Help us get to over 8,769 articles in 2026.
If you know of a magician not listed in MagicPedia, start a New Biography for them. Contact us at magicpediahelp@gmail.com
S.S. Adams Co.
S.S. Adams Co. grew from a small one-product company (formerly the "Cachoo Sneezing Powder Company") in 1906 to the world's largest manufacturer of Pranks and Magic Tricks.
S.S. Adams, as salesman for a coal-tar product he noticed that it possessed a tremendously high sneeze potential, much greater than pepper. Adams began fooling with it for his own amusement. In 1906 Adams decided to market the sneeze powder commercially as "Cachoo" and sold to the public for a dollar. Within three months of its appearance, one Philadelphia retailer bought 70,000 bottles.
Within two months, pirated versions were underselling him. So, in 1907 he came up with the Bingo Shooting Device, a small metal box containing a mouse-trap arrangement that explodes a percussion-cap. It went off with a loud bang when moved or disturbed. He installed the device in decks of cards, cigar boxes and books with saucy titles.
The speed and frenzy with which his competitors stole his latest idea instilled in Adams that fact that if you want to stay on top of the joker novelties business you have to think them up faster than they can swipe them.
His next item, in 1908, was the Snake Jam Jar, an imitation of a jar of raspberry jam in which a thirty-inch snake jumps out when the jar is opened.
But the Joy Buzzer, a small gimmick you wear as a ring and when you shake hand with someone it gives them a shock, established the company as the Ford of practical joke industry. It enabled him to buy a factory.
Magic Tricks
- Ball and Vase
- Balloon penetration
- Billiard Balls
- Bill Changer
- Card Box
- Disentegrator
- Card Magic
- Drawer Box
- Change Bag
- Egg Bag
- Chinese Bottle
- Egg Vase
- Chinese Liking Rings
- Fantastic Coin
- Chinese Sticks
- Four nickels to Four Dimes
- Coin Con
- Imp Bottle
- Coin Penetration
- Jiffy Coin Trick
- Color Changing Handkerchief
- Magic Coin Box
- Color Vision
- Magic Water Jug
- Crazy Cube
- Magical Block
- Crystal Cube
- Materializer
- Cups and Balls
- Milk Pitcher