Endless Amus.e.m.e.nt.

by Unknown.

_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 quant.i.ty of highly rectified oil of vitriol, and, distilling the mixture in a moderate sand heat, it will produce a liquor like a yellowish fume; this, when caught in a dry receiver, is _Glauber's Spirits of Nitre_; probably the preparation, under that name, may be obtained of the chemists, which will of course save much time and trouble.

You then put a drachm of distilled oil of cloves, turpentine, or carraways, in a gla.s.s vessel; and if you add an equal quant.i.ty, or rather more, of the above spirit, though both are in themselves perfectly cold, yet, on mixing them together, a great flame will arise and destroy them both, leaving only a little resinous matter at the bottom.

_The Exploding Bubble._

If you take up a small quant.i.ty of melted gla.s.s with a tube, (the bowl of a common tobacco-pipe will do,) and let a drop fall into a vessel of water, it will chill and condense with a fine spiral tail, which being broken, the whole substance will burst with a loud explosion, without injury either to the party that holds it, or him that breaks it; but if the _thick_ end be struck, even with a hammer, it will not break.

_The Magic Picture._

Take two level pieces of gla.s.s, (plate gla.s.s is the best,) about three inches long and four wide, exactly of the same size; lay one on the other, and leave a s.p.a.ce between them by pasting a piece of card, or two or three small pieces of thick paper, at each corner.

Join these gla.s.ses 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 gla.s.ses with parchment or bladder, except at one end, which is to be left open to admit the following composition.

Dissolve, by a slow fire, six ounces of hogs'-lard, with half an ounce of white wax; to which you may add an ounce of clear linseed oil.

This must be poured in a liquid state, and before a fire, between the gla.s.ses, by the s.p.a.ce left in the sides, and which you are then to close up. Wipe the gla.s.ses clean, and hold them before the fire, to see that the composition will not run out at any part.

Then fasten with gum a picture or print, painted on very thin paper, with its face to one of the gla.s.ses, and, if you like, you may fix the whole in a frame.

While the mixture between the gla.s.ses is cold, the picture will be quite concealed, but become transparent when held to the fire; and, as the composition cools, it will gradually disappear.

_Artificial Lightning._

Provide a tin tube that is larger at one end than it is at the other, and in which there are several holes. Fill this tube with powdered resin; and when it is shook over the flame of a torch, the reflection will produce the exact appearance of lightning.

_Artificial Thunder._

Mix two drachms of the filings of iron, with one ounce of concentrated spirit of vitriol, in a strong bottle that holds about a quarter of a pint; stop it close, and in a few minutes shake the bottle; then taking out the cork, put a lighted candle near its mouth, which should be a little inclined, and you will soon observe an inflammation arise from the bottle, attended with a loud explosion.

To guard against the danger of the bottle bursting, the best way would be to bury it in the ground, and apply the light to the mouth by means of a taper fastened to the end of a long stick.

_Another way._

Mix three ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of salt of tartar, and two ounces of sulphur; roll the mixture up into a ball, of which take a quant.i.ty, 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 quant.i.ty of the last experiment; suppose you put two or three ounces of the mixture into the shovel. For fear of accidents, it should not be done in the house, but by placing the shovel over a chafing-dish of very hot coals, in the open air, standing a great distance off.

Common prudence will dictate the necessity of using great care in the above experiments, as an accident will soon happen if a person does not get out of the way before the composition explodes.

_Money augmented by an Optical Illusion._

In a large drinking-gla.s.s of a conical shape, (small at the bottom and wide at the top,) put a shilling, and let the gla.s.s 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 amus.e.m.e.nt this experiment affords, by giving the gla.s.s to any one in company, (but who, of course, has not witnessed your operations,) and, desiring him to throw away the water, but save the pieces, he will not be a little surprised at finding only one.

_Three objects discernible only with both Eyes._

If you fix three pieces of paper against the wall of a room at equal distances, at the height of your eye, placing yourself directly before them, at a few yards' distance, and close your right eye, and look at them with your left, you will see only two of them, suppose the first and second; alter the position of your eye, and you will see the first and third: alter your position a second time, you will see the second and third, but never the whole three together; by which it appears, that a person who has only one eye can never see three objects placed in this position, nor all the parts of one object of the same extent, without altering his situation.

_To construct the Camera Obscura._

Make a circular hole in the shutter of a window, from whence there is a prospect of some distance; in this hole place a magnifying gla.s.s, either double or single, whose focus is at the distance of five or six feet; no light must enter the room but through this gla.s.s. At a distance from it, equal to its focus, place a very white pasteboard, (what is called a Bristol board, if you can procure one large enough, will answer extremely well;) this board must be two feet and a half long, and eighteen or twenty inches high, with a black border round it: bend the length of it inward to the form of part of a circle, whose diameter is equal to double the focal distance of the gla.s.s. Fix it on a frame of the same figure, and put it on a moveable foot, that it may be easily placed at that distance from the gla.s.s, where the objects appear to the greatest perfection. When it is thus placed, all the objects in front of the window will be painted on the paper in an inverted position, with the greatest regularity, and in the most natural colours. If you place a swing looking-gla.s.s outside the window, by turning it more or less, you will have on the paper all the objects on each side the window.

If, instead of placing the looking-gla.s.s outside the window, you place it in the room above the hole, (which must then be made near the top of the shutter,) you may have the representation on a paper placed horizontally on a table, and draw at your leisure all the objects reflected.

Observe, the best situation is directly north; and the best time of the day is noon.

_The Magnifying Reflector._

Let the rays of light that pa.s.s through the magnifying gla.s.s in the shutter be thrown on a large concave mirror, properly fixed in a frame. Then take a third strip of gla.s.s, and stick any small object on it; hold it in the intervening rays at a little more than the focal distance from the mirror, and you will see on the opposite wall, amidst the reflected rays, the image of that object, very large, and beautifully clear and bright.

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

The person is told to set the hand of his watch at any hour he pleases, which hour he tells you; and you add in your mind 12 to it.

You then desire him to count privately the number of that addition on the dial, commencing at the next hour to that at which he intends to rise, and including the hour at which he has placed the hand, which will give the answer: for example.

A intends to rise at 6, (this he conceals to himself;) he places the hand at 8, which he tells B, who, in his own mind, adds 12 to 8, which makes twenty. B then tells A to count twenty on the dial, beginning at the next hour to that at which he proposes to rise, which will be 5, and counting backwards, reckoning each hour as one, and including in his addition the number of the hour the hand is placed at, the addition will end at 6, which is the hour proposed; thus,

The hour the hand is placed at is 8 The next hour to that which A intends to rise at is 5, which counts for 1 Count back the hours from 5, and reckon them at 1 each, there will be 11 hours, viz., 4, 3, 2, 1, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 11 ---- Making 20

_A person having an even Number of Shillings in one Hand, and an odd Number in the other, to tell in which hand the odd or even Number is._

You desire the person to multiply the number in his right hand by an odd figure, and the number in his left by an even one; and tell you if the products, added together, be odd or even. If even, the even number is in the right hand; if odd, the even number is in the left. For instance,

I. Number in the right In the left hand _odd_ 7 hand is _even_ 18 Multiply by 2 Multiply by 3 ---- ---- Product 14 Product 54 ---- Add the Product of the left hand 14 ---- Which produces a total of 68

II. Number in the right In the left hand _even_ 18 hand is _odd_ 7 Multiply by 2 Multiply by 3 ---- ---- Product 36 Product 21 Add the Product of the left hand 36 ---- Which produces a total of 57