Endless Amusement
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Title: Endless Amusement
Author: Unknown
Release date: May 23, 2010 [eBook #32492]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32492
Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENDLESS AMUSEMENT ***
Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)
ENDLESS AMUSEMENT:
A COLLECTION OF
NEARLY 400 ENTERTAINING EXPERIMENTS
IN VARIOUS BRANCHES OF SCIENCE;
INCLUDING
ACOUSTICS, ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM,
ARITHMETIC, HYDRAULICS, MECHANICS,
CHEMISTRY, HYDROSTATICS, OPTICS;
WONDERS OF THE AIR-PUMP;
ALL THE
POPULAR TRICKS AND CHANGES OF THE CARDS,
&c., &c.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF PYROTECHNY;
OR,
THE ART OF MAKING FIRE-WORKS.
THE WHOLE SO CLEARLY EXPLAINED AS TO BE WITHIN THE
REACH OF THE MOST LIMITED CAPACITY.
With Illustrations.
FROM THE SEVENTH LONDON EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA:
LEA AND BLANCHARD.
1847.
CONTENTS.
Page
Aces, the convertible 117
Æolipiles 60
Aigrettes 185
Air-pump 77
bottles broken by 77
glass broken by 77
hand fixed by 77
water boiled by 78
bubbles, vegetable 78
electrified 98
Alarum 147
Alphabet, changes of, in square Yards 59
Apparition, armed 126
Atmosphere, to show the Pressure of 137
Aurora Borealis, electric 91
Bacchus, animated 81
Ball, electrified 97
electric 99
Balloon, artificial 81
electric 96
Cases in Fire-works 184
Balloons, Paper, to construct 42
in Fire-works, to load with Stars, Serpents, &c. 184
Balls, dancing 93
Barley, the Awn of, an Hydrometer 157
Bell, magic 79
Bladder, exploded 80
cemented 81
Blue, to change to White 35
Bodies, two inodorous, become pungent by Mixture 145
Body, combustible, to ignite by reflection 57
Bottle, magic 48
enchanted 59
Bronzing, the Art of 133
Bubble, exploding 13
Bubbles, aërial 78
Burning-glasses, account of two 32
Busts, talking 61
Butterflies, to take Impressions of on Paper 134
Cameleon Spirit 23
Camera Obscura, to construct 16
Camphor, electrified 100
Candle lighted by electricity 84
Bombs 84
Card, divining 107
numerical 108
hit upon by guess 109
found by the Point of a Sword 109
changed by Word of Command 109
in the Ring 112
in the Mirror 113
in the Opera-glass 113
discovered by the throw of a Die 115
under the Handkerchief 117
to tell that a person has touched 117
in the Pocket-book 118
in the Egg 118
discovered by the Touch or Smell 119
Cards, magnetic 71
Amusements with 101
Points on three, to name, &c. 101
to tell how many taken from a Pack 102
to name several fixed on 104
to name the Rank of, drawn from a Piquet Pack 104
to tell the Numbers of any two 105
three 106
four confederate 108
to separate the two Colours of a Pack of, at one Cut 114
metamorphosed 114
Number of, told by their Weight 116
to change, that several persons have drawn from the
Pack 116
inverted 119
transmutable 119
convertible 120
Cascade, magical 50
musical 148
of fire, to represent 151
Cement, never-yielding 37
Changes on twelve Bells 58
Charcoal for Fire-works 164
Chase, magic 88
Coins, to take impressions of 44
Compositions for Fire-works, method of mixing 168
Concerto, solar 62
Cork heavier than Lead 81
Correspondence, secret 18, 25
by music 20
Coruscations, artificial 136
Cotton electrified 92
Crackers, to make 169
Cylinder, illuminated 91
Dance, magic 86
Dancer, hydraulic 49
Detonating works 190
Girdle 190
Balls 191
Tape 191
Cards 191
Dial, magnetic 71
Dodecahedron in Fire-works 187
Duplicates, ten 102
Earthquake, artificial 22, 86, 187
Eclipse of the Sun, to observe 129
Egg, to form Figures on, in Relief 35
Eggs, white of, contains an Alkali 144
Electric effects of a Russian climate 30
Electricity, experiments in 83
Resin lighted by 95
Spirits ignited by 95
Eolian Harp, to make 137
Exhalations, subaqueous 137
Explosion, brilliant, under Water 54
Explosion, magical 86
electric 98
Feather, animated 83
Feathers heavier than Lead 79
Figures, two, one blows out, and the other re-lights a Candle 39
Fire produced by the mixture of two cold Liquids 13
from Cane 136
Fire-pumps in Fire-works 186
Fire-works in miniature 27
imitative 149
Art of making 163
aquatic 192
Flash of Lightning, to resemble on entering a Room 37
Flower, to produce the Appearance of, from its Ashes 149
Flowers, restored 26
to diversify the Colours of 141
Fountain, fiery 44
globular 48
illuminated 51
which acts by the Heat of the Sun 52
magic 80
electrical 87
Fountains, Chinese, in Fire-works 187
Fruit, withered, restored 78
Fulminating Powders 33
more powerful 34
Gold 40
Mercury 54
Gas Bubbles, exploding 160
Ghastly Appearance, to give to Persons in a Room 35
Glass, so to fill with Water that it cannot be removed without
spilling the whole 38
Gold Chain, old, to make look like new 43
to give Silver the Colour of 43
Guinea, penetrative 132
Gunpowder 165
exploded by reflection 125
Brimstone and Charcoal, to meal for Fire-works 165
Halo, artificial 80
Horn, to make Moulds of 134
to soften 134
Hour of the Day or Night told by a suspended Shilling 152
Hydrogen Gas, to procure 159
to fill a Bladder with 159
Illuminations, artificial 22
chemical 36
Illusion, alternate 146
Incendiary, unconscious 88
Indromacus 103
Ink, invisible 23
Gold, Silver, Yellow, Red, Green, Violet,
and Grey 24, 25
secret Correspondence by Means of 25
golden 41
white 42
Iron, transformed into Copper 36
Silver 36
melted in a Moment and run into Drops 37
or Steel, to soften 135
Ivory, to cast Figures in Imitation of 134
Kings, the four inseparable 116
Kite, electric 87
Lamp to burn twelve Months without replenishing 29
Chronometer 46
Landscape, artificial 66
to draw correctly 67
Lead, metallic, produced from the Powder 141
Leech, a Prognosticator of Weather 157
Leyden Phial 94
Light, rays of 143
refraction of 144
travelling of 145
Lightning, artificial 14
its wonderful Nature 144
to guard against 153
Liquor that shines in the Dark 40
luminous 41
Luminaries, miraculous 89
Magic Lantern, Experiment with the 62
Glasses to paint 63
solar 60
Magnetism, Experiments in 70
Memory, artificial 158
Microscope, Experiment for the 145
Mirror, Magician's 124
perspective 124
distorting 126
oracular 152
Mirrors, magical 53
deforming 123
igniting 125
Money augmented by optical Illusion 15
melted in a Walnut-shell 40
Mortars, in Fire-works 184
Neptune in his Chariot 198
Number, to tell any, privately fixed on 45
without asking questions 45
divisible by 9, &c. 55
Numbers, to find the difference of two, &c. 56
Objects, three, discernible only with both Eyes 15
Oil upon Water, and Water upon Oil, curious Effects of 161
and Water, Experiments with 161
Opaque Bodies, seemingly transparent 121
Box made transparent 130
Opera-glass, diagonal 129
Oracle, inanimate 61
Orrery, magnetic 72
electrical 92, 99
Palace, enchanted 120
Parties, three magical 110
Paradox, dioptrical 127
Pass, how to make the 107
Perspective-glass, divining 111
Phantom 126
Phial of the four Elements 48
Philosophical Candle 37
Phosphorus Match Bottles 34
inflammable 53
Phosphorus, illuminated 97
Picture, magic 13
Pictures of Birds, to make, with their natural Feathers 132
Pieces, transposable 131
Plants, remarkable Properties in 138
Plaster of Paris cast, to take from a Person's Face 135
Pomatum, to make, with Wax and Water 36
Portrait, miraculous 85
Powder, which catches Fire when exposed to the Air 39
Prints, to remove Stains from 38
Prospect, boundless 57
Prospects, illuminated 68
Pyrotechny, a complete system of 163
Rain and Hail, artificial 28
Gauge, to make 142
Rainbow, artificial 60
Reflector, magnifying 16
Ring, to suspend by a Thread after the Thread has been burnt 35
on the Finger, to name, &c. 49
Roman Candles, in Fire-works 186
Rocket Stars 173
to fix one on the Top of another 174
Rockets 170
Method of rolling 170
Composition for 171
to drive 171
Decorations for 172
Caduceous 175
Honorary 175
which form an arch in rising 176
to make several rise together 176
to fix several on the same Stick 177
to fire without Sticks 178
Scrolls for 179
Stands for 179
Table 179
Water 192
Rose, changeable 41
Resin lighted by Electricity 95
Salt, exploding 127
Saltpetre for Fire-works 164
Saltpetre, to pulverize for Fire-works 164
Sealing-wax spun into Threads by Electricity 100
Sea-fight, &c. in Aquatic Fire-works 196
Serpents, for Fire-works, to make 169
Shillings, a Person having an even number of in one Hand, and
an odd Number in the other, to tell in which Hand the
odd or even Number is 17
Shock, inconceivable 88
Shower, mercurial 80
fiery 90
Silver-plate, to give a Lustre to 44
extracted from a gilded Ring 135
Sky-rockets 170
to fire under Water 198
Sound, travelling of 141, 142
Sparks, electric 93
in choked Cases 167
Sparrows, Experiments with 82
Spectre on the Table 64
Spider, artificial 84
Spirit, Cameleon 23
Spots in the Sun's Disk, to show 128
Spur-fire 166
Square Yards, to contain the Changes of the Alphabet 59
Squares, Magic 55
Squibs, to make 169
Stars, with Points, in Fire-works 188
Steam, Power of 31
Steel or Iron, to soften 135
Stone, floating 78
Storm at Sea, to represent by the Magic Lantern 63
Sulphur for Fire-works 163
Sun, fixed, with a transparent Face 189
Sun's Rays, Effects of, on different coloured Cloths 146
Swans and Ducks in Aquatic Fire-works 199
Tantalus, Cup of 85
Thunder, artificial 14, 15
Touch-paper, to make 167
Transcolorations, curious 29, 30
Transmutations, magical 35
Travelling of Sound 141, 142
Light 145
Tree, Silver 27
Tree, Lead 27
Iron 55
sublimated 139
Tube, Magic 123
Tulip, Experiment with 140
Vacuum, illuminated 90
Vase, Magic 110
Vessel, Magic 21
that lets Water out of the Bottom as soon as the
Mouth is uncorked 39
Verse, Magic 74
Viper, Experiment with 82
Visual Nerves, singular Impression on, by a luminous Object 160
by looking through
differently-coloured Glasses 161
Volcano, artificial 22
Wand, magnetic 70
mercurial 79
Watch Dial, to tell by one the Hour when a Person intends
to rise 17
mysterious 70
Lamp 140
Water gilding on Silver 43
which gives Silver a Gold Colour 43
to give any Metal a Gold Colour 43, 44
Sun 50
illuminated 96
colder than Ice 127
Experiment with a Glass of 135
beautifully transparent 142
Power of 143
in Steam 158
Pressure of 143
Mass of, contained in the Sea 145
Rockets 192
Wheels, horizontal 193
Pipes in Fire-works 193
Mines 194
Fire Globes 194
Balloons, odoriferous 195
Fire Fountains 200
Weather, to foretel 140
Table 162
Wheels, self-moving 79, 94
in Fire-works 180
single vertical 180
horizontal 181
plural 182
spiral 182
Balloon 183
double spiral 183
illuminated spiral 183
Winter, changed to Spring 26
Writing, mysterious 26
illuminated 28
burnt, restored 129
in the Dark, to make luminous 139
on Glass by the Rays of the Sun 148
ENDLESS
AMUSEMENT.
_To produce Fire by the Mixture of two cold Liquids._
Take half a pound of pure dry nitrate, in powder; put it into a retort
that is quite dry; add an equal quantity of highly rectified oil of
vitriol, and, distilling the mixture in a moderate sand heat, it will
produce a liquor like a yellowish fume; this, when caught in a dry
receiver, is _Glauber's Spirits of Nitre_; probably the preparation,
under that name, may be obtained of the chemists, which will of course
save much time and trouble.
You then put a drachm of distilled oil of cloves, turpentine, or
carraways, in a glass vessel; and if you add an equal quantity, or
rather more, of the above spirit, though both are in themselves
perfectly cold, yet, on mixing them together, a great flame will arise
and destroy them both, leaving only a little resinous matter at the
bottom.
_The Exploding Bubble._
If you take up a small quantity of melted glass with a tube, (the bowl
of a common tobacco-pipe will do,) and let a drop fall into a vessel
of water, it will chill and condense with a fine spiral tail, which
being broken, the whole substance will burst with a loud explosion,
without injury either to the party that holds it, or him that breaks
it; but if the _thick_ end be struck, even with a hammer, it will not
break.
_The Magic Picture._
Take two level pieces of glass, (plate glass is the best,) about three
inches long and four wide, exactly of the same size; lay one on the
other, and leave a space between them by pasting a piece of card, or
two or three small pieces of thick paper, at each corner.
Join these glasses together at the edges by a composition of lime
slaked by exposure to the air, and white of an egg. Cover all the
edges of these glasses with parchment or bladder, except at one end,
which is to be left open to admit the following composition.
Dissolve, by a slow fire, six ounces of hogs'-lard, with half an ounce
of white wax; to which you may add an ounce of clear linseed oil.
This must be poured in a liquid state, and before a fire, between the
glasses, by the space left in the sides, and which you are then to
close up. Wipe the glasses clean, and hold them before the fire, to
see that the composition will not run out at any part.
Then fasten with gum a picture or print, painted on very thin paper,
with its face to one of the glasses, and, if you like, you may fix the
whole in a frame.
While the mixture between the glasses is cold, the picture will be
quite concealed, but become transparent when held to the fire; and, as
the composition cools, it will gradually disappear.
_Artificial Lightning._
Provide a tin tube that is larger at one end than it is at the other,
and in which there are several holes. Fill this tube with powdered
resin; and when it is shook over the flame of a torch, the reflection
will produce the exact appearance of lightning.
_Artificial Thunder._
Mix two drachms of the filings of iron, with one ounce of concentrated
spirit of vitriol, in a strong bottle that holds about a quarter of a
pint; stop it close, and in a few minutes shake the bottle; then
taking out the cork, put a lighted candle near its mouth, which should
be a little inclined, and you will soon observe an inflammation arise
from the bottle, attended with a loud explosion.
To guard against the danger of the bottle bursting, the best way would
be to bury it in the ground, and apply the light to the mouth by means
of a taper fastened to the end of a long stick.
_Another way._
Mix three ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of salt of tartar, and two
ounces of sulphur; roll the mixture up into a ball, of which take a
quantity, about the size of a hazel-nut, and, placing it in a ladle or
shovel over the fire, the explosion will resemble a loud clap of
thunder.
You will produce a much more violent commotion if you double or treble
the quantity of the last experiment; suppose you put two or three
ounces of the mixture into the shovel. For fear of accidents, it
should not be done in the house, but by placing the shovel over a
chafing-dish of very hot coals, in the open air, standing a great
distance off.
Common prudence will dictate the necessity of using great care in the
above experiments, as an accident will soon happen if a person does
not get out of the way before the composition explodes.
_Money augmented by an Optical Illusion._
In a large drinking-glass of a conical shape, (small at the bottom and
wide at the top,) put a shilling, and let the glass be half full of
water; then place a plate on the top of it, and turn it quickly over,
that the water may not escape. You will see on the plate a piece of
coin of the size of half-a-crown; and a little higher up another the
size of a shilling.
It will add to the amusement this experiment affords, by giving the
glass to any one in company, (but who, of course, has not witnessed
your operations,) and, desiring him to throw away the water, but save
the pieces, he will not be a little surprised at finding only one.
_Three objects discernible only with both Eyes._
If you fix three pieces of paper against the wall of a room at equal
distances, at the height of your eye, placing yourself directly before
them, at a few yards' distance, and close your right eye, and look at
them with your left, you will see only two of them, suppose the first
and second; alter the position of your eye, and you will see the first
and third: alter your position a second time, you will see the second
and third, but never the whole three together; by which it appears,
that a person who has only one eye can never see three objects placed
in this position, nor all the parts of one object of the same extent,
without altering his situation.
_To construct the Camera Obscura._
Make a circular hole in the shutter of a window, from whence there is
a prospect of some distance; in this hole place a magnifying glass,
either double or single, whose focus is at the distance of five or six
feet; no light must enter the room but through this glass. At a
distance from it, equal to its focus, place a very white pasteboard,
(what is called a Bristol board, if you can procure one large enough,
will answer extremely well;) this board must be two feet and a half
long, and eighteen or twenty inches high, with a black border round
it: bend the length of it inward to the form of part of a circle,
whose diameter is equal to double the focal distance of the glass. Fix
it on a frame of the same figure, and put it on a moveable foot, that
it may be easily placed at that distance from the glass, where the
objects appear to the greatest perfection. When it is thus placed, all
the objects in front of the window will be painted on the paper in an
inverted position, with the greatest regularity, and in the most
natural colours. If you place a swing looking-glass outside the
window, by turning it more or less, you will have on the paper all the
objects on each side the window.
If, instead of placing the looking-glass outside the window, you place
it in the room above the hole, (which must then be made near the top
of the shutter,) you may have the representation on a paper placed
horizontally on a table, and draw at your leisure all the objects
reflected.
Observe, the best situation is directly north; and the best time of
the day is noon.
_The Magnifying Reflector._
Let the rays of light that pass through the magnifying glass in the
shutter be thrown on a large concave mirror, properly fixed in a
frame. Then take a third strip of glass, and stick any small object on
it; hold it in the intervening rays at a little more than the focal
distance from the mirror, and you will see on the opposite wall,
amidst the reflected rays, the image of that object, very large, and
beautifully clear and bright.
_To tell by a Watch Dial the Hour when a Person intends to rise._
The person is told to set the hand of his watch at any hour he
pleases, which hour he tells you; and you add in your mind 12 to it.
You then desire him to count privately the number of that addition on
the dial, commencing at the next hour to that at which he intends to
rise, and including the hour at which he has placed the hand, which
will give the answer: for example.
