Endless Amusement - free ebook by Unknown

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Endless Amusement

Unknown

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325 chapters

To produce Fire by the Mixture of two cold Liquids.

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, turpent

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The Exploding Bubble.

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....

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The Magic Picture.

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

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Artificial Lightning.

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....

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Artificial Thunder.

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

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Another way.

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 do

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Money augmented by an Optical Illusion.

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 witnesse

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Three objects discernible only with both Eyes.

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 pers

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To construct the Camera Obscura.

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 o

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The Magnifying Reflector.

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....

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To tell by a Watch Dial the Hour when a Person intends to rise.

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 1

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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.

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,...

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Secret Correspondence.

Secret Correspondence.

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 &amp;, as

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Another Way.

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

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Secret Correspondence by Music.

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. 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 t

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The Magic Vessel.

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 exper

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Artificial Earthquake and Volcano.

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....

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Artificial Illuminations.

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 manne

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The Cameleon Spirit.

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....

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Invisible Ink.

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 vi

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Another.

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....

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Another.

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....

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Invisible Gold Ink.

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

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Invisible Silver Ink.

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....

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Invisible Yellow Ink.

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 i

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Invisible Red Ink.

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....

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Invisible Green 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....

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Another Invisible Green Ink.

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....

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Invisible Violet Ink.

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....

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Invisible Grey Ink.

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....

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A Secret Correspondence by means of Invisible Ink.

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 s

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The Mysterious Writing.

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....

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The Restored Flowers.

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 r

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Winter changed to Spring.

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,

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The Silver Tree.

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

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The Lead Tree.

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....

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To produce beautiful Fire-works in Miniature.

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 t

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Artificial Rain and Hail.

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 v

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Illuminated Writing.

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, an

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A Lamp that will burn Twelve Months without replenishing.

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....

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Curious Transcolorations.

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 vitr

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Another.

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....

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Another.

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....

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Curious Account of the Electric Effects of a Russian Climate.

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 himsel

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Astonishing Power of Steam.

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

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Account of the Wonderful Effects of two immense Burning-Glasses.

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, &amp;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,

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Fulminating Powder.

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....

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A more powerful fulminating Powder.

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 lo

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To make the Phosphorus Match Bottles.

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 canno

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To make a Ring suspend by a Thread, after the Thread has been burned.

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....

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To form Figures in relief on an Egg.

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....

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To give a ghastly Appearance to Persons in a Room.

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....

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To change Blue to White.

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....

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Magical Transmutations.

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 f

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To make Pomatum with Water and Wax.

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....

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Iron transformed into Copper.

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....

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Iron transformed into Silver.

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....

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Chemical Illuminations.

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....

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The Philosophical Candle.

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 b

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To make the appearance of a Flash of Lightning, when any one enters a Room with a lighted Candle.

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....

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To melt Iron in a Moment and make it run into Drops.

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....

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Never-yielding Cement.

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 acc

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To remove Stains and Blemishes from Prints.

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 dissol

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To so fill a Glass with Water, that it cannot be removed without spilling the whole.

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 withou

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Two Figures, one of which blows out and the other re-lights a Candle.

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....

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A vessel that will let Water out at the Bottom, as soon as the Mouth is uncorked.

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 botto

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A Powder which catches Fire when exposed to the Air.

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 bot

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Fulminating Gold.

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 was

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To melt a piece of Money in a Walnut-shell, without injuring the shell.

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 h

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A Liquid that Shines in the Dark.

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 ent

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Luminous Liquor.

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....

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The changeable Rose.

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....

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Golden Ink.

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

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Another way.

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 gent

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White Ink, for Writing on black Paper.

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 stra

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To construct Paper Balloons.

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 togethe

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Water-Gilding upon Silver.

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....

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A Water which gives Silver a 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....

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To make an old Gold Chain appear like new.

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....

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To give Silver the Colour of Gold.

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....

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A Water to give any Metal a Gold Colour.

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....

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Another way.

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....

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To give Silver-plate a Lustre.

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....

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The Fiery Fountain.

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....

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To take Impressions of Coins, Medals, &c.

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, neit

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To tell a Person any Number he may privately fix on.

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,...

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To tell any Number a Person has fixed on, without asking him any Questions.

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 sylla

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The Lamp Chronometer.

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

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The Phial of the Four Elements.

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

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The Magic Bottle.

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 re

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The Globular Fountain.

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 wi

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The Hydraulic Dancer.

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....

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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.

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

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The Water Sun.

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....

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The Magical Cascade.

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. Place this machine in a ti

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The illuminated Fountain, that plays when the Candles are lighted, and stops when they are extinguished.

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, &amp;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. When the candles are lighted,

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A Fountain which acts by the heat of the Sun.

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

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Inflammable Phosphorus.

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

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The Magical Mirrors.

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

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To cause a brilliant Explosion under Water.

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....

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Fulminating Mercury.

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

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The Iron Tree.

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

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To make any Number divisible by Nine, by adding a Figure to it.

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....

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Arithmetical Squares.

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. To form a magical square, first transpose the two ranks in the natural squ

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To find the Difference between two Numbers, the greatest of which is unknown.

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 tell

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The Boundless Prospect.

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, &amp;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

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To set Fire to a combustible Body by Reflection.

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....

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To find the Number of Changes that may be rung on Twelve Bells.

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...

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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.

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

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The Enchanted Bottle.

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 a

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The Solar Magic Lantern.

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

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The Artificial Rainbow.

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

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The Æolipiles.

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 an

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The Talking Busts.

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

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The Inanimate Oracle.

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

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The Solar Concerto.

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 communicat

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Of Painting the Glasses.

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

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To represent a Storm at Sea.

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. On the other glass, Fig. 10, paint various vessels on the ocean, observing

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To produce the appearance of a Spectre on a Pedestal in the middle of a Table.

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. There must be holes in that part of the box which is over the l

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The Artificial Landscape.

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. Cover the box with gauze, over which place a piece of transparent glass, which is t

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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.

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.

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

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Illuminated Prospects.

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 o

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The Magnetic Wand.

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 w

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The Mysterious Watch.

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 p

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The Magnetic Dial.

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 b

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The Magnetic Cards.

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 opposit

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The Magnetic Orrery.

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

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The Magic Verse.

The Magic Verse.

The eight words which compose this Latin verse, " Tot sunt tibi dote, quot cœli 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. 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 theref

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Bottles broken by Air.

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,

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Glass broken by Air.

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....

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The Hand fixed by Air.

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....

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Water boiled by Air.

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....

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Aërial Bubbles.

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....

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The floating Stone.

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....

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Withered Fruit restored.

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....

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Vegetable Air-Bubbles.

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....

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The Mercurial Wand.

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 th

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The Magic Bell.

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....

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Feathers heavier than Lead.

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....

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The self-moving Wheel.

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

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The Artificial Halo.

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....

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The Mercurial Shower.

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....

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Magic Fountain.

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....

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The Exploded Bladder.

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 experime

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The Cemented Bladder.

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 wi

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Cork heavier than Lead.

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 heavine

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The animated Bacchus.

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....

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The Artificial Balloon.

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....

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Curious Experiments with a Viper.

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 lear

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Experiments with Sparrows.

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, 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. 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

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The Animated Feather.

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 t

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The Candle lighted by Electricity.

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 wi

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Candle Bombs.

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....

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The Artificial Spider.

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....

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The Miraculous Portrait.

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 th

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The Cup of Tantalus.

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 i

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Magical Explosion.

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....

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Artificial Earthquake.

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

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The Magic Dance.

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 disch

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The Electrical Fountain.

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....

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The Electric Kite.

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

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The Magic Chase.

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 place

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The Unconscious Incendiary.

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, t

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The Inconceivable Shock.

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 dis

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The Miraculous Luminaries.

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 brigh

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The Fiery Shower.

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 l

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The Illuminated Vacuum.

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 b

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The Illuminated Cylinder.

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 bo

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The Electric 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, wit

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The Electrical Orrery.

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,

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The Electrified Cotton.

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 presen

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The Electric Sparks.

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.

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Dancing Balls.

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

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The Leyden Phial.

The Leyden Phial.

When a nail or piece of thick brass wire, &amp;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,

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The Self-moving Wheel.

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 wi

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Resin ignited by Electricity.

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....

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Spirits ignited by Electricity.

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 electri

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The Electric Balloon.

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 len

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The Illuminated Water.

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 wa

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The Electrified Ball.

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....

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Illuminated Phosphorus.

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

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The Luminous Writing.

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 the

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The Electric Explosion.

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, &amp;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

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Electrified Air.

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 electrif

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Another Electric Orrery. (See page 92.)

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 h

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The Electric Ball.

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 se

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To spin Sealing-wax into Threads by Electricity.

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

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The Electrified Camphor.

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. Many of the following recreations are performed by arithmetical calculations, and may therefore be considered as connected with science; but as it has

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To tell the Number of Points on Three Cards, placed under Three different Parcels of Cards.

