HOW TO RAISE A GHOST.

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The magic lantern, or phantasmagoria, may be used in a number of marvellous ways, but in none more striking than in raising an apparent spectre. Let an open box, A B, about three feet long, a foot and a half broad, and two feet high, be prepared. At one end of this place a small swing dressing-gla.s.s, and at the other let a magic lantern be fixed with its lenses in a direction towards the gla.s.s. A gla.s.s should now be made to slide up and down in the groove C D, to which a cord and pulley should be attached, the end of the cord coming to the part of the box marked A. On this gla.s.s the most hideous spectre that can be imagined may be painted, but in a squat or contracted position, and when all is done, the lid of the box must be prepared by raising a kind of gable at the end of the box B, and in its lower part at E an oval hole should be cut sufficiently large to suffer the rays of light reflected from the gla.s.s to pa.s.s through them. On the top of the box at F place a chafing-dish, upon which put some burning charcoal. Now light the lamp G in the lantern, sprinkle some powdered camphor or white incense on the charcoal, adjust the slide on which the spectre is painted, and the image will be thrown upon the smoke. In performing this feat the room must be darkened, and the box should be placed on a high table, that the hole through which the light comes may not be noticed.

THE THAUMATROPE.

This word is derived from two Greek words, one of which signifies _wonder_, and the other _to turn_. It is a very pretty philosophical toy, and is founded upon the principle in optics, that an impression made upon the retina of the eye lasts for a short interval after the object which produced it has been withdrawn. The impression which the mind receives lasts for about the eighth part of a second, as may be easily shown by whirling round a lighted stick, which if made to complete the circle within that period, will exhibit not a fiery point, but a fiery circle in the air.

THE BIRD IN THE CAGE.

Cut a piece of cardboard of the size of a penny piece, and paint on one side a bird, and on the other a cage; fasten two pieces of thread one on each side at opposite points of the card, so that the card can be made to revolve by twirling the threads with the finger and thumb: while the toy is in its revolution, the bird will be seen within the cage. A bat may in the same manner be painted on one side of the card, and a cricketer upon the other, which will exhibit the same phenomenon, arising from the same principle.

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CONSTRUCTION OF THE PHANTASMASCOPE.

The above-named figure is a Thaumatrope, as much as the one we are about to describe, although the term Phantasmascope is generally applied to the latter instrument; which consists of a disc of darkened tin-plate, with a slit or narrow opening in it, about two inches in length. It is fixed upon a stand, and the slit placed upwards, so that it may easily be looked through. Another disc of pasteboard, about a foot in diameter, is now prepared and fixed on a similar stand, but with this difference, that it is made to revolve round an axis in the centre. On this pasteboard disc, paint in colours a number of frogs in relative and progressive positions of leaping; make between each figure a slit of about a quarter of an inch deep: and when this second disc is made to revolve at a foot distance behind the first, and the eye is placed near the slit, the whole of the figures, instead of appearing to revolve with the disc, will all appear in the att.i.tudes of leaping up and down, increasing in agility as the velocity of the motion is increased. It is necessary, when trying the effect of this instrument, to stand before a looking-gla.s.s, and to present the painted face of the machine towards the gla.s.s.

A very great number of figures may be prepared to produce similar effects--horses with riders in various att.i.tudes of leaping, toads crawling, snakes twisting and writhing, faces laughing and crying, men dancing, jugglers throwing up b.a.l.l.s, &c.; all of which, by the peculiar arrangement above detailed, will seem to be in motion. A little ingenuity displayed in the construction and painting of the figures upon the pasteboard disc will afford a great fund of amus.e.m.e.nt.

CURIOUS OPTICAL ILLUSIONS.

One of the most curious facts relating to the science of vision is the absolute insensibility of a certain portion of the retina to the impression of light, so that the image of any object falling on that point would be invisible. When we look with the right eye, this point will be about fifteen degrees to the right of the object observed, or to the right of the axis of the eye, or the point of most distinct vision.

When looking with the left eye, the point will be as far to the left.