A intends to rise at 6, (this he conceals to himself;) he places the
hand at 8, which he tells B, who, in his own mind, adds 12 to 8, which
makes twenty. B then tells A to count twenty on the dial, beginning at
the next hour to that at which he proposes to rise, which will be 5,
and counting backwards, reckoning each hour as one, and including in
his addition the number of the hour the hand is placed at, the
addition will end at 6, which is the hour proposed; thus,
The hour the hand is placed at is 8
The next hour to that which A intends to rise at is 5, which
counts for 1
Count back the hours from 5, and reckon them at 1 each, there
will be 11 hours, viz., 4, 3, 2, 1, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 11
----
Making 20
_A person having an even Number of Shillings in one Hand, and an odd
Number in the other, to tell in which hand the odd or even Number is._
You desire the person to multiply the number in his right hand by an
odd figure, and the number in his left by an even one; and tell you if
the products, added together, be odd or even. If even, the even number
is in the right hand; if odd, the even number is in the left. For
instance,
I. Number in the right In the left hand _odd_ 7
hand is _even_ 18 Multiply by 2
Multiply by 3 ----
---- Product 14
Product 54 ----
Add the Product of
the left hand 14
----
Which produces a
total of 68
II. Number in the right In the left hand _even_ 18
hand is _odd_ 7 Multiply by 2
Multiply by 3 ----
---- Product 36
Product 21
Add the Product of
the left hand 36
----
Which produces a
total of 57
_Secret Correspondence._
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
To carry on a correspondence without the possibility of the meaning of
the letter being detected, in case it should be opened by any other
person, has employed the ingenuity of many. No method will be found
more effectual for this purpose, or more easy, than the following.
Provide a piece of square card or pasteboard, and draw a circle on it,
which circle is to be divided into 27 equal parts, in each of which
parts must be written _one_ of the capital letters of the alphabet,
and the &, as in the figure. Let the centre of this circle be blank.
Then draw another circle, also divided into 27 equal parts, in each of
which write one of the small letters of the alphabet, and the &. This
circle must be cut round, and made exactly to fit the blank space in
the centre of the large circle, and must run round a pivot or pin. The
person with whom you correspond must have a similar dial, and at the
beginning of your letter you must put the capital letter, and at the
end the small letter, which answer to each other when you have fixed
your dial.
Suppose what you wish to communicate is as follows:
_I am so watched I cannot see you as I promised; but I will
meet you to-morrow in the park, with the letters, &c._
You begin with the letter _T_, and end with the letter _m_, which
shows how you have fixed the dial, and how your correspondent must fix
his, that he may decipher your letter.
Then, for _I am_, you write _b uf_, and so of the rest, as follows.
_T b uf lh pumrvayx b rvugghm lyy rhn ul b ikhfblyx vnm b
pbee fyym rhn mh-fhkkhp bg may iukd pbma may eymmykl, tw.
m._
_Another Way._
Take two pieces of card, pasteboard, or stiff paper, through which
you cut long squares at different distances. One of these you keep
yourself, and the other you give to your correspondent. You lay the
pasteboard on a paper, and, in the spaces cut out, write what you
would have understood by him only; then fill the intermediate spaces
with any words that will connect the whole together, and make a
different sense. When he receives it, he lays his pasteboard over
the whole, and those words which are between crotchets [ ] form the
intelligence you wish to communicate. For example: suppose you want
to express these word,
"_Don't trust Robert: I have found him a villain._"
"[Don't] fail to send my books. I [trust] they will be ready when
[Robert] calls on you. [I have] heard that you have [found] your dog.
I call [him a villain] who stole him." You may place a pasteboard of
this kind three other ways--the bottom at top--the top at bottom, or
by turning it over; but in this case you must previously apprize your
correspondent, or he may not be able to decipher your meaning.
_Secret Correspondence by Music._
Form a circle like Fig. 2, divided into twenty-six parts, with a
letter of the alphabet written in each. The interior of the circle is
moveable, like that in Fig. 1, and the circumference is to be ruled
like music-paper. Place in each division a note different in figure or
position.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Music Piece]
Within the musical lines place the three keys, and on the outer circle
the figures to denote time. Then get a ruled paper, and place one of
the keys (suppose _ge-re-sol_) against the time 2-4ths, at the
beginning of the paper, which will inform your correspondent how to
place his circle. You then copy the notes that answer to the letters
of the words you intend to write, in the manner expressed above.
_The Magic Vessel._
On the bottom of a vessel, lay three pieces of money, the first at A,
the second at B, and the third at C, Fig. 3. Then place a person at D,
where he can see no farther into the vessel than E. You tell him, that
by pouring water in the vessel you will make him see three different
pieces of money; and bid him observe, that you do not convey any money
in with the water. But be careful that you pour the water in very
gently, or the pieces will move out of their places, and thereby
destroy the experiment.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
When the water rises up to F, the piece at A will be visible; when it
reaches G, both A and B will be visible; and when it comes up to H,
all three pieces will be visible.
_Artificial Earthquake and Volcano._
Grind an equal quantity of fresh iron filings with pure sulphur, till
the whole be reduced to a fine powder. Be careful not to let any wet
come near it. Then bury about thirty pounds of it a foot deep in the
earth, and in about six or eight hours the ground will heave and
swell, and shortly after send forth smoke and flames like a burning
mountain. If the earth is raised in a conical shape, it will be no bad
miniature resemblance of one of the burning mountains.
_Artificial Illuminations._
A very pleasing exhibition may be made with very little trouble or
expense, in the following manner: Provide a box, which you fit up with
architectural designs cut out on pasteboard; prick small holes in
those parts of the building where you wish the illuminations to
appear, observing, that in proportion to the perspective, the holes
are to be made smaller; and on the near objects the holes are to be
made larger. Behind these designs thus perforated, you fix a lamp or
candle, but in such a manner that the reflection of the light shall
only shine through the holes; then placing a light of just sufficient
brilliance to show the design of the buildings before it, and making a
hole for the sight at the front end of the box, you will have a very
tolerable representation of illuminated buildings.
The best way of throwing the light in front, is to place an oiled
paper before it, which will cast a mellow gleam over the scenery, and
not diminish the effect of the illumination. This can be very easily
planned, both not to obstruct the sight, nor be seen to disadvantage.
The lights behind the picture should be very strong; and if a
magnifying glass were placed in the sight hole, it would tend greatly
to increase the effect. The box must be covered in, leaving an
aperture for the smoke of the lights to pass through.
The above exhibition can only be shown at candle-light; but there is
another way, by fixing small pieces of gold on the building, instead
of drilling the holes; which gives something like the appearance of
illumination, but by no means equal to the foregoing experiment.
N.B. It would be an improvement, if paper of various colours, rendered
transparent by oil, were placed between the lights behind and the
aperture in the buildings, as they would then resemble lamps of
different colours.
_The Cameleon Spirit._
Put into a decanter volatile spirit, in which you have dissolved
copper filings, and it will produce a fine blue. If the bottle be
stopped, the colour will disappear; but when unstopped, it will
return. This experiment may be often repeated.
_Invisible Ink._
Put litharge of lead into very strong vinegar, and let it stand
twenty-four hours. Strain it off, and let it remain till quite
settled; then put the liquor in a bottle.
You next dissolve orpiment in quick lime water, by setting the water
in the sun for two or three days, turning it five or six times a-day.
Keep the bottle containing this liquor well corked, as the vapour is
highly pernicious if received into the mouth.
Write what you wish with a pen dipped in the first liquor; and, to
make it visible, expose it to the vapour of the second liquor. If you
wish them to disappear again, draw a sponge or pencil, dipped in aqua
fortis, or spirit of nitre, over the paper; and if you wish them to
re-appear, let the paper be quite dry, and then pass the solution of
orpiment over it.
_Another._
Dissolve bismuth in nitrous acid. When the writing with this fluid is
exposed to the vapour of liver of sulphur, it will become quite black.
_Another._
Dissolve green vitriol and a little nitrous acid in common water.
Write your characters with a new pen.
Next infuse small Aleppo galls, slightly bruised in water. In two or
three days, pour the liquor off.
By drawing a pencil dipped in this second solution over the characters
written with the first, they will appear a beautiful black.
_Invisible Gold Ink._
Put as much gold in as small a quantity of aqua regia as will dissolve
it, and dilute it with two or three times the quantity of distilled
water.
Next dissolve, in a separate vessel, fine pewter in aqua regia, and
when it is well impregnated, add an equal quantity of distilled water.
Write your characters with the first solution: let it dry in the
shade. To make them visible, draw a pencil or sponge, dipped in the
second solution, over the paper, and the characters will appear of a
purple colour.
_Invisible Silver Ink._
Dissolve fine silver in aqua fortis; and after the dissolution, add
some distilled water in the same manner as in the gold ink.
What is written with the above ink will remain invisible for three or
four months, if kept from the air; but may be easily read in an hour,
if exposed to the fire, air, or sun.
_Invisible Yellow Ink._
Steep marigold flowers seven or eight days in clear distilled vinegar.
Press the flowers and strain the liquor, which is to be kept in a
bottle well corked. If you would have it still more clear, add, when
you use it, some pure water.
To make the characters visible, which you write with this ink, pass a
sponge over the paper, dipped in the following solution:
Take a quantity of flowers of pansy, or the common violet, bruise them
in a mortar with water, strain the liquor in a cloth, and keep it in a
bottle.
_Invisible Red Ink._
To the pure spirit of vitriol or nitre, add eight times as much water.
Use the above solution of violets to make visible the characters
written with this ink.
_Invisible Green Ink._
Dissolve salt of tartar, clean and dry, in a sufficient quantity of
river water. Use the violet solution to render it visible.
_Another Invisible Green Ink._
Dissolve zaffre, in powder, in aqua regia, for twenty-four hours. Pour
the liquor off, and the same quantity of common water, and keep it in
a bottle well corked.
This ink will not be visible till exposed to the fire or the sun; and
will again be invisible when it becomes cold.
_Invisible Violet Ink._
Express the juice of lemons, and keep it in a bottle well corked. Use
the violet infusion to make the writing visible.
_Invisible Grey Ink._
Mix alum with lemon-juice. The letters written with this ink will be
invisible till dipped in water.
* * * * *
We now present our readers with a variety of amusing experiments,
which may be performed by the foregoing inks; and they will, probably,
suggest others equally amusing and useful.
_A Secret Correspondence by means of Invisible Ink._
A person wishing to carry on a correspondence with another, and who is
fearful of having his letter opened, or intercepted, can adopt the
following plan:
Write any unimportant matter with common ink, and let the lines be
very wide apart: then between these lines write the communication you
wish to make, with any of the above invisible inks you can most
readily procure.
Your correspondent is to be previously apprized of the method of
making the characters visible: and writing in common ink will serve to
lull the suspicions of those who might intercept the letter, and who,
not finding any thing important in it, will either forward or keep it.
In either case there can be no danger, as the writing will not be
visible without the proper application.
_The Mysterious Writing._
Write on a piece of paper with common ink any question; then
underneath it write the answer either in invisible silver ink, or the
invisible green ink, made with zaffre and aqua regia, described in
pages 24 and 25.
You give this paper to your friend, and tell him to place it against
the wall, or on his dressing-table, keeping the door locked, that he
may be sure no person has entered his room: he will next day find the
answer written on it.
_The Restored Flowers._
Make a bouquet of artificial flowers; the leaves should be formed of
parchment. Dip the roses in the red invisible ink, the jonquilles in
the yellow, the pinks in the violet, and the leaves in the green ink.
They will all appear white; and you show them to the company,
observing, that you will restore them to their natural colours, and
desiring any person to fix any private mark on them he pleases, that
he may be sure there is no deception. You then, unperceived by the
company, dip them in the revivifying liquor, used to make the yellow
ink visible, described in page 24, and, drawing them gently out, that
the liquor may drop, and the flowers have time to acquire their
colours, you present them to the company, who will see, with surprise,
that they each appear in their natural colours.
_Winter changed to Spring._
Take a print that represents winter, and colour those parts which
should appear green, with the second green invisible ink, described in
page 25; observing, of course, the usual rules of perspective, by
making the near parts deeper in colour than the others. The other
objects must be painted in their natural colours. Then put the print
into a frame with a glass, and cover the back with a paper that is
pasted only at its extremities.
When this print is exposed to a moderate fire, or the warm sun, the
foliage, which appeared covered with snow, will change to a pleasing
green; and if a yellow tint be thrown on the lighter parts before the
invisible ink is drawn over it, this green will be of different
shades. When it is exposed to the cold, it will again resume its first
appearance of winter.
_The Silver Tree._
Dissolve an ounce of fine silver in three ounces of strong aqua
fortis, in a glass bottle. When the silver is dissolved; pour the aqua
fortis into another glass vessel, (a decanter will be best,) with
seven or eight ounces of mercury, to which add a quart of common
water; to the whole add your dissolved silver, and let it remain
untouched.
In a few days the mercury will appear covered with a number of little
branches of a silver colour. This appearance will increase for a month
or two, and will remain after the mercury is entirely dissolved.
_The Lead Tree._
A more modern invention, and an easier method by far than the above,
is the following:
To a piece of zinc fasten a wire, crooked in the form of the worm of a
still; let the other end of the worm be thrust through a cork. You
then pour spring water into a phial or decanter, to which you add a
small quantity of sugar of lead; thrust the zinc into the bottle, and
with the cork at the end of the wire fasten it up. In a few days the
tree will begin to grow, and produce a most beautiful effect.
_To produce beautiful Fire-works in Miniature._
Put half a drachm of solid phosphorus into a large pint Florence
flask; holding it slanting, that the phosphorus may not break the
glass. Pour upon it a gill and a half of water, and place the whole
over a tea-kettle lamp, or any common tin lamp, filled with spirit of
wine. Light the wick, which should be almost half an inch from the
flask; and as soon as the water is heated, streams of fire will issue
from the water by starts, resembling sky-rockets; some particles will
adhere to the sides of the glass representing stars; and will
frequently display brilliant rays. These appearances will continue at
times till the water begins to simmer, when immediately a curious
aurora borealis begins, and gradually ascends, till it collects to a
pointed flame; when it has continued half a minute, blow out the flame
of the lamp, and the point that was formed will rush down, forming
beautiful illuminated clouds of fire, rolling over each other for some
time, which disappearing, a splendid hemisphere of stars presents
itself: after waiting a minute or two, light the lamp again, and
nearly the same phenomenon will be displayed as from the beginning.
Let the repetition of lighting and blowing out the lamp be made for
three or four times at least, that the stars may be increased. After
the third or fourth time of blowing out the lamp, in a few minutes
after the internal surface of the flask is dry, many of the stars will
shoot with great splendour, from side to side, and some of them will
fire off with brilliant rays; these appearances will continue several
minutes. What remains in the flask will serve for the same experiment
several times, and without adding any more water. Care should be
taken, after the operation is over, to lay the flask and water in a
cool, secure place.
_Artificial Rain and Hail._
Make a hollow cylinder of wood; let it be very thin at the sides,
about eight or ten inches wide, and two or three feet diameter. Divide
its inside into five equal parts, by boards of five or six inches
wide, and let there be between them and the wooden circle, a space of
about one-sixth of an inch. You are to place these boards obliquely.
In this cylinder put four or five pounds of shot that will easily pass
through the opening. When turned upside down, the noise of the shot
going through the various partitions will resemble rain; and if you
put large shot, it will produce the sound of hail.
_Illuminated Writing._
It is well known that if any words are written on a wall with solid
phosphorus, the writing will appear as if on fire; but it is
necessary to give this caution, lest accidents should occur. In using
it, let a cup of water be always near you; and do not keep it more
than a minute and a half in your hand, for fear the warmth of your
hand should set it on fire. When you have written a few words with it,
put the phosphorus into the cup of water, and let it stay a little to
cool; then take it out, and write with it again.
_A Lamp that will burn Twelve Months without replenishing._
Take a stick of phosphorus, and put it into a large dry phial, not
corked, and it will afford a light sufficient to discern any object in
a room when held near it. The phials should be kept in a cool place,
where there is no great current of air, and it will continue its
luminous appearance for more than twelve months.
_Curious Transcolorations._
Put half a table-spoonful of syrup of violets and three
table-spoonfuls of water into a glass; stir them well together with a
stick, and put half the mixture into another glass. If you add a few
drops of acid of vitriol into one of the glasses and stir it, it will
be changed into a crimson; put a few drops of fixed alkali dissolved
into the other glass, and when you stir it, it will change to green.
If you drop slowly into the green liquor, from the side of the glass,
a few drops of acid of vitriol, you will perceive crimson at the
bottom, purple in the middle, and green at the top; and by adding a
little fixed alkali dissolved, to the other glass, the same colours
will appear in different order.
_Another._
If you put a tea-spoonful of a liquor composed of copper infused in
acid of vitriol, into a glass, and add two or three table-spoonfuls of
water to it, there will be no sensible colour produced; but if you add
a little volatile alkali to it, and stir it, you will perceive a very
beautiful blue colour. Add a little acid of vitriol, the colour will
instantly disappear upon stirring it; and by adding a little fixed
alkali dissolved, it will return again.
_Another._
Put half a tea-spoonful of a liquor composed of iron infused in acid
of vitriol, into half a glass of water; and add a few drops of
phlogisticated alkali, and a beautiful Prussian blue will appear.
_Curious Account of the Electric Effects of a Russian Climate._
Mr. Æpinus in a letter to Dr. Guthrie, relates the following
phenomena, which took place in Russia, when a severe frost had
continued for several weeks.
Mr. Æpinus was sent for to the palace to see an uncommon phenomenon.
On going into the apartment of Prince Orloff, he found him at his
toilet, and that every time his valet drew the comb through his hair,
a strong crackling noise was heard; and on darkening the room, sparks
were seen following the comb in great abundance, while the prince
himself was so completely electrified, that strong sparks could be
drawn from his hands and face; nay, he was even electrified when he
was only powdered with a puff.
A few days after, he was witness to a more striking effect of the
electric state of a Russian atmosphere. The Grand Duke of Russia sent
for him one evening in the twilight, and told him, that having briskly
drawn a flannel cover off a green damask chair in his bed-chamber, he
was astonished at the appearance of a strong bright flame that
followed; but considering it as an electrical appearance, he had tried
to produce a similar illumination on different pieces of furniture,
and could then show him a beautiful and surprising experiment. His
highness threw himself on his bed, which was covered with a damask
quilt, laced with gold; and, rubbing it with his hands in all
directions, the young prince, who had then reached his twelfth year,
appeared swimming in fire, as at every stroke flames arose all around
him, darted to the gold-laced border, ran along it, and up to that of
the bed, and even to the very top.