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 ex

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The Ten Duplicates.

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

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To tell how many Cards a Person takes out of a Pack, and to specify each Card.

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 spad

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A Hundred different Names being written on the Cards, to tell the particular Name any Person thought of.

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 take

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Several different Cards being fixed on by different Persons, to name that on which each Person fixed.

Several different Cards being fixed on by different Persons, to name that on which each Person fixed.

There must be as many different cards shown to each person , as there are cards to choose; so that, if there are three persons, you must show three cards to each person, telling the first to retain one in his memory. You then lay those three cards down, and show three others to the second person, and three others to the third. Next take up the first person's cards, and lay them down separately, one by one, with their faces upwards; place the second person's cards over the first, and the third ov

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To name the Rank of a Card that a Person has drawn from a Piquet Pack.

To name the Rank of a Card that a Person has drawn from a Piquet Pack.

The rank of a card means whether it be an ace, king, queen, &amp;c. You therefore first fix a certain number to each card; thus you call the king four, the queen three, the knave two, the ace one, and the others according to the number of their pips. You then shuffle the cards, and let a person draw any one of them; then turning up the remaining cards, you add the number of the first to that of the second, the second to the third, and so on, till it amounts to ten, which you then reject, and

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To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any two Cards drawn from a common Pack.

To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any two Cards drawn from a common Pack.

Each court card in this amusement counts for ten, and the other cards according to the number of their pips. Let the person who draws the cards add as many more cards to each of those he has drawn as will make each of their numbers twenty-five. Then take the remaining cards in your hand, and, seeming to search for some card among them, tell them over to yourself, and their number will be the amount of the two cards drawn. For example.—Suppose the person has drawn a ten and a seven, then he must

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To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any Three Cards that a Person shall draw from the Pack.

To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any Three Cards that a Person shall draw from the Pack.

After the person has drawn his three cards, draw one yourself and lay it aside, for it is necessary that the number of the remaining cards be divisible by three, which they will not be in a pack of fifty-two cards, if only three be drawn. The card you draw, you may call the confederate, and pretend it is by the aid of that card you discover the amount of the others. Then tell the party to add as many more to each of his cards as will make its number sixteen, which is the third part of the remain

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The Divining Card.

The Divining Card.

Provide a pack in which there is a long card; open it at that part where the long card is, and present the pack to a person in such a manner that he will naturally draw that card. You then tell him to put it into any part of the pack, and shuffle the cards. You take the pack, and offer the same card in like manner to a second or third person, taking care that they do not stand near enough to see the card each other draws. You then draw several cards yourself, among which is the long card, and as

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The Four Confederate Cards.

The Four Confederate Cards.

A person draws four cards from the pack, and you tell him to remember one of them. He then returns them to the pack, and you dexterously place two under and two on the top of the pack. Under the bottom ones you place four cards of any sort, and then, taking eight or ten from the bottom cards, you spread them on the table, and ask the person if the card he fixed on be among them. If he say no , you are sure it is one of the two cards on the top. You then pass those two cards to the bottom and, dr

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The Numerical Cards.

The Numerical Cards.

Let the long card be the sixteenth in the pack of piquet cards. Take ten or twelve cards from the top of the pack, and, spreading them on the table, desire a person to think on any one of them, and to observe the number it is from the first card. Make the pass at the long card, which will then be at the bottom. Then ask the party the number his card was at, and, counting to yourself from that number to sixteen, turn the cards up, one by one, from the bottom. Then stop at the seventeenth card, an

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The Card found out by the Point of the Sword.

The Card found out by the Point of the Sword.

When a card has been drawn, you place it under the long card, and by shuffling them dexterously, you bring it to the top of the pack. Then lay or throw the pack on the ground, observing where the top card lies. A handkerchief is then bound round your eyes, which ought to be done by a confederate, in such a way that you can see the ground. A sword is put into your hand, with which you touch several of the cards, as if in doubt, but never losing sight of the top card, in which at last you fix the

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The Card hit upon by the Guess.

The Card hit upon by the Guess.

Spread part of the pack before a person, in such way that only one court card is visible; and so arrange it, that it shall appear the most prominent and striking card. You desire him to think on one; and observe if he fix his eye on the court card. When he tells you he has determined on one, shuffle the cards, and, turning them up one by one, when you come to the court card tell him that is the one. If he does not seem to fix his eye on the court card, you should not hazard the experiment; but f

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The Card changed by Word of Command.

The Card changed by Word of Command.

You must have two cards of the same sort in the pack, (say the king of spades.) Place one next the bottom card, (say seven of hearts,) and the other at top. Shuffle the cards without displacing those three, and show a person that the bottom card is the seven of hearts. This card you dexterously slip aside with your finger, which you have previously wetted, and, taking the king of spades from the bottom, which the person supposes to be the seven of hearts, lay it on the table, telling him to cove

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The Three Magical Parties.

The Three Magical Parties.

Offer the long card to a person, that he may draw it, and replace it in any part of the pack he pleases. Make the pass , and bring that card to the top. Next divide the pack in three parcels, putting the long card in the middle heap. You then ask the person which of the three heaps his card shall be in. He will, probably, say the middle; in which case you immediately show it to him. But if he say either of the others, you take all the cards in your hand, placing the parcel he has named over the

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The Magic Vase.

The Magic Vase.

Construct a vase of wood, or pasteboard, see Fig. 20. On the inside let there be five divisions; two of them, c d , to be large enough to admit a pack of cards each; and the other three, e f g , only large enough to contain a single card. Place this vase on a bracket, L, which is fastened to the partition M. Fix a silken thread at H, the other end of which passes down the division d , and, over the pulley I, runs along the bracket L, and goes out behind the partition M. Take three cards from the

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The Divining Perspective Glass.

The Divining Perspective Glass.

Procure a small perspective-glass, wide enough, where the object-glass is placed, to hold the following table: Take a pack of twenty-seven cards; give them to a person, bid him fix, on one, shuffle them, and return them to you. Arrange the twenty-seven cards in three parcels, by laying one down, alternately, on each parcel; but before you lay each card down, show it to the person, without seeing it yourself. When you have completed the three parcels, ask him at what number, from one to twenty-se

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The Card in the Ring.

The Card in the Ring.

Get a ring, made of any metal, in which is set a large transparent stone or piece of glass, to the bottom of which is fastened a small piece of black silk; under the silk is to be the figure of a small card; and the silk must be so constructed that it may be either drawn aside or spread, by turning the stone round. You then cause a person to draw the same sort of card as that at the bottom of the ring; and tell him to burn it in the candle. Now, the ring being so constructed that the silk concea

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The Card in the Mirror.

The Card in the Mirror.

Provide a mirror, either round or oval, the frame of which must be at least as wide as a card, and the glass must be wider than the distance between the frame, by at least the width of a card. The glass in the middle must be made to move in two grooves, and so much of the quicksilver must be scraped off, as is equal to the size of a common card. You then paste over the part where the quicksilver is rubbed off, a piece of pasteboard, on which is a cord, that must exactly fit the space, which must

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The Card in the Opera Glass.

The Card in the Opera Glass.

Procure an opera-glass, two inches and a half long; the tube to be made of ivory, so thin that it may appear transparent. Place it in a magnifying glass, of such a power, and at such a distance, that a card, three-quarters of an inch long, may appear like a common-sized card. At the bottom of the tube lay a circle of black pasteboard, to which fasten a small card, with the pips, or figures, on both sides, and in such a manner, that by turning the table, either side of the glass may be visible. Y

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To separate the two Colours of a Pack of Cards by one Cut.

To separate the two Colours of a Pack of Cards by one Cut.

To perform this amusement, all the cards of one colour must be cut something narrower at one end than the other. You show the cards, and give them to any one, that he may shuffle them; then holding them between your hands, one hand being at each extremity, with one motion you separate the hearts and diamonds from the spades and clubs....

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The Metamorphosed Cards.

The Metamorphosed Cards.

In the middle of a pack place a card that is something wider than the rest, which we will suppose to be the knave of spades, under which place the seven of diamonds, and under that the ten of clubs. On the top of the pack put cards similar to these, and others on which are painted different objects, viz. : then seven or eight indifferent cards, the knave of spades, which is the wide card, the seven of diamonds, the ten of clubs, and the rest any indifferent cards. Two persons are to draw the two

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To discover the Card which is drawn, by the Throw of a Die.

To discover the Card which is drawn, by the Throw of a Die.

Prepare a pack of cards, in which there are only six sorts of cards. Dispose these cards in such manner that each of the six different cards shall follow each other, and let the last of each suite be a long card. The cards being thus disposed, it follows, that if you divide them into six parcels, by cutting at each of the long cards, those parcels will all consist of similar cards. Let a person draw a card from the pack, and let him replace it in the parcel from whence it was drawn, by dexterous

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To tell the Number of the Cards by their Weight.

