How To Do Chemical Tricks - free ebook by A. Anderson

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How To Do Chemical Tricks

A. Anderson

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HOW TO DO Chemical Tricks.

HOW TO DO Chemical Tricks.

Containing Over One Hundred Highly Amusing and Instructive Tricks With Chemicals. By A. ANDERSON. HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED. New York : FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square . Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1898, by FRANK TOUSEY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C. HOW TO DO CHEMICAL TRICKS. From the remotest ages chemistry has exercised the strongest fascination on the minds of the curious, nor is it a matter of surprise that boys should feel themse

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Chemical Affinity.

Chemical Affinity.

This high-sounding term means that substances have a power of uniting together that can be better explained by an experiment. Allow a few drops of water to fall on a perfectly clean piece of iron. In a short time a reddish-brown substance will appear on the iron that in ordinary language is called rust. What does this mean? Water is a compound substance composed of oxygen and hydrogen, but when brought into contact with iron the oxygen prefers to unite with the iron and sets the hydrogen free. H

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Sympathetic Inks.

Sympathetic Inks.

By means of these may be carried on a correspondence which is beyond the discovery of all not in the secret. With one class of these inks the writing becomes visible only when moistened with a particular solution. Thus, if we write to you with a solution of sulphate of iron the letters are invisible. On the receipt of our letter, you rub over the sheet a feather or sponge, wet with a solution of nut-galls, and the letters burst forth into sensible being at once, and are permanent. 2. If we write

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Alum Baskets.

Alum Baskets.

Form a small basket about the size of the hand, of iron wire or split willow; then take some cotton, such as ladies use for running into flounces; untwist it and wind it round every limb of the basket. Boil eighteen ounces of alum in a quart of water, or quantities in that proportion; stir the mixture while boiling until the alum is completely dissolved. Pour the solution into a deep pan, or other convenient vessel, and suspend the basket in the liquor, so that no part of the basket shall touch

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Easy Crystallizations.

Easy Crystallizations.

Saturate water kept boiling with alum; then set the solution in a cool place, suspending in it, by a hair, or fine silk thread, a cinder, a sprig of a plant, or any other trifle. As the solution cools, a beautiful crystallization of the salt takes place upon the cinders, etc., which are made to resemble specimens of mineralogical spars....

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To Make a Piece of Charcoal Appear as Though it were Coated with Gold.

To Make a Piece of Charcoal Appear as Though it were Coated with Gold.

Dilute a saturated solution of chloride of gold with five times its bulk of water; place a thin strip of fresh burned charcoal into it, and apply heat, gradually increasing it until the solution gently boils. The heat will make the charcoal precipitate the metal on the charcoal, in the form of brilliant spangles....

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To Give a Piece of Charcoal a Rich Coat of Silver.

To Give a Piece of Charcoal a Rich Coat of Silver.

Lay a crystal of nitrate of silver upon a piece of burning charcoal; the metallic salt will catch fire, and throw out the most beautiful scintillations that can be imagined. The silver is reduced, and, in the end, produces upon the charcoal a very brilliant appearance. Many animal and vegetable substances, consist, for the most part, of carbon, or charcoal, united with oxygen and hydrogen, which remember, together combined, form water. Now oil of vitriol or strong sulphuric acid, has so powerful

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Combustion.

Combustion.

It is necessary to distinguish between burning and the mere appearance of it. A gas flame is gas in a state of combustion, whereas the electric light is no example of it, although the wire within the glassen cylinder is red hot, and to all appearance burning. Combustion generally takes place through the strong affinity of some element, such as carbon in a substance for the oxygen in the atmosphere. In coal gas, for instance, the carbon contained in it unites with the oxygen in the air to form a

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Chemistry of The Air.

Chemistry of The Air.

Before proceeding further, it will be well to perform one or two experiments, to prove that the air we breathe is by no means the simple substance it is generally supposed to be. Although it is invisible, it must be remembered that it presses with a force of over fifteen pounds to the square inch, over the whole surface of the earth. It extends, too, to a height of some forty miles above the earth, and though it cannot be seen, it can be felt in the rush of the hurricane, and heard in the roar o

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Amateur Air Pump.

Amateur Air Pump.

A most interesting class of experiments can be made with an air pump, a piece of apparatus unfortunately beyond the pocket-money supply of the average boy. Nevertheless, if the following instructions are exactly followed and carefully carried out, a very excellent air pump can be made at a comparatively small cost. Some pretty, as well as interesting results will amply repay you for the trouble you take to make the pump. Although the air seems so light in comparison with water or a heavy metal l

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Asphyxia.

Asphyxia.

Put a mouse—it is necessary to catch him first—into the receiver, and work the pump. Soon the animal will show all the signs of being choked, and eventually will die. This is proof sufficient that animals cannot live without air....