While he was showing this experiment, Prince Orloff came into the
room, with a sable muff in his hand, and showed us, that by only
whirling it five or six times round his head in the air, he could
electrify himself so strongly, as to send out sparks from all the
uncovered parts of his body.
_Astonishing Power of Steam._
If you put a small quantity of water into a tea-kettle, and place it
on the fire, it will disappear in a short time, having escaped in the
steam. But if its escape be prevented by stopping up the spout and
crevices, it will force its way by bursting the vessel in which it was
confined.
If the steam of boiling water be at liberty, the water never attains
more than a certain degree of heat; but if confined in a close vessel,
the additional fire not escaping, the power of the steam is increased,
it re-acts upon the water, and raises the heat so much higher, that it
would keep lead in a melting state; and so penetrating, that it would
soften the marrow-bone of an ox, in a few minutes.
There is an instrument contrived for the foregoing purposes, called
Papin's Digester, from the name of its inventor, and from its
digestive powers on substances exposed to its action. It is a very
strong vessel, made of copper, fitted with a thick close cover, and
fastened down by several strong screws, so as to render it steam-tight
in great degrees of heat. To render it safe, while being used, there
is a valve on the cover, to let out the steam, when it is too violent;
this valve is kept down by a steel-yard, with a weight moveable upon
it, to regulate the degrees of the steam within.
The following account of an accident with one of these instruments,
will give some idea of the great force of steam.
Mr. Papin (the inventor) having fixed all things right, and included
about a pint of water, with two ounces of marrow-bone, he placed the
vessel horizontally between the bars of the grate, about half-way into
the fire. In three minutes he found it raised to a great heat, and
perceiving the heat in a very short time become more raging, stepped
to a side-table for an iron to take the digester out of the fire,
when it suddenly burst with the explosion of a musket. It was heard at
a considerable distance, and actually shook the house. The bottom of
the vessel that was in the fire gave way; the blast of the expanded
water blew all the coals out of the fire into the room, the remainder
of the vessel flew across the room, and, hitting the leaf of an oak
table, an inch thick, broke it all in pieces, and rebounded half the
length of the room back again. He could not perceive the least sign of
water, though he looked carefully for it; the fire was quite
extinguished, and every coal black in an instant.
The following accident was attended with more fatal consequences.
A steam-engine was repairing at Chelsea, and, as the workmen were
endeavouring to discover the defect, the boiler suddenly exploded, and
a cloud of steam rushing out at the fracture, struck one of the men
who was near it, like a blast of lightning, and killed him in a
moment; when his companions endeavoured to take off his clothes, the
flesh came off with them from the bones.
_Account of the Wonderful Effects of two immense Burning-Glasses._
Mr. de Tschirnhausen constructed a burning-glass, between three and
four feet in diameter, and whose focus was rendered more powerful by a
second one. This glass melted tiles, slates, pumice-stone, &c., in a
moment; pitch, and all resins, were melted even under water; the ashes
of vegetables, wood, and other matters, were converted into glass;
indeed, it either melted, calcined, or dissipated into smoke, every
thing applied to its focus.
Mr. Parker, of Fleet-street, made a burning-glass, three feet in
diameter; it was formed of flint glass, and when on its frame, exposed
a surface of 2 feet 8-1/2 inches to the solar rays. It had a small
glass fitted to it, to converge the rays, and heighten the effect. The
experiments made by it were more powerful and accurate than those
performed by any other glass. The following is a brief epitome of its
astonishing power.
--------------------------------------+-------+-------+
Substances melted, with their weight; |Weight | Time |
and the Time in Seconds, which | in | in |
they took in melting. |Grains.|Seconds|
--------------------------------------+-------+-------+
Pure gold | 20 | 4 |
---- silver | 20 | 3 |
---- copper | 33 | 20 |
---- platina | 10 | 3 |
Nickel | 16 | 3 |
A cube of bar-iron | 10 | 12 |
--------- cast-iron | 10 | 3 |
--------- steel | 10 | 12 |
Scoria of wrought-iron | 12 | 2 |
Kearsh | 10 | 3 |
Cauk, or terra ponderosa | 10 | 7 |
A topaz, or chrysolite | 3 | 45 |
An oriental emerald | 2 | 25 |
Crystal pebble | 7 | 6 |
White agate | 10 | 30 |
Oriental flint | 10 | 30 |
Rough cornelian | 10 | 75 |
Jasper | 10 | 25 |
Onyx | 10 | 20 |
Garnet | 10 | 17 |
White rhomboidal spar | 10 | 60 |
Zeolites | 10 | 23 |
Rotten-stone | 10 | 80 |
Common slate | 10 | 2 |
Asbestos | 10 | 10 |
Common lime-stone | 10 | 55 |
Pumice-stone | 10 | 24 |
Lava | 10 | 7 |
Volcanic clay | 10 | 60 |
Cornish moor-stone | 10 | 60 |
--------------------------------------+-------+-------+
_Fulminating Powder._
This powder is made by rubbing together, in a hot marble mortar, with
a wooden pestle, three parts, by weight, of nitre, two of mild
vegetable alkali, and one of flowers of sulphur, till the whole is
accurately mixed. If a drachm of this powder be exposed to a gentle
heat, in an iron ladle, till it melts, it will explode with a noise as
loud as the report of a cannon.
_A more powerful fulminating Powder._
The most wonderful instance of chemical detonation is formed by the
combination of volatile alkali with silver. Gunpowder, or fulminating
gold, are not to be compared with this invention, and the great danger
attending its manufacture prevents us from giving a methodical account
of its preparation to our readers, particularly as it can be
purchased, properly prepared, of the chemists.
The slightest agitation or friction is sufficient to cause its
explosion. When it is once obtained, it can no longer be touched with
safety. The falling of a few atoms of it, from a small height,
produces an explosion; a drop of water falling on it has the same
effect. No attempt, therefore, can be made to enclose it in a bottle,
but it must be let alone in the capsule, wherein, by evaporation, it
obtains this terrible property. To make this experiment with safety,
no greater quantity than a grain of silver should be used; the last
process of drying should be made in a metallic vessel, and the face of
the operator defended by a mask with strong glass eyes.
_To make the Phosphorus Match Bottles._
Nothing more is necessary for this purpose, than to drop small pieces
of dry phosphorus into a common phial; gently heat it till it melts;
and then turn the bottle round, that it may adhere to the sides. The
phial should be closely corked; and when used, a common brimstone
match is to be introduced, and rubbed against the sides of the phial:
this inflames the match when it is brought out of the bottle. Though
there is no danger in phosphorus, till friction, or fire, is applied,
yet persons cannot be too cautious in the use of it, as instances have
been known of one of these bottles catching fire in the pocket, and
very much endangering the person who carried it; likewise, if
carelessly used, small particles are apt to get under the nails, or on
the hand; and if, by accident, they are held to the fire, or rubbed
together, a flame will presently kindle.
_To make a Ring suspend by a Thread, after the Thread has been
burned._
Soak a piece of thread in urine, or common salt and water. Tie it to a
ring, not larger than a wedding-ring. When you apply the flame of a
candle to it, it will burn to ashes, but yet sustain the ring.
_To form Figures in relief on an Egg._
Design on the shell any figure or ornament you please, with melted
tallow, or any other fat oily substance; then immerse the egg into
very strong vinegar, and let it remain till the acid has corroded that
part of the shell which is not covered with the greasy matter: those
parts will then appear in relief, exactly as you have drawn them.
_To give a ghastly Appearance to Persons in a Room._
Dissolve salt in an infusion of saffron and spirits of wine. Dip some
tow in this solution, and, having set fire to it, extinguish all other
lights in the room.
_To change Blue to White._
Dissolve copper filings in a phial of volatile alkali; when the phial
is unstopped, the liquor will be blue; when stopped, it will be white.
_Magical Transmutations._
Infuse a few shavings of logwood in common water, and when the liquor
is sufficiently red, pour it into a bottle. Then take three
drinking-glasses, and rinse one of them with strong vinegar; throw
into the second a small quantity of pounded alum, which will not be
observed if the glass has been recently washed, and leave the third
without any preparation. If the red liquor in the bottle be poured
into the first glass, it will appear of a straw colour; if into the
second, it will pass gradually from bluish-grey to black, when stirred
with a key, or any piece of iron, which has been previously dipped in
strong vinegar. In the third glass, the red liquor will assume a
violet tint.
_To make Pomatum with Water and Wax._
Water and wax are two substances that do not naturally unite together;
therefore, to those who witness the following process, without knowing
the cause, it will have the appearance of marvellous. Put into a new
glazed earthen pot, six ounces of river water and two ounces of white
wax, in which, you must previously conceal a strong dose of salt of
tartar. If the whole be then exposed to a considerable degree of heat,
it will assume the consistence of pomatum, and may be used as such.
_Iron transformed into Copper._
Dissolve blue vitriol in water, till the water is well impregnated
with it; and immerse into the solution small plates of iron, or coarse
iron filings. These will be attacked and dissolved by the acid of the
vitriol, while the copper naturally contained in the vitriol will be
sunk and deposited in the place of the iron dissolved. If the piece of
iron be too large for dissolving, it will be so completely covered
with particles of copper, as to resemble that metal itself.
_Iron transformed into Silver._
Dissolve mercury in marine acid, and dip a piece of iron into it, or
rub the solution over the iron, and it will assume a silver
appearance.
It is scarcely necessary to say, that these transmutations are only
apparent, though to the credulous it would seem that they were
actually transformed.
_Chemical Illuminations._
Put into a middling-sized bottle, with a short wide neck, three ounces
of oil or spirit of vitriol, with twelve ounces of common water, and
throw into it, at different times, an ounce or two of iron filings. A
violent commotion will then take place, and white vapours will arise
from the mixture. If a taper be held to the mouth of the bottle, these
vapours will inflame and produce a violent explosion, which may be
repeated as long as the vapours continue.
_The Philosophical Candle._
Provide a bladder, into the orifice of which is inserted a metal tube,
some inches in length, that can be adapted to the neck of a bottle,
containing the same mixture as in the last experiment. Having suffered
the atmospheric air to be expelled from the bottle, by the elastic
vapour produced by the solution, apply the orifice of the bladder to
the mouth of the bottle, after carefully squeezing the common air out
of it, (which you must not fail to do, or the bladder will violently
explode.) The bladder will thus become filled with the inflammable
air, which, when forced out against the flame of a candle, by pressing
the sides of the bladder, will form a beautiful green flame.
_To make the appearance of a Flash of Lightning, when any one enters a
Room with a lighted Candle._
Dissolve camphor in spirit of wine, and deposit the vessel containing
the solution in a very close room, where the spirit of wine must be
made to evaporate by strong and speedy boiling. If any one then enters
the room with a lighted candle, the air will inflame, while the
combustion will be so sudden, and of so short a duration, as to
occasion no danger.
_To melt Iron in a Moment and make it run into Drops._
Bring a bar of iron to a white heat, and then apply to it a roll of
sulphur. The iron will immediately melt and run into drops.
This experiment should be performed over a basin of water, in which
the drops that fall down will be quenched. These drops will be found
reduced into a sort of cast-iron.
_Never-yielding Cement._
Calcine oyster-shells, pound them, sift them through a silk sieve, and
grind them on porphyry till they are reduced to the finest powder.
Then take the whites of several eggs, according to the quantity of the
powder; and having mixed them with the powder, form the whole into a
kind of paste. With this paste join the pieces of china, or glass, and
press them together for seven or eight minutes. This cement will stand
both heat and water, and will never give way, even if the article
should, by accident, fall to the ground.
_To remove Stains and Blemishes from Prints._
Paste a piece of paper to a very smooth clear table, that the boiling
water used in the operation may not require a colour which might
lessen its success. Spread out the print you wish to clean upon the
table, and sprinkle it with boiling water; taking care to moisten it
throughout by very carefully applying a very fine sponge. After you
have repeated this process five or six times, you will observe the
stains or spots extend themselves; but this is only a proof that the
dirt begins to be dissolved.
After this preparation, lay the print smoothly and carefully into a
copper or wooden vessel, larger than the size of the print. Then cover
it with a boiling ley of potash, taking care to keep it hot as long as
possible. After the whole is cooled, strain off the liquor, take out
the print with care, spread it on a stretched cord, and when half dry,
press it between leaves of white paper, to prevent wrinkles.
By this process, spots and stains of any kind will be effectually
removed.
_To so fill a Glass with Water, that it cannot be removed without
spilling the whole._
This is a mere trick, but may afford some amusement. You offer to bet
any person that you will so fill a glass with water that he shall not
move it off the table without spilling the whole contents. You then
fill the glass, and, laying a piece of paper or thin card over the
top, you dexterously turn the glass upside down on the table, and then
drawing away the paper, you leave the water in the glass, with its
foot upwards. It will therefore be impossible to remove the glass from
the table without spilling every drop.
_Two Figures, one of which blows out and the other re-lights a
Candle._
Make two figures, of any shape or materials you please; insert in the
mouth of one a small tube, at the end of which is a piece of
phosphorus, and in the mouth of the other a tube containing at the end
a few grains of gunpowder; taking care that each be retained in the
tube by a piece of paper. If the second figure be applied to the flame
of a taper, it will extinguish it; and the first will light it again.
_A vessel that will let Water out at the Bottom, as soon as the Mouth
is uncorked._
Provide a tin vessel, two or three inches in diameter, and five or six
inches in height, having a mouth about three inches in width; and in
the bottom several small holes, just large enough to admit a small
needle. Plunge it in water with its mouth open, and when full, while
it remains in the water, stop it very closely. You can play a trick
with a person, by desiring him to uncork it; if he places it on his
knee for that purpose, the moment it is uncorked the water will run
through at the bottom, and make him completely wet.
_A Powder which catches Fire when exposed to the Air._
Put three ounces of rock alum, and one ounce of honey or sugar, into a
new earthen dish, glazed, and which is capable of standing a strong
heat; keep the mixture over the fire, stirring it continually till it
becomes very dry and hard; then remove it from the fire, and pound it
to a coarse powder. Put this powder into a long-necked bottle, leaving
a part of the vessel empty; and, having placed it in a crucible, fill
up the crucible with fine sand, and surround it with burning coals.
When the bottle has been kept at a red heat for about seven or eight
minutes, and no more vapour issues from it, remove it from the fire,
then stop it with a piece of cork; and, having suffered it to cool,
preserve the mixture in small bottles well closed.
If you unclose one of these bottles, and let fall a few grains of this
powder on a bit of paper, or any other very dry substance, it will
first become blue, then brown, and will at last burn the paper or
other dry substance on which it has fallen.
_Fulminating Gold._
Put into a small long-necked bottle, resting on a little sand, one
part of fine gold filings, and three parts of aqua regia,
(nitro-muriatic acid.) When the gold is dissolved, pour the solution
into a glass, and add five or six times the quantity of water. Then
take spirit of sal ammoniac or oil of tartar, and pour it drop by drop
into the solution, until the gold is entirely precipitated to the
bottom of the glass. Decant the liquor that swims at the top, by
inclining the glass; and, having washed it several times in warm
water, dry it at a moderate heat, placing it on paper capable of
absorbing all the moisture.
If a grain of this powder, put into a spoon, (it should be an iron
one,) be exposed to the flame of a candle, it will explode with a very
loud report.
_To melt a piece of Money in a Walnut-shell, without injuring the
shell._
Bend any thin coin, and put it into half a walnut-shell; place the
shell on a little sand, to keep it steady. Then fill the shell with a
mixture made of three parts of very dry pounded nitre, one part of
flowers of sulphur, and a little saw-dust well sifted. If you then set
light to the mixture, you will find, when it is melted, that the metal
will also be melted at the bottom of the shell, in form of a button,
which will become hard when the burning matter round it is consumed:
the shell will have sustained very little injury.
_A Liquid that Shines in the Dark._
Take a bit of phosphorus, about the size of a pea; break it into small
parts, which you are to put into a glass half full of very pure water,
and boil it in a small earthen vessel, over a very moderate fire. Have
in readiness a long narrow bottle, with a well-fitted glass stopper,
and immerse it, with its mouth open, into boiling water. On taking it
out, empty the water, and immediately pour in the mixture in a boiling
state; then put in the stopper, and cover it with mastich, to prevent
the entrance of the external air.
This water will shine in the dark for several months, even without
being touched; and, if it be shaken in dry warm weather, brilliant
flashes will be seen to rise through the middle of the water.
_Luminous Liquor._
Put a little phosphorus, with essence of cloves, into a bottle, which
must be kept closely stopped. Every time the bottle is unclosed, the
liquor will appear luminous. This experiment must be performed in the
dark.
_The changeable Rose._
Take a common full-blown rose, and, having thrown a little sulphur
finely pounded into a chafing-dish with coals, expose the rose to the
vapour. By this process the rose will become whitish; but if it be
afterwards held some time in water, it will resume its former colour.
_Golden Ink._
Take some white gum arabic, reduce it to an impalpable powder, in a
brass mortar; dissolve it in strong brandy, and add a little common
water to render it more liquid. Provide some gold in a shell, which
must be detached, in order to reduce it to a powder. When this is
done, moisten it with the gummy solution, and stir the whole with a
small hair-brush, or your finger; then leave it for a night, that the
gold may be better dissolved. If the composition become dry during the
night, dilute it with more gum water, in which a little saffron has
been infused; but take care that the gold solution be sufficiently
liquid to flow freely in a pen. When the writing is dry, polish it
with a dry tooth.
_Another way._
Reduce gum ammoniac into powder, and dissolve it in gum arabic water,
to which a little garlic juice has been added. This water will not
dissolve the ammonia so as to form a transparent liquid; for the
result will be a milky liquor. With the liquor form your letters or
ornaments on paper or vellum, with a pen or fine camels'-hair brush;
then let them dry, and afterwards breathe on them some time, till they
become moist; then apply a few bits of leaf gold to the letters, which
you press down gently with cotton wool. When the whole is dry, brush
off the superfluous gold with a large camels'-hair brush, and, to make
it more brilliant, burnish with a dog's tooth.
