Alex Elmsley (2 March 1929 – 8 January 2006) was a Scottish

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

and

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

. He was notable for his invention of the ''Ghost Count'' or '' Elmsley Count'', creating mathematical card tricks, and for publishing on the mathematics of playing card shuffling. He began practising magic in 1946, as a teenager. He studied physics and mathematics at Cambridge University; whilst there he was also secretary of the Pentacle Club. He was a patent agent, and later a computer expert, in his day job. Otherwise, he was an amateur card and close-up magician. He was awarded an

Academy of Magical Arts The Magic Castle is a clubhouse for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It is in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California and it bills itself as "the most unusual private club in t ...

Creative Fellowship in 1972. He created a number of well-known magic tricks, including ''The Four Card Trick'', ''Between Your Palms'', ''Point Of Departure'' and ''Diamond Cut Diamond''. In 1975 he briefly toured the US giving a highly praised lecture known as the "Dazzle Card Act", which consisted of a magic act followed by a detailed discussion of routining. Notes on the lecture were released under the title ''Cardwork''. Elmsley was the subject of ''The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley'' (vol. 1 1991, vol. 2 1994). He named the special count used in ''The Four Card Trick'' the ''ghost count'', though it would later become known as the ''Elmsley Count''.

References

Notes

External links

Elmsley on Magicdirectory.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elmsley, Alex British magicians 1929 births 2006 deaths Academy of Magical Arts Creative Fellowship winners Academy of Magical Arts Lifetime Achievement Fellowship winners