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Balloon in Vacuum.

Balloon in Vacuum.

Place in the receiver a small bladder, such as are sold in the streets for a few cents. Wet it a little to make it more supple. Now, in the ordinary way the air inside the bladder exerts the same pressure on the skin of the bladder as does the air on the outside. Now work the pedal so that the air in the receiver is gradually exhausted. The bladder will be seen to gradually swell and finally burst. It bursts because as the air in the receiver is exhausted by the pump, the air outside the bladder

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Boiling Cold Water.

Boiling Cold Water.

Place in the receiver a tumbler of cold water and work the pump as before. In a few minutes, as soon as the air is sufficiently exhausted, the water will apparently boil. Yet you know the water does not boil in a kettle unless heated to 212 degrees. This phenomenon is thus explained: The vacuum causes the air-bubbles contained in the water to escape. They easily do so, because there is scarcely any reserve on the surface of the liquid (see fig.)....

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A Sucking Tube.

A Sucking Tube.

This force, the pressure of the air which you have just ascertained, supplies various experiments in its illustration. Take a tin tube, for example, the tin holder of a penny pen, which you may procure at any stationer’s. Put a little water in it and make it boil so that the steam takes the place of the air. When steaming furiously stop the mouth of the tube with a small cork, sealing the opening hermetically. Oil it a little, so it may glide with ease. If you cool the tube by plunging it in a b

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Cupping.

Cupping.

Instead of a jar-receiver, take a long-necked bottle open at both ends. If you place the hand on one of the open ends and exhaust the air, by attaching the long tube of the pump to the other you cannot remove the hand easily. Do not try to pump the air out entirely, as the suction may be too strong and draw blood. It is by the rarefaction of the air that the cupping-glass is applied to people who require bleeding. In the antiquated surgical operation of cupping, the doctor burned a few pieces of

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The Barometer.

The Barometer.

Now you shall learn something about the pressure exercised by the atmospheric layer which surrounds the earth to the height of about forty miles. This is done with the aid of a very well-known instrument called the barometer. You may construct one yourselves. Procure a glass tube closed at one end, about a yard long and one tenth of an inch in diameter. Fill it with mercury, then turn it upside down into a bowl filled with the same metal, taking care that the air does not enter the tube. The col

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A Novel Barometer.

A Novel Barometer.

Construct a toy house of cardboard, painted, and let there be two open doorways in the front, and let it stand on a wooden platform to represent the ground. The two sides and back may come right down to the ground, but there must be a slight space between the front of the house and the ground upon which it stands. Next make a flat wheel or disc of wood about the thickness of a penny, its diameter or measurement across the center to measure the same as the distance between the two doorways of the

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Compressed Air.

Compressed Air.

To make experiments with compressed air, you must put your wits together to make a reservoir. Air, you know, is a gas consisting of particles called atoms. These atoms are at a certain distance from one another. They can be pushed further from one another as when you heat them, or closer together by cold and compression. So compressed air only means air whose atoms are pressed more closely together than as the case with the air around us. Now you have heard that a column of air on a square inch

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Noiseless Bell.

Noiseless Bell.

We know that sound is a succession of vibrations which must be transmitted in a medium with weight, as air or water; in other words, in a vacuum there can be no sound at all. To prove this, introduce into the receiver a small bell, and as the air is extracted the sounds become weaker and weaker, and cease altogether when the air is completely rarified....

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The Bursting Bladder.

The Bursting Bladder.

Tie a thin piece of light indiarubber round the top of the bottle, and you will notice that as the air is withdrawn, the indiarubber will stretch, and at length form a round small balloon in the interior of the bottle. (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Fig. 2. If a piece of bladder is tightly stretched and tied round the vessel (fig. 2.) it will burst under the force of the atmospheric pressure which acts upon it, through a vacuum having been made underneath. This is another case of the first experiment with th

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Weight of the Air.

Weight of the Air.

Another experiment will still better make you appreciate the value of this factor: the weight of the air. Put a piece of supple leather in which a ring is attached under the bottle; pump the air out of the latter and you will be astonished at the weight you may hang on this leather without dragging it off. Should you not have at hand a glass receiver, a wooden reel may serve instead (see fig.). On one of its faces place a piece of strong cardboard, in the middle of which a hook has been fastened

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Spoons which will Melt in Hot Water.

Spoons which will Melt in Hot Water.

Fuse together in a crucible, eight parts of bismuth, five of lead and three of tin; these metals will combine and form an alloy, of which spoons may be made, possessed of the remarkable property of melting in boiled water....

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Effect of Compression.

Effect of Compression.

