>>212368546 (OP)>the stuff with the machine was sillyEarly Magic tricks routinely used scientific principles that were unknown to the general public.
This was true up until at least WWII, and is still true in some cases.
Simply deceiving the audience with basic optical tricks, or an identical item is of course also still a technique used.
Robert Houdin for instance had a trick called the “Light and Heavy Chest”, which used an iron plate in the base, held down by an electro magnet, to make a chest “extremely heavy”, preventing strong men from lifting it, while the magician could easily lift the chest. This was used by Houdin on a political mission in Algeria.