_White Ink, for Writing on black Paper._
Having carefully washed some egg-shells, remove the internal skin, and
grind them on a piece of porphyry. Then put the powder into a small
vessel of pure water, and when it has settled at the bottom, draw off
the water, and dry the powder in the sun. This powder must be
preserved in a bottle; when you want to use it, put a small quantity
of gum ammoniac into distilled vinegar, and leave it to dissolve
during the night. Next morning the solution will appear exceedingly
white; and if you then strain it through a piece of linen cloth, and
add to it the powder of egg-shells, in sufficient quantity, you will
obtain a very white ink.
_To construct Paper Balloons._
Take several sheets of silk paper; cut them in the shape of a spindle;
or, to speak more familiarly, like the coverings of the sections of an
orange; join these pieces together, into one spherical or globular
body, and border the aperture with a ribbon, leaving the ends, that
you may suspend them from the following lamp.
Construct a small basket of very fine wire, if the balloon is small,
and suspend it from the aperture, so that the smoke from the flame of
a few leaves of paper, wrapped together, and dipped in oil, may heat
the inside of it. Before you light this paper, suspend the balloon in
such a manner, that it may, in a great measure, be exhausted of air,
and as soon as it has been dilated, let it go, together with the wire
basket, which will serve as ballast.
_Water-Gilding upon Silver._
Take copper-flakes, on which pour strong vinegar; add alum and salt in
equal quantities; set them on a fire, and when the vinegar is boiled,
till it becomes one-fourth part of its original quantity, throw into
it the metal you design to gild, and it will assume a copper colour.
Continue boiling it, and it will change into a fine gold colour.
_A Water which gives Silver a Gold Colour._
Take sulphur and nitre, of each an equal quantity; grind them together
very fine, and put them into an unglazed vessel; cover and lute it
well; then set it over a slow fire for 24 hours; put what remains into
a strong crucible, and let it dissolve; put it into a phial, and
whatever silver you anoint with it will have a gold colour.
_To make an old Gold Chain appear like new._
Dissolve sal ammoniac in urine, boil the chain in it, and it will have
a fine gold colour.
_To give Silver the Colour of Gold._
Dissolve in common aqua fortis as much silver as you please. To eight
ounces of silver, take four ounces of hepatic aloes, six ounces of
turmeric, and two ounces of prepared tutty, that has been several
times quenched in urine. Put these to the solution of the silver; they
will dissolve, but rise up in the glass like a sponge; this glass must
therefore be large, to prevent running over. Then draw it off, and you
will have ten ounces of silver as yellow as gold.
_A Water to give any Metal a Gold Colour._
Take fine sulphur and pulverize it; then boil some stale spring water;
pour it hot upon the powder, and stir it well together; boil it again,
and pour into it an ounce of dragon's blood. After it is well boiled,
take it off, and filter it through a fine cloth; pour this water into
a matrass, (a chemical vessel,) after you have put in what you design
to colour; close it well, and boil it a third time, and the metal will
be a fine gold colour.
_Another way._
Take hepatic aloes, nitre, and Roman vitriol, of each equal
quantities; and distil them with water, in an alembic, till all the
spirits are extracted; it will at last yield a yellowish water, which
will tinge any sort of metal of a gold colour.
_To give Silver-plate a Lustre._
Dissolve alum in a strong ley, and scum it carefully; then mix it up
with soap, and wash your silver utensils with it, using a linen rag.
_The Fiery Fountain._
If twenty grains of phosphorus, cut very small, and mixed with forty
grains of powder of zinc, be put into four drachms of water, and two
drachms of concentrated sulphuric acid be added thereto, bubbles of
inflamed phosphoretted hydrogen gas will quickly cover the whole
surface of the fluid in succession, forming a real fountain of fire.
_To take Impressions of Coins, Medals, &c._
Cut fish-glue, or isinglass, into small pieces, immerse it in clear
water, and set it on a slow fire; when gradually dissolved, let it
boil slowly, stirring it with a wooden spoon, and taking off the scum.
The liquor being sufficiently adhesive, take it off the fire, let it
cool a little, and then pour it on the medal or coin you wish to copy,
having first rubbed the coin over with oil. Let the composition lay
about the thickness of a crown-piece on the medal. Then set it in a
moderate air, neither too hot nor too cold, and let it cool and dry.
When it is dry, it will loosen itself; you will find the impression
correct, and the finest strokes expressed with the greatest accuracy.
You may give a most pleasing effect to the composition, by mixing any
colour with it, red, yellow, blue, green, &c., and if you add a little
parchment size to it, it will make it harder and better. This size is
made by gently simmering the cuttings of clear white parchment in a
pipkin, with a little water, till it becomes adhesive.
_To tell a Person any Number he may privately fix on._
When the person has fixed on a number, bid him double it and add four
to that doubling; then multiply the whole by 5; to the product let him
add 12, and multiply the amount by 10. From the total of all this, let
him deduct 320, and tell you the remainder; from which, if you cut off
the two last figures, the number that remains will be what he fixed
upon. For instance,
Suppose the number chosen is 7
Which doubled 14
Add 4 to it, and it will make 18
Multiply 18 by 5, gives 90
To which add 12, is 102
Multiply that by 10, makes 1020
From which deducting 320, the remainder is 700
And by striking off the two ciphers, it becomes
the number thought on 7
_To tell any Number a Person has fixed on, without asking him any
Questions._
You tell the person to choose any number from 1 to 15; he is to add 1
to that number, and triple the amount. Then,
1. He is to take the half of that triple, and triple that half.
2. To take the half of the last triple, and triple that half.
3. To take the half of the last triple.
4. To take the half of that half.
Thus, it will be seen, there are four cases where the half is to be
taken; the three first are denoted by one of the eight following Latin
words, each word being composed of three syllables; and those that
contain the letter i refer to those cases where the half cannot be
taken without a fraction; therefore, in those cases, the person who
makes the deduction is to add 1 to the number divided. The fourth case
shows which of the two numbers annexed to every word has been chosen;
for if the fourth half can be taken without adding 1, the number
chosen is in the first column; but if not, it is in the second.
_The words._ _The numbers they denote._
Mi-se-ris 8 0
Ob-tin-git 1 9
Ni-mi-um 2 19
No-ta-ri 3 11
In-fer-nos 4 12
Or-di-nes 13 5
Ti-mi-di 6 14
Te-ne-ant 15 7
For example:
Suppose the number chosen is 9
To which is to be added 1
----
10
The triple of that number is 30
The half of which is 15
The triple of that half must be 45
And the half of that[A] 23
The triple half of that half 69
The half of that[A] 35
And the half of that half[A] 18
[A] At all these stages, 1 must be added, to take the half
without a fraction.
While the person is performing the operation, you remark, that at the
second and third stages he is obliged to add 1; and, consequently,
that the word _ob-tin-git_, in the second and third syllables of which
is an i, denotes that the number must be either 1 or 9; and, by
observing that he cannot take the last half without adding 1, you know
that it must be the number in the second column. If he makes no
addition at any one of the four stages, the number he chose must be
15, as that is the only number that has not a fraction at either of
the divisions.
_The Lamp Chronometer._
Figure 4 represents a chamber lamp, A, consisting of a cylindrical
vessel made of tin, in the shape of a candle, and is to be filled with
oil. This vessel should be about three inches high and one inch
diameter, placed in a stand, B. The whole apparatus, of lamp and
stand, can be purchased, ready-made, at any tin-shop in London. To the
stand, B, is fixed the handle C, which supports the frame D, about 12
inches high, and four inches wide. This frame is to be covered with
oiled paper, and divided into 12 equal parts by horizontal lines, at
the end of which are written the numbers for the hours, from 1 to 12,
and between the horizontal lines, and diagonals, divided into halves,
quarters, &c. On the handle C, and close to the glass, is fixed the
style or hand E.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
Now, as the distance of the style from the flame of the lamp is only
half an inch, then, if the distance of the frame from the style be six
inches, while the float that contains the light descends by the
decrease on the oil, one inch, the shadow of the style of the frame
will ascend 12 inches, being its whole length, and show by its
progression, the regular increase of the hours, with their several
divisions.
You must be careful always to burn the same oil, which must be the
best; and the wick must never vary in size; if these precautions are
not attended to, the dial never can be accurate.
_The Phial of the Four Elements._
Take a phial, six or seven inches long, and about three quarters of an
inch in diameter. In this phial put, first, glass coarsely powdered;
secondly, oil of tartar per deliquum; thirdly, tincture of salt of
tartar; and lastly, distilled rock oil.
The glass and the various liquors being of different densities, if you
shake the phial, and then let it rest a few moments, the three liquors
will entirely separate, and each assume its place; thus forming no
indifferent resemblance of the four elements, earth, fire, water, and
air: the powdered glass (which should be of some dark colour)
representing the earth; the oil of tartar, water; the tincture, air;
and the rock oil, fire.
_The Magic Bottle._
Take a small bottle, the neck of which is not more than the sixth of
an inch in diameter. With a funnel, fill the bottle quite full of red
wine, and place it in a glass vessel, similar to a show-glass, whose
height exceeds that of the bottle about two inches; fill this vessel
with water. The wine will shortly come out of the bottle, and rise in
the form of a small column to the surface of the water; while at the
same time, the water, entering the bottle, will supply the place of
the wine. The reason of this is, that as water is specifically heavier
than wine, it must hold the lower place, while the other rises to the
top.
An effect equally pleasing will be produced, if the bottle be filled
with water, and the vessel with wine.
_The Globular Fountain._
Make a hollow globe, of copper or lead, and of a size adapted to the
quantity of water that comes from a pipe (hereafter mentioned) to
which it is to be fixed, and which may be fastened to any kind of
pump, provided it be so constructed, that the water shall have no
other means of escape than through the pipe. Pierce a number of small
holes through the globe, that all tend towards its centre, and annex
it to the pipe that communicates with the pump. The water that comes
from the pump, rushing with violence into the globe, will be forced
out at the holes, and form a very pleasing sphere of water.
_The Hydraulic Dancer._
Procure a little figure made of cork, which you may dress as your
fancy dictates. In this figure place a small hollow cone made of thin
leaf brass.
When the figure is placed on a jet d'eau, that plays in a
perpendicular direction, it will be suspended on the top of the water,
and perform a great variety of amusing motions.
If a hollow ball of very thin copper, of an inch diameter, be placed
on a similar jet, it will remain suspended, turning round, and
spreading the water all about it.
_A Person having put a Ring an one of his Fingers, to name the Person,
the Hand, the Finger, and the Joint on which it is placed._
Let a third person double the number of the order in which he stands
who has the ring, and add 5 to that number; then multiply that sum by
5, and to the product add 10. Let him next add 1 to the last number,
if the ring be on the right hand, and 2 if on the left, and multiply
the whole by 10: to the product of this he must add the number of the
finger, (counting the thumb as the first finger,) and multiply the
whole again by 10. Let him then add the number of the joint, and,
lastly, to the whole join 35.
He is then to tell you the amount of the whole, from which you are to
subtract 3535, and the remainder will consist of four figures; the
first of which will express the rank in which the person stands, the
second the hand, (number 1 signifying the right, and 2 the left,) the
third number the finger, and the fourth the joint.--For example:
Suppose the person who stands the third in order has put the ring upon
the second joint of the thumb of his left hand; then,
The double of the rank of the third person is 6
To which add 5
____
11
Multiply the sum by 5
____
55
To which add 10
And the number of the left hand 2
____
67
Which being multiplied by 10
____
670
To which add the number of the thumb 1
____
671
And multiply again by 10
____
6710
Then add the number of the joint 2
And lastly the number 35
____
6747
From which deducting 3535
____
The remainder is 3212
____
Of which, as we have said, the 3 denotes the third person, the 2 the
left hand, the 1 the thumb, and the last 2 the second joint.
_The Water Sun._
Provide two portions of a hollow sphere, that are very shallow; join
them together in such a manner that the hollow between them be very
narrow. Fix them vertically to a pipe from whence a jet proceeds. Bore
a number of small holes all around that part where the two pieces are
joined together. The water rushing through the holes will form a very
pleasing water sun, or star.
_The Magical Cascade._
Procure a tin vessel, shaped like Fig. 5, about five inches high and
four in diameter, with a cover, C, closed at top. To the bottom of
this vessel, let the pipe D E be soldered. This pipe is to be ten
inches long, and half an inch in diameter, open at each end, and the
upper end must be above the water in the vessel. To the bottom also
fix five or six small tubes, F, about one-eighth of an inch in
diameter. By these pipes, the water in the vessel is to run slowly
out.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
Place this machine in a tin basin, G H, with a hole in the middle,
about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Fix to the tube D E, any sort
of ornament that will keep the machine firm on the basin, observing,
that these supports are sufficiently long to leave about a quarter of
an inch between the end of the tube and the orifice in the basin; and
let there be a vessel under the basin to catch the water that runs
out.
As the small pipes discharge more water into the basin than can run
out of the central orifice, the water will rise in the basin above the
lower end of the pipe, and prevent the air from getting into the
vessel, by which the water will cease to flow from the small pipes.
But as the water continues to flow from the basin, the air will have
liberty again to enter the vessel by the tube, and the water will
again flow from the small pipes, and alternately stop and flow, while
any water remains in the vessel.
As you can guess when the pipes will flow, and when they will stop,
you may so manage it, that they will appear to act by word of command.
_The illuminated Fountain, that plays when the Candles are lighted,
and stops when they are extinguished._
Provide two cylindrical vessels, A B and C D, as in Fig. 6. Connect
them by four tubes open at each end, as H I, &c., so that the air may
descend out of the higher into the lower vessel. To these tubes fix
candlesticks, and to the hollow cover, E F, of the lower vessel, fit a
tube, K, reaching almost to the bottom of the vessel. At G let there
be an aperture with a screw, whereby water may be poured into C D,
which, when filled, must be closed by the screw.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.]
When the candles are lighted, the air in the upper cover and
contiguous pipes will be thereby rarefied, and the jet from the small
tube, K, will begin to play: as the air becomes more rarefied, the
force of the jet will increase, and it will continue to play till the
water in the lower vessel is exhausted. As the motion of the jet is
caused by the heat of the candles, when they are extinguished the
fountain will stop.
_A Fountain which acts by the heat of the Sun._
In the annexed engraving, Fig. 7, G N S is a thin hollow globe of
copper, eighteen inches diameter, supported by a small inverted basin,
placed on a stand with four legs, A B C D, which have between them, at
the bottom, a basin of two feet diameter. Through the leg C passes a
concealed pipe, which comes from G, the bottom of the inside of the
globe. This pipe goes by H V, and joins the upright pipe _u_ I, to
make a jet, as I. The short pipe, _u_ I, which goes to the bottom, has
a valve at _u_, under the horizontal pipe H V, and another valve at T,
above that Horizontal pipe, under the cock at K. The use of this cock
is to keep the fountain from playing in the day, if you think proper.
The north pole N of the globe has a screw that opens a hole, whereby
water is poured into the globe.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
The machine being thus prepared, and the globe half filled with water,
put it in an open place, when the heat of the sun rarefying the air as
it heats the copper, the air will press strongly against the water,
which, coming down the pipe, will lift up the valve at V, and shut the
valve at u. The cock being opened, the water will spout out at I, and
continue to play a long while, if the sun shines.
_Inflammable Phosphorus._
Take the meal of flour of any vegetable, put it into an iron pan over
a moderate fire, and keep it stirring with an iron spoon till it
changes to a black powder; to one part of this add four parts of raw
alum. Make the whole into a fine powder; put it again into the iron
pan, and keep stirring it till it almost catches fire, to prevent its
forming into lumps, as it is apt to do when the alum melts; in which
case it must be broken again, stirred about, and accurately mixed with
the flour, till it emits no more fumes, and the whole appears a fine
black powder.
Put this powder in a clean dry phial with a narrow neck, filling it to
about one-third of the top. Then stop the mouth of the phial with
loose paper, so as to let the air pass freely through it, and leave
room for the fumes to come through the neck. Place the phial in a
crucible, encompassed on all sides with sand, so that it may not touch
any part of the crucible, but a considerable space everywhere left
between. The phial must be covered up with sand, leaving only a small
part bare, by which you can discern whether the powder is ignited. In
this state, the crucible is to be surrounded with coals, kindled
slowly till it is well heated on all sides, and then the fire is to be
raised, till the crucible and every thing in it is red-hot; keep it in
this state an hour; after this, the fire still burning as fiercely,
close up the orifice of the phial with wax, to exclude the air. Leave
it to cool, and you will find in it a black dusty coal formed of the
flour and alum.
Shake a small quantity of this out of the phial into the cool air, and
it will immediately take fire, but will not burn any thing. Keep the
bottle dry, as even the air will spoil it effectually.
_The Magical Mirrors._
Make two holes in the wainscot of a room, each a foot high and ten
inches wide, and about a foot distant from each other. Let these
apertures be about the height of a man's head, and in each of them
place a transparent glass in a frame, like a common mirror.
Behind the partition, and directly facing each aperture, place two
mirrors enclosed in the wainscot, in an angle of forty-five
degrees.[B] These mirrors are each to be eighteen inches square: and
all the space between them must be enclosed with pasteboard painted
black, and well closed, that no light can enter; let there be also two
curtains to cover them, which you may draw aside at pleasure.
When a person looks into one of these fictitious mirrors, instead of
seeing his own face he will see the object that is in front of the
other; thus, if two persons stand at the same time before these
mirrors, instead of each seeing himself; they will reciprocally see
each other.
There should be a sconce with a lighted candle, placed on each side of
the two glasses in the wainscot, to enlighten the faces of the persons
who look in them, or the experiment will not have so remarkable an
effect.
[B] That is, half-way between a line drawn perpendicularly to
the ground and its surface.
_To cause a brilliant Explosion under Water._
Drop a piece of phosphorus, the size of a pea, into a tumbler of hot
water; and, from a bladder furnished with a stop-cock, force a stream
of oxygen directly upon it. This will afford a most brilliant
combustion under water.
_Fulminating Mercury._
Dissolve 100 grains of mercury by heat, in an ounce and a half of
nitric acid. This solution being poured cold upon two measured ounces
of alcohol previously introduced into any convenient glass vessel, a
moderate heat is to be applied, till effervescence is excited. A white
fume then begins to appear on the surface of the liquor, and the
powder will be gradually precipitated when the action ceases. The
precipitate is to be immediately collected on a filter, well washed
with distilled water, and cautiously dried in a heat not exceeding
that of a water-bath. Washing the powder immediately is material,
because it is liable to the re-action of the nitric acid; and, while
any of the acid adheres to it, it is very subject to the action of
light. From 100 grains of mercury, about 130 of the powder are
obtained.