Take a wooden reel and hollow out either the top or bottom, beginning at the hole in the center and working towards the edge. In the hollow place a ball. Apply to the other end the indiarubber tube which conducts the forced air, and the ball will be lifted up (see fig.)....

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To Cover Iron with Copper.

To Cover Iron with Copper.

If you are about to perform a conjuring trick, you will, of course take great care that your apparatus is ready. Therefore, clean your piece of iron or steel from dirt. Dip a piece of polished iron—the blade of your knife, for instance—into a solution, either of nitrate or sulphate of copper, when it will assume the appearance of a piece of pure copper....

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The Elements.

The Elements.

Before entering into the next series of experiments the young chemist must know that all the substances of which the world and everything in it are made up— i.e. , the elements are arranged in two classes, the metals and the non-metals. The former are by far the more numerous, altogether numbering more than fifty. Among the better known are such well known substances as iron, mercury, copper, tin, potassium, antimony, strontium, and nickel. The non-metals are more widely distributed and together

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Potassium.

Potassium.

Potassium was discovered by Sir H. Davy, in the beginning of the present century, while acting upon potash with the enormous galvanic battery of the Royal Institution, consisting of two thousand pairs of four inch plates. It is a brilliant metal, so soft as to be easily cut with a penknife, and so light as to swim upon water, on which it acts with great energy, uniting with the oxygen and liberating the hydrogen, which takes fire as it escapes. Trace some continuous lines on paper with a camel’s

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Metallic Colors.

Metallic Colors.

To a solution of sulphate of iron add a drop or two of a solution of prussiate of potash, and a blue color will be produced. 2. Substitute sulphate of copper for iron, and the color will be a rich brown. 3. Another blue, of quite a different tint, may be produced by letting a few drops of a solution of ammonia fall into one of sulphate of copper, when a precipitate of a light blue falls down, which is dissolved by an additional quantity of the ammonia, and forms a transparent solution of the mos

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Experiment.

Experiment.

Melt a pound or two of bismuth in an iron ladle over the fire; remove it as soon as the whole is fluid; and when the surface has become solid break a hole in it and pour out the still fluid metal from the interior; what remains will exhibit beautifully formed crystals of a cubic shape. Sulphur may be crystallized in the same manner, but its fumes, when heated, are so very unpleasant that few would wish to encounter them. One of the most remarkable facts in chemistry—a science abounding in wonder

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Crystallization.

Crystallization.

Nearly all the metals are characterized by the crystals, which are formed as they pass from a state of intense heat to that of comparative coldness. It is by this process they have been formed when in the mine or vein in the rocks. The earth was once a fiery mass of molten matter, as seen even now when a volcano is in a state of eruption. And it was only by the cooling of the outside shell of the earth, or crust, as it is called, that it became habitable. When the crust was cooling down the meta

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Beauties of Crystallization.

Beauties of Crystallization.

Dissolve alum in hot water until no more can be dissolved in it; place in it a smooth glass rod and a stick of the same size. Next day the stick will be found covered with crystals, but the glass rod will be free from them. In this case the crystals cling to the rough surface of the stick, but have no hold upon the smooth surface of the glass rod. But if the rod be roughened with a file at certain intervals, and then placed in the alum and water, the crystals will adhere to the rough surfaces, a

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Another Experiment.

Another Experiment.

Heat some blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) in an iron ladle till all the water contained in the crystals is driven off, and the color changes to a gray. Take the lumps out without breaking them, and lay the dried blue vitriol on a plate. If this be moistened with water steam is produced; and if a slice of phosphorus is then laid on the sulphate of copper it ignites, demonstrating again that the condensation of a liquid produces heat. The addition of the water restores the blue color, thus provi

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A Solid Changed to a Liquid.

A Solid Changed to a Liquid.

Mix five parts by weight of powdered sal ammoniac, five parts of nitre in powder, and sixteen parts of water. A temperature of twenty-two degrees below the freezing point of water is produced; and if a phial of water, or any convenient metallic cylinder containing water, be surrounded with a sufficient quantity of the freezing mixture, ice is formed. The ice clings to the interior of the tube, but may easily be removed by dipping it in tepid water. This experiment is the reverse of the last and

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Magic of Heat.

Magic of Heat.

Melt a small quantity of the sulphate of potash and copper in a spoon over a spirit lamp. It will be fused at a heat just below redness, and produce a liquid of a dark-green color. Remove the spoon from the flame, when the liquid will become a solid of a brilliant emerald green color, and so remain until its heat sinks nearly to that of boiling water, when suddenly a commotion will take place throughout the mass, beginning from the surface, and each atom, as if animated, will start up and separa

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Sublimation by Heat.

Sublimation by Heat.