The point in question is the basis of the optic nerve, and its insensibility to light was first observed by the French philosopher, Mariotte. This remarkable phenomenon may be experimentally proved in the following manner:--

Place on a sheet of writing-paper, at the distance of about three inches apart, two coloured wafers; then, on looking at the left-hand wafer with the right eye, at the distance of about a foot, keeping the eye straight above the wafer, and both eyes parallel with the line which forms the wafers, the left eye being closed, the right-hand wafer will become invisible; and a similar effect will take place if we close the right eye, and look with the left.

ANOTHER.

Cut a circular piece of white paper, about two inches in diameter, and affix it to a dark wall. At the distance of two feet on each side, but a little lower, make two marks; then place yourself directly opposite the paper, and hold the end of your finger before your face, so that when the right eye is open it shall conceal the mark on your left, and when the left eye is open the mark on your right. If you then look with both eyes at the end of your finger, the paper disc will be invisible.

ANOTHER.

Fix a similar disc of paper, two inches in diameter, at the height of your eye on a dark wall; a little lower than this, at the distance of two feet on the right hand, fix another of about three inches in diameter; now place yourself opposite the first sheet of paper, and, shutting the left eye, keep the right eye still fixed on the first object, and when at the distance of about ten feet, the second piece of paper will be invisible.

THE PICTURE IN THE AIR.

One of the numerous optical illusions which have from time to time been evolved by scientific minds, is that of making an image or picture appear in the air. This is produced by means of a mirror, and an object in relief, upon which a strong light is thrown,--the mirror being set at such an angle as to throw up the reflection of the image to a certain point in the view of the spectator. This illusion is produced as follows: Let a screen be constructed in which is an arched aperture, the centre of which may be five feet from the floor: behind the screen is placed a large mirror of an elliptical form. An object is now placed behind the screen, upon which the light of a strong lamp is thrown from a point above the mirror, and is received by the mirror and reflected to the centre of the arched cavity in the screen, where it will appear to the spectator. Care should be taken to place the image in an inverted position, and the light, which must be very powerful, should be so placed that none of it may reach the opening.

BREATHING LIGHT AND DARKNESS.

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The following experiment, if performed with care, is exceedingly striking. Let S be a candle, whose light falls at an angle of 56 45'

upon two plate gla.s.ses, A B, placed close to each other; and let the reflected rays, A C, B D, fall at the same angle upon two similar plates, C D, but so placed that the plane of reflection from the latter is at right angles to the plane of reflection from the former. An eye placed at E, and looking at the same time on the two plates, C and D, will see very faint images of the candle, S; which by a slight adjustment of the plates, may be made to disappear almost wholly, allowing the plate C to remain where it is. Change the position of D, till its inclination to the ray, B D, is diminished about 3, or made nearly 53 11'. The distance may be easily found by a little practice.

When this is done, the image that had disappeared on looking into D will be restored, so that the spectator at E, upon looking into the two mirrors, C D, will see no light in C, because the candle has nearly disappeared, while the candle is distinctly seen in D. If, while, the spectator is looking into these two mirrors, either he or another person breathes upon them gently and quickly, the breath will revive the extinguished image in C, and will extinguish the visible image in D.[12]

[12] Explanation.--The light A, C, B, D is polarized by reflection from the plates A B, because it is incident at the polarizing angle 56 45' for gla.s.s. When we breathe upon the plates C D, we form upon their surface a thin film of water, whose polarizing angle is 53 11', so that if the polarized rays A, C, B, D fall upon the plates C, D, at an angle of 53 11', the candle from which they proceeded would not be visible, or they would not suffer reflection from the plates C D. At all the other angles the light would be reflected, and the candle visible. Now the plate D is placed at an angle of 53 11', and C at an angle of 56 45', so that when a film of water is breathed upon them, the light will be reflected from the latter, and none from the former; that is, the act of breathing upon the gla.s.s plates will restore the invisible, and extinguish the visible image.

TO SHOW THAT RAYS OF LIGHT DO NOT OBSTRUCT EACH OTHER.

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Make a small hole in a sheet of pasteboard, A, and placing it upright before three candles, B, placed closely together, it will be found that the images of all the candle flames will be formed separately on a piece of paper, C, laid on the table to receive them. This proves that the rays of light do not obstruct each other in their progress, although all cross in pa.s.sing through the hole.