This powder, when struck on an anvil with a hammer, explodes with a
sharp stunning noise, and with such force as to indent both hammer and
anvil. Three or four grains are sufficient for one experiment.
_The Iron Tree._
Dissolve iron filings in aqua fortis, moderately concentrated, till
the acid is saturated; then add to it gradually, a solution of fixed
alkali, (commonly called oil of tartar per deliquum.) A strong
effervescence will ensue, and the iron, instead of falling to the
bottom of the vessel, will afterwards rise so as to cover the sides,
forming a multitude of ramifications heaped one upon the other, which
will sometimes pass over the edge of the vessel, and extend themselves
on the outside, with all the appearance of a plant.
_To make any Number divisible by Nine, by adding a Figure to it._
If (for example) the number named be 72,857, you tell the person who
names it to place the number 7 between any two figures of that sum,
and it will be divisible by 9; for if any number be multiplied by 9,
the sum of the figures of the product will be either 9, or a number
divisible by 9.
_Arithmetical Squares._
An arithmetical magical square consists of numbers so disposed in
parallel and equal lines, that the sum of each, taken any way of the
square, amounts to the same.
Any five of these sums taken in a right line make 65. You will observe
that five numbers in the diagonals A to D, and B to C, of the magical
square, answer to the ranks E to F, and G to H, in the natural square,
and that 13 is the centre number of both squares.
_A Natural Square._ _A Magical Square._
A G B A B
+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| |11|24| 7|20| 3|
+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+
| 6| 7| 8| 9|10| | 4|12|25| 8|16|
+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+
E |11|12|13|14|15| F |17| 5|13|21| 9|
+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+
|16|17|18|19|20| |10|18| 1|14|22|
+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+
|21|22|23|24|25| |23| 6|19| 2|15|
+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+
C H D C D
To form a magical square, first transpose the two ranks in the natural
square to the diagonals of the magical square; then place the number 1
under the central number 13, and the number 2 in the next diagonal
downward. The number 3 should be placed in the same diagonal line; but
as there is no room in the square, you are to place it in that part it
would occupy if another square were placed under this. For the same
reason, the number 4, by following the diagonal direction, falling out
of the square, it is to be put into the part it would hold in another
square, placed by the side of this. You then proceed to numbers 5 and
6, still descending; but as the place 6 should hold is already filled,
you then go back to the diagonal, and consequently place the 6 in the
second place under the 5, so that there may remain an empty space
between the two numbers. The same rule is to observed, whenever you
find a space already filled.
You proceed in this manner to fill all the empty cases in the angle
where the 15 is placed: and as there is no space for the 16 in the
same diagonal, descending, you must place it in the part it would hold
in another square, and continue the same plan till all the spaces are
filled. This method will serve equally for all sorts of arithmetical
progressions composed of odd numbers; even numbers being too
complicated to afford any amusement.
_To find the Difference between two Numbers, the greatest of which is
unknown._
Take as many nines as there are figures in the smallest number, and
subtract that sum from the number of nines. Let another person add
that difference to the largest number, and, taking away the first
figure of the amount, add it to the last figure, and that sum will be
the difference of the two numbers.
For example: Robert, who is 22, tells George, who is older, that he
can discover the difference of their ages; he therefore privately
deducts 22 from 99, and the difference, which is 77, he tells George
to add to his age, and to take away the first figure from the amount,
and add it to the last figure, and that last sum will be the
difference of their ages. Thus, the difference between
Robert's age and 99, is 77
To which George adding his age 35
----
The sum will be 112
----
12
1
----
Then by taking away the first figure, 1, }
and adding it to the last figure, 2, } 13
the sum is }
Which added to Robert's age 22
----
Gives George's age, which is 35
_The Boundless Prospect._
Take a square box, about six inches long and twelve high, or of any
other proportionate dimensions. Cover the inside with four flat pieces
of looking-glass placed perpendicular to the bottom of the box. Place
at the bottom any objects you please, as a piece of fortification, a
castle, tents, soldiers, &c. On the top, place a frame of glass shaped
like the bottom of a pyramid, as in Fig. 8, and so formed as to fit on
the box like a cover. The four sides of this cover are to be composed
of ground glass, or covered inside with gauze, so that the light may
enter, and yet the inside be invisible, except at the top, which must
be covered with transparent glass: when you look through this glass,
the inside will present a pleasing prospect of a boundless extent;
and, if managed with care, will afford a deal of amusement.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
_To set Fire to a combustible Body by Reflection._
Place two concave mirrors at about twelve feet distance from each
other, and let the axis of each be in the same line. In the focus of
one of them place a live coal, and in the focus of the other some
gunpowder. With a pair of strong bellows keep blowing the coal, and
notwithstanding the distance between them, the powder will presently
take fire.
The mirror may be either made of glass, metal, or pasteboard gilt.
_To find the Number of Changes that may be rung on Twelve Bells._
Multiply the numbers from 1 to 12 continually into each other, as
follow: and the last product will give the number required.
1
2
--
2
3
--
6
4
--
24
5
----
120
6
----
720
7
-----
5,040
8
------
40,320
9
-------
362,880
10
---------
3,628,800
11
----------
39,916,800
12
-----------
479,001,600
_To find how many square Yards it would require to write all the
Changes of the Twenty-four Letters of the Alphabet, written so small,
that each Letter should not occupy more than the hundredth part of a
square Inch._
By adopting the plan of the preceding article, the changes of the
twenty-four letters will be found to be
62,044,840,173,323,943,936,000.
Now, the inches in a square yard being 1,296, that number multiplied
by 100 gives 129,600, which is the number of letters each square yard
will contain; therefore, if we divide the above row of figures,
(the number of changes,) by 129,600, the quotient, which is
478,741,050,720,092,160, will be the number of yards required to
contain the above mentioned number of changes. But as all the 24
letters are contained in every permutation, it will require a space
24 times as large, _viz._,
11,849,785,210,282,211,840.
Now, as the surface of the whole globe only contains
617,197,435,008,000 square yards, it would require a surface 18,620
times as large as the earth to contain them.
_The Enchanted Bottle._
Fill a glass bottle with water to the beginning of the neck; leave
the neck empty, and cork it. Suspend this bottle opposite a concave
mirror, and beyond its focus, that it may appear reversed. Place
yourself still further distant from the bottle; and instead of the
water appearing, as it really is, at the bottom of the bottle, the
bottom will be empty, and the water seen at the top.
If the bottle be suspended with the neck downwards, it will be
reflected in its natural position, and the water at the bottom,
although in reality it is inverted, and fills the neck; leaving the
bottom vacant. While the bottle is in this position, uncork it, and
let the water run gradually out: it will appear, that while the real
bottle is emptying, the reflected one is filling. Care must be taken
that the bottle is not more than half or three parts full, and that no
other liquid is used but water, as in either of these cases the
illusion ceases.
_The Solar Magic Lantern._
Make a box, a foot high, eighteen inches wide, and about three inches
deep. Two of the opposite sides of this box must be quite open, and in
each of the other sides let there be a groove wide enough to admit a
stiff paper or pasteboard. You fasten the box against a window, on
which the sun's rays fall direct. The rest of the window should be
closed up, that no light may enter.
Next provide several sheets of stiff paper, blacked on one side. On
these papers cut out such figures as your fancy may dictate; place
them alternately in the grooves of the box, with their blacked sides
towards you, and look at them through a large and clear glass prism;
and if the light be strong, they will appear painted with the most
lively colours. If you cut on one of these papers the form of a
rainbow, about three-quarters of an inch wide, you will have a very
good representation of the natural one.
For greater convenience, the prism may be placed on a stand on the
table, made to turn round on an axis.
_The Artificial Rainbow._
Opposite a window into which the sun shines direct suspend a glass
globe, filled with clean water, by means of a string that runs over a
pulley, so that the sun's rays may fall on it. Then drawing the globe
gradually up, you will observe, when it comes to a certain height, and
by placing yourself in a proper situation, a purple colour in the
glass; and by drawing it up gradually higher, the other prismatic
colours, blue, green, yellow, and red, will successively appear; after
which, the colours will disappear, till the globe is raised to about
fifty degrees, when they will again appear, but in an inverted order,
the red appearing first, and the blue or violet last; on raising the
globe a little higher, they will totally vanish.
_The Æolipiles._
The æolipile is a small hollow globe of brass, or other metal, in
which a slender neck or pipe is inserted. This ball, when made
red-hot, is cast into a vessel of water, which will rush into its
cavity, then almost void of air. The ball being then set on the fire,
the water, by the rarefaction of the internal air, will be forced out
in steam by fits, with great violence, and with strange noise.
If to the necks of two or more of these balls, there be fitted those
calls that are used by fowlers and hunters, and the balls placed on
the fire, the steam rushing from them will make such a horrible noise,
that it will astonish any person who is ignorant of the contrivance.
_The Talking Busts._
Procure two busts of plaster of Paris; place them on pedestals, on the
opposite sides of the room. Let a thin tube, of an inch diameter, pass
from the ear of one head through the pedestal, under the floor, and go
up to the mouth of the other; taking care that the end of the tube
that is next the ear of the one head, be considerably larger than that
end which comes to the mouth of the other.
Now, when a person speaks quite low into the ear of one bust, the
sound is reverberated through the length of the tube, and will be
distinctly heard by any one placing his ear to the mouth of the other.
It is not necessary that the tube should come to the lips of the bust.
If there be two tubes, one going to the ear, and the other to the
mouth of each head, two persons may converse together, by whispers,
without the knowledge of any person who may stand in the middle of the
room.
_The Inanimate Oracle._
Place a bust on a pedestal in the corner of a room, and let there be
two tubes, as in the preceding article, one to go from the mouth, and
the other from the ear, through the pedestal and the floor to an under
apartment; there may be also wires, that go from the under jaw and the
eyes of the bust, by which they may be easily moved.
A person being placed in the room underneath, and applying his ear to
one of the tubes at a signal given, will hear any question asked, and
can immediately reply, by applying his mouth to the tube which
communicates below, at the same time moving the eyes by the wire, to
accompany his speech.
_The Solar Concerto._
In a large case, similar to what is used for dials and spring clocks,
the front of which, or at least the lower part, must be of glass,
covered on the inside with gauze, place a barrel organ, which when
wound up is prevented from playing by a catch that takes a toothed
wheel at the end of the barrel. To one end of this catch join a wire,
at the end of which is a flat circle of cork, of the same dimensions
with the inside of a glass tube, in which it is to rise and fall. This
tube must communicate with a reservoir that goes across the front part
of the bottom of the case, which is to be filled with spirits, such as
is used in thermometers.
This case being placed in the sun, the spirits will be rarefied by the
heat, and, rising in the tube, will lift up the catch or trigger, and
set the organ in play; which will continue as long as it is kept in
the sun; for the spirits cannot run out of the tube, that part of the
catch to which the circle is fixed being prevented from rising beyond
a certain point, by a check placed over it. Care must be taken to
remove the machine out of the sun before the organ runs down, that its
stopping may be evidently affected by the cold.
In winter it will perform when placed before the fire.
CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS WITH THE MAGIC LANTERN.
The construction of this amusing optical machine is so well known,
that to describe it would be superfluous; particularly as it can now
be purchased at a very reasonable expense, at any of the opticians':
but as many persons who have a taste for drawing might not be pleased
with the designs to be had at the shops, or might wish to indulge
their fancy in a variety of objects, which to purchase would become
expensive, we here present our readers, in the first place, with the
method of drawing them, which will be succeeded by a plain
description of some very diverting experiments.
_Of Painting the Glasses._
You first draw on a paper, the size of the glass, the subject you mean
to paint; fasten this at each end of the glass with paste, or any
other cement, to prevent it from slipping. Then with some very black
paint mixed with varnish, draw with a fine camels'-hair pencil, very
lightly, the outlines sketched on the paper, which, of course, are
reflected through the glass. Some persons affirm that those outlines
can be more readily traced with japan writing ink, and a common pen
with a fine nib; but this, even if it succeeds in making a delicate
black outline, is sure to be effaced by damp or wet.
It would improve the natural resemblance, if the outlines were drawn
with a strong tint of each of the natural colours of the object; but
in this respect you may please your own fancy. When the outlines are
dry, colour and shade your figures; but observe, to temper your
colours with strong white varnish. A pleasing effect will be produced,
if you leave strong lights in some parts of the drapery, &c., without
any colours. The best colours for this purpose are transparent ones;
opaque or mineral colours will not do. The following are in most
repute.
For Pink and crimson Lake or carmine.
Blue Prussian blue.
Green Calcined verdigris, or distilled ditto.
Yellow Gamboge.
_To represent a Storm at Sea._
Provide two strips of glass, whose frames are thin enough to admit
both strips freely into the groove of the lantern. On one of these
glasses paint the appearance of the sea from a smooth calm to a
violent storm. Let these representations run gradually into each
other, as in Fig. 9, and you will of course observe, that the more
natural and picturesque the painting is, the more natural and pleasing
will be the reflection.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
[Illustration: Fig. 10.]
On the other glass, Fig. 10, paint various vessels on the ocean,
observing to let that end where the storm is, appear in a state of
violent commotion, and the vessels as if raised on the waves in an
unsettled position, with heavy clouds about them.
You then pass the glasses slowly through the groove, and when you come
to that part where the storm is supposed to begin, move them gently up
and down, which will give the appearance of the sea and vessels being
agitated; increase the motion till they come to the height of the
storm. You will thus have a very natural representation of the sea and
ships in a calm and storm; and as you gradually draw the glasses back,
the tempest will subside, the sky appear clear, and the vessels glide
gently over the waves.
By the means of two or three glasses, you may also represent a battle
on land, or a naval engagement, with a variety of other pleasing
experiments.
_To produce the appearance of a Spectre on a Pedestal in the middle of
a Table._
Enclose a small magic lantern in a box, Fig. 11, large enough to
contain a small swing dressing-glass, which will reflect the light
thrown on it by the lantern in such a way, that it will pass out at
the aperture made at the top of the box; which aperture should be
oval, and of a size adapted to the cone of light to pass through it.
There should be a flap with hinges, to cover the opening, that the
inside of the box may not be seen.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.]
There must be holes in that part of the box which is over the lantern,
to let the smoke out; and over this must be placed a chafing-dish of
an oblong figure, large enough to hold several lighted coals. This
chafing-dish, for the better carrying on the deception, may be
enclosed in a painted tin box, about a foot high, with a hole at top,
and should stand on four feet, to let the smoke from the lantern
escape.
There must also be a glass planned to rise up and down in the groove
_a b_, and so managed by a cord and pulley, _c d e f_, that it may be
raised up and let down by the cord coming through the outside of the
box. On this glass, the spectre, (or any other figure you please,)
must be painted in a contracted or equal form, as the figure will
reflect a greater length than it is drawn.
When you have lighted the lamp in the lantern, and placed the mirror
in a proper direction, put the box on a table, and, setting the
chafing-dish in it, throw some incense, in powder, on the coals. You
then open the trap door and let down the glass in the groove slowly,
and when you perceive the smoke diminish, draw up the glass, that the
figure may disappear, and shut the trap door.
This exhibition will afford a deal of wonder; but observe, that all
the lights in the room must be extinguished; and the box should be
placed on a high table, that the aperture through which the light
comes out may not be seen.
There are many other pleasing experiments which may be made with the
magic lantern, but the limits of our work will not permit us to
specify them, without excluding many other equally interesting
subjects of a different nature.
_The Artificial Landscape._
Procure a box, as in Fig. 12, of about a foot long, eight inches wide,
and six inches high, or any other dimensions you please, so they do
not greatly vary from these proportions. At each of its opposite ends,
on the inside of this box, place a piece of looking-glass that shall
exactly fit: but at that end where the sight hole A is, scrape the
quicksilver off the glass, through which the eye can view the objects.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.]
Cover the box with gauze, over which place a piece of transparent
glass, which is to be well fastened in. Let there be two grooves at
each of the places C D E F, to receive two printed scenes, as follow:
On two pieces of pasteboard, let there be skilfully painted, on both
sides, any subject you think proper, as woods, bowers, gardens,
houses, &c.; and on two other boards, the same subjects on one side
only, and cut out all the white parts: observe also, that there ought
to be in one of them some object relative to the subject, placed at A,
that the mirror placed at B may not reflect the hole on the opposite
side.
The boards painted on both sides are to slide in the grooves C D E F,
and those painted on one side are to be placed against the opposite
mirrors A and B; then cover the box with its transparent top. This box
should be placed in a strong light, to have a good effect.
When it is viewed through the sight hole, it will present an unlimited
prospect of rural scenery, gradually losing itself in obscurity; and
be found well worth the pains bestowed on its construction.
_To draw, easily and correctly, a Landscape, or any other Object,
without being obliged to observe the Rules of Perspective, and without
the Aid of the Camera Obscura._
[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
Procure a box of pasteboard, A B C D, Fig. 13, of about a foot and a
half long, and made in the shape of a truncated pyramid, whose base, B
D F G, is eight inches wide, and six inches high. Fix to the other end
of it a tube of four or five inches long, and which you can draw out
from the box more or less. Line the inside of the box with black
paper, and place it on a leg or stand of wood, H, and on which it may
be elevated or depressed by the hinge I.
Take a small frame of wood, and divide it at every inch by lines of
black silk drawn across it, forming forty-eight equal parts; divide
these into still smaller equal parts, by lines of finer silk:[C] fix
this frame at the end of B D, as the base of the pyramid.
Provide a drawing-paper, divided into the same number of parts as in
the frame, by lines, lightly drawn in pencil. It is not material of
what size these divisions are; that will depend entirely on the size
you propose to draw the objects by this instrument.
Place this instrument opposite a landscape, or any other object that
you want to draw, and fix the leg firmly on, or in the ground, that it
may not shake; then turning it to the side you choose, raise or
incline it, and put the tube further in or out, till you have gained
an advantageous view of the object you intend to draw.
Place your eye, E, by the instrument, which you have adjusted to the
height of your eye, and, looking through the tube, carefully observe
all that is contained in each division of the frame, and transpose it
to the corresponding division in your paper; and if you have the least
knowledge in painting or even drawing, you will make a very pleasing
picture, and one in which all the objects will appear in the most
exact proportion.