Provide two small pieces of glass; sprinkle a minute portion of sulphur upon one piece, lay thin slips of wood around it, and place upon it the other piece of glass. Move them slowly over the flame of a lamp or candle, and the sulphur will become sublimed, and form gray, nebulous patches, which are very curious microscopic objects. Each cluster consists of thousands of transparent globules, imitating in miniature the nebulæ which we see figured in treatises on astronomy. By observing the largest

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Heat Passing Through Glass.

Heat Passing Through Glass.

Although glass is a bad conductor it yet allows heat to pass through it, and the purer the glass the more easy is this done. Heat a poker red hot, and having opened a window, apply the poker very near to the outside of the pane, and the hand to the inside. A strong heat will be felt at the instant, which will cease as soon as the poker is withdrawn, and may be again renewed and made to cease as quickly as before. It is well known that if a piece of glass be so much warmed as to convey the impres

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Metals Unequally Influenced by Heat.

Metals Unequally Influenced by Heat.

All metals do not conduct heat at the same rate as may be proved by holding in the flame of a candle at the same time a piece of silver wire and a piece of platina wire, when the silver wire will become too hot to hold, much sooner than the platina. Or cut a cone of each wire, tip it with wax, and place it upon a heated plate (as a fire-shovel), when the wax will melt at different periods....

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Spontaneous Combustion.

Spontaneous Combustion.

Mix a small quantity of chlorate of potash with spirit of wine in a strong saucer; add a little sulphuric acid, and an orange vapor will arise and burst into flame with a loud crackling sound....

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Inequality of Heat in Fire-Irons.

Inequality of Heat in Fire-Irons.

Place before a fire a set of polished fire-irons, and beside them a rough, unpolished poker, such as is used in the kitchen, instead of a bright poker. The polished irons will remain for a long time without becoming warmer than the temperature of the room, because the heat radiated from the fire is all reflected, or thrown off, by the polished surface of the irons, and none of it is absorbed. The rough poker will, however, become speedily hot, so as not to be used without inconvenience. Hence, t

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Expansion of Metal by Heat.

Expansion of Metal by Heat.

Provide an iron rod, and fit it exactly into a metal ring; heat the rod red hot, and it will no longer enter the ring. Observe an iron gate on a warm day, when it will shut with difficulty; whereas it will shut loosely and easily on a cold day....

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The Alchemist’s Ink.

The Alchemist’s Ink.

Dissolve in water a small quantity, about as much as will lay on a ten-cent piece, of chloride of cobalt, which is of a bluish-green color, and the solution will be pink; write with it and the characters will scarcely be visible; but if gently heated they will appear in brilliant green, which will disappear as the paper cools. Dissolve in water a few grains of prussiate of potash; write with this liquid, which is invisible when dry; wash over with a dilute solution of iron, made by dissolving a

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Chameleon Liquids.

Chameleon Liquids.

Put a small portion of the compound called mineral chameleon into several glasses. Pour upon each water at different temperatures and the contents of each glass will exhibit a different shade of color. A very hot solution will be of a beautiful green color; a cold one a deep purple. Make a colorless solution of sulphate of copper; add to it a little ammonia equally colorless, and the mixture will be of an intense blue color; add to it a little sulphuric acid, and the blue color will disappear; p

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Magic Dyes.

Magic Dyes.

Dissolve indigo in diluted sulphuric acid, and add to it an equal quantity of solution of carbonate of potash. If a piece of white cloth be dipped in the mixture it will be changed to blue; yellow cloth, in the same mixture, may be changed to green; red to purple; and blue litmus paper to red. Nearly fill a wine glass with the juice of beet-root, which is of a deep red color; add a little lime water and the mixture will be colorless; dip into it a piece of white cloth, dry it rapidly, and in a f

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Wine Changed into Water.

Wine Changed into Water.

Mix a little solution of subacetate of lead with port wine; filter the mixture through blotting-paper, and a colorless liquid will pass through; to this add a small quantity of dry salt of tartar; distill in a retort, when a spirit will arise, which may be inflamed....

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The Chemistry of Water.

The Chemistry of Water.

More than two-thirds of the earth’s surface is water, so that in mere quantity alone it is the most important substance with which we are acquainted. Without it life would be impossible, for, owing to its quality of dissolving other bodies, it may be regarded as the great purifier, as well as the vehicle which brings nourishment to plants and animals alike. Not only is water useful, but is among the most beautiful of Nature’s products. It has carved the valleys between mountain ranges by its slo

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Two Bitters Make a Sweet.

Two Bitters Make a Sweet.

It has been discovered that a mixture of nitrate of silver with hyposulphite of soda, both of which are remarkably bitter, will produce the sweetest known substance....

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Visible and Invisible.

Visible and Invisible.

Write with French chalk on a looking-glass; wipe it with a handkerchief and the lines will disappear; breathe on it and they will reappear. This alteration will take place for a great number of times, and after the lapse of a considerable period....