To tell the Number of the Cards by their Weight.

Take a parcel of cards, suppose forty, among which insert two long cards; let the first be, for example, the fifteenth, and the other the twenty-sixth from the top. Seem to shuffle the cards, and then cutting them at the first long card, poise those you have cut off in your left hand, and say, "There should be here fifteen cards." Cut them again at the second long card, and say, "There are here only eleven cards." Then poising the remainder, you say, "Here are fourteen cards."...

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The Four Inseparable Kings.

The Four Inseparable Kings.

Take the four kings, and behind the last of them place two other cards, so that they may not be seen. Then spread open the four kings to the company, and put the six cards at the bottom of the pack. Draw one of the kings, and put it at the top of the pack. Draw one of the two cards at the bottom, and put it towards the middle. Draw the other, and put it at some distance from the last, and then show that there remains a king at bottom. Then let any one cut the cards, and as there remains three ki

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To change the Cards which several Persons have drawn from the Pack.

To change the Cards which several Persons have drawn from the Pack.

On the top of the pack put any card you please—suppose the queen of clubs; make the pass, bring that card to the middle of the pack, and offer it to a person to draw. Then, by cutting the cards, bring the queen again to the middle of the pack. Make the pass a second time, bring it to the top, and shuffle the cards without displacing those on the top. Make the pass a third time, bring it to the middle of the pack and offer it to a second person to draw, who must be at a proper distance from the f

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The Card discovered under the Handkerchief.

The Card discovered under the Handkerchief.

Let a person draw any card from the rest, and put it in the middle of the pack; you make the pass at that place, and the card will consequently be at top; then placing the pack on the table, cover it with a handkerchief; and, putting your hand under it, take off the top card, and after seeming to search among the cards for some time, draw it out. This amusement may be performed by putting the cards in another person's pocket, after the pass is made. Several cards may also be drawn and placed tog

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The Convertible Aces.

The Convertible Aces.

On the ace of spades fix, with soap, a heart, and on the ace of hearts a spade, in such a manner that they will easily slip off. Show these two aces to the company; then, taking the ace of spades, you desire a person to put his foot upon it, and as you place it on the ground, draw away the spade. In like manner you place the seeming ace of hearts under the foot of another person. You then command the two cards to change their places; and that they obey your command, the two persons, on taking up

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To tell the Card that a Person has touched with his Finger.

To tell the Card that a Person has touched with his Finger.

This amusement is to be performed by confederacy. You previously agree with your confederate on certain signs, by which he is to denote the suite, and the particular card of each suite; thus: if he touch the first button of his coat, it signifies an ace; if the second, a king, &amp;c.; and then again, if he take out his handkerchief, it denotes the suite to be hearts; if he take snuff, diamonds, &amp;c. These preliminaries being settled, you give the pack to a person who is near your con

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The Card in the Pocket-book.

The Card in the Pocket-book.

A confederate is previously to know the card you have taken from the pack, and put into your pocket-book. You then present the pack to him, and desire him to fix on a card, (which we will suppose to be the queen of diamonds,) and place the pack on the table. You then ask him the name of the card, and when he says the queen of diamonds, you ask him if he be not mistaken, and if he be sure that the card is in the pack: when he replies in the affirmative, you say, "It might be there when you looked

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The Card in the Egg.

The Card in the Egg.

Take a card, the same as your long card, and, rolling it up very close, put it in an egg, by making a hole as small as possible, and which you are to fill up carefully with white wax. You then offer the long card to be drawn, and when it is replaced in the pack, you shuffle the cards several times, giving the egg to the person who drew the card, and while he is breaking it, you privately withdraw the long card, that it may appear, upon examining the cards, to have gone from the pack into the egg

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The Card discovered by the Touch or Smell.

The Card discovered by the Touch or Smell.

You offer the long card, or any other that you know, and as the person who has drawn it holds it in his hand, you pretend to feel the pips or figure on the under side, by your fore-finger; or you sagaciously smell to it, and then pronounce what card it is. If it be the long card, you may give the pack to the person who drew it, and leave him at liberty either to replace it or not. Then taking the pack, you feel immediately whether it be there or not, and, shuffling the cards in a careless manner

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The Inverted Cards.

The Inverted Cards.

Prepare a pack of cards, by cutting one end of them about one-tenth of an inch narrower than the other; then offer the pack to any one, that he may draw a card; place the pack on the table, and observe carefully if he turn the card while he is looking at it; if he do not, when you take the pack from the table, you offer the other end of it for him to insert that card; but if he turn the card, you then offer him the same end of the pack. You afterwards offer the cards to a second or third person,

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The Transmuted Cards.

The Transmuted Cards.

In a common pack of cards let the ace of hearts and nine of spades be something larger than the rest. With the juice of lemon draw over the ace of hearts a spade, large enough to cover it entirely, and on each side draw four other spades. Present the pack to two persons, so adroitly, that one of them shall draw the ace of hearts, and the other the nine of spades, and tell him who draws the latter, to burn it on a chafing-dish. You then take the ashes of that card, put them into a small metal box

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The Convertible Cards.

The Convertible Cards.

To perform this amusement you must observe, that there are several letters which may be changed into others, without any appearance of the alteration, as the a into d , the c into a , e , d , g , o , or q ; the i into b , d , or l ; the l into t ; the o into a , d , g , or q ; the v into y , &amp;c. Take a parcel of cards, suppose twenty, and on one of them write with juice of lemon or onion, or vitriol and water, the word law, (these letters should not be joined;) and on the other, with the

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The Enchanted Palace.

The Enchanted Palace.

On the six-sided plane A B C D E F, Fig. 21, draw six semi-diameters; and on each of these place perpendicularly two plane mirrors, which must join exactly at the centre, and which, placed back to back, must be as thin as possible. Decorate the exterior boundary of this piece, (which is at the extremity of the angles of the hexagon,) with six columns, that at the same time serve to support the mirrors by grooves formed on their inner sides. Add to these columns their entablatures, and cover the

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Opaque Bodies seemingly Transparent.

Opaque Bodies seemingly Transparent.

Within the case A B C D, place four mirrors O P Q R, Fig. 22, so disposed, that they may each make an angle of 45 degrees, that is, that they may be half-way inclined from the perpendicular, as in the figure. In each of the two extremities A B, make a circular overture; in one of which fix the tube G L, in the other the tube M F, and observe, that in each of these is to be inserted another tube, as H and I. [ Observe. These four tubes must terminate in the substance of the case, and not enter th

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The Deforming Mirrors.

The Deforming Mirrors.

If a person look in a concave mirror placed perpendicularly to another, (that is, supposing one mirror to be laid on the floor, and the other attached to the ceiling,) his face will appear entirely deformed. If the mirror be a little inclined, so as to make an angle of 80 degrees, (that is, one-ninth part from the perpendicular,) he will then see all the parts of his face, except the nose and forehead. If it be inclined to 60 degrees; (that is, one-third part,) he will appear with three noses an

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The Magic Tube.

The Magic Tube.

Procure a small tube of glass, whose canal is extremely narrow, and open at both ends; let one end of it be plunged in water, and the water within the tube will rise to a considerable height above the external surface: or if two or more tubes be immersed in the same fluid, the one with a narrow canal, and the other wider, the water will ascend higher in the former than the latter....

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The Magician's Mirror.

The Magician's Mirror.

Construct a box of wood, of a cubical shape, A B C D, Fig. 23, of about fifteen inches every way. Let it be fixed to the pedestal P, at the usual height of a man's head. In each side of this box let there be an opening, of an oval form, ten inches high, and seven wide. In this box place two mirrors, A D, with their backs against each other. Let them cross the box in a diagonal line, and in a vertical position. Decorate the openings in the side of this box with four oval frames and transparent gl

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The Perspective Mirror.

The Perspective Mirror.

Provide a box, A B C D, Fig. 24, of about two feet long, 15 inches wide, and 12 inches high. At the end A C, place the concave mirror, the focus of whose parallel rays is 18 inches from the reflecting surface. At I L place a pasteboard, blacked, in which a hole is cut, sufficiently large to see on the mirror H the object placed at B E F D. Cover the top of the box, from A to I, close, that the mirror H may be entirely darkened. The other part, I B, must be covered with glass, under which is plac

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Gunpowder Exploded by Reflection.

Gunpowder Exploded by Reflection.

Place two concave mirrors at about 12 or 15 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 place some gunpowder. With a pair of double bellows, which make a continual blast, keep constantly blowing the coal, and notwithstanding the distance between them, the powder will presently take fire....

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The Igniting Mirrors.

The Igniting Mirrors.

The rays of a luminous body placed in the focus of concave mirror, being reflected in parallel lines, and a second mirror being placed diametrically opposite to the first, will set fire to a combustible body, by collecting those rays in the focus....

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The Armed Apparition.

