This should be placed in a small tub or large basin of water, and to make it swim about, you should place in a white stick about nine inches long a magnetic bar, on which the north and south poles are marked. If you wish to bring the swan towards you, present to him the north pole of the wand, if you wish it to retire, present the south pole, and thus you may direct the swan to any part you desire.

TO SUSPEND A NEEDLE IN THE AIR BY MAGNETISM.

Place a magnet on a stand to raise it a little above the table; then bring a small sewing-needle containing a thread, within a little of the magnet, keeping hold of the thread to prevent the needle from attaching itself to the magnet. The needle in endeavouring to fly to the magnet, and being prevented by the thread, will remain curiously suspended in the air, reminding us of the fable of Mahomed's coffin.

TO MAKE ARTIFICIAL MAGNETS WITHOUT THE AID EITHER OF NATURAL LOADSTONES OR ARTIFICIAL MAGNETS.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Take an iron poker and tongs, or two bars of iron, the larger and the older the better, and fixing the poker upright, hold to it with the left hand near the top P by a silk thread, a bar of soft steel about three inches long, one fourth of an inch broad, and one twentieth thick; mark one end, and let this end be downwards. Then grasping the tongs T with the right hand a little below the middle, and keeping them nearly in a vertical line, let the bar B be rubbed with the lower end L of the tongs, from the marked end of the bar to its upper end about ten times of each side of it. By this means the bar B will receive as much magnetism as will enable it to lift a small key at the marked end; and this end of the bar being suspended by its middle, or made to rest on a joint, will turn to the north, and is called its north pole, the unmarked end being the south pole. This is the method recommended by Mr.

Caxton, in his process, which he regarded superior to those in former use, and of which a more detailed account will be found in his interesting volume.

HORSE-SHOE MAGNETS.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The form of a horse-shoe is generally given to magnetised bars, when both poles are wanted to act together, which frequently happens in various experiments, such as for lifting weights by the force of magnetic attraction, and for magnetising steel bars by the process of double touch, for which they are exceedingly convenient. The following is the method of making a powerful magnetic battery of the horse-shoe form. Twelve bars or plates of steel are to be taken, and having been previously bent to the required form, that is, the horse-shoe shape, they are then bound together by means of rivets at their ends; before being finally fastened they are each separately magnetised, and afterwards finally united.

Horse-shoe magnets should have a short bar of soft iron adapted to connect the two poles, and should never be laid by without such a piece of iron adhering to them. Bar magnets should be kept in pairs with their poles turned in contrary directions, and they should be kept from rust.

Both kinds of magnets have their power not only preserved but increased, by keeping them surrounded with a ma.s.s of dry filings of soft iron, each particle of which will re-act by its induced magnetism upon the point of the magnet to which it adheres, and maintain in that point its primitive magnetic state.

EXPERIMENT TO SHOW THAT SOFT IRON POSSESSES MAGNETIC PROPERTIES WHILE IT REMAINS IN THE VICINITY OF A MAGNET.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Let M be a magnet and K a key, held horizontally near one of its poles, or near its lower edge. Then if another piece of iron, such as a small nail, be applied to the other end of the key, the nail will hang from the key, and will continue to do so while the magnet is slowly withdrawn; but when it has been removed beyond a certain distance, the nail will drop from the key, because the magnetism induced in the key becomes at that distance too weak to support the weight of the nail.

That this is the real cause of its falling off may be proved by taking a still lighter fragment of iron, such as a piece of very slender wire, and applying it to the key. The magnetism of the key will still be sufficiently strong to support the wire, though it cannot the nail, and it will continue to support it even when the magnet is yet further removed; at length, however, it drops off.

ELECTRO-MAGNETISM.

The ident.i.ty of magnetism with electricity alluded to in a former paragraph, has led to the formation of a new science under the above name, and to some of the interesting experiments connected with it, we shall briefly allude for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the young reader.

POWER OF THE ELECTRO-MAGNET.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The same influence which affects the magnetic needle already described, will also communicate magnetism to soft iron. If a bar of that metal bent, as in the drawing, be surrounded with a common bonnet wire, or a copper wire prevented from touching the iron by a winding of cotton or thread, and then if a current of voltaic electricity be sent through the wire, the bar becomes a powerful magnet, and will continue so as long as the connexion with the battery is preserved. On breaking the contact, the magnetism disappears. This experiment may be easily made by the young reader with a horse-shoe magnet, surrounded by several coils of wire. P is the positive, and N the negative pole.

