Chapter III: Part 3

The best way of throwing the light in front is to place an oiled paper before it, which will cast a mellow gleam over the scenery, and not diminish the effect of the illumination. This can be very easily planned, both not to obstruct the sight, nor be seen to disadvantage. The lights behind the picture should be very strong, and if a magnifying glass were placed in the sight hole it would tend greatly to increase the effect. The box must be covered in, leaving an aperture for the smoke of the lights to pass through.

The above exhibition can only be shown at candle light; but there is another way, by fixing small pieces of gold on the building, instead of drilling the holes, which gives something like the appearance of illumination, but by no means equal to the foregoing experiment.

N. B.--It would be an improvement if paper of various colors, rendered transparent by oil, were placed between the lights behind the aperture in the buildings, as they would then resemble lamps of different colors.

Sun and Spirit.

Put a small quantity of spirits of wine into a glass, and put a cent or coin in with it; then direct the rays of the sun by means of a burning glass upon the coin, and in a short time it will become so hot as to inflame the spirits.

Stars in Water.

Put half a drachm of solid phosphorus into a large pint 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 spirits 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 the glass, representing stars, and will frequently display brilliant rays. These appearances will continue at times till the water begins to simmer, when immediately a curious aurora borealis begins, and gradually ascends till it collects to a pointed flame; when it has continued half a minute, blow out the flame of the lamp and the point that was formed will rush down, forming beautiful illuminated clouds of fire, rolling over each other for some time, which, disappearing, a splendid hemisphere of stars presents itself; after waiting a minute or two, light the lamp again, and nearly the same phenomenon will be displayed as from the beginning. Let the repetition of lighting and blowing out the lamp be made for three or four times at least, that the stars may be increased. After the third or fourth time of blowing out the lamp, in a few minutes after the internal surface of the flask is dry, many of the stars will shoot with great splendor from side to side, and some of them will fire off with brilliant rays; these appearances will continue several minutes. What remains in the flask will serve for the same experiment several times, and without adding any more water. Care should be taken after the operation is over, to lay the flask and water in a cool, secure place.

Parlor Ballooning.

It is an interesting and amusing experiment to inflate a balloon made of gold-beater’s skin (using a little gum arabic to close any holes or fissures), filling it from a bladder or jar, and tying a thread around the mouth of it, to prevent the escape of the gas. When fully blown, attach a fanciful car of colored paper, or very thin pasteboard, to it, and let it float in a large room; it will soon gain the ceiling, where it will remain for any length of time; if it be let off in the open air it will soon ascend out of sight. This experiment may be varied by putting small grains of shot into the car, in order to ascertain the difference between the weight of hydrogen gas and atmospheric air.

Marvelous.

Wrap up a very smooth ball of lead in a piece of paper, taking care that there be no wrinkles in it, and that it be everywhere in contact with the ball; if it be held in this state over the flame of a taper, the lead will be melted without the paper being burnt. The lead, indeed, when once fused will not fail in a short time to pierce the paper, and run through.

Mutability.

Infuse a few shavings of logwood in common water, and when the liquid 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 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 color; if the second it will pass gradually from a bluish gray to black, when stirred with a key or any piece of iron which has been previously dipped in strong vinegar. In the third glass the red liquor will assume a violet tint.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Illustrations have been moved to paragraph breaks near where they are mentioned.

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typos have been corrected.

Additional notes:

p. 3: Inserted “that” (paper, that give)

p. 6: “choose” changed to “chose” (and chose to)

p. 11: “jar, or a soup-plate” should be “jar, and a soup-plate”

p. 18: “altered as in fig. 4” should be “altered as in fig. 6”

p. 18: “lightness” changed to “tightness” (absolute tightness. Such)

p. 22: “entirely. As” changed to “entirely, as” (out entirely, as)

p. 28: “valve shown in fig. 4” should be “valve shown in fig. 6”

p. 45: “with” inserted (ground, with a)

End of Project Gutenberg's How to Do Chemical Tricks, by A. Anderson