Endless Amusement Part 4

Design on the sh.e.l.l 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 the acid has corroded that part of the sh.e.l.l which is not covered with the greasy matter: those parts will then appear in relief, exactly as you have drawn them.

_To give a ghastly Appearance to Persons in a Room._

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.

_To change Blue to White._

Dissolve copper filings in a phial of volatile alkali; when the phial is unstopped, the liquor will be blue; when stopped, it will be white.

_Magical Trans.m.u.tations._

Infuse a few shavings of logwood in common water, and when the liquor is sufficiently red, pour it into a bottle. Then take three drinking-gla.s.ses, and rinse one of them with strong vinegar; throw into the second a small quant.i.ty of pounded alum, which will not be observed if the gla.s.s has been recently washed, and leave the third without any preparation. If the red liquor in the bottle be poured into the first gla.s.s, it will appear of a straw colour; if into the second, it will pa.s.s gradually from bluish-grey to black, when stirred with a key, or any piece of iron, which has been previously dipped in strong vinegar. In the third gla.s.s, the red liquor will a.s.sume a violet tint.

_To make Pomatum with Water and Wax._

Water and wax are two substances that do not naturally unite together; therefore, to those who witness the following process, without knowing the cause, it will have the appearance of marvellous. Put into a new glazed earthen pot, six ounces of river water and two ounces of white wax, in which, you must previously conceal a strong dose of salt of tartar. If the whole be then exposed to a considerable degree of heat, it will a.s.sume the consistence of pomatum, and may be used as such.

_Iron transformed into Copper._

Dissolve blue vitriol in water, till the water is well impregnated with it; and immerse into the solution small plates of iron, or coa.r.s.e iron filings. These will be attacked and dissolved by the acid of the vitriol, while the copper naturally contained in the vitriol will be sunk and deposited in the place of the iron dissolved. If the piece of iron be too large for dissolving, it will be so completely covered with particles of copper, as to resemble that metal itself.

_Iron transformed into Silver._

Dissolve mercury in marine acid, and dip a piece of iron into it, or rub the solution over the iron, and it will a.s.sume a silver appearance.

It is scarcely necessary to say, that these trans.m.u.tations are only apparent, though to the credulous it would seem that they were actually transformed.

_Chemical Illuminations._

Put into a middling-sized bottle, with a short wide neck, three ounces of oil or spirit of vitriol, with twelve ounces of common water, and throw into it, at different times, an ounce or two of iron filings. A violent commotion will then take place, and white vapours will arise from the mixture. If a taper be held to the mouth of the bottle, these vapours will inflame and produce a violent explosion, which may be repeated as long as the vapours continue.

_The Philosophical Candle._

Provide a bladder, into the orifice of which is inserted a metal tube, some inches in length, that can be adapted to the neck of a bottle, containing the same mixture as in the last experiment. Having suffered the atmospheric air to be expelled from the bottle, by the elastic vapour produced by the solution, apply the orifice of the bladder to the mouth of the bottle, after carefully squeezing the common air out of it, (which you must not fail to do, or the bladder will violently explode.) The bladder will thus become filled with the inflammable air, which, when forced out against the flame of a candle, by pressing the sides of the bladder, will form a beautiful green flame.

_To make the appearance of a Flash of Lightning, when any one enters a 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 evaporate by strong and speedy boiling. If any one then enters the room with a lighted candle, the air will inflame, while the combustion will be so sudden, and of so short a duration, as to occasion no danger.

_To melt Iron in a Moment and make it run into Drops._

Bring a bar of iron to a white heat, and then apply to it a roll of sulphur. The iron will immediately melt and run into drops.

This experiment should be performed over a basin of water, in which the drops that fall down will be quenched. These drops will be found reduced into a sort of cast-iron.

_Never-yielding Cement._

Calcine oyster-sh.e.l.ls, pound them, sift them through a silk sieve, and grind them on porphyry till they are reduced to the finest powder.