By the same method you may draw all sorts of objects, as architecture,
views, &c., and even human figures, if they remain some time in the
same attitude, and are at a proper distance from the instrument.
[C] The different thicknesses of the silk serve to
distinguish more readily the corresponding divisions.
_Illuminated Prospects._
Provide yourself with some of those prints that are commonly used in
optical machines, printed on very thin white paper; taking care to
make choice of such as have the greatest effect from the manner in
which the objects are placed in perspective. Place one of these on the
borders of a frame, and paint it carefully with the most lively
colours, making use of none that are terrestrial. Observe to retouch
those parts several times where the engraving is strongest,[D] then
cut off the upper part or sky, and fix that on another frame.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
The prints being thus prepared, place them in a box, A B C D, Figs. 14
and 15, the opening to which, E F G H, should be a little less than
the print. Cover this opening with a glass, and paint all the space
between that and the prints, which should be about two or three
inches, black. The frame that contains the sky should be about an inch
behind the other. In the back part of this box, which is behind the
prints, and which may be about four inches deep, place four or five
small candlesticks to hold wax lights, and cover that part entirely
with tin, that it may be the more luminous.
When the print is placed between the wax lights and the opening in the
front of the box, and there is no other light in the room, the effect
will be highly pleasing; especially if the lights are at a sufficient
distance from each other, and not too strong, that they may not
occasion any blots in the print. Those prints that represent the
rising or setting of the sun will have a very picturesque appearance.
Such as represent conflagrations have also a striking effect.
There should be two grooves for the print next the glass, that you may
insert a second subject before you draw away the first; and that the
lights in the back of the box may not be discovered.
You must not, thinking to make the print more transparent, cover it
with varnish; for that will prevent the gradation of the colours from
being visible. The frame should enter the side of the box by a groove,
that a variety of subjects may be introduced.
[D] When you colour a print, place it before you, against a
piece of glass, in a position nearly erect, that it may be
enlightened by the sun. You may also colour both sides of the
print.
EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM.
_The Magnetic Wand._
Bore a hole three-tenths of an inch in diameter, through a round stick
of wood; or get a hollow cane about eight inches long, and half an
inch thick. Provide a small steel rod, and let it be very strongly
impregnated with a good magnet: this rod is to be put in the hole you
have bored through the wand, and closed at each end by two small ends
of ivory that screw on, different in their shapes, that you may better
distinguish the poles of the magnetic bar.
When you present the north pole of this wand to the south[E] pole of a
magnetic needle, suspended on a pivot, or to a light body swimming on
the surface of the water, (in which you have placed a magnetic bar,)
that body will approach the wand, and present that end which contains
the south end of the bar: but if you present the north or south end of
the wand to the north or south end of the needle, it will recede from
it.
[E] For the more clearly explaining this, it is to be
observed, that the two ends of a magnet are called its poles.
When placed on a pivot, in just equilibrium, that end which
turns to the north is called the north pole, and the other
end the south pole.
_The Mysterious Watch._
You desire any person to lend you his watch, and ask him if it will go
when laid on the table. He will, no doubt, say it will; in which case,
you place it over the end of the magnet, and it will presently stop.
You then mark the precise spot where you placed the watch, and, moving
the point of the magnet, you give the watch to another person, and
desire him to make the experiment; in which he not succeeding, you
give it to a third (at the same time replacing the magnet) and he will
immediately perform it.
This experiment cannot be effected, unless you use a very strongly
impregnated magnetic bar, (which may be purchased at the opticians',)
and the balance of the watch must be of steel, which may be easily
ascertained by previously opening it, and looking at the works.
_The Magnetic Dial._
Procure a circle of wood or ivory, about 5 or 6 inches diameter, which
must turn quite free on a stand with a circular border; on the ivory
or wood circle fix a pasteboard, on which you place, in proper
divisions, the hours, as on a dial. There must be a small groove in
the circular frame, to receive the pasteboard circle; and observe,
that the dial must be made to turn so free, that it may go round
without moving the circular border in which it is placed.
Between the pasteboard circle and the bottom of the frame, place a
small artificial magnet, that has a hole in its middle. On the outside
of the frame, place a small pin, which serves to show when the
magnetic needle is to stop. This needle must turn quite free on its
pivot, and its two sides should be in exact equilibrium.
Then provide a small bag, with five or six divisions, like a lady's
work-bag, but smaller. In one of these divisions put small square
pieces of pasteboard, on which are written the numbers from 1 to 12.
In each of the other divisions put twelve or more similar pieces,
observing that all the pieces in each division must be marked with the
same number. The needle being placed upon its pivot, and turned
quickly about, it will necessarily stop at that point where the north
end of the magnetic bar is placed, and which you previously know, by
the situation of the small pin in the circular border.
You then present to any person that division of the bag which contains
the several pieces on which is written the number opposite to the
north end of the bar, and tell him to draw any one he pleases. Then
placing the needle on the pivot, you turn it quickly about, and it
must necessarily stop at that particular number.
_The Magnetic Cards._
Draw a pasteboard circle; you then provide yourself with two needles,
similar to those used in the foregoing experiment, (which you must
distinguish by some private mark,) with their opposite points touched
with the magnet. When you place that needle whose pointed end is
touched, on the pivot described in the centre of the circle, it will
stop on one of the four pips, against which you have placed the pin
in the frame; then take the needle off, and, placing the other, it
will stop on the opposite point.
Having matters thus arranged, desire a person to draw a card from a
piquet pack, offering that card against which you have placed the pin
of the dial, which you may easily do, by having a card a little longer
than the rest. If he should not draw it the first time, as he probably
may not, you must make some excuse for shuffling them again, such as
letting the cards fall, as if by accident, or some other manoeuvre,
until he fix on the card. You then tell him to keep it close, and not
let it be seen. Then give him one of the two needles, and desire him
to place it on the pivot, and turn it round, when it will stop at the
colour of the card he chose; then taking that needle off, and
exchanging it, unperceived, for the other, give it to a second person,
telling him to do the same, and it will stop at the name of the
identical card the first person chose.
_The Magnetic Orrery._
Construct a round box, Fig. 16, about eight inches diameter, and half
an inch deep. On the bottom fix a circular pasteboard drawn like the
figure. You are likewise to have another pasteboard, drawn exactly the
same, which must turn freely in the box, by means of an axis placed on
a pivot, one end of which is to be fixed in the centre of the circle.
On each of the seven smaller circles on the pasteboard, which you have
fixed at the bottom of the box, place a magnetic bar, two inches long,
in the same direction with the diameters of those circles, and their
poles, in the situations expressed in the figure.
There must be an index like the hour hand of a dial, fixed on the axis
of the central circle, by which the pasteboard circle in the box may
be turned about; also a needle (forming in the figure the other hand)
that will turn freely on the axis, without moving the circular
pasteboard.
In each of the places where the word _question_ is, write a different
question; and in each of the seven circles where the planetary signs
are, write two answers to each question; observing, that there must
only be seven words in each question: for instance,
In division No. 1, of the circle G, which stands opposite question
No. 1, write the first word of the first answer. In the division No.
2, of the next circle, write the second word; and so on to the last,
which will be in the seventh division of the seventh circle.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
In the eighth division of the first circle, write the first word of
the second answer; in the ninth, the second word of the same answer;
and so on to the fourteenth division of the seventh circle, which must
contain the last word of that answer.
The same must be done for all the seven questions, and to each of
these must be assigned two answers, the words of which are to be
dispersed through the seven circles.
At the centre of each of these circles place a pivot, and have two
sets of magnetic needles like the hands of a watch, the pointed end of
one set being north, and the other south.
Now, the index of the central circle being directed to any one of the
questions, if you place one of the two magnetic needles on each of the
seven lesser circles, they will fix themselves according to the
directions of the bars on the corresponding circles at the bottom of
the box, and consequently point to the seven words that compose the
answer. If you place one of the other needles on each circle, it will
point to the words that are diametrically opposite to those of the
first answer, the north pole being in the place of the south pole of
the other.
You therefore present this orrery to any person, and desire him to
choose one of the questions there written. You then set the index of
the central circle to that question; and, putting one of the needles
on each of the seven circles, you turn it about, and when they all
settle, the seven words they point to compose the answer.
The moveable needle, whose point in the figure stands at September, is
to place against the names of the months; and when the party has fixed
upon a question, you place that needle against the month in which he
was born, which will make the ceremony appear a sort of magic
divination. The planetary signs are merely intended to aid this
deception, and give it the appearance of astrology.
_The Magic Verse._
The eight words which compose this Latin verse,
"_Tot sunt tibi dote, quot coeli sidera, virgo,_"[F]
being privately placed in any one of the different combinations of
which they are susceptible, and which are 40,320 in number, to tell
the order in which they are placed.
[F] "Thy charms, O, Virgin! are as numerous as the stars of
heaven."
Provide a box that shuts with hinges, and is eight inches long, three
wide, and half an inch deep, Fig. 17. Have eight pieces of wood, about
one-third of an inch thick, two inches long, and one and a half wide,
which will therefore, when placed close together, exactly fill the
box. In each of these pieces or tablets place a magnetic bar, with
their poles, as is expressed in Fig. 18. The bars being covered over,
write on each of the tablets, in the order they then stand, one of the
words of the foregoing Latin verse.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
[Illustration: Fig. 18.]
[Illustration: Fig. 19.]
On a very thin board of the same dimensions with the box, draw the
eight circles, Fig. 19, A B C D E F G H, whose centres should be
exactly over those of the eight tablets in the box, when the board is
placed upon it. Divide each of those circles into eight parts, as in
the figure, and in each of those divisions write one of the words of
the Latin verse, and in the precise order expressed in the plate, so
that when the board is placed over the box, the eight touched needles
placed at the centre of the circles may be regulated by the poles of
the bars in the box, and consequently the word that the needle points
to in the circle will be the same with that inscribed on the tablet.
Cover the board with a glass, to prevent the needles from rising off
their pivots, as is done in the sea-compass.
Over the board place four plates of glass, I L M N, Fig. 17, which
will give the machine the figure of a truncated pyramid, of eight
inches high. Cover it with a glass, or rather a board, in which are
placed two lenses, O, of eight inches focus, and distant from each
other about half an inch. Line the four plates of glass that compose
the sides with very thin paper, that will admit the light, and at the
same time prevent the company from seeing the circles on the board.
These preparations being made, you give the box to any one, and tell
him to place the tablets, on which the words are written privately, in
what position he thinks proper, then to close the box, and, if he
please, to wrap it up in paper, seal it, and give it to you. Then
placing the board with the pyramid upon it, you immediately tell him
the order in which the tablets are placed, by reading the words to
which the needles on the circles point.
INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS WITH THE AIR-PUMP.
We shall not occupy the time of our readers by describing the form and
nature of the air-pump; since those persons whose circumstances will
enable them to have it, can purchase it properly made at an
optician's, at less expense, and with far less trouble, than they can
construct, or cause it to be constructed, themselves.
_Bottles broken by Air._
Take a square bottle of thin glass, and of any size. Apply it to the
hole of the air-pump, and exhaust the air. The bottle will sustain the
weight of the external air as long as it is able, but at length it
will suddenly burst into very small particles, and with a loud
explosion.
An opposite effect will be produced, if the mouth of a bottle be
sealed so close that no air can escape; then place it in the receiver,
and exhaust the air from its surface. The air which is confined within
the bottle, when the external air is drawn off, will act so powerfully
as to break the bottle into pieces.
_Glass broken by Air._
Lay a square of glass on the top of an open receiver, and exhaust the
air. The weight of the external air will press on the glass, and smash
it to atoms.
_The Hand fixed by Air._
If a person hold his hand on an open receiver, and the air be
exhausted, it will be fixed as if pressed by a weight of sixty pounds.
_Water boiled by Air._
Take water made so warm that you can just bear your hand in it, but
that has not been boiled; put it under the receiver, and exhaust the
air. Bubbles of air will soon be seen to rise, at first very small,
but presently become larger, and will be at last so great, and rise
with such rapidity, as to give the water the appearance of boiling.
This will continue till the air is let into the receiver, when it will
instantly cease.
_Aërial Bubbles._
Take a stone, or any heavy substance, and putting it in a large glass
with water, place it in the receiver. The air being exhausted, the
spring of that which is in the pores of the solid body, by expanding
the particles, will make them rise on its surface in numberless
globules, which resemble the pearly drops of dew on the tops of the
grass. The effect ceases when the air is let into the receiver.
_The floating Stone._
To a piece of cork tie a small stone that will just sink it; and,
putting it in a vessel of water, place it under the receiver. Then
exhausting the receiver, the bubbles of air will expand from its
pores, and, adhering to its surface, will render it, together with the
stone, lighter than water, and consequently they will rise to the
surface, and float.
_Withered Fruit restored._
Take a shrivelled apple, and, placing it under the receiver, exhaust
the air. The apple will immediately be plumped up, and look as fresh
as when first gathered: for this reason, that the pressure of the
external air being taken off, the air in the apple extends it, so much
indeed that it will sometimes burst. If the air be let into the
receiver, the apple will be restored to its pristine shrivelled state.
_Vegetable Air-Bubbles._
Put a small branch of the tree with its leaves, or part of a small
plant, in a vessel of water, and, placing the vessel in the receiver,
exhaust the air.
When the pressure of the external air is taken off, the spring of that
contained in the air-vessels of the plant, by expanding the particles,
will make them rise from the orifices of all the vessels for a long
time together, and produce a most beautiful appearance.
_The Mercurial Wand._
Take a piece of stick, cut it even at each end with a penknife, and
immerse it in a vessel of mercury. When the air is pumped out of the
receiver, it will at the same time come out of the pores of the wood,
through the mercury, as will be visible at each end of the stick. When
the air is again let into the receiver, it falls on the surface of the
mercury, and forces it into the pores of the wood, to possess the
place of the air.
When the rod is taken out, it will be found considerably heavier than
before, and that it has changed its colour, being now all over of a
bluish hue. If cut transversely, the quicksilver will be seen to
glitter in every part of it.
_The Magic Bell._
Fix a small bell to the wire that goes through the top of the
receiver. If you shake the wire, the bell will ring while the air is
in the receiver; but when the air is drawn off, the sound will by
degrees become faint, till at last not the least noise can be heard.
As you let the air in again, the sound returns.
_Feathers heavier than Lead._
At one end of a fine balance, hang a piece of lead, and at the other
as many feathers as will poise it; then place the balance in the
receiver. As the air is exhausted, the feathers will appear to
overweigh the lead, and when all the air is drawn off, the feathers
will preponderate, and the lead ascend.
_The self-moving Wheel._
Take a circle of tin, about ten inches in diameter, or of any other
size that will go into the receiver, and to its circumference fix a
number of tin vanes, each about an inch square. Let this wheel be
placed between two upright pieces on an axis, whose extremities are
quite small, so that the wheel may turn in a vertical position with
the least possible force. Place the wheel and axis in the receiver,
and exhaust the air. Let there be a small pipe with a cock; one end of
the pipe to be outside the top of the receiver, and the other to come
directly over the vanes of the wheel.
When the air is exhausted, turn the cock, and a current will rush
against the vanes of the wheel, and set it in motion, which will
increase, till the receiver is filled with air.
_The Artificial Halo._
Place a candle on one side of the receiver, and let the spectator
place himself at a distance from the other side. Directly the air
begins to be exhausted, the light of the candle will be refracted in
circles of various colours.
_The Mercurial Shower._
Cement a piece of wood into the lower part of the neck of an open
receiver, and pour mercury over it. After a few strokes of the pump,
the pressure of the air on the mercury will force it through the pores
of the wood in the form of a beautiful shower. If you take care that
the receiver is clear and free from spots or dust, and it is dry
weather, it will appear like a fiery shower, when exhibited in a dark
room.
_Magic Fountain._
Take a tall glass tube, hermetically sealed both at top and bottom, by
means of a brass cap screwed on to a stop-cock, and place it on the
plate of the pump. When the air is exhausted, turn the cock, take the
tube off the plate, and plunge it into a basin of mercury or water.
Then the cock being again turned, the fluid, by the pressure of the
air, will play upon the tube in the form of a beautiful fountain.
_The Exploded Bladder._
Take a glass pipe open at both ends, to one of which tie fast a wet
bladder, and let it dry. Then place it on the plate of the pump. While
the air presses the bladder equally on both sides, it will lie even
and straight; but as soon as the air is exhausted, it will press
inwards, and be quite concave on the upper side. In proportion as the
air is exhausted, the bladder will become more stretched; it will soon
yield to the incumbent pressure, and burst with a loud explosion. To
make this experiment more easy, one part of the bladder should be
scraped with a knife, and some of its external fibres taken off.
_The Cemented Bladder._
Tie the neck of the bladder to a stop-cock, which is to be screwed to
the plate of the pump, and the air exhausted from the bladder; then
turn the stop-cock, to prevent the re-entrance of the air, and unscrew
the whole from the pump. The bladder will be transformed into two flat
skins, so closely applied together, that the strongest man cannot
raise them half an inch from each other; for an ordinary-sized
bladder, of six inches across the widest part, will have one side
pressed upon the other with a force equal to 396 pounds' weight.
_Cork heavier than Lead._
Let a large piece of cork be pendent from one end of a balance beam,
and a small piece of lead from the other; the lead should rather
preponderate. If this apparatus be placed under a receiver on the
pump, you will find that when the air is exhausted, the lead, which
seemed the heaviest body, will ascend, and the cork outweigh the lead.
Restore the air, and the effect will cease. This phenomenon is only on
account of the difference of the size in the two objects. The lead,
which owes its heaviness to the operation of the air, yields to a
lighter because a larger substance when deprived of its assistance.
_The animated Bacchus._
Construct a figure of Bacchus, seated on a cask; let his belly be
formed by a bladder, and let a tube proceed from his mouth to the
cask. Fill this tube with coloured water or wine, then place the whole
under the receiver. Exhaust the air, and the liquor will be thrown up
into his mouth. While he is drinking, his belly will expand.
_The Artificial Balloon._
Take a bladder containing only a small quantity of air, and a piece of
lead to it, sufficient to sink it, if immersed in water. Put this
apparatus into a jar of water, and place the whole under a receiver.
Then exhaust the air, and the bladder will expand, become a balloon
lighter than the fluid in which it floats, and ascend, carrying the
weight with it.
