McIlhany had this custom made after seeing Ken Klosterman’s Hofzinser Card Rise that Charles Kalish had copied from the original in the Library of Congress. This remarkable piece of apparatus was apparently constructed for Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser (1806-1875) by his Viennese mechanic, Kurz, in the early 1840's. This automaton would allow for Hofzinser to have any card out of a 32 card pack rise from the box when called for by the audience.Joe Young from Wyoming, OH was a retired GE aerospace prototype builder who re-built parts of Ken’s box to make it work properly. When Ken introduced McIlhany, Young showed them his inspiration of making the illusion better, by building a box to hold all 52 cards in a pack, not just the 32 cards from the original design. Young made this new box to run with an electric motor and rechargeable battery. In addition, the effect was enhanced by the magician being able to trigger the box and walk away with a delay before the card rose from the box. Joe claimed that he spent over 500 hours in creating this masterpiece. Bill said that this was built like a tank but ran like a fine swiss watch. High original cost - McIlhany paid over $25,000 for this machine. 1 of only 3 made. Fine.