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To Form a Liquid from Two Solids.

To Form a Liquid from Two Solids.

Rub together in a mortar a small quantity of sulphate of soda and acetate of lead, and as they mix they will become liquid. Carbonate of ammonia and sulphate of copper, previously reduced to powder separately, will also, when mixed, become liquid, and acquire a most splendid blue color. The greater number of salts have a tendency to assume regular forms, or become crystallized , when passing from the fluid to the solid state; and the size and regularity of the crystals depends in a great measure

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Restoration of Color by Water.

Restoration of Color by Water.

Water being a colorous fluid ought, one would imagine when mixed with other substances of no decided color, to produce a colorless compound. Nevertheless, it is to water only that blue vitriol or sulphate of copper owes its vivid blueness, as will be plainly evinced by the following simple experiment. Heat a few crystals of the vitriol in a fire-shovel, pulverize them, and the powder will be of a dull and dirty white appearance. Pour a little water upon this when a slight hissing noise will be h

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Two Liquids Make a Solid.

Two Liquids Make a Solid.

Dissolve chloride of lime in water until it will dissolve no more; measure out an equal quantity of oil of vitriol; both will be transparent fluids; but if equal quantities of each be slowly mixed and stirred together, they will become a solid mass, with the evolution of smoke or fumes....

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Two Solids Make a Liquid.

Two Solids Make a Liquid.

Rub together in a mortar equal quantities of the crystals of Glauber salts and nitrate of ammonia, and the two salts will slowly become a liquid....

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A Solid Opaque Mass Makes a Transparent Liquid.

A Solid Opaque Mass Makes a Transparent Liquid.

Take the solid mixture of the solutions of muriate of lime and carbonate of potash, pour upon it a very little nitric acid, and the solid opaque mass will be changed to a transparent liquid....

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Two Cold Liquids Make a Hot One.

Two Cold Liquids Make a Hot One.

Mix four drams of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) with one dram of cold water, suddenly, in a cup, and the mixture will be nearly half as hot again as boiling water....

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To Make Ice.

To Make Ice.

Although this trick is performed by means of chemicals, yet its product is obtained really by the use of mechanical laws. We must remember that ice is exactly the same thing as water so far as its composition is concerned, differing only in its state of density. Ice, water, and steam differ in density through the possession of a greater or less quantity of heat. Hence, the turning of water into ice really is a case of the operation of mechanical laws. Now for the experiment. Put into a wide-mout

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Curious Change of Colors.

Curious Change of Colors.

Let there be no other light than a taper in the room; then put on a pair of dark-green spectacles, and having closed one eye view the taper with the other. Suddenly remove the spectacles and the taper will assume a bright red appearance; but if the spectacles be instantly replaced, the eye will be unable to distinguish anything for a second or two. The order of colors will therefore be as follows: green, red, green, black....

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The Protean Light.

The Protean Light.

Soak a cotton wick in a strong solution of salt and water, dry it, place it in a spirit lamp, and when lit it will give a bright yellow light for a long time. If you look through a piece of blue glass at the flame, it will lose all its yellow light and you will only perceive feeble violet rays. If before the blue glass you place a pale yellow glass, the lamp will be absolutely invisible, though a candle may be distinctly seen through the same glasses....

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To Change the Colors of Flowers.

To Change the Colors of Flowers.

Hold over a lighted match a purple columbine or a blue larkspur, and it will change first to pink and then to black. The yellow of other flowers held as above will continue unchanged. Thus, the purple tint will instantly disappear from a heart’s-ease, but the yellow will remain; and the yellow of a wall-flower will continue the same, though the brown streak will be discharged. If a scarlet, crimson, or maroon dahlia be tried, the color will change to yellow, a fact known to gardeners, who by thi

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Changes of the Poppy.

Changes of the Poppy.

Some flowers which are red, become blue by merely bruising them. Thus, if the petals of the common corn-poppy be rubbed upon white paper, they will stain it purple, which may be made green by washing it over with a strong solution of potash in water. Put poppy petals into very dilute muriatic acid, and the infusion will be of a florid red color; by adding a little chalk, it will become the color of port wine; and this tint, by the addition of potash may be changed to green or yellow....

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Changes of the Rose.

Changes of the Rose.

Hold a red rose over the blue flame of a common match and the color will be discharged wherever the fume touches the leaves of the flower, so as to render it beautifully variegated, or entirely white. If it be then dipped into water, the redness, after a time, will be restored....

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Marking Indelibly.

Marking Indelibly.

Write upon linen with permanent ink (which is a strong solution of nitrate of silver), and the characters will be scarcely visible; remove the linen to a dark room, and they will not change; but expose them to a strong light, and they will be of an indelible black....