OPTICS OF A SOAP-BUBBLE.

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If a soap-bubble be blown up, and set under a gla.s.s, so that the motion of air may not affect it, as the water glides down the sides and the top grows thinner, several colours will successively appear at the top, and spread themselves from thence down the sides of the bubble, till they vanish in the same order in which they appeared. At length, a black spot appears at the top, and spreads till the bubble bursts.[13]

[13] The thinnest substance ever observed is the aqueous film of the soap-bubble previous to bursting; yet it is capable of reflecting a faint image of a candle, or the sun. Hence its thickness must correspond with what Sir Isaac Newton calls the beginning of black, which appears in water at the thickness of the seven hundred and fifty thousandth part of an inch.

THE KALEIDOSCOPE.

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If any object be placed between two plane mirrors, inclined towards each other at an angle of thirty degrees, three several images will be perceived in the circ.u.mference of a circle. On this principle is formed the kaleidoscope, invented by Sir David Brewster, and by means of which the reflected images viewed from a particular point exhibit symmetrical figures, under an infinite arrangement of beautiful forms and colours.

The kaleidoscope may be bought at any toy-shop, but it is requisite that every young person should be able to construct one for himself. He must, therefore, procure a tube of tin or paper, of about ten inches in length, and two and a half or three inches in diameter. One end of this should be stopped up with tin or paper, securely fastened, in which is to be made a hole, about the size of a small pea, for the eye to look through. Two pieces of well-silvered looking-gla.s.s, B B, are now to be procured; they must be not quite so long as the tube, and they should be placed in it lengthways, at an angle of 60 degrees, meeting together in a point at A, and separating to the points C C, the polished surfaces looking inwards. A circular piece of the gla.s.s is now to be laid on the top of the edges of the reflectors, B B; which, by their not being quite so long as the tube, will allow room for its falling in, and it will be supported by the edges of the tube, which may be slightly bent over, to prevent the gla.s.s from falling out. This having been done, now proceed to make the "cap" of the instrument. A rim of tin or pasteboard must be cut, so as to fit over the gla.s.s end of the tube; and in this, on the outer side, a piece of ground gla.s.s must be fastened, so that the whole may fit on the tube like the lid of a pill-box. Then, before putting it on, obtain some small pieces of broken gla.s.s of various colours, beads, little strips of wire, or any other object, and place them in the cap; and by pa.s.sing it over the end, so that the broken gla.s.s, &c. has free motion, the instrument is complete. To use it, apply the eye to the small hole, and, on turning it, the most beautiful forms will appear, in the most wonderful combinations.

The following curious calculation has been made of the number of changes this instrument will admit of. Supposing it to contain 20 small pieces of gla.s.s, and that you make 10 changes in a minute, it will take an inconceivable s.p.a.ce of time, _i. e._ 462,880,899,576 years, and 360 days, to go through the immense number of changes of which it is capable.

SIMPLE SOLAR MICROSCOPE.

Having made a circular hole in a window-shutter, about three inches in diameter, place in it a gla.s.s lens of about twelve inches focal distance. To the inside of the hole adapt a tube, having at a small distance from the lens a slit, capable of receiving one or two very thin plates of gla.s.s, to which the object to be viewed must be affixed by means of a little gum-water exceedingly transparent. Into this tube fit another, furnished at its extremity with a lens half-an-inch focal distance. Place a mirror before the hole of the window-shutter on the outside, in such a manner as to throw the light of the sun into the tube, and you will have a solar magic lanthorn.

The method of employing this arrangement of lenses for microscopic purposes is as follows:--Having darkened the room, and by means of the mirror reflected the sun's rays on the gla.s.ses in a direction parallel to the axis, place some small object between the two moveable plates of gla.s.s, or affix it to one of them with very transparent gum-water, and bring it exactly into the axis of the tube; if the moveable tube be then pushed out or drawn in, till the object be a little beyond the focus, it will be seen painted very distinctly on a card, or piece of white paper, held at a proper distance, and will appear to be greatly magnified. A small insect will appear as a large animal, a hair as big as a walking-stick, and the almost invisible eels in paste or vinegar as large as common eels.

ANAMORPHOSES.