The Armed Apparition.

If a person with a drawn sword place himself before a large concave mirror, but further from it than its focus, he will see an inverted image of himself in the air, between him and the mirror, of a less size than himself. If he steadily present the sword towards the centre of the mirror, an image of the sword will come out from it, point to point, as if to fence with him; and by his pushing the sword nearer, the image will appear to come nearer to him, and almost to touch his breast. If the mirr

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The Phantom.

The Phantom.

You inform a person that at a certain hour, and in a certain place, he shall see the apparition of a deceased friend, (whose portrait you possess.) In order to produce this phantom, there must be a door which opens into an apartment to which there is a considerable descent. Under that door you are to place the portrait, which must be inverted and strongly illuminated, that it may be brightly reflected by the mirror, which must be large and well polished. Then having introduced the incredulous sp

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The Distorting Mirror.

The Distorting Mirror.

Opticians sometimes grind a glass mirror concave in one direction only, or longitudinally; it is in fact a concave portion of a cylinder, the breadth of which may be considered that of the mirror. A person looking at his face in this mirror, in the direction of its concavity, will see it curiously dis torted in a very lengthened appearance; and by turning the cylindrical mirror a quarter round, his visage will appear distorted another way, by an apparent increase in width only. If in a very near

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Water colder than Ice.

Water colder than Ice.

Put a lump of ice into an equal quantity of water, heated to 176 degrees, the result will be, that the fluid will be no hotter than water just beginning to freeze; but if a little sea salt be added to the water, and it be heated only to 166 or 170, a fluid will be produced colder than the ice was at first ....

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Exploding Salt.

Exploding Salt.

If a small quantity of powdered charcoal and hyper-oxymuriate of potash be rubbed together in a mortar, an explosion will be produced, and the charcoal inflamed. Three parts of this salt, and one of sulphur, rubbed together in a mortar, produce a violent detonation. If struck with a hammer on an anvil, there is an explosion like the report of a pistol. When concentrated sulphuric acid is poured upon this salt, there is a considerable explosion; it is thrown about to a great distance, sometimes w

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Dioptrical Paradox.

Dioptrical Paradox.

Construct a machine similar to that in Fig. 25. Its effect will be, that a print, or an ornamented drawing, with any object, such as an ace of diamonds, &amp;c. in the centre F, will be seen as an ace of clubs when placed in the machine, and viewed through a single plane glass only, contained in the tube E. The glass in the tube F, which produces this surprising change, is somewhat on the principle of the common multiplying glass, as represented at G, which, by the number of its inclined sur

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To show the Spots in the Sun's Disk by its Image in the Camera Obscura.

To show the Spots in the Sun's Disk by its Image in the Camera Obscura.

Put the object-glass of a ten or twelve feet telescope into the scioptric ball, and turn it about till it be directly opposite the sun. Then place the pasteboard mentioned in page 16, in the focus of the lens, and you will see a clear bright image of the sun, about an inch diameter, in which the spots on the sun's surface will be exactly described. As this image is too bright to be seen with pleasure by the naked eye, you may view it through a lens whose focus is at six or eight inches distance,

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The Diagonal Opera Glass.

The Diagonal Opera Glass.

By the diagonal position of a plane mirror, a curious opera-glass is constructed, by which any person may be viewed in a theatre or public company without knowing it. It consists only in placing a concave glass near the plane mirror, in the end of a short round tube, and a convex glass in a hole in the side of the tube, then holding the end of the tube with the glass to the eye, all objects next to the hole in the side will be reflected so as to appear in a direct line forward, or in a position

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To observe an Eclipse of the Sun, without Injury to the Eye.

To observe an Eclipse of the Sun, without Injury to the Eye.

Take a burning-glass, or spectacle-glass, that magnifies very much; hold it before a book or pasteboard, twice the distance of its focus, and you will see the round body of the sun, and the manner in which the moon passes between the glass and the sun, during the whole eclipse....

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The Burnt Writing restored.

The Burnt Writing restored.

Cover the outside of a small memorandum book with black paper, and in one of its inside covers make a flap, to open secretly, and observe there must be nothing over the flap but the black paper that covers the book. Mix soot with black or brown soap, with which rub the side of the black paper next the flap; then wipe it clean, that a white paper pressed against it will not receive any mark. Provide a black-lead pencil that will not mark without pressing hard on the paper. Have likewise a small b

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The Opaque Box made Transparent.

The Opaque Box made Transparent.

Make a box three or four inches long, and two or three wide, and have a sort of perspective-glass, the bottom of which is the same size with the box, and slides out, that you may privately place a paper on it. The sides of this perspective are to be of glass, covered on the inside with fine paper. Let a person write on a slip of paper, putting your memorandum book under it, as in the last amusement; then give him the little box, and let him put what he has written into it. In the mean time you p

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The Transposable Pieces.

The Transposable Pieces.

Take two guineas and two shillings, and grind part of them away, on one side only, so that they may be but half the common thickness; and observe, that they must be quite thin at the edge; then rivet a guinea and a shilling together. Lay one of these double pieces, with the shilling upwards, on the palm of your hand, at the bottom of your three first fingers, and lay the other piece with the guinea upwards in the like manner, in the other hand. Let the company take notice in which hand is the gu

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The Penetrative Guinea.

The Penetrative Guinea.

Provide a large tin box, of the size of a large snuff-box, and in this place eight other boxes, which will go easily into each other, and let the least of them be of a size to hold a guinea. Each of these boxes should shut with a hinge, and to the least of them there must be a small lock, that is fastened with a spring, but cannot be opened without a key;—observe, that all these boxes must shut so freely, that they may be all closed at once. Place these boxes in each other, with their tops open,

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To make Pictures of Birds with their Natural Feathers.

To make Pictures of Birds with their Natural Feathers.

First take thin board or panel, of deal or wainscot, well seasoned, that it may not shrink; then paste white paper smoothly on it, and let it dry; if the colour of the wood show through, paste a second paper over it. When the paper is dry, get ready any bird that you would represent, and draw the outline as exact as you can on the papered panel. You then paint the ground-work, stump of a tree, the bill and legs, their proper colour, with water-colours, leaving the body to be covered with its own

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The Art of Bronzing.

The Art of Bronzing.

Bronzing is that process by which figures of plaster-of-paris, wood, &amp;c. are made to have the appearance of copper or brass. The method is as follows: Dissolve copper filings in aqua fortis. When the copper has impregnated the acid, pour off the solution, and put into it some pieces of iron, or iron filings. The effect of this will be to sink the powder to the bottom of the acid. Pour off the liquor, and wash the powder in successive quantities of fresh water. When the powder is dry, it

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Method of taking the Impression of Butterflies on Paper.

Method of taking the Impression of Butterflies on Paper.

Clip the wings off the butterfly, lay them on clean, in the form of a butterfly when flying. Spread some thick clean gum-water on another piece of paper, press it on the wings, and it will take them up; lay a piece of white paper over it, and rub it gently with your finger, or the smooth handle of a knife. The bodies are to be drawn in the space which you leave between the wings....

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To soften Horn.

To soften Horn.

To one pound of wood-ashes, add two pounds of quick lime; put them into a quart of water. Let the whole boil till reduced to one-third. Then dip a feather in, and if, on drawing it out, the plume should come off, it is a proof that it is boiled enough; if not, let it boil a little longer. When it is settled, filter it off, and in the liquor thus strained put in shavings of horn. Let them soak for three days; and, first anointing your hands with oil, work the horn into a mass, and print or mould

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To make Moulds of Horn.

To make Moulds of Horn.

If you wish to take the impression of any coin, medal, &amp;c., previously anoint it with oil; then lay the horn shavings over it in its softened state. When dry, the impression will be sunk into the horn; and this will serve as a mould to re-produce, either by plaster-of-paris, putty and glue, or isinglass and ground egg-shells, the exact resemblance of the coin or medal....

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To cast Figures in Imitation of Ivory.

To cast Figures in Imitation of Ivory.

Make isinglass and strong brandy into a paste, with powder of egg-shells, very finely ground. You may give it what colour you please; but cast it warm into your mould, which you previously oil over. Leave the figure in the mould till dry, and you will find, on taking it out, that it bears a very strong resemblance to ivory....

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To extract the Silver out of a Ring that is thick gilded, so that the Gold may remain entire.

To extract the Silver out of a Ring that is thick gilded, so that the Gold may remain entire.

Take a silver ring that is thick gilded. Make a little hole through the gold into the silver; then put the ring into aqua fortis, in a warm place: it will dissolve the silver, and the gold will remain whole....

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To soften Iron or Steel.

To soften Iron or Steel.

Either of the following simple methods will make iron or steel as soft as lead: 1. Anoint it all over with tallow; temper it in a gentle charcoal fire, and let it cool of itself. 2. Take a little clay, cover your iron with it, temper it in a charcoal fire. 3. When the iron or steel is red-hot, strew hellebore on it. 4. Quench the iron or steel in the juice or water of common beans....