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Visible Growth.

Visible Growth.

Cut a circular piece of card to fit the top of a hyacinth glass, so as to rest upon the ledge, and exclude the air. Pierce a hole through the center of the card, and pass through it a strong thread, having a small piece of wood tied to one end, which, resting transversely on the card, prevents it being drawn through. To the other end of the thread attach an acorn; and having half filled the glass with water, suspend the acorn at a short distance from the surface. The glass must be kept in a warm

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Orange Colored Flame.

Orange Colored Flame.

Burn spirit of wine on chloride of calcium, a substance obtained by evaporating muriate of lime to dryness....

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Emerald Green Flame.

Emerald Green Flame.

Burn spirit of wine on a little powdered nitrate of silver....

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Instantaneous Flame.

Instantaneous Flame.

Heat together potassium and sulphur, and they will instantly burn very vividly. Heat a little nitre on a fire-shovel, sprinkle on it flour of sulphur, and it will instantly burn. If iron filings be thrown upon red hot nitre, they will detonate and burn....

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Water of Different Temperatures in the Same Vessel.

Water of Different Temperatures in the Same Vessel.

Of heat and cold, as of wit and madness, it may be said that “thin partitions do their bounds divide.” Thus, paint one half of the surface of a tin pot with a mixture of lamp black and size, and leave the other half or side bright; fill the vessel with boiling water, and by dipping a thermometer, or even the finger, into it shortly after, it will be found to cool much more rapidly upon the blackened than the bright side of the pot....

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Warmth of Different Colors.

Warmth of Different Colors.

Place upon the surface of snow, as upon the window-sill, in bright daylight or sunshine, pieces of cloth of the same size and quality, but of different colors, black, blue, green, yellow and white; the black cloth will soon melt the snow beneath it, and sink downwards; next the blue, and then the green; the yellow but slightly; but the snow beneath the white cloth will be as firm as at first....

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Laughing Gas.

Laughing Gas.

The above fanciful appellation has been given to nitrous oxide, from the very agreeable sensations excited by inhaling it. In its pure state it destroys animal life, but loses this noxious quality when inhaled, because it becomes blended with the atmospheric air which it meets in the lungs. This gas is made by putting three or four drams of nitrate of ammonia in crystals into a small glass retort, which being held over a spirit lamp, the crystals will melt, and the gas be evolved. Having thus pr

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Magic Vapor.

Magic Vapor.

Provide a glass tube about three feet long and half an inch in diameter; nearly fill it with water, upon the surface of which pour a little colored ether; then close the open end of the tube carefully with the palm of the hand, invert it in a basin of water, and rest the tube against the wall. The ether will rise through the water to the upper end of the tube; pour a little hot water over the tube, and it will soon cause the ether to boil within, and its vapor may thus be made to drive nearly al

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Gas from the Union of Metals.

Gas from the Union of Metals.

Nearly fill a wine glass with diluted sulphuric acid, and place in it a wire of silver and another of zinc, taking care that they do not touch each other, when the zinc will be changed by the acid, but the silver will remain inert. But cause the upper ends of the wires to touch each other, and a stream of gas will issue from them....

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Green Fire.

Green Fire.

A beautiful green fire may be thus made: Take of flour of sulphur thirteen parts, nitrate of baryta seventy-seven, chlorate of potash five, metallic arsenic two, and charcoal three. Let the nitrate of baryta be well dried and powdered; then add to it the other ingredients, all finely pulverized, and exceedingly well mixed and rubbed together. Place a portion of the composition in a small tin pan, having a polished reflector fitted to one side, and set light to it, when a splendid green illuminat

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Combustion of Three Metals.

Combustion of Three Metals.

Mix a grain or two of potassium with an equal quantity of sodium; add a globule of quicksilver, and the three metals, when shaken, will take fire and burn vividly....

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To Make Paper Apparently Incombustible.

To Make Paper Apparently Incombustible.

Take a smooth cylindrical piece of metal, about one inch and a half in diameter, and eight inches long. Wrap very closely round it a piece of clean writing paper, then hold the paper in the flame of a spirit lamp, and it will not take fire. But it may be held there for a considerable time without being in the least affected by the flame. If the paper be strained over a cylinder of wood it is quickly scorched....

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Heat Not to be Estimated by Touch.

Heat Not to be Estimated by Touch.

Hold both hands in water which causes the thermometer to rise to ninety degrees, and when the liquid has become still, you will be insensible to the heat, and that the hand is touching anybody. Then remove one hand to water that causes the thermometer to rise to two hundred degrees, and the other in water at thirty-two degrees. After holding the hands thus for some time remove them, and again immerse them in the water at ninety degrees. Then you will find warmth in one hand and cold in the other

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Flame Upon Water.

