, MHI Marketing Communications Coordinator |@mhi_alex

I was watching Netflix, as one does, and one of the suggestions was “Breaking the Magician’s Code.” It’s basically explaining how basic magic tricks are done. It piqued my interest, because it’s less about magic and more the knowing how the world works, so I clicked it.

It’s… interesting (I’m so glad we left the 90s), but what caught my attention in the first episode was when they explained how they do the Levitating Woman trick.

IT INVOLVES MATERIAL HANDLING!

Seriously. It’s a forklift.

You can take a look at the clip:

But basically, they have a forklift with a long arm attached to a platform and it raises and lowers as needed. The ring slips around the arm with a little sleight of hand (which is more what I was interested in. I figured there was some sort of lifting mechanism). But I was pretty pleased when I saw the forklift.

Material handling can be… magical.

(I’m sorry, but it was right there.)

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