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To take a Plaster-of-Paris Cast from a Person's Face.

To take a Plaster-of-Paris Cast from a Person's Face.

The person must lie on his back, and his hair be tied behind. Into each nostril put a conical piece of paper, open at each end to allow of breathing. The face is to be lightly oiled over, and the plaster being properly prepared is to be poured over the face, (taking care that the eyes are shut,) till it is a quarter of an inch thick. In a few minutes the plaster may be removed. In this a mould is to be formed, from which a second cast is to be taken, that will furnish casts exactly like the orig

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Curious Experiment with a Glass of Water.

Curious Experiment with a Glass of Water.

Saturate a certain quantity of water in a moderate heat, with three ounces of sugar; and when it will no longer receive that, there is still room in it for two ounces of salt of tartar, and after that for an ounce and a drachm of green vitriol, nearly six drachms of nitre, the same of sal-ammoniac, two drachms and a scruple of alum, and a drachm and half of borax....

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To make Artificial Coruscations.

To make Artificial Coruscations.

There is a method of producing artificial coruscations, or sparkling fiery meteors, which will be visible, not only in the dark but at noon-day, and that from two liquors actually cold. The method is this:—Fifteen grains of solid phosphorus are to be melted in about a drachm of water: when this is cold, pour upon it two ounces of oil of vitriol; let these be shaken together in a large phial, and they will at first heat, and afterwards will throw up fiery balls in great number, which will adhere

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Another Method.

Another Method.

Artificial coruscations may also be produced by means of oil of vitriol and iron, in the following manner:—Take a glass vessel capable of holding three quarts: put into this three ounces of oil of vitriol, and twelve ounces of water, then warming the mixture a little, throw in at several times two ounces, or more, of clear iron filings: upon this, an ebullition and white vapours will arise; then present a lighted candle to the mouth of the vessel, and the vapour will take fire, and afford a brig

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To produce Fire from Cane.

To produce Fire from Cane.

The Chinese rattans, which are used, when split, for making cane chairs, will, when dry, if struck against each other, give fire; and are used accordingly in some places, in lieu of flint and steel....

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To make an Eolian Harp.

To make an Eolian Harp.

This instrument may be made by almost any carpenter: it consists of a long narrow box of very thin deal, about five or six inches deep, with a circle in the middle of the upper side, of an inch and a half in diameter, in which are to be drilled small holes. On this side, seven, ten, or more strings, of very fine gut, are stretched over bridges at each end, like the bridges of a fiddle, and screwed up or relaxed with screw pins. The strings must be all tuned to one and the same note, and the inst

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To show the Pressure of the Atmosphere.

To show the Pressure of the Atmosphere.

Invert a tall glass or jar in a dish of water, and place a lighted taper under it: as the taper consumes the air in the jar its pressure becomes less on the water immediately under the jar; while the pressure of the atmosphere on the water without the circle of the jar remaining the same, part of the water in the dish will be forced up into the jar, to supply the place of the air which the taper has consumed. Nothing but the pressure of the atmosphere could thus cause part of the water to rise w

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Subaqueous Exhalation.

Subaqueous Exhalation.

Pour a little clear water into a small glass tumbler, and put one or two small pieces of phosphoret of lime into it. In a short time, flashes of fire will dart from the surface of the water, and terminate in ringlets of smoke, which will ascend in regular succession....

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Remarkable Properties in certain Plants.

Remarkable Properties in certain Plants.

Plants, when forced from their natural position, are endowed with a power to restore themselves. A hop-plant, twisting round a stick, directs its course from south to west, as the sun does. Untwist it, and tie it in the opposite direction, it dies. Leave it loose in the wrong direction, it recovers its natural direction in a single night. Twist a branch of a tree so as to invert its leaves, and fix it in that position; if left in any degree loose, it untwists itself gradually, till the leaves be

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Flowers curiously affected by the Sun and the Weather.

Flowers curiously affected by the Sun and the Weather.

The petals of many flowers expand in the sun, but contract all night, or on the approach of rain; after the seeds are fecundated the petals no longer contract. All the trefoil may serve as a barometer to the husbandman; they always contract their leaves on an impending storm....

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Easy Method of obtaining Flowers of different Colours from the same Stem.

Easy Method of obtaining Flowers of different Colours from the same Stem.

Scoop out the pith from a small twig of elder, and having split it lengthwise, fill each of the parts with small seeds that produce flowers of different colours, but that blossom nearly at the same time. Surround them with earth; and then tying together the two bits of wood, plant the whole in a pot filled with earth, properly prepared....

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A Luminous Bottle, which will show the Hour on a Watch in the Dark.

A Luminous Bottle, which will show the Hour on a Watch in the Dark.

Throw a bit of phosphorus, of the size of a pea, into a long glass phial, and pour boiling oil carefully over it, till the phial is one-third filled. The phial must be carefully corked, and when used should be unstopped, to admit the external air, and closed again. The empty space of the phial will then appear luminous, and give as much light as an ordinary lamp. Each time that the light disappears, on removing the stopper it will instantly re-appear. In cold weather the bottle should be warmed

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To make Luminous Writing in the Dark.

To make Luminous Writing in the Dark.

Fix a small piece of solid phosphorus in a quill, and write with it upon paper; if the paper be carried into a dark room, the writing will appear beautifully luminous....

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The Sublimated Tree.

The Sublimated Tree.

Into a large glass jar inverted upon a flat brick tile, and containing near its top a branch of fresh rosemary, or any other such shrub, moistened with water, introduce a flat thick piece of heated iron, on which place some gum benzoin, in gross powder. The benzoin, in consequence of the heat, will be separated, and ascend in white fumes, which will at length condense, and form a most beautiful appearance upon the leaves of the vegetable....

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Easy and curious Methods of foretelling Rainy or Fine Weather.

Easy and curious Methods of foretelling Rainy or Fine Weather.

If a line be made of good whipcord, that is well dried, and a plummet affixed to the end of it, and then hung against a wainscot, and a line drawn under it, exactly where the plummet reaches, in very moderate weather it will be found to rise above it before rain, and to sink below when the weather is likely to become fair. But the best instrument of all, is a good pair of scales, in one of which let there be a brass weight of a pound, and in the other a pound of salt, or of saltpetre, well dried

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Contrivance for a Watch Lamp, perfectly safe, which will show the Hour of the Night, without any trouble, to a person lying in Bed.

Contrivance for a Watch Lamp, perfectly safe, which will show the Hour of the Night, without any trouble, to a person lying in Bed.

It consists of a stand, with three claws, the pillar of which is made hollow, for the purpose of receiving a water candlestick of an inch diameter. On the top of the pillar, by means of two hinges and a bolt, is fixed on a small proportionate table, a box of six sides, lined with brass, tin, or any shining metal, nine inches deep, and six inches in diameter. In the centre of one of these sides is fixed a lens, double convex, of at least three inches and a half diameter. The centre of the side di

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Curious Experiment with a Tulip.

Curious Experiment with a Tulip.

The bulb of a tulip in every respect resembles buds, except in their being produced under ground, and include the leaves and flower in miniature, which are to be expanded in the ensuing spring. By cautiously cutting in the early spring, through the concentric coats of a tulip root, longitudinally from the top to the base, and taking them off successively, the whole flower of the next summer's tulip is beautifully seen by the naked eye, with its petals, pistal, and stamina....

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The Travelling of Sound experimentally proved.

The Travelling of Sound experimentally proved.

There is probably no substance which is not in some measure a conductor of sound; but sound is much enfeebled by passing from one medium to another. If a man, stopping one of his ears with his finger, stop the other also by pressing it against the end of a long stick, and a watch be applied to the opposite end of the stick, or a piece of timber, be it ever so long, the beating of the watch will be distinctly heard; whereas, in the usual way, it can scarcely be heard at the distance of fifteen or

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To produce Metallic Lead from the Powder.

To produce Metallic Lead from the Powder.

Take one ounce of red lead, and half a drachm of charcoal in powder, incorporate them well in a mortar, and then fill the bowl of a tobacco-pipe with the mixture. Submit it to an intense heat, in a common fire, and when melted, pour it out upon a slab, and the result will be metallic lead completely revived....

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To diversify the Colours of Flowers.

To diversify the Colours of Flowers.

Fill a vessel of what size or shape you please, with good rich earth, which has been dried and sifted in the sun, then plant in the same a slip or branch of a plant bearing a white flower, (for such only can be tinged,) and use no other water to water it with, but such as is tinged with red, if you desire red flowers; with blue, if blue flowers, &amp;c. With this coloured water, water the plant twice a day, morning and evening, and remove it into the house at night, so that it drink not of t

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How far Sound travels in a Minute.

How far Sound travels in a Minute.

