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...
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 gla...
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, a...
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 i...
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...
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 la...
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 e...
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 m...
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...
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 th...
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 evol...
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; th...
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.
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 numbe...
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 evapor...
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 sa...
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...
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 tabl...
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,...
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...
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 an...
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 t...
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...
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 oile...
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 pr...
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 d...
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, pr...
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...
your shells, you must first put in the serpents, rains, &c., or whatever they are composed of, then the blowing powder; but the shells must not be quite filled. All those things mu...
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 w...