It is well known that if any words are written on a wall with solid phosphorus, the writing will appear as if on fire; but it is necessary to give this caution, lest accidents shou...
lines, by reason of their being placed obliquely, one opposite to the other; and their counterpoise in the centre, which causes them to rise in a vertical direction. Rockets for th...
Cut a piece of burnt cork, about the size of a pea, into the shape of a spider; make its legs of linen thread, and put a grain or two of lead in it to give it more weight. Suspend...
There have been many methods used to grind these ingredients to a powder for fire-works, such as large mortars and pestles made of ebony, and other hard woods; but none of these me...
To carry on a correspondence without the possibility of the meaning of the letter being detected, in case it should be opened by any other person, has employed the ingenuity of man...
Take a square box, about six inches long and twelve high, or of any other proportionate dimensions. Cover the inside with four flat pieces of looking-glass placed perpendicular to...
Provide a ball of cork about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, hollowed out in the internal part by cutting it in two hemispheres, scooping out the inside, and then joining th...
Take a common full-blown rose, and, having thrown a little sulphur finely pounded into a chafing-dish with coals, expose the rose to the vapour. By this process the rose will becom...
So called because it nearly represents a twelve-sided figure, is made thus: First have a ball turned out of some hard wood, 14 inches diameter; divide its surface into 14 equal par...
By the motion of circulating points, we may in some measure imitate
Provide a pack in which there is a long card; open it at that part where the long card is, and present the pack to a person in such a manner that he will naturally draw that card....
Throw a bit of phosphorus, of the size of a pea, into a long glass phial, and pour boiling oil carefully over it, till the phial is one-third filled. The phial must be carefully co...
Lay a square of glass on the top of an open receiver, and exhaust the air. The weight of the external air will press on the glass, and smash it to atoms.
Construct a figure of Bacchus, seated on a cask; let his belly be formed by a bladder, and let a tube proceed from his mouth to the cask. Fill this tube with coloured water or wine...
Let a large piece of cork be pendent from one end of a balance beam, and a small piece of lead from the other; the lead should rather preponderate. If this apparatus be placed unde...
Mix alum with lemon-juice. The letters written with this ink will be invisible till dipped in water. * * * * * We now present our readers with a variety of amusing experiments, whi...
In a large drinking-glass of a conical shape, (small at the bottom and wide at the top,) put a shilling, and let the glass be half full of water; then place a plate on the top of i...
Take a tall glass tube, hermetically sealed both at top and bottom, by means of a brass cap screwed on to a stop-cock, and place it on the plate of the pump. When the air is exhaus...
Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief, when extended; tie the corners of the handkerch...
A very simple rain gauge, and one which will answer all practical purposes, consists of a copper funnel the area of whose opening is exactly ten square inches: this funnel is fixed...
When the prime conductor is situated in its proper place, and electrified by whirling the cylinder, if a metallic wire, with a ball at its extremity, or the knuckle or a finger be...
To represent Neptune in his chariot, you must have a Neptune (made of wood, or basket-work) as big as life, fixed on a float large enough to bear his weight; on which must be two h...
Procure a box, as in Fig. 12, of about a foot long, eight inches wide, and six inches high, or any other dimensions you please, so they do not greatly vary from these proportions....
Dissolve mercury in marine acid, and dip a piece of iron into it, or rub the solution over the iron, and it will assume a silver appearance. It is scarcely necessary to say, that t...
These stars are made of different sizes, according to the work for which they are intended; they are made with cases from one ounce to one pound, but in general with four-ounce cas...
Fill a glass bottle with water to the beginning of the neck; leave the neck empty, and cork it. Suspend this bottle opposite a concave mirror, and beyond its focus, that it may app...
Take a glass pipe open at both ends, to one of which tie fast a wet bladder, and let it dry. Then place it on the plate of the pump. While the air presses the bladder equally on bo...
Adapt the end of a common tobacco-pipe to a bladder filled with hydrogen gas, and dip the bowl of the pipe into soap-suds, prepared as if for blowing up soap bubbles; squeeze out s...
At one end of a fine balance, hang a piece of lead, and at the other as many feathers as will poise it; then place the balance in the receiver. As the air is exhausted, the feather...
To make a fire-fountain for the water, first have a float made of wood, three feet diameter; then in the middle fix a round perpendicular post, four feet high, and two inches diame...