_Curious Experiments with a Viper._
Many natural philosophers, in their eagerness to display the powers of
science, have overlooked one of the first duties of life, humanity;
and, with this view, have tortured and killed many harmless animals,
to exemplify the amazing effects of the air-pump. We, however, will
not stain the pages of this little work by recommending any such
species of cruelty, which in many instances can merely gratify
curiosity; but as our readers might like to read the effect on
animals, we extract from the learned Boyle an account of his
experiment with a viper.
He took a newly-caught viper, and, shutting it up in a small receiver,
extracted the air. At first, upon the air being drawn away, the viper
began to swell; a short time after it gasped and opened its jaws; it
then resumed its former lankness, and began to move up and down within
the receiver, as if to seek for air. After a while, it foamed a
little, leaving the foam sticking to the inside of the glass; soon
after, the body and neck became prodigiously swelled, and a blister
appeared on its back. Within an hour and a half from the time the
receiver was exhausted, the distended viper moved, being yet alive,
though its jaws remained quite stretched; its black tongue reached
beyond the mouth, which had also become black in the inside: in this
situation it continued for three hours; but on the air being
re-admitted, the viper's mouth was presently closed, and soon after
opened again; and these motions continued some time, as if there were
still some remains of life.
It is thus with animals of every kind; even minute microscopical
insects cannot live without air.
_Experiments with Sparrows._
Count Morozzo placed successively several full-grown sparrows under a
glass receiver, inverted over water. It was filled with atmospheric
air, and afterwards with vital air. He found,
First.--That in _atmospheric_ air, HOURS MIN.
The first sparrow lived 3 0
The second sparrow lived 0 3
The third sparrow lived 0 1
The water rose in the vessels eight lines during the life of the
first; four during the life of the second; and the third produced no
absorption.
Second.--In _vital_ air or _oxygen_, HOURS MIN.
The first sparrow lived 5 23
The second 2 10
The third 1 30
The fourth 1 10
The fifth 0 30
The sixth 0 47
The seventh 0 27
The eighth 0 30
The ninth 0 22
The tenth 0 21
The above experiments elicit the following conclusions:--1. That an
animal will live longer in vital than in atmospheric air.--2. That one
animal can live in air, in which another has died.--3. That,
independently of air, some respect must be had to the constitution of
the animal; for the sixth lived 47 minutes, the fifth only thirty.--4.
That there is either an absorption of air, or the production of a new
kind of air, which is absorbed by the water as it rises.
AMUSING EXPERIMENTS IN ELECTRICITY.
_The Animated Feather._
Electrify a smooth glass tube with a rubber, and hold a small feather
at a short distance from it. The feather will instantly fly to the
tube, and adhere to it for a short time; it will then fly off, and the
tube can never be brought close to the feather till it has touched the
side of the room, or some other body that communicates with the
ground. If, therefore, you take care to keep the tube between the
feather and the side of the room, you may drive it round to all parts
of the room without touching it; and, what is very remarkable, the
same side of the feather will be constantly opposite the tube.
While the feather is flying before the smooth tube, it will be
immediately attracted by an excited rough tube or a stick of wax, and
fly continually from one tube to the other, till the electricity of
both is discharged.
_The Candle lighted by Electricity._
Charge a small coated phial, whose knob is bent outwards so as to hang
a little over the body of the phial; then wrap some loose cotton over
the extremity of a long brass pin or wire, so as to stick moderately
fast to its substance. Next roll this extremity of the pin, which is
wrapped up in cotton, in some fine powdered resin; then apply the
extremity of the pin or wire to the external coating of the charged
phial, and bring, as quickly as possible, the other extremity, that is
wrapped round with cotton, to the knob; the powdered resin takes fire,
and communicates its flame to the cotton, and both together burn long
enough to light a candle. Dipping the cotton in oil of turpentine will
do as well, if you use a larger sized jar.
_Candle Bombs._
Procure some small glass bubbles, having a neck about an inch long,
with very slender bores, by means of which a small quantity of water
is to be introduced into them, and the orifice afterwards closed up.
This stalk being put through the wick of a burning candle, the flame
boils the water into a steam, and the glass is broken with a loud
explosion.
_The Artificial Spider._
Cut a piece of burnt cork, about the size of a pea, into the shape of
a spider; make its legs of linen thread, and put a grain or two of
lead in it to give it more weight. Suspend it by a fine line of silk
between an electrified arch and an excited stick of wax; and it will
jump continually from one body to the other, moving its legs at the
same time, as if animated, to the great surprise of the unconscious
spectator.
_The Miraculous Portrait._
Get a large print (suppose of the king) with a frame and glass. Cut
the print out at about two inches from the frame all round; then with
thin paste fix the border that is left on the inside of the glass,
pressing it smooth and close; fill up the vacancy, by covering the
glass well with leaf-gold or thin tin-foil, so that it may lie close.
Cover likewise the inner edge of the bottom part of the back of the
frame with the same tin-foil, and make a communication between that
and the tin-foil in the middle of the glass; then put in the board,
and that side is finished. Next turn up the glass, and cover the
fore-side with tin-foil, exactly over that on the back part; and when
it is dry, paste over it the panel of the print that was cut out,
observing to bring the corresponding parts of the border and panel
together, so that the picture will appear as at first, only part of it
behind the glass, and part before. Lastly, hold the print horizontally
by the top, and place a little moveable gilt crown on the king's head.
Now, if the tin-foil on both sides of the glass be moderately
electrified, and another person take hold of the bottom of the frame
with one hand, so that his fingers touch the tin-foil, and with the
other hand attempt to take off the crown, he will receive a very smart
blow, and fail in the attempt. The operator, who holds the frame by
the upper end, where there is no tin-foil, feels nothing of the shock,
and can touch the face of the king without danger, which he pretends
is a test of his loyalty.
_The Cup of Tantalus._
You place a cup of any sort of metal on a stool of baked wood or a
cake of wax. Fill it to the brim with any liquor; let it communicate
with the branch by a small chain; and when it is moderately
electrified, desire a person to taste the liquor, without touching the
cup with his hands, and he will instantly receive a shock on his lips.
The motion of the wheel being stopped, you taste the liquor yourself,
and desire the rest of the company to do so; you then give your
operator (who is concealed in an adjoining room) the signal, and he
again charges the cup; you desire the same person to taste the liquor
a second time, and he will receive a second shock.
_Magical Explosion._
Make up some gunpowder, in the form of a small cartridge, in each end
of which put a blunt wire, so that the ends inside of the cartridge be
about half an inch off each other; then join the chain that proceeds
from one side of the electrifying battery, to the wire at the other
end, the shock will instantly pass through the powder, and set it on
fire.
_Artificial Earthquake._
In the middle of a large basin of water, lay a round wet board. On the
board place any kind of building, made of pasteboard, of separate
pieces, and not fastened together. Then, fixing a wire that
communicates with the two chains of the electrifying battery, so that
it may pass over the board and the surface of the water, upon making
the explosion, the water will become agitated as in an earthquake, and
the board, moving up and down, will overturn the structure, while the
cause of the commotion is totally concealed.
_The Magic Dance._
From the middle of the brass arch suspend three small bells. The two
outer bells hang by chains, and the middle one by a silk string, while
a chain connects it with the floor. Two small knobs of brass, which
serve as clappers, hang by silk strings, one between each two bells.
Therefore, when the two outer bells communicating with the conductor
are electrified, they will attract the clappers and be struck by them.
The clappers being thus loaded with electricity, will be repelled, and
fly to discharge themselves upon the middle bell, after which they
will be again attracted by the outer bells; and thus, by striking the
bells alternately, the ringing may be continued as long as the
operator pleases.
You next suspend a plate of metal from the same part of the arch to
which the bells are connected; then, at the distance of a few inches
from the arch, and exactly under it, place a metal stand _of the same
size_. On the stand place several figures of men, animals, or what you
please, cut in paper, and pretty sharply pointed at each extremity.
When the plate that hangs from the arch is electrified, the figures
will dance with astonishing rapidity, and the bells will keep ringing,
to the no small entertainment of the spectators.
_The Electrical Fountain._
Suspend a vessel of water from the middle of the brass arch, and place
in the vessel a small tube. The water will be one continued stream;
and if the electrification be strong, a number of streams will issue,
in form of a cone, the top of which will be at the extremity of the
tube. This experiment may be stopped and renewed almost instantly, as
if at the word of command.
_The Electric Kite._
Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as
to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief, when
extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of
the cross; and you have the body of the kite, which being properly
accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air like
those made of paper; but this being silk, it is more adapted to bear
the wet and wind of a thunder gust, without tearing. To the top of the
upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp-pointed wire,
rising a foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine is to be
tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key may be
fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-storm appears to be
coming on; and the person who holds the string must stand within a
door or window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not
be wet; and care must be taken that the twine do not touch the frame
of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder clouds come over
the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and
the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, while the loose
filaments of the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by
an approaching finger. When the rain has wetted the kite and twine, so
that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it stream
out plentifully from the key, on the approach of your knuckle. At this
key an electric phial may be charged; and from electric fire thus
obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric
experiments performed which are usually done by the help of a rubbed
glass or tube; and thereby the identity of the electric matter with
that of lightning completely demonstrated.
_The Magic Chase._
On the top of a finely-pointed wire, rising perpendicularly from the
conductor, let another wire, sharpened at each end, be made to move
freely, as on a centre. If it be well balanced, and the points bent
horizontally, in opposite directions, it will, when electrified, turn
very swiftly round, by the re-action of the air against the current
which flows from off the points. These points may be nearly concealed,
and the figures of men and horses, with hounds, and a hare, stag, or
fox, may be placed upon the wires, so as to turn round with them, when
they appear as if in pursuit. The chase may be diversified, and a
greater variety of figures upon them, by increasing the number of
wires proceeding from the same centre.
_The Unconscious Incendiary._
Let a person stand upon a stool made of baked wood, or upon a cake of
wax, and hold a chain which communicates with the branch. On turning
the wheel he will become electrified; his whole body forming part of
the prime conductor; and he will emit sparks whenever he is touched by
a person standing on the floor.
If the electrified person put his finger, or a rod of iron, into a
dish containing warm spirits of wine, it will be immediately in a
blaze; and if there be a wick or thread in the spirit, that
communicates with a train of gunpowder, he may be made to blow up a
magazine, or set a city on fire, with a piece of cold iron, and at the
same time be ignorant of the mischief he is doing.
_The Inconceivable Shock._
Put in a person's hand a wire that is fixed on to the hook that comes
from the chain, which communicates with one side of the battery, and
in his other hand put a small wire with a hook at the end of it, which
you direct him to fix on to a hook which comes from the other chain.
On attempting to do this, he will instantly receive a shock from his
body, without being able to guess the cause.
Care should be taken that the shock be not too strong; and regard
should be had to the constitution and disposition of the party, as a
shock that would hardly affect one person, might be productive of
very serious consequences to another.
Much entertainment may be derived from concealing the chain that
communicates with that which proceeds from the outside of the battery,
under a carpet, and placing the wire that communicates with the chain
from the inside, in such a manner that a person may put his hand on it
without suspicion, at the same time that his feet are upon the other
wire.
The whole company may be made to partake of the shock, by joining
hands, and forming a circle. The experiment may also be varied if they
tread upon each other's toes, or lay their hands upon each other's
heads. It might happen, by the latter method, that the whole company
would be struck to the ground; but it will be productive of no danger,
and very little inconvenience; on the contrary, it has happened that
they have neither heard nor felt the shock.
* * * * *
To exhibit the five following amusements in electricity, the room in
which they are performed must be darkened.
_The Miraculous Luminaries._
You must previously prepare the following phosphorus: Calcine common
oyster-shells, by burning them in the fire for half an hour; then
reduce them to powder; of the clearest of which take three parts, and
of flowers of sulphur one part; put the mixture into a crucible, about
an inch and a half deep. Let it burn in a strong fire for rather
better than an hour; and when it is cool, turn it out and break it in
pieces; and, taking those pieces into a dark place, scrape off the
parts that shine brightest, which, if good, will be a white powder.
Then construct a circular board, of three or four feet diameter, on
the centre of which draw in gum-water, or any adhesive liquid, a
half-moon, of three or four inches diameter, and a number of stars
round it, at different distances, and of various magnitudes. Strew the
phosphorus over the figures, to the thickness of about a quarter of an
inch, laying one coat over the other. Place this board behind a
curtain; and when you draw the curtain up or back, discharge one
electrifying jar or phial over each figure, at the distance of about
an inch, and they will become illuminated, exhibiting a very striking
resemblance of the moon and stars; and will continue to shine for
about half an hour, their splendour becoming gradually more faint.
_The Fiery Shower._
On the plate put a number of any kind of seeds, grains of sand, or
brass dust. The conductor being strongly electrified, those light
particles will be attracted and repelled by the plate suspended from
the conductor, with amazing rapidity, so as to exhibit a perfect fiery
shower.
Another way is by a sponge that has been soaked in water. When this
sponge is first hung to the conductor, the water will drop from it
very slowly; but when it is electrified, the drops will fall very
fast, and appear like small globes of fire, illuminating the basin
into which they fall.
_The Illuminated Vacuum._
Take a tall receiver that is very dry, and fix through the top of it,
with cement, a blunt wire; then exhaust the receiver, and present the
knob of the wire to the conductor, and every spark will pass through
the vacuum in a broad stream of light, visible through the whole
length of the receiver, let it be as tall as it will. This generally
divides into a variety of beautiful rivulets, which are continually
changing their course, uniting and dividing again in the most pleasing
manner.
If a jar be discharged through this vacuum, it presents the appearance
of a very dense body of fire, darting directly through the centre of
the vacuum, without touching the sides; whereas, when a single spark
passes through, it generally goes more or less to the side, and a
finger placed on the outside of the glass will draw it wherever a
person pleases. If the vessel be grasped by both hands, every spark is
felt like the pulsation of a large artery; and all the fire makes
towards the hands. This pulsation is even felt at some distance from
the receiver, and a light is seen between the hand and the glass.
All this while, the pointed wire is supposed to be electrified
positively; if it be electrified negatively, the appearance is
astonishingly different; instead of streams of fire, nothing is seen
but one uniform luminous appearance, like a white cloud, or the _milky
way_ in a clear star-light night. It seldom reaches the whole length
of the vessel, but generally appears only at the end of the wire, like
a lucid ball.
If a small phial be inserted in the neck of a small receiver, so that
the external surface of the glass be exposed to the vacuum, it will
produce a very beautiful appearance. The phial must be coated on the
inside; and while it is charging, at every spark taken from the
conductor into the inside, a flash of light is seen to dart at the
same time from every part of the external surface of the phial, so as
to quite fill the receiver. Upon making the discharge, the light is
seen to run in a much closer body, the whole coming out at once.
_The Illuminated Cylinder._
Provide a glass cylinder, three feet long, and three inches diameter;
near the bottom of it fix a brass plate, and have another brass plate,
so contrived that you may let it down the cylinder, and bring it as
near the first plate as you desire. Let this cylinder be exhausted and
insulated, and when the upper part is electrified, the electric matter
will pass from one plate to the other, when they are at the greatest
distance from each other that the cylinder will admit. The brass plate
at the bottom of the cylinder will also be as strongly electrified as
if it were connected by a wire to the prime conductor.
The electric matter, as it passes through this vacuum, presents a most
brilliant spectacle, exhibiting sparkling flashes of fire the whole
length of the tube, and of a bright silver hue, representing the most
lively exhalations of the aurora borealis.
_The Electric Aurora Borealis._
Make a Torricellian vacuum[G] in a glass tube, about three feet long,
and hermetically sealed.[H] Let one end of this tube be held in the
hand, and the other applied to the conductor; and immediately the
whole tube will be illuminated from one end; and when taken from the
conductor will continue luminous, without interruption, for a
considerable time, very often about a quarter of an hour. If, after
this, it be drawn through the hand either way, the light will be
uncommonly brilliant, and, without the least interruption, from one
end to the other, even to its whole length. After this operation,
which discharges it in a great measure, it will still flash at
intervals, though it be held only at the extremity, and quite still;
but if it be grasped by the other hand at the same time, in a
different place, strong flashes of light will dart from one end to the
other. This will continue for twenty-four hours, and often longer,
without any fresh excitation. Small and long glass tubes, exhausted of
air, and bent in many irregular crooks and angles, will, when properly
electrified, exhibit a very beautiful representation of vivid flashes
of lightning.
[G] A Torricellian vacuum is made by filling a tube with pure
mercury and then inverting it, in the same manner as in
making a barometer; for as the mercury runs out, all the
space above will be a true vacuum.
[H] A glass is hermetically sealed by holding the end of it
in the flame of a candle, till it begin to melt, and then
twisting it together with a pair of pincers.
_The Electrical Orrery._
By the motion of circulating points, we may in some measure imitate
the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, forming what is called the
_Electrical Orrery_. Let a single wire, with the extremities pointed
and turned, be nicely balanced on a point; fix a small glass ball over
its centre to represent the sun. At one extremity of the wire, let a
small wire be soldered perpendicularly, and on this balance another
small wire with its ends pointed and turned, and having a small pith
ball in its centre, to represent the earth, and a smaller ball of the
same kind at one of the angles, for the moon. Let the whole be
supported upon a glass pillar, and be conducted by a chain proceeding
from the prime conductor to the wire supporting the glass ball. Now,
when the machine is put in motion, the wires will turn round, so that
the ball representing the earth will move round the central ball, and
the little ball at the angle of the smaller wire will at the same time
revolve about the earth.
_The Electrified Cotton._
Take a small lock of cotton, extended in every direction as much as
can conveniently be done, and by a linen thread about five or six
inches long, or by a thread drawn out of the same cotton, tie it to
the end of the prime conductor; then set the machine in motion, and
the lock of cotton, on being electrified, will immediately swell, by
repelling its filaments from one another, and will stretch itself
towards the nearest conductor. In this situation let the cylinder be
kept in motion, and present the end of your finger, or the knob of a
wire, towards the lock of cotton, which will then immediately move
towards the finger, and endeavour to touch it; but take with the
other hand a pointed needle, and present its point towards the cotton,
a little above the end of the finger, and the cotton will be observed
immediately to shrink upwards, and move towards the prime conductor.
Remove the needle, and the cotton will come again towards the finger.
Present the needle, and the cotton will shrink again.