However it may be with regard to the theories of sound, experience has taught us, that it travels at about the rate of 1142 feet in a second, or nearly thirteen miles in a minute. The method of calculating its progress is easily made known: when a gun is discharged at a distance, we see the fire long before we hear the sound; if, then, we know the distance of the place, and know the time of the interval between our first seeing the fire, and then hearing the report, this will show us exactly the

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Easy Method of making a Rain Gauge.

Easy Method of making a Rain Gauge.

A very simple rain gauge, and one which will answer all practical purposes, consists of a copper funnel the area of whose opening is exactly ten square inches: this funnel is fixed in a bottle, and the quantity of rain caught is ascertained by multiplying the weight in ounces by 173, which gives the depth in inches and parts of an inch. In fixing these gauges, care must be taken that the rain may have free access to them: hence the tops of buildings are usually the best places. When the quantiti

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To make beautiful Transparent coloured Water.

To make beautiful Transparent coloured Water.

The following liquors, which are coloured, being mixed, produce colours very different from their own. The yellow tincture of saffron, and the red tincture of roses, when mixed, produce a green. Blue tincture of violets, and brown spirit of sulphur, produce a crimson. Red tincture of roses, and brown spirits of hartshorn, make a blue. Blue tincture of violets, and blue solution of copper, give a violet colour. Blue tincture of cyanus, and blue spirit of sal-ammoniac coloured, make green. Blue so

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Curious Experiment on Rays of Light.

Curious Experiment on Rays of Light.

That the rays of light flow in all directions from different bodies, without interrupting one another, is plain from the following experiment:—Make a little hole in a thin plate of metal, and set the plate upright on a table, facing a row of lighted candles standing near together; then place a sheet of paper or pasteboard at a little distance from the other side of the plate; and the rays of all the candles, flowing through the hole, will form as many specks of light on the paper as there are ca

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The Power of Water.

The Power of Water.

Let a strong small iron tube of twenty feet in height be inserted into the bung-hole of a cask, and the aperture round so strongly closed, that it shall be water-tight; pour water into the cask till it is full, through the pipe; also continue filling the pipe till the cask bursts, which will be when the water is within a foot of the top of the tube. In this experiment the water, on bursting the vessel, will fly about with considerable violence....

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The Pressure of Water.

The Pressure of Water.

The pressure of water may be known to every one who will only take the trouble to look at the cock of a water-butt when turned: if the tub or cistern be full, the water runs with much greater velocity through the cock, and a vessel will be filled from it in a shorter time than when it is only half-full, although the cock, in both cases, is equally replete with the fluid during the time the vessel is filling. From this also is understood, how a hole or leak, near the keel of a ship, admits the wa

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Refraction of Light.

Refraction of Light.

In the middle of an empty basin put a piece of money, and then retire from it till the edge of the basin hides the piece from your sight: then keep your head steady, let another person fill the basin gently with water; as the water rises in the basin the money will come in view; and when of a sufficient height in the basin, the whole of the piece will be in sight....

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Wonderful Nature of Lightning.

Wonderful Nature of Lightning.

If two persons, standing in a room, looking different ways, and a loud clap of thunder, accompanied with zigzag lightning, happen, they will both distinctly see the flash at the same time; not only the illumination, but the very form of the lightning itself, and every angle it makes in its course will be as distinctly perceptible, as though they had both looked directly at the cloud from whence it proceeded. If a person happened at that time to be looking on a book, or other object, which he hel

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To show that the White of Eggs contains an Alkali.

To show that the White of Eggs contains an Alkali.

Add to a wine-glass half full of tincture of red cabbage a small quantity of the white of an egg, either in a liquid state or rendered concrete by boiling. The tincture will lose its blue colour and become changed to green, because the white of the egg contains soda....

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Two Inodorous Bodies become very Pungent and Odorous by Mixture.

Two Inodorous Bodies become very Pungent and Odorous by Mixture.

When equal parts of muriate of ammonia and unslaked lime, both substances destitute of odour, are intimately blended together in a mortar, a very pungent gas (ammonia) becomes evolved....

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Interesting Experiment for the Microscope.

Interesting Experiment for the Microscope.

The embryo grain of wheat, at the time of blossoming, being carefully taken out of the husk, will be found to have a small downy tuft at its extremity, which, when viewed in a microscope, greatly resembles the branches of thorn, spreading archwise, in opposite directions. By expanding a few of the grains, and selecting the most perfect, a very pretty microscopic object will be obtained for preservation....

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The Travelling of Light.

The Travelling of Light.

Light travels at the rate of a hundred and fifty thousand miles in a single second; and it is seven minutes in passing from the sun to the earth, which is nearly a distance of seventy millions of miles. Such is the rapidity with which these rays dart themselves forward that a journey they thus perform in less than eight minutes, a ball from the mouth of a cannon would not complete in several weeks! But the minuteness of the particles of light are still several degrees beyond their velocity; and

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Calculation of the Mass of Water contained in the Sea.

Calculation of the Mass of Water contained in the Sea.

If we would have an idea of the enormous quantity of water which the sea contains, let us suppose a common and general depth of the ocean; by computing it at only 200 fathoms, or the tenth part of a mile, we shall see that there is sufficient water to cover the whole globe to the height of 503 feet of water; and if we were to reduce this water into one mass, we should find that it forms a globe of more than sixty thousand miles diameter....

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Different Degrees of Heat imbibed from the Sun's Rays by Cloths of different Colours.

Different Degrees of Heat imbibed from the Sun's Rays by Cloths of different Colours.

Walk but a quarter of an hour in your garden, when the sun shines, with a part of your dress white, and a part black; then apply your hand to them alternately, and you will find a very great difference in their warmth. The black will be quite hot to the touch, and the white still cool. Try to fire paper with a burning-glass; if it be white, you will not easily burn it; but if you bring the focus to a black spot, or upon letters, written or printed, the paper will immediately be on fire under the

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Alternate Illusion.

Alternate Illusion.

With a convex lens of about an inch focus, look attentively at a silver seal, on which a cipher is engraved. It will at first appear cut in, as to the naked eye; but if you continue to observe it some time, without changing your situation, it will seem to be in relief, and the lights and shades will appear the same as they did before. If you regard it with the same attention still longer, it will again appear to be engraved: and so on alternately. If you look off the seal for a few moments, when

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Alarum.

Alarum.

Against the wall of a room, near the ceiling, fix a wheel of twelve or eighteen inches diameter; on the rim of which place a number of bells in tune, and, if you please, of different sizes. To the axis of this wheel there should be fixed a fly to regulate its motion; and round the circumference there must be wound a rope, to the end of which is hung a weight. Near to the wheel let a stand be fixed, on which is an upright piece that holds a balance or moveable lever, on one end of which rests the

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Musical Cascade.

Musical Cascade.

Where there is a natural cascade, near the lower stream, but not in it, let there be placed a large wheel, equal to the breadth of the cascade: the diameter of this wheel, for about a foot from each end, must be much less than that of the middle part; and all the water from the cascade must be made to fall on the ends. The water that falls on the wheel may pass through pipes, so that part of it may be made occasionally to pass over or fall short of the wheel, as you would have the time of the mu

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Writing on Glass by the Rays of the Sun.

Writing on Glass by the Rays of the Sun.

Dissolve chalk in aqua fortis, to the consistence of milk, and add to that a strong solution of silver. Keep this liquor in a glass decanter well stopped. Then cut out from a paper the letters you would have appear, and paste the paper on the decanter, which you are to place in the sun, in such a manner that its rays may pass through the spaces cut out of the paper, and fall on the surface of the liquor. The part of the glass through which the rays pass will turn black, and that under the paper

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To produce the Appearance of a Flower from its Ashes.

To produce the Appearance of a Flower from its Ashes.

Make a tin box, with a cover that takes off. Let this box be supported by a pedestal of the same metal, and on which there is a little door. In the front of this box is to be a glass. In a groove, at a small distance from this glass, place a double glass, made in the same manner as described in p. 13, ( Magic Picture. ) Between the front and back glasses place a small upright tin tube, supported by a cross piece. Let there be also a small chafing-dish placed in the pedestal. The box is to be ope

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Imitative Fire-works.

Imitative Fire-works.

Take a paper that is blacked on both sides, or instead of black, the paper may be coloured on each side with a deep blue, which will be still better for such as are to be seen through transparent papers. It must be of a proper size for the figure you intend to exhibit. In this paper cut out with a penknife several spaces, and with a piercer make a number of holes, rather long than round, and at no regular distance from each other. To represent revolving pyramids and globes, the paper must be cut

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To represent Cascades of Fire.

To represent Cascades of Fire.

In cutting out cascades, you must take care to preserve a natural inequality in the parts cut out; for if, to save time, you should make all the holes with the same pointed tool, the uniformity of the parts will not fail to produce a disagreeable effect. As these cascades are very pleasing when well executed, so they are highly disgusting when imperfect. These are the most difficult pieces to cut out. To produce the apparent motion of these cascades, instead of drawing a spiral, you must have a

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The Oracular Mirror.

