Magic tricks -- Juvenile literature; Scientific recreations -- Juvenile literature
Sir Isaac Newton first divided a white ray of light, and found it to
consist of an assemblage of coloured rays, which formed an image upon a
wall, and in which were displayed the following colours: red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Sir Isaac then showed that
these seven colours, when again put together or combined, recomposed
white light. This may be proved by painting a card wheel in circles
with the above colours, and whirling it rapidly upon a pin, when it
will appear white.
Light may also be decomposed by the following beautiful experiment:
Form a tube about ten inches long and one inch in diameter, of paper,
one side of which is of a bright blue colour. This may be done by
wrapping the paper once round a cylinder of wood, and securing the
edges of the paper with paste. The coloured side of the paper must be
the interior of the tube. Apply this tube to one eye, the other being
closed, and on looking at the ceiling, a circular orange spot will be
seen, which is the result of decomposition: the white light from the
ceiling enters the tube, the blue is retained, and the red and yellow
rays enter the eye, and produce the impression of orange.
SOLAR REFRACTION.
The theory of solar refraction may be beautifully illustrated as
follows: Put a shilling into a basin, and pour some water on it, when
the silver will be refracted through the medium; and, if the vessel be
filled, you may withdraw to any distance from which the surface of the
water will be visible, and, by the refraction from it, you can still
observe the shilling.
INCANTATIONS.
Dissolve crystals of nitrate of copper in spirit of wine; light the
solution, and it will burn with a beautiful emerald-green flame:
pieces of sponge soaked in this spirit, lighted and suspended by fine
wires, produce the lambent green flames now so common in incantation
scenes: strips of flannel saturated with it, and applied round copper
swords, tridents, &c., produce, when lighted, the flaming swords and
fire-forks, brandished by the demons in such scenes: indeed, the chief
consumption of nitrate of copper is for these purposes.
TO IMITATE THE LIGHT OF THE SEA.
It is well known, that on dark, stormy nights, the sea emits a
brilliant light, the effect of which may be thus imitated. Scrape off
four drams of the substance of putrefying fish, as whiting, herring,
or mackerel, and put it into a white glass bottle, containing two
ounces of sea-water, or of pure water with two drams of common salt
dissolved in it; set the bottle in a dark place, and in three days a
ring of light will be seen on the surface of the liquid, and the whole,
if shaken, will become luminous, and continue so for some time. If it
be set in a warm place, the light will be brighter; if the liquid be
frozen, the light will disappear, but will re-appear on being thawed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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