Then take the whites of several eggs, according to the quant.i.ty of the powder; and having mixed them with the powder, form the whole into a kind of paste. With this paste join the pieces of china, or gla.s.s, and press them together for seven or eight minutes. This cement will stand both heat and water, and will never give way, even if the article should, by accident, fall to the ground.

_To remove Stains and Blemishes from Prints._

Paste a piece of paper to a very smooth clear table, that the boiling water used in the operation may not require a colour which might lessen its success. Spread out the print you wish to clean upon the table, and sprinkle it with boiling water; taking care to moisten it throughout by very carefully applying a very fine sponge. After you have repeated this process five or six times, you will observe the stains or spots extend themselves; but this is only a proof that the dirt begins to be dissolved.

After this preparation, lay the print smoothly and carefully into a copper or wooden vessel, larger than the size of the print. Then cover it with a boiling ley of potash, taking care to keep it hot as long as possible. After the whole is cooled, strain off the liquor, take out the print with care, spread it on a stretched cord, and when half dry, press it between leaves of white paper, to prevent wrinkles.

By this process, spots and stains of any kind will be effectually removed.

_To so fill a Gla.s.s with Water, that it cannot be removed without spilling the whole._

This is a mere trick, but may afford some amus.e.m.e.nt. You offer to bet any person that you will so fill a gla.s.s with water that he shall not move it off the table without spilling the whole contents. You then fill the gla.s.s, and, laying a piece of paper or thin card over the top, you dexterously turn the gla.s.s upside down on the table, and then drawing away the paper, you leave the water in the gla.s.s, with its foot upwards. It will therefore be impossible to remove the gla.s.s from the table without spilling every drop.

_Two Figures, one of which blows out and the other re-lights a 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 a tube containing at the end a few grains of gunpowder; taking care that each be retained in the tube by a piece of paper. If the second figure be applied to the flame of a taper, it will extinguish it; and the first will light it again.

_A vessel that will let Water out at the Bottom, as soon as the Mouth is uncorked._

Provide a tin vessel, two or three inches in diameter, and five or six inches in height, having a mouth about three inches in width; and in the bottom several small holes, just large enough to admit a small needle. Plunge it in water with its mouth open, and when full, while it remains in the water, stop it very closely. You can play a trick with a person, by desiring him to uncork it; if he places it on his knee for that purpose, the moment it is uncorked the water will run through at the bottom, and make him completely wet.

_A Powder which catches Fire when exposed to the Air._

Put three ounces of rock alum, and one ounce of honey or sugar, into a new earthen dish, glazed, and which is capable of standing a strong heat; keep the mixture over the fire, stirring it continually till it becomes very dry and hard; then remove it from the fire, and pound it to a coa.r.s.e powder. Put this powder into a long-necked bottle, leaving a part of the vessel empty; and, having placed it in a crucible, fill up the crucible with fine sand, and surround it with burning coals.

When the bottle has been kept at a red heat for about seven or eight minutes, and no more vapour issues from it, remove it from the fire, then stop it with a piece of cork; and, having suffered it to cool, preserve the mixture in small bottles well closed.

If you unclose one of these bottles, and let fall a few grains of this powder on a bit of paper, or any other very dry substance, it will first become blue, then brown, and will at last burn the paper or other dry substance on which it has fallen.

_Fulminating Gold._

Put into a small long-necked bottle, resting on a little sand, one part of fine gold filings, and three parts of aqua regia, (nitro-muriatic acid.) When the gold is dissolved, pour the solution into a gla.s.s, and add five or six times the quant.i.ty of water. Then take spirit of sal ammoniac or oil of tartar, and pour it drop by drop into the solution, until the gold is entirely precipitated to the bottom of the gla.s.s. Decant the liquor that swims at the top, by inclining the gla.s.s; and, having washed it several times in warm water, dry it at a moderate heat, placing it on paper capable of absorbing all the moisture.