The Oracular Mirror.

Provide a round mirror of about three inches in diameter and whose frame is an inch wide. Line the under part of the frame, in which holes are to be cut, with very thin glass; behind this glass let a mirror of about two inches diameter be placed, which is to be moveable, so that by inclining the frame to either side, part of the mirror will be visible behind the glass on that side. Then take Spanish chalk, or cypress vitriol, of which you make a pencil, and with this you may write on a glass, an

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The Hour of the Day or Night told by a suspended Shilling.

The Hour of the Day or Night told by a suspended Shilling.

However improbable the following experiment may appear, it has been proved by repeated trials: Sling a shilling or sixpence at the end of a piece of thread by means of a loop. Then resting your elbow on a table, hold the other end of the thread betwixt your fore-finger and thumb, observing to let it pass across the ball of the thumb, and thus suspend the shilling into an empty goblet. Observe, your hand must be perfectly steady; and if you find it difficult to keep it in an immoveable posture, i

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Of Lightning, and the best Method of guarding against its mischievous Effects.

Of Lightning, and the best Method of guarding against its mischievous Effects.

Experiments made in electricity first gave philosophers a suspicion, that the matter of lightning was the same with the electric matter. Experiments afterwards made on lightning obtained from the clouds by pointed rods, received into bottles, and subjected to every trial, have since proved this suspicion to be perfectly well founded; and that, whatever properties we find in electricity, are also the properties of lightning. This matter of lightning, or of electricity, is an extreme subtle fluid,

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The Leech, a Prognosticator of the Weather.

The Leech, a Prognosticator of the Weather.

Confine a leech in a large phial, three parts filled with rain water, regularly changed twice a week, and placed on a window frame, fronting the north. In fair and frosty weather it lies motionless, and rolled up in a spiral form, at the bottom of the glass: but prior to rain or snow, it creeps up to the top, where if the rain will be heavy and of some continuance, it remains a considerable time; if trifling, it quickly descends. Should the rain or snow be accompanied with wind, it darts about i

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The Awn of Barley an Hydrometer.

The Awn of Barley an Hydrometer.

The awn of barley is furnished with stiff points, which, like the teeth of a saw, are all turned towards the point of it; as this long awn lies upon the ground, it extends itself in the moist air of night, and pushes forward the barley-corn, which it adheres to in the day; it shortens as it dries; and, as these points prevent it from receding, it draws up its pointed end, and thus, creeping like a worm, will travel many feet from the parent stem. That very ingenious mechanic philosopher, Mr. Edg

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The Power of Water when reduced to Vapour by Heat.

The Power of Water when reduced to Vapour by Heat.

Whatever force water may have while its parts remain together, is nothing, if compared to the almost incredible power with which its parts are endued, when they are reduced to vapour by heat. Those steams which we see rising from the surface of boiling water, and which to us appear feeble, yet, if properly conducted, acquire immense force. In the same manner as gunpowder has but small effect, if suffered to expand at large, so the steam issuing from water is impotent, where it is permitted to ev

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Artificial Memory.

Artificial Memory.

In travelling along a road, the sight of the more remarkable scenes we meet with, frequently puts us in mind of the subjects we were thinking or talking of when we last saw them. Such facts, which were perfectly familiar, even to the vulgar, might very naturally suggest the possibility of assisting the memory, by establishing a connexion between the ideas we wish to remember, and certain sensible objects, which have been found from experience to make a permanent impression on the mind. It was sa

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To procure Hydrogen Gas.

To procure Hydrogen Gas.

Provide a phial with a cork stopper, through which is thrust a piece of tobacco-pipe. Into the phial put a few pieces of zinc, or small iron nails; on this pour a mixture, of equal parts of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) and water, previously mixed in a tea-cup, to prevent accidents. Replace the cork stopper, with a piece of tobacco-pipe in it; the hydrogen gas will then be liberated through the pipe into a small steam. Apply the flame of a candle or taper to this steam, and it will immediately

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To fill a Bladder with Hydrogen Gas.

To fill a Bladder with Hydrogen Gas.

Apply a bladder, previously wetted and compressed, in order to squeeze out all the common air, to the piece of tobacco-pipe inserted in the cork stopper of the phial, (as described in the experiment above.) The bladder will thus be filled with hydrogen gas....

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Exploding Gas Bubbles.

Exploding Gas Bubbles.

Adapt the end of a common tobacco-pipe to a bladder filled with hydrogen gas, and dip the bowl of the pipe into soap-suds, prepared as if for blowing up soap bubbles; squeeze out small portions of gas from the bladder into the soap-suds, and the bubbles will ascend into the air with very great rapidity, until they are out of sight. If a lighted taper or candle be applied to the bubbles as they ascend from the bowl of the pipe, they will explode with a loud noise....

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Another Method.

Another Method.

Put a small quantity of phosphorus and some potash, dissolved in water, into a retort; apply the flame of a candle or lamp to the bottom of the retort, until the contents boil. The phosphuretted hydrogen gas will then rise, and may be collected in receivers. But it, instead of receiving the gas into a jar, you let it simply ascend into water, the bubbles of gas will then explode in succession, as they reach the surface of the water, and a beautiful white smoke will be formed, which rises slowly

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Singular Impression on the visual Nerves by a Luminous Object.

Singular Impression on the visual Nerves by a Luminous Object.

If, while sitting in a room, you look earnestly at the middle of a window, a little while, when the day is bright, and then shut your eyes, the figure of the window will still remain in your eye, and so distinct that you may count the panes. A remarkable circumstance attending this experiment is, that the impression of forms is better retained than that of colours; for, after the eyes are shut, when you first discern the image of the window, the panes appear dark, and the cross-bars of the sashe

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Curious Effects of Oil upon Water, and Water upon Oil.

Curious Effects of Oil upon Water, and Water upon Oil.

Fasten a piece of pack-thread round a tumbler, with strings of the same from each side, meeting above it in a knot at about a foot distance from the top of the tumbler. Then putting in as much water as will fill about one-third part of the tumbler, lift it up by the knot, and swing it to and fro in the air; the water will keep its place as steadily in the glass as if it were ice. But pour gently in upon the water about as much oil, and then again swing it in the air as before, the tranquillity b

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Another curious Experiment with Oil and Water.

Another curious Experiment with Oil and Water.

Drop a small quantity of oil into water agitated by the wind; it will immediately spread itself with surprising swiftness upon the surface, and the oil, though scarcely more than a tea-spoonful, will produce an instant calm over a space several yards square. It should be done on the windward side of the pond or river, and you will observe it extend to the size of nearly half an acre, making it appear as smooth as a looking-glass. One remarkable circumstance in this experiment is the sudden, wide

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Remarkable Effects on the visual Nerves, by looking through differently-coloured Glasses.

Remarkable Effects on the visual Nerves, by looking through differently-coloured Glasses.

After looking through green spectacles, the white paper of a book will, on first taking them off, appear to have a blush of red; and after looking through red glasses, a greenish cast. This seems to intimate a relation between green and red, not yet explained....

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ART OF MAKING FIRE-WORKS.

ART OF MAKING FIRE-WORKS.

In the art of making fire-works, great attention must be paid to the well-mixing of the materials—without which all labour is thrown away; to the purity of the articles; and to the proper quantities of each. Sulphur, to be good, must be of a high colour, and crack and bounce when held in the hand. For small fire-works, such as may be bought in the flour will be found quite good enough, but for the larger kinds, the lump brimstone ground is preferable. Benzoin is used in fire-works, more for its

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THE AMERICAN ENCYCLOPÆDIA. BROUGHT UP TO 1847.

THE AMERICAN ENCYCLOPÆDIA. BROUGHT UP TO 1847.

For sale very low, in various styles of binding. Some years having elapsed since the original thirteen volumes of the ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA were published, to bring it up to the present day, with the history of that period, at the request of numerous subscribers, the publishers have just issued a In one large octavo volume of over 650 double columned pages. The numerous subscribers who have been waiting the completion of this volume can now perfect their sets, and all who want can obtain this v

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CAMPBELL'S LORD CHANCELLORS. NOW COMPLETE.

CAMPBELL'S LORD CHANCELLORS. NOW COMPLETE.

Now complete in seven handsome crown octavo volumes. Bringing the work to the death of Lord Eldon, 1838. "The volumes teem with exciting incidents, abound in portraits, sketches, and anecdotes, and are at once interesting and instructive. The work is not only historical and biographical, but it is anecdotical and philosophical. Many of the chapters embody thrilling incidents, while as a whole, the publication may be regarded as of a high intellectual order."— Inquirer....

