Produced by Craig Kirkwood and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress.) Transcriber’s Notes: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). The Table of Contents follows the body of the text. Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. * * * * * PHYSICAL AMUSEMENTS AND DIVERTING EXPERIMENTS. [Illustration] PHYSICAL AMUSEMENTS AND DIVERTING EXPERIMENTS. COMPOSED AND PERFORMED IN DIFFERENT CAPITALS OF EUROPE, AND IN LONDON. BY SIGNOR GIUSEPPE PINETTI, DE WILDALLE, KNIGHT OF THE GERMAN ORDER OF MERIT OF ST. PHILIP, PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, PENSIONED BY THE COURT OF PRUSSIA, PATRONIZED BY ALL THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE, AGGREGATE OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND BELLES LETTRES OF BORDEAUX, &C. [Illustration] LONDON: PRINTED IN THE YEAR M DCC LXXXIV. PREFACE. The honour of performing several physical amusements before their Britannic Majesties and the Royal Family, was an event that flattered my ambition in the highest degree. To obtain their suffrages, and those of that part of this enlightened nation, before which I have repeated the same experiments and amusements at the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market, was the summit of my wishes. Having obtained these two desirable ends, I blessed the moments I had devoted to the study of natural philosophy and mathematics; to them I am indebted for these inestimable advantages. Some invidious hints insinuated relative to the means I practised for performing these several experiments came to trouble the happiness I enjoyed. The opportunities I had of demonstrating publicly the simplicity and fairness of the execution of my experiments, which had appeared complicated to such a degree as to require a confederate, have put me in the happy way of destroying those unfavourable impressions, and of undeceiving those persons who honoured me with their presence; their repeated applauses have been a very flattering testimony of their approbation of my endeavours to amuse the public.