Endless Amusement: A Collection of Nearly 400 Entertaining Experiments in Various Branches of Science; Including Acoustics, Electricity, Magnetism, Arithmetic, Hydraulics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Hydrostatics, Optics; Wonders of the Air-Pump; All the Popular Tricks and Changes of the Cards, &c., &c. to Which is Added, a Complete System of Pyrotechny; Or, the Art of Making Fire-works.Unknown
Science
Endless Amusement: A Collection of Nearly 400 Entertaining Experiments in Various Branches of Science; Including Acoustics, Electricity, Magnetism, Arithmetic, Hydraulics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Hydrostatics, Optics; Wonders of the Air-Pump; All the Popular Tricks and Changes of the Cards, &c., &c. to Which is Added, a Complete System of Pyrotechny; Or, the Art of Making Fire-works.
The air of a room may be electrified in another way. Charge a large
jar, and insulate it; then connect two or more sharp-pointed wires or
needles, with the knob of the jar, and connect the outside coating of
the jar with the table. If the jar be charged positively, the air of
the room will soon become positively electrified likewise; but if the
jar be charged negatively, the electricity communicated by it to the
air will also become negative. A charged jar being held in one hand,
and the flame of an insulated candle held in the other being brought
near the knob of the jar, will also produce the same effect.
_Another Electric Orrery._ (See page 92.)
From the prime conductor of an electric machine suspend six concentric
hoops of metal at different distances from each other, in such a
manner as to represent in some measure the proportional distances of
the planets. Under these, and at a distance of about half an inch,
place a metallic plate, and upon this plate, within each of the hoops,
a glass bubble blown very thin and light. On electrifying the hoops,
the bubbles will be immediately attracted by them, and will continue
to move round the hoops as long as the electrification continues. If
the electricity be very strong, the bubbles will frequently be driven
off, run hither and thither on the plate, making a variety of
surprising motions round their axis; after which they will return to
the hoop, and circulate as before; and if the room be darkened, they
will all appear beautifully illuminated with electric light.
_The Electric Ball._
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 them together with paste.
Having attached this to a silk thread between three and four feet in
length, suspend it in such a manner that it may just touch the knob of
an electric jar, the outside of which communicates with the ground. On
the first contact it will be repelled to a considerable distance, and
after making several vibrations, will remain stationary; but if a
candle be placed at some distance behind it, so that the ball may be
between it and the bottle, the ball will instantly begin to move, and
will turn round the knob of the jar, moving in a kind of ellipsis as
long as there is any electricity in the bottle. This experiment is
very striking, though the motions are far from being regular; but it
is remarkable that they always affect the elliptical rather than the
circular form.
_To spin Sealing-wax into Threads by Electricity._
Stick a small piece of sealing-wax on the end of a wire, and set fire
to it. Then put an electrical machine in motion, and present the wax
just blown out at the distance of some inches from the prime
conductor. A number of extremely fine filaments will immediately dart
from the sealing-wax to the conductor, on which they will be condensed
into a kind of net-work resembling wool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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