THE MARINER'S COMPa.s.s AND EXPERIMENTS WITH A POCKET COMPa.s.s.

The mariner's compa.s.s is an artificial magnet fitted in a proper box, and consists of three parts--1, the box; 2, the card or fly; and 3, the needle. The box is suspended in a square wooden case, by means of two concentric bra.s.s circles called gimbals, so fixed by brazen axes to the two boxes, that the inner one, or compa.s.s-box, retains a horizontal position in all motions of the ship. The card is a circular piece of paper which is fastened upon the needle, and moves with it. The outer edge of the card is divided into thirty-two points, as shown in the engraving, called points of the compa.s.s. The needle is a slender bar of hardened steel, having a hollow agate cup in the centre, which moves upon the point of a pivot made of bra.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE.

The magnetic needle does not point exactly north and south, but the north pole of the needle takes a direction to the west of the true north. It is constantly changing, and varies at different parts of the earth, and at different times of the day.

DIP OF THE NEEDLE.

Another remarkable and evident manifestation of the influence of the magnetism of the earth upon the needle is the inclination or dip of the latter, which is a deviation from its horizontal place in a downward direction in northern regions of its north, and in southern regions of its south pole. In balancing the needle on the card, on account of this dipping, a small weight or moveable piece of bra.s.s is placed on one end of the needle, by the shifting of which either nearer to or further from the centre, the needle will always be balanced.

USEFUL AMUs.e.m.e.nT WITH THE POCKET COMPa.s.s.

Pocket compa.s.ses are to be bought for five or six shillings, and may be used in many ways. In travelling over mountains or a wide extended moor, they are indispensably necessary; and no one should go a tour into Wales, Scotland, or the lakes without such a companion, and it will be a very useful and amusing exercise for any young person to take the bearings of his own or some particular locality, and make out what may be called a bearing card. This he may easily do in the following manner.

Supposing he wishes, for instance, to take the bearings of his own house, he has nothing to do but to set his pocket compa.s.s upon a map of the district,--a county map will do very well, unless his house stands on the verge of a county, then two county maps will be necessary. He must make the north of the map exactly coincide with the north, as indicated by his compa.s.s, and having fixed his map in this situation, he should take a ruler and piece of paper, and dot down the exact bearings of each important town, or place, or village, around him. Let him suppose himself, for instance, in the town of Cambridge, and laying down his map as indicated by the compa.s.s, north to north and south to south, he will find the following places due north, Wilberton, Wentworth; Little Wilbraham, Teversham, due east; Duxford and Chesterfield, south; Coton and St. Neots in Huntingdonshire, west. The other points of the compa.s.s may be filled up in the same manner. Should therefore our young friend be upon any elevated situation near his own dwelling, or upon any other elevated spot from which the bearings have been taken, he will be able to inform his young friends that such and such a place lies in such a direction, that this place lies due north, the other north-west, a third south-east, the fourth south-west, &c. &c.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

INTERESTING PARTICULARS CONCERNING THE MAGNET.

Fire-irons which have rested in an upright position in a room during the summer months are often highly magnetic.

Iron bars standing erect, such as the gratings of a prison cell, or the iron railings before houses, are often magnetic.

The great iron-clad ships, which have now replaced the wooden walls of Old England, are powerfully magnetic, and therefore affect the compa.s.s by which the vessel is steered; ingenious arrangements are therefore made to correct the effect of the local attraction, so that the man-of-war may be steered correctly.

Magnetism may be made to pa.s.s through a deal board; to exhibit which, lay a needle on the smooth part above, and run a magnet along the under side, and the needle will be found to follow the course of the magnet. A magnet dipped into boiling water loses part of its magnetism, which however returns upon its cooling.

A sudden blow given to a magnet often destroys its magnetic power.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

MECHANICS.

"These are machinations comical."--FORD.

There is no subject of such importance as Mechanics, as its principles are founded upon the properties of matter and the laws of motion; and in knowing something of these, the tyro will lay the foundation of all substantial knowledge.

The properties of matter are the following: Solidity (or Impenetrability), Divisibility, Mobility, Elasticity, Brittleness, Malleability, Ductility, and Tenacity.

The laws of motion are as follow:--

1. Every body continues in a state of rest or of uniform rectilineal motion, unless affected by some extraneous force.