pushed beneath her waist in line with the saw. The saw is then started and the table set in motion. The saw visibly passes through the assistant and generally sounds like it is sawing through something. Once the table reaches the end of its travel and the saw is switched off the assistant is released and shown to be in one piece and uninjured. The strip of wood that had been placed beneath her is shown to have been sawn into two strips, thus reinforcing that the saw really did cut in the manner it appeared to. Harry Blackstone, Sr. was performing this effect in the United States in the 1930s. Death Saw The Death Saw is presented as an escape gone wrong. Its best known performer is David Copperfield. The performer is secured to a table beneath a large buzzsaw or blade, which is set to descend upon them under the control of a timing mechanism. After being secured with various manacles the performer is enclosed in a box. The saw is then set going. After a while the sides of the box fall away to reveal the performer struggling to escape the manacles. Finally the saw drops before the performer has time to escape. The blade slices right through the performer's body. The two halves of the table are rolled apart so that the performer is clearly separated into two sections. The performer then appears to command the whole process to reverse: The body halves go back together, the saw rises, the box closes. Finally the performer emerges unharmed from the box. Modern Art Although not generally classified as a "sawing" illusion, Modern Art is sometimes billed as an "upright dividing the lady in two". The prop is a vertical cabinet which stands alongside a table-like structure that is half its height. The assistant enters the cabinet through a door in the side away from the table structure. The assistant's face can be seen peering from an opening at the top of the cabinet and a panel at the bottom of the front of the cabinet is opened to show the assistant's legs. A sword or blade is then placed into a slot at the point where the top of the half-height table meets the cabinet. The top of the cabinet then slides across onto the table, giving the impression that the top half of the assistant has