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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF GEOGRAPHY, COMPRISING A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH, PHYSICAL, STATISTICAL, CIVIL, AND POLITICAL. EXHIBITING ITS RELATION TO THE HEAVENLY BODIES, ITS PHYSICAL STRUCTURE, THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EACH COUNTRY, AND THE INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, AND CIVIL AND SOCIAL STATE OF ALL NATIONS. BY HUGH MURRAY, F.R.S.E., &c. Assisted in Botany by Professor HOOKER—Zoology, &c., by W. W. SWAINSON—Astronomy &c., by Professor WALLACE—Geology, &c., by Professor JAMESON. REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS, BY THOMAS G. BRADFORD. THE WHOLE BROUGHT UP, BY A SUPPLEMENT, TO 1843.

THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF GEOGRAPHY, COMPRISING A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH, PHYSICAL, STATISTICAL, CIVIL, AND POLITICAL. EXHIBITING ITS RELATION TO THE HEAVENLY BODIES, ITS PHYSICAL STRUCTURE, THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EACH COUNTRY, AND THE INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, AND CIVIL AND SOCIAL STATE OF ALL NATIONS. BY HUGH MURRAY, F.R.S.E., &c. Assisted in Botany by Professor HOOKER—Zoology, &c., by W. W. SWAINSON—Astronomy &c., by Professor WALLACE—Geology, &c., by Professor JAMESON. REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS, BY THOMAS G. BRADFORD. THE WHOLE BROUGHT UP, BY A SUPPLEMENT, TO 1843.

In three large octavo volumes, VARIOUS STYLES OF BINDING. This great work, furnished at a remarkably cheap rate, contains about Nineteen Hundred large imperial Pages , and is illustrated by Eighty-Two small Maps , and a colored Map of the United States , after Tanner's, together with about Eleven Hundred Wood-Cuts , executed in the best style....

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BIRD'S NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. NOW READY. ELEMENTS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, BEING AN EXPERIMENTAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER THREE HUNDRED WOOD-CUTS. BY GOLDING BIRD, M.D., Assistant Physician to Guy's Hospital. FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION.

BIRD'S NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. NOW READY. ELEMENTS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, BEING AN EXPERIMENTAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER THREE HUNDRED WOOD-CUTS. BY GOLDING BIRD, M.D., Assistant Physician to Guy's Hospital. FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION.

In one neat volume. "By the appearance of Dr. Bird's work, the student has now all that he can desire in one neat, concise, and well-digested volume. The elements of natural philosophy are explained in very simple language, and illustrated by numerous wood-cuts."— Medical Gazette. "A volume of useful and beautiful instruction for the young."— Literary Gazette. "We should like to know that Dr. Bird's book was associated with every boys' and girls' school throughout the kingdom."— Medical Gazette.

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A TREATISE ON ASTRONOMY, BY SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHELL, F. R. S., &c. WITH NUMEROUS PLATES AND WOOD-CUTS. A NEW EDITION, WITH A PREFACE AND A SERIES OF QUESTIONS, BY S. C. WALKER.

A TREATISE ON ASTRONOMY, BY SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHELL, F. R. S., &c. WITH NUMEROUS PLATES AND WOOD-CUTS. A NEW EDITION, WITH A PREFACE AND A SERIES OF QUESTIONS, BY S. C. WALKER.

In one volume, 12mo....

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ELEMENTS OF OPTICS, BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER. WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY A. D. BACHE, LL.D. Superintendent of the Coast Survey, &c.

ELEMENTS OF OPTICS, BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER. WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY A. D. BACHE, LL.D. Superintendent of the Coast Survey, &c.

In one volume, 12mo., with numerous wood-cuts....

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MULLER'S PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. NOW READY.

MULLER'S PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. NOW READY.

In one octavo volume. In laying the following pages before the public, it seems necessary to state that the design of them is to render more easily accessible a greater portion of the general principles of Physics and Meteorology than is usually to be obtained, without the sacrifice of a greater amount of time and labour than most persons can afford, or are willing to make. The subjects of which this volume treats are very numerous—more numerous, in fact, than at first sight it would seem possib

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GRAHAM'S CHEMISTRY. NEARLY READY.

GRAHAM'S CHEMISTRY. NEARLY READY.

In one large octavo volume, with numerous wood-engravings. This edition will be found enlarged and improved, so as to be fully brought up to a level with the science of the day....

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ELEMENTS OF PHYSICS; OR, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, GENERAL AND MEDICAL. WRITTEN FOR UNIVERSAL USE, IN PLAIN, OR NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE. BY NIELL ARNOTT, M.D. A NEW EDITION, BY ISAAC HAYS, M.D.

ELEMENTS OF PHYSICS; OR, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, GENERAL AND MEDICAL. WRITTEN FOR UNIVERSAL USE, IN PLAIN, OR NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE. BY NIELL ARNOTT, M.D. A NEW EDITION, BY ISAAC HAYS, M.D.

Complete in one octavo volume, with nearly two hundred wood-cuts. This standard work has been long and favourably known as one of the best popular expositions of the interesting science it treats of. It is extensively used in many of the first seminaries....

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KIRBY AND SPENCE'S ENTOMOLOGY, FOR POPULAR USE.

KIRBY AND SPENCE'S ENTOMOLOGY, FOR POPULAR USE.

"We have been greatly interested in running over the pages of this treatise. There is scarcely, in the wide range of natural science, a more interesting or instructive study than that of insects, or one that is calculated to excite more curiosity or wonder. "The popular form of letters is adopted by the authors in imparting a knowledge of the subject, which renders the work peculiarly fitted for our district school libraries, which are open to all ages and classes."— Hunt's Merchants' Magazine..

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JOHNSON AND LANDRETH ON FRUIT, KITCHEN, AND FLOWER GARDENING.

JOHNSON AND LANDRETH ON FRUIT, KITCHEN, AND FLOWER GARDENING.

In one large royal duodecimo volume, extra cloth, of nearly Six Hundred and Fifty double columned Pages. This edition has been greatly altered from the original. Many articles of little interest to Americans have been curtailed or wholly omitted, and much new matter, with numerous illustrations, added, especially with respect to the varieties of fruit which experience has shown to be peculiarly adapted to our climate. Still, the editor admits that he has only followed in the path so admirably ma

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GRAHAME'S COLONIAL HISTORY.

GRAHAME'S COLONIAL HISTORY.

This work having assumed the position of a standard history of this country, the publishers have been induced to issue an edition in smaller size and at a less cost, that its circulation may be commensurate with its merits. It is now considered as the most impartial and trustworthy history that has yet appeared. A few copies of the edition in four volumes, on extra fine thick paper, price eight dollars, may still be had by gentlemen desirous of procuring a beautiful work for their libraries....

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THE ANCIENT WORLD, OR, PICTURESQUE SKETCHES OF CREATION, BY D. T. ANSTED, M. A., F.R.S, F.G.S., &c. PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.

THE ANCIENT WORLD, OR, PICTURESQUE SKETCHES OF CREATION, BY D. T. ANSTED, M. A., F.R.S, F.G.S., &c. PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.

In one very neat volume, fine extra cloth, with about One Hundred and Fifty Illustrations. The object of this work is to present to the general reader the chief results of Geological investigation in a simple and comprehensive manner. The author has avoided all minute details of geological formations and particular observations, and has endeavoured as far as possible to present striking views of the wonderful results of the science, divested of its mere technicalities. The work is printed in a h

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CHEMISTRY OF THE FOUR SEASONS, SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, AND WINTER.

CHEMISTRY OF THE FOUR SEASONS, SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, AND WINTER.

In one large royal 12mo. volume, with many Wood-Cuts, extra cloth. "Chemistry is assuredly one of the most useful and interesting of the natural sciences. Chemical changes meet us at every step, and during every season, the winds and the rain, the heat and the frosts, each have their peculiar and appropriate phenomena. And those who have hitherto remained insensible to these changes and unmoved amid such remarkable, and often startling results, will lose their apathy upon reading the Chemistry o

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ENDLESS AMUSEMENT. JUST ISSUED.

ENDLESS AMUSEMENT. JUST ISSUED.

In one neat royal 18mo. volume, fine extra crimson cloth. "It contains everything that can please the grave or the gay. It is 'endless amusement,' and the publishers might have added, instruction. What a help to a dull gathering, or what an able adjunct to a children's party! It may be introduced to the scientific or to the family circle, and to each it will give instruction and pleasure. It is filled with illustrations. We shall give extracts from it occasionally."— Lady's Book. In one neat roy

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BOY'S TREASURY OF SPORTS.

BOY'S TREASURY OF SPORTS.

In one very neat volume, bound in extra crimson cloth; handsomely printed and illustrated with engravings in the first style of art, and containing about six hundred and fifty articles. A present for all seasons. This Illustrated Manual of "Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations," has been prepared with especial regard to the Health, Exercise, and Rational Enjoyment of the young readers to whom it is addressed. Every variety of commendable Recreation will be found in the following pages. First, you h

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