death_date birth_place birth_date article_title name occupation
8 january 2006 st reliable sources ; if possible , cite the original source andrews of the information june 2015 , scotland y other wikis are not 2 march 1929 alex elmsley
 alex elmsley magician , computer programmer
alex elmsley

alex elmsley -lrb- 2 march 1929 -- 8 january 2006 -rrb- was a scottish magician and computer programmer .
he was notable for his invention of the `` ghost count '' or `` elmsley count '' , creating mathematical card tricks , and for publishing 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 creative fellowship in 1972 .
he created a number of magic tricks , including the `` ghost count '' , `` between your palms '' , `` point of departure '' and `` diamond cut diamond '' .
he wrote `` elmsley 's 4 card trick '' -lrb- 1967 -rrb- and `` cardwork '' -lrb- 1975 -rrb- , and was the subject of `` the collected works of alex elmsley '' -lrb- vol .
1 1991 , vol .
2 1994 -rrb- .
the special count used in `` elmsley 's 4 card trick '' was renamed after him as the `` elmsley count '' .
