Magic tricks -- Juvenile literature; Scientific recreations -- Juvenile literature
If the bottle be suspended with the neck downwards, it will be
reflected in its natural position, and the water at the bottom,
although, in reality, it is inverted, and fills the neck, leaving the
bottom vacant. While the bottle is in this position, uncork it, and let
the water run gradually out: it will appear, that while the real bottle
is emptying, the reflected one is filling. Care must be taken that the
bottle is not more than half or three parts full, and that no other
liquid is used but water, as in either of these cases, the illusion
ceases.
THE ARMED APPARITION.
If a person with a drawn sword place himself before a large concave
mirror, but further from it than its focus, he will see an inverted
image of himself in the air, between him and the mirror, of a less
size than himself. If he steadily present the sword towards the centre
of the mirror, an image of the sword will come out from it, point to
point, as if to fence with him; and by his pushing the sword nearer,
the image will appear to come nearer to him and almost to touch his
breast. If the mirror be turned 45 degrees, or one-eighth round, the
reflected image will go out perpendicular to the direction of the
sword presented, and apparently come to another person placed in the
direction of the motion of the image, who, if he be unacquainted with
the experiment, and does not see the original sword, will be much
surprised and alarmed.
TO EXTRACT THE SILVER OUT OF A RING, THAT IS THICK GILDED, SO THAT THE
GOLD MAY REMAIN ENTIRE.
Take a silver ring that is thick gilded. Make a little hole through the
gold into the silver; then put the ring into aqua-fortis, in a warm
place: it will dissolve the silver, and the gold will remain whole.
CURIOUS EXPERIMENT WITH A GLASS OF WATER.
Saturate a certain quantity of water in a moderate heat, with three
ounces of sugar; and when it will no longer receive that there is still
room in it for two ounces of salt of tartar, and after that for an
ounce and a drachm of green vitriol, nearly six drachms of nitre, the
same of salammoniac, two drachms and a scruple of alum, and a drachm
and a half of borax.
A LUMINOUS BOTTLE, WHICH WILL SHOW THE HOUR ON A WATCH IN THE DARK.
Throw a bit of phosphorous, 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 corked, and when used
should be unstopped, to admit the external air, and closed again. The
empty space of the phial will then appear luminous, and give as much
light as an ordinary lamp. Each time that the light disappears, on
removing the stopper it will instantly re-appear. In cold weather the
bottle should be warmed in the hands before the stopper is removed. A
phial thus prepared may be used every night for six months.
RUSES.
THE WONDERFUL HAT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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