Flame Upon Water.

Fill a wine glass with cold water, pour lightly upon its surface a little ether; light it by a slip of paper, and it will burn for some time....

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Rose-colored Flame Upon Water.

Rose-colored Flame Upon Water.

Drop a globule of potassium, about the size of a large pea, into a small cup nearly full of water containing a drop or two of strong nitric acid; the moment that the metal touches the liquid it will float upon its surface, enveloped with a beautiful rose-colored flame, and entirely dissolve....

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Currents in Boiling Water.

Currents in Boiling Water.

Fill a large glass tube with water, and throw into it a few particles of bruised amber or shreds of litmus; then hold the tube by a handle for the purpose, upright in the flame of a lamp, and as the water becomes warm it will be seen that currents, carrying with them the pieces of amber will begin to ascend in the center, and to descend towards the circumference of the tube. These currents will soon become rapid in their motions, and continue till the water boils....

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Hot Water Lighter than Cold.

Hot Water Lighter than Cold.

Pour into a glass tube, about ten inches long and one inch in diameter, a little water colored with pink or other dye; then fill it up gradually and carefully with colorless water, so as not to mix them; apply heat at the bottom of the tube, and the colored water will ascend and be diffused throughout the whole....

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Expansion of Water by Cold.

Expansion of Water by Cold.

All fluids except water diminish in bulk till they freeze. Thus, fill a large thermometer tube with water, say of the temperature of eighty degrees, and then plunge the bulb into pounded ice and salt, or any other freezing mixture; the water will go on shrinking in the tube till it has attained the temperature of about forty degrees, and then, instead of continuing to contract till it freezes, it will be seen slowly to expand, and consequently to rise in the tube until it congeals. In this case

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The Cup of Tantalus.

The Cup of Tantalus.

This pretty toy may be purchased at any optician’s for seventy-five cents. It consists of a cup in which is placed a human standing figure concealing a syphon or bent tube, with one end longer than the other. This rises in one leg of the figure to reach the chin, and descends through the other leg, through the bottom of the cup to a reservoir beneath. If you pour water in the cup it will rise in the shorter leg by its upward pressure, driving out the air before it through the longer leg; and whe

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The Magic Whirlpool.

The Magic Whirlpool.

Fill a glass tumbler with water, throw upon its surface a few fragments or thin shavings of camphor, and they will instantly begin to move, and acquire a motion both progressive and rotary, which will continue for a considerable time. During these rotations if the water be touched by any substance which is at all greasy, the floating particles will quickly dart back, and, as if by a stroke of magic, be instantly deprived of their motion and vivacity. In like manner, if thin slices of cork be ste

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Fire Under Water.

Fire Under Water.

Put thirty grains of phosphorus into a bottle which contains three or four ounces of water. Place the vessel over a lamp and give it a boiling heat. Balls of fire will soon be seen to issue from the water after the manner of an artificial firework, attended with the most beautiful coruscations....

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To Light Steel.

To Light Steel.

Make a piece of steel red in the fire, then hold it with a pair of pincers or tongs; take in the other hand a stick of brimstone and touch the piece of steel with it. Immediately after their contact you will see the steel melt and drop like a liquid....

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A Test of Love.

A Test of Love.

Put into a phial some sulphuric ether, color it red with alkanet, then saturate the tincture with spermaceti. This preparation is solid ten degrees above freezing point, and melts and boils at twenty degrees. Place the phial which contains it in a lady’s hand and tell her that if in love, the solid mass will dissolve. In a few minutes the substance will become fluid....

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An Egg Pushed Into a Wine Bottle.

An Egg Pushed Into a Wine Bottle.

To accomplish this seemingly incredible act requires the following preparation: You must take an egg and soak it in strong vinegar, and in process of time its shell will become quite soft so that it may be extended lengthways without breaking; then insert it into the neck of a small bottle, and by pouring cold water upon it, it will reassume its former figure and hardness. This is really a complete curiosity, and baffles those who are not in the secret to find out how it is accomplished. If the

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A Chemical Fountain.

A Chemical Fountain.

Take two small glass jars and close them with corks. In each of these pierce two holes and introduce a glass tube curved in the form of a lengthened V. The two extremities of this tube must not reach further than just a little below the inner surface of the corks. In one jar pour water until it is three-quarters full, and pass through the second hole of the cork a straight glass tube, open at both ends and reaching nearly the bottom. This jar must be hermetically corked. (If necessary, seal the

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Weighing Gases.

Weighing Gases.

Do not be cast down because you see another term to be explained. A gas is, you may have already guessed, simply a fluid. Matter exists in three states, solid, liquid and gaseous. Everything can exist in these three states under different conditions of heat and pressure. For instance, ice, water, and steam are precisely the same thing, a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, though in different states. Hence steam is simply the gaseous form of ice or water. Now some gases are heavier than air, and amo

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In Water but not Wet.