_The Electric Sparks._
When the prime conductor is situated in its proper place, and
electrified by whirling the cylinder, if a metallic wire, with a ball
at its extremity, or the knuckle or a finger be presented to the prime
conductor, a spark will be seen to issue between them, which will be
more vivid, and will be attended with a greater or less explosion,
according as the ball is larger. The strongest and most vivid sparks
are drawn from that end or side of the prime conductor which is
farthest from the cylinder. The sparks have the same appearance
whether they be taken from the positive or negative conductor; they
sometimes appear like a long line of fire reaching from the prime
conductor to the opposed body, and often (particularly when the spark
is long, and different conducting substances in the line of its
direction) it will have the appearance of being bent to sharp angles
in different places, exactly resembling a flash of lightning.
The figure of a spark varies with the superficial dimensions of the
part from which it is taken. If it be drawn from a ball of two or
three inches in diameter, it will have the appearance of a straight
line; but if the ball from which it is drawn be much smaller, as half
an inch in diameter, it will assume the zig-zag appearance above
mentioned.
_Dancing Balls._
Take a common tumbler or glass jar, and having placed a brass ball in
one of the holes of the prime conductor, set the machine in motion,
and let the balls touch the inside of the tumbler; while the ball
touches only one point, no more of the surface of the glass will be
electrified, but by moving the tumblers about, so as to make the ball
touch many points successively, all the points will be electrified, as
will appear by turning down the tumbler over a number of pith or cork
balls placed on a table. These balls will immediately begin to fly
about.
_The Leyden Phial._
When a nail or piece of thick brass wire, &c., is put into a small
apothecary's phial, and electrified, remarkable effects follow; but
the phial must be very dry or warm. Rub it once beforehand with your
finger, on which put some pounded chalk. If a little mercury, or a few
drops of spirit of wine, be put into it, the experiment succeeds the
better. As soon as this phial and nail are removed from the
electrifying glass, or the prime conductor, to which it has been
exposed, is taken away, it throws out a stream of flame so long, that
with this burning-machine in your hand, you may take about sixty steps
in walking about your room. When it is electrified strongly, you may
take it into another room, and there fire spirits of wine with it. If,
while it is electrifying, you put your finger, or a piece of gold
which you hold in your hand, to the nail, you receive a shock which
stuns your arms and shoulders.
A tin tube, or a man placed upon electrics, is electrified much
stronger by these means than in the common way. When you present this
phial and nail it to a tin tube, fifteen feet long, nothing but
experience can make a person believe how strongly it is electrified.
Two thin glasses have been broken by the shock of it. It appears
extraordinary, that when this phial and nail are in contact with their
conducting or non-conducting matter, the strong shock does not follow.
_The Self-moving Wheel._
The self-moving wheel is made of a thin round plate of window-glass,
seventeen inches in diameter, well gilt on both sides, to within two
inches of the circumference. Two small hemispheres of wood are then
fixed with cement, to the middle of the upper and under sides,
centrally opposite, and in each of them a thick strong wire, eight or
ten inches long, making together the axis of the wheel. It turns
horizontally on a point at the lower end of its axis, which rests on a
bit of brass, cemented within a glass salt-cellar. The upper end of
its axis passes through a hole in a thin brass plate, cemented to a
long and strong piece of glass, which keeps it six or eight inches
distant from any non-electric, and has a small ball of wax or metal on
its top.
In a circle on the table which supports the wheel, are fixed twelve
small pillars of glass, at about eleven inches distance, with a
thimble on the top of each. On the edge of the wheel is a small
leaden bullet, communicating by a wire with the upper surface of the
wheel; and about six inches from it is another bullet, communicating,
in like manner, with the under surface. When the wheel is to be
charged by the upper surface, a communication must be made from the
under surface with the table.
When it is well charged it begins to move. The bullet nearest to a
pillar moves towards the thimble on that pillar, and, passing by,
electrifies it, and then pushes itself from it. The succeeding bullet,
which communicates with the other surface of the glass, more strongly
attracts that thimble, on account of its being electrified before by
the other bullet; and thus the wheel increases its motion, till the
resistance of the air regulates it. It will go half an hour, and make,
one minute with another, twenty turns in a minute, which is six
hundred turns in the whole, the bullet of the upper surface giving in
each turn twelve sparks to the thimbles, which make seven thousand two
hundred sparks, and the bullet of the under surface receiving as many
from the thimble, these bullets moving in the time nearly two thousand
five hundred feet. The thimbles should be well fixed, and in so exact
a circle, that the bullets may pass within a very small distance of
each of them.
If instead of two bullets you put eight, four communicating with the
upper surface, and four with the under surface, placed alternately,
(which eight, at about six inches distance, complete the
circumference,) the force and swiftness will be greatly increased, the
wheel making fifty turns in a minute; but then it will not continue
moving so long.
_Resin ignited by Electricity._
Wrap some cotton wool, containing as much powdered resin as it will
hold, about one of the knobs of a discharging-rod. Then having charged
a Leyden jar, apply the naked knob of the rod to the external coating,
and the knob enveloped by the cotton to the ball of the wire. The act
of discharging the jar will set fire to the resin.
A piece of phosphorus or camphor wrapped in cotton wool, and used in
the same way, will be much more easily inflamed.
_Spirits ignited by Electricity._
Hang a small ball with a stem to the prime conductor, so that the ball
may project below the conductor. Then warm a little ardent spirit, by
holding it a short time over a candle in a metallic spoon; hold the
spoon about an inch below the ball, and set the machine in motion. A
spark will soon issue from the ball and set fire to the spirits.
This experiment may be varied different ways, and may be rendered very
agreeable to a company of spectators. A person, for instance, standing
upon an electric stool, and communicating with the prime conductor,
may hold the spoon with the spirits in his hand, and another person,
standing upon the floor, may set the spirits on fire, by bringing his
finger within a small distance of it. Instead of his finger he may
fire the spirits with a piece of ice, when the experiment will seem
much more surprising. If the spoon be held by the person standing upon
the floor, and the insulated person bring some conducting substance
over the surface of the spirit, the experiment succeeds as well.
_The Electric Balloon._
Two balloons, made of the allantoides of a calf, are to be filled with
hydrogen gas, of which each contains about two cubic feet. To each of
these is to be suspended, by a silken thread about eight feet long,
such a weight as is just sufficient to prevent it from rising higher
in the air; they are connected, the one with the positive, the other
with the negative conductor, by small wires about 30 feet in length;
and being kept nearly 20 feet asunder, are placed as far from the
machine as the length of the wires will admit. On being electrified,
these balloons will rise up in the air as high as the wire will allow,
attracting each other, and uniting as it were into one cloud, gently
descending.
_The Illuminated Water._
Connect one end of a chain with the outside of a charged phial, and
let the other end lie on the table. Place the end of another piece of
chain at the distance of about a quarter of an inch from the former;
and set a glass decanter of water on these separated ends. On making
the discharge, the water will appear perfectly luminous.
The electric spark may be rendered visible in water, in the following
manner:--Take a glass tube of about half an inch in diameter, and six
inches long; fill it with water, and to each extremity of the tube
adapt a cork, which may confine the water; through each cork insert a
blunt wire, so that the extremities of the wires within the tube may
be very near one another; then, on connecting one of these wires with
the coating of a small charged phial, and touching the other wire with
the knob of it, the shock will pass through the wires, and cause a
vivid spark to appear within their extremities within the tube. The
charge in this experiment must be very weak, or there will be danger
of bursting the tube.
_The Electrified Ball._
Place an ivory ball on the prime conductor of the machine, and take a
strong spark, or send the charge of a Leyden phial through its centre,
and the ball will appear perfectly luminous; but if the charge be not
sent through the centre, it will pass over the surface of the ball and
singe it. A spark made to pass through a ball of box-wood, not only
illuminates the whole, but makes it appear of a beautiful crimson, or
rather a fine scarlet colour.
_Illuminated Phosphorus._
Put some of Canton's phosphorus into a clear glass phial, and stop it
with a glass stopper, or a cork and sealing-wax. If this wire be kept
in a darkened room (which for this experiment must be very dark) it
will give no light; but let two or three strong sparks be drawn from
the prime conductor, when the phial is kept about two inches distant
from the sparks, so that it may be exposed to that light, and this
phial will receive the light and afterwards will appear illuminated
for a considerable time.
This powder may be stuck upon a board by means of the white of an egg,
so as to represent figures of planets, letters, or any thing else, at
the pleasure of the operator, and these figures may be illuminated in
the dark, in the same manner as the above described phial.
A beautiful method of expressing geometrical figures with the above
powder, is to bend small glass tubes, of about the tenth part of an
inch diameter, in the shape of the figure desired, and then to fill
them with the phosphoric powder. These may be illuminated in the
manner described; and they are not so subject to be spoiled, as the
figures represented upon the board frequently are.
_The Luminous Writing._
Small pieces of tin-foil may be stuck on a flat piece of glass, so as
to represent various fanciful figures. Upon the same principle is the
word LIGHT produced, in luminous characters.
It is formed by the small separations of the tin-foil pasted on a
piece of glass fixed in a frame of baked wood. To use this, the frame
must be held in the hand, and the ball presented to the conductor. The
spark will then be exhibited in the intervals composing the word, from
whence it passes to the hook, and thence to the ground by a chain. The
brilliancy of this is equal to that of the spiral tubes.
_The Electric Explosion._
Take a card, a quire of paper, or the cover of a book; and keep it
close to the outside coating of a charged jar: put one knob of the
discharging-rod upon the card, quire of paper, &c., so that, between
the knob and coating of the jar, the thickness of that card or quire
of paper only is interposed; lastly, by bringing the other knob of the
discharged rod near the knob of the jar, make the discharge, and the
electric spark will pierce a hole (or perhaps several) quite through
the card or quire of paper. This hole has a bur raised on each side,
except the card, &c., be pressed hard between the discharging-rod and
the jar. If this experiment be made with two cards instead of one,
which, however, must be kept very little distant from one another,
each of the cards, after the explosion, will be found pierced with one
or more holes, and each hole will have burs on both surfaces of each
card. The hole, or holes, are larger or smaller, according as the
card, &c., is more damp or more dry. It is remarkable, that if the
nostrils are presented to it, they will be affected with a sulphurous,
or rather a phosphoric smell, just like that produced by an excited
electric.
If, instead of paper, a very thin plate of glass, resin, sealing-wax,
or the like, be interposed between the knob of the discharging-rod and
the outside coating of the jar, on making the discharge, this will be
broken in several pieces.
_Electrified Air._
Fix two or three pointed needles into the prime conductor of an
electrical machine, and set the glass in motion so as to keep the
prime conductor electrified for several minutes. If now, an
electometer be brought within the air that is contiguous to the prime
conductor, it will exhibit signs of electricity, and this air will
continue electrified for some time, even after the machine has been
removed into another room. The air, in this case, is electrified
positively; it maybe negatively electrified by fixing the needles in
the negative conductor while insulated, and making a communication
between the prime conductor and the table, by means of a chain or
other conducting substance.
The air of a room may be electrified in another way. Charge a large
jar, and insulate it; then connect two or more sharp-pointed wires or
needles, with the knob of the jar, and connect the outside coating of
the jar with the table. If the jar be charged positively, the air of
the room will soon become positively electrified likewise; but if the
jar be charged negatively, the electricity communicated by it to the
air will also become negative. A charged jar being held in one hand,
and the flame of an insulated candle held in the other being brought
near the knob of the jar, will also produce the same effect.
_Another Electric Orrery._ (See page 92.)
From the prime conductor of an electric machine suspend six concentric
hoops of metal at different distances from each other, in such a
manner as to represent in some measure the proportional distances of
the planets. Under these, and at a distance of about half an inch,
place a metallic plate, and upon this plate, within each of the hoops,
a glass bubble blown very thin and light. On electrifying the hoops,
the bubbles will be immediately attracted by them, and will continue
to move round the hoops as long as the electrification continues. If
the electricity be very strong, the bubbles will frequently be driven
off, run hither and thither on the plate, making a variety of
surprising motions round their axis; after which they will return to
the hoop, and circulate as before; and if the room be darkened, they
will all appear beautifully illuminated with electric light.
_The Electric Ball._
Provide a ball of cork about three-quarters of an inch in diameter,
hollowed out in the internal part by cutting it in two hemispheres,
scooping out the inside, and then joining them together with paste.
Having attached this to a silk thread between three and four feet in
length, suspend it in such a manner that it may just touch the knob of
an electric jar, the outside of which communicates with the ground. On
the first contact it will be repelled to a considerable distance, and
after making several vibrations, will remain stationary; but if a
candle be placed at some distance behind it, so that the ball may be
between it and the bottle, the ball will instantly begin to move, and
will turn round the knob of the jar, moving in a kind of ellipsis as
long as there is any electricity in the bottle. This experiment is
very striking, though the motions are far from being regular; but it
is remarkable that they always affect the elliptical rather than the
circular form.
_To spin Sealing-wax into Threads by Electricity._
Stick a small piece of sealing-wax on the end of a wire, and set fire
to it. Then put an electrical machine in motion, and present the wax
just blown out at the distance of some inches from the prime
conductor. A number of extremely fine filaments will immediately dart
from the sealing-wax to the conductor, on which they will be condensed
into a kind of net-work resembling wool.
If the wire with the sealing-wax be stuck into one of the holes of the
conductor, and a piece of paper be presented at a moderate distance
from the wax, just after it has been ignited, on setting the machine
in motion, a net-work of wax will be formed on the paper. The same
effect, but in a slighter degree, will be produced, if the paper be
briskly rubbed with a piece of elastic gum, and the melting
sealing-wax be held pretty near the paper immediately after rubbing.
If the paper thus painted, as it were, with sealing-wax be gently
warmed by holding the back of it to the fire, the wax will adhere to
it, and the result of the experiment will thus be rendered permanent.
_The Electrified Camphor._
A beautiful experiment of the same nature is made with camphor. A
spoon holding a piece of lighted camphor is made to communicate with
an electrified body, as the prime conductor of a machine; while the
conductor continues electrified by keeping the machine in motion, the
camphor will throw out ramifications, and appear to shoot like a
vegetable.
AMUSEMENTS WITH CARDS.
Many of the following recreations are performed by arithmetical
calculations, and may therefore be considered as connected with
science; but as it has been the aim of this work to unite amusement
with instruction, some experiments on this subject are introduced, the
performance of which depends on dexterity of hand. As this is only to
be acquired by practice, and, after all, is merely a mechanical
operation, the study of it will produce little useful knowledge,
though it may afford much entertainment; but as it must be gratifying
to know the method by which they are performed by those persons
skilled in such manoeuvres, who publicly exhibit them to the
astonishment of the spectator, they are presented to our readers, that
when they recognize them at any of these exhibitions, their eyes may
not be in danger of deceiving their judgment.
_To tell the Number of Points on Three Cards, placed under Three
different Parcels of Cards._
You first premise that the ace counts for eleven; the court cards ten
each; and the others according to the number of their pips. You then
propose to any person in company to choose three cards, and to place
over each as many as will make the number of the points of that card,
fifteen; take the remaining cards, and, under the appearance of
looking for a particular card, count how many there are, and by adding
sixteen to that number, you will have the amount of the pips on the
three cards. For example:
Suppose a person choose a seven, a ten, and an ace; then over the
seven he must place eight cards; over the ten, five cards; and over
the ace, four cards. In this instance there will remain twelve cards;
to which if you add sixteen it will make twenty-eight, which is the
amount of the pips on the three cards.
_The Ten Duplicates._
Select any twenty cards; let any person shuffle them; lay them by
pairs on the board, without looking at them. You next desire several
persons, (as many persons as there are pairs on the table,) each to
look at different pairs and remember what cards compose them. You then
take up all the cards in the order they lay, and replace them with
their faces uppermost on the table, according to the order of the
letters in the following words:
M U T U S
1 2 3 4 5
D E D I T
6 7 8 9 10
N O M E N
11 12 13 14 15
C O C I S
16 17 18 19 20
(These words convey no meaning.)--You will observe, that they contain
ten letters repeated, or two of each sort. You therefore ask each
person which row or rows the cards he looked at are in; if he say the
first, you know they must be the second and fourth, there being two
letters of a sort (two U's) in that row; if he say the second and
fourth, they must be the ninth and nineteenth, (two I's,) and so of
the rest. This amusement, which is very simple, and requires very
little practice, will be found to excite, in those who are
unacquainted with the key, the greatest astonishment.
The readiest way is to have a fac-simile of the key drawn on a card,
to which you refer.
_To tell how many Cards a Person takes out of a Pack, and to specify
each Card._
To perform this, you must so dispose a PIQUET pack of cards, that you
can easily remember the order in which they are placed. Suppose, for
instance, they are placed according to the words in the following
line,
_Seven Aces, Eight Kings, Nine Queens, and Ten Knaves;_
and that every card be of a different suite, following each other in
this order: spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. Then the eight first
cards will be the seven of spades, ace of clubs, eight of hearts, king
of diamonds, nine of spades, queen of clubs, ten of hearts, and knave
of diamonds, and so of the rest.
You show that the cards are placed promiscuously, and you offer them
with their backs upward to any one, that he may draw what quantity he
pleases; you then dexterously look at the card that precedes and that
which follows those he has taken. When he has carefully counted the
cards, which is not to be done in your presence, (and, in order to
give you time for recollection, you tell him to do it twice over, that
he may be certain,) you then take them from him, mix them with the
pack, shuffle, and tell him to shuffle.
During all this time you recollect, by the foregoing line, all the
cards he took out; and as you lay them down, one by one, you name each
card.
Unless a person has a most excellent memory, he had better not attempt
the performance of the above amusement, as the least forgetfulness
will spoil the whole, and make the operator appear ridiculous.
_A Hundred different Names being written on the Cards, to tell the
particular Name any Person thought of._
Write on ten cards a hundred different names, observing that the
last name on each card begins with one of the letters in the word
INDROMACUS, which letters, in the order they stand, answer the numbers
1 to 10, thus:
I N D R O M A C U S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
On ten other cards write the same names, with this restriction, that
the first name on every card must be taken from the first of the other
cards, whose last name begins with I; the second name must be taken
from that whose last name begins with N; and so of the rest. Then let
any person choose a card out of the first ten, and after he has fixed
on a name, give it to you again, when you carefully note the last
name, by which you know the number of that card. You then take the
other ten cards, and, after shuffling them, show them to the person,
and ask if he sees the name he chose, and when he answers
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