Magic tricks -- Juvenile literature; Scientific recreations -- Juvenile literature
Melt a small quantity of the sulphate of potass and copper in a spoon
over a spirit-lamp; it will be fused at a heat just below redness,
and produce a liquid of a dark green colour. Remove the spoon from the
flame, when the liquid will become a solid of a brilliant emerald-green
colour, and so remain till its heat sinks nearly to that of boiling
water, when suddenly a commotion will take place throughout the mass,
beginning from the surface, and each atom, as if animated, will start
up and separate itself from the rest, till, in a few moments, the whole
will become a heap of powder.
REPULSION BY HEAT.
Provide two small pieces of glass; sprinkle a minute portion of
sulphur upon one piece, lay thin slips of wood around it, and place
upon it the other piece of glass. Move them slowly over the flame of
a lamp or candle, and the sulphur will become sublimed, and form grey
nebulous patches, which are very curious microscopic objects. Each
cluster consists of thousands of transparent globules, imitating, in
miniature, the nebulæ which we see figured in treatises on astronomy.
By observing the largest particles, we shall find them to be flattened
on one side. Being very transparent, each of them acts the part of
a little lens, and forms in its focus the image of a distant light,
which can be perceived even in the smaller globules, until it vanishes
from minuteness. If they are examined again after a certain number of
hours, the smaller globules will generally be found to have retained
their transparency, while the larger ones will have become opaque, in
consequence of the sulphur having undergone some internal spontaneous
change. But the most remarkable circumstance attending this experiment
is, that the globules are found adhering to the upper glass only;
the reason of which is, that the upper glass is somewhat cooler than
the lower one; by which means we see that the vapour of sulphur is
very powerfully repelled by heated glass. The flattened form of the
particles is owing to the force with which they endeavour to recede
from the lower glass, and their consequent pressure against the surface
of the upper one. This experiment is considered by its originator, Mr.
H. F. Talbot, F. R. S., to be a satisfactory argument in favour of the
repulsive power of heat.
HEAT PASSING THROUGH GLASS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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