In Water but not Wet.

With some lycopodium, powder the surface of a large or small vessel of water; you may then challenge any one to drop a piece of money into the water, and that you will get it with the hand without wetting your skin. The lycopodium adheres to the hand, and prevents its contact with the water. A little shake of the hand after the feat is over will dislodge the powder....

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Image of a Volcano.

Image of a Volcano.

This is another experiment on the density of liquids. In a small jar put some wine or colored alcohol, and close it with a cork, through which you have passed a small tube, a quill or a hollow straw. In lowering this jar gently in a pail full of water, you will soon see the liquid escape and rise to the surface of the water, describing spirals which resemble smoke, and give a pretty good image, considerably diminished, of a volcano....

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Reciprocal Images.

Reciprocal Images.

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 inclosed in the wainscot, in an angle of forty-five degrees. These mirrors are each to be eighteen inches square, and all the space between must be inclosed with paste

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Imitation of Animal Tints.

Imitation of Animal Tints.

To accomplish this metamorphosis, it is necessary to have earthen vases which have little edges or rims near their mouths, and should be of a size sufficiently large to hold suspended the bird or flower which you intend placing in them. You should likewise be provided with stoppers of cork, of a diameter equal to that of their mouths. To make an experiment upon some bird, it is necessary to commence by making a hole in the stopper, sufficiently large to contain the neck of the bird without stran

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Melting a Coin.

Melting a Coin.

Fix three pins in the table and lay the piece of money upon them; then place a heap of the flour of sulphur below the piece of money, and another above it, and set fire to them. When the flame is extinct, you will find on the upper part of the piece a thin plate of metal, which has been detached from it....

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Explosive Gas.

Explosive Gas.

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 moments 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 appl

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Cold from Evaporation.

Cold from Evaporation.

Ether poured upon a glass tube in a thin stream will evaporate and cool it to such a degree that water contained in it may be frozen....

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Self-Dancing Egg.

Self-Dancing Egg.

Fill a quill with quicksilver; seal it at both ends with good hard wax; then have an egg boiled; take a small piece of the shell off the small end and thrust in the quill with the quicksilver; lay it on the ground and it will not cease tumbling about as long as any heat remains in it; or if you put quicksilver into a small bladder and blow it up, then warm the bladder, it will skip about as long as heat remains in it....

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Flash of Fire in a Room.

Flash of Fire in a Room.

Dissolve camphor in spirits of wine and deposit the vessel containing the solution in a very close room, where the spirits 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....

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Cast Iron Drops.

Cast Iron 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. The 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....

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Explosion without Heat.

Explosion without Heat.

Take a crystal or two of the nitrate of copper and bruise them; then moisten them with water and roll them up quickly in a piece of tinfoil, and in half a minute or little more, the tinfoil will begin to smoke and soon after take fire and explode with a slight noise. Unless the crystals of the nitrate of copper are moistened, no heat will be produced....

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Fiery Powder.

Fiery Powder.

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 until 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 the crucible, fill up the crucible with fine sand and surround it with burning coals. When the bottl

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Illumination.

Illumination.

A very pleasing exhibition may be made, with very little trouble or expense, in the following manner: Provide a box, which you can fit up with architectural designs cut on pasteboard; prick small holes into 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 man

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Sun and Spirit.

Sun and Spirit.

Put a small quantity of spirits of wine into a glass, and put a cent or coin in with it; then direct the rays of the sun by means of a burning glass upon the coin, and in a short time it will become so hot as to inflame the spirits....

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Stars in Water.

Stars in Water.

Put half a drachm of solid phosphorus into a large pint 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 spirits 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, rep

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Parlor Ballooning.

Parlor Ballooning.

It is an interesting and amusing experiment to inflate a balloon made of gold-beater’s skin (using a little gum arabic to close any holes or fissures), filling it from a bladder or jar, and tying a thread around the mouth of it, to prevent the escape of the gas. When fully blown, attach a fanciful car of colored paper, or very thin pasteboard, to it, and let it float in a large room; it will soon gain the ceiling, where it will remain for any length of time; if it be let off in the open air it w

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Marvelous.

Marvelous.

Wrap up a very smooth ball of lead in a piece of paper, taking care that there be no wrinkles in it, and that it be everywhere in contact with the ball; if it be held in this state over the flame of a taper, the lead will be melted without the paper being burnt. The lead, indeed, when once fused will not fail in a short time to pierce the paper, and run through....

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Mutability.

Mutability.

Infuse a few shavings of logwood in common water, and when the liquid 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 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 color; if the second it will pass gradually from a bluish gray

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