Soap-Bubbles and the Forces Which Mould ThemBoys, C. V. (Charles Vernon)
Science
Soap-Bubbles and the Forces Which Mould Them
Boys, C. V. (Charles Vernon)
Bubbles; Capillarity; Surface tension
Cylindrical bubbles of water in paraffin may be made by dipping the pipe
down into the water and withdrawing it quickly without ever closing the
top at all. These break up into spherical bubbles in the same way that
the cylinder of liquid broke up into spheres of liquid.
_Beaded Spider-webs._
These are found in the spiral part of the webs of all the geometrical
spiders. The beautiful geometrical webs may be found out of doors in
abundance in the autumn, or in green-houses at almost any time of the
year. To mount these webs so that the beads may be seen, take a small
flat ring of any material, or a piece of card-board with a hole cut out
with a gun-wad cutter, or otherwise. Smear the face of the ring, or the
card, with a very little strong gum. Choose a freshly-made web, and then
pass the ring, or the card, across the web so that some of the spiral
web (not the central part of the web) remains stretched across the hole.
This must be done without touching or damaging the pieces that are
stretched across, except at their ends. The beads are too small to be
seen with the naked eye. A strong magnifying-glass, or a low power
microscope, will show the beads and their marvellous regularity. The
beads on the webs of very young spiders are not so regular as those on
spiders that are fully grown. Those beautiful beads, easily visible to
the naked eye, on spider lines in the early morning of an autumn day,
are not made by the spider, but are simply dew. They very perfectly show
the spherical form of small water-drops.
_Photographs of Water-jets._
These are easily taken by the method described by Mr. Chichester Bell.
The flash of light is produced by a short spark from a few Leyden-jars.
The fountain, or jet, should be five or six feet away from the spark,
and the photographic plate should be held as close to the stream of
water as is possible without touching. The shadow is then so definite
that the photograph, when taken, may be examined with a powerful lens,
and will still appear sharp. Any rapid dry plate will do. The room, of
course, must be quite dark when the plate is placed in position, and the
spark then made. The regular breaking up of the jet may be effected by
sound produced in almost any way. The straight jet, of which Fig. 41 is
a representation, magnified about three and a quarter times, was
regularly broken up by simply whistling to it with a key. The fountains
were broken up regularly by fastening the nozzle to one end of a long
piece of wood clamped at the end to the stand of a tuning-fork, which
was kept sounding by electrical means. An ordinary tuning-fork, made to
rest when sounding against the wooden support of the nozzle, will
answer quite as well, but is not quite so convenient. The jet will break
up best to certain notes, but it may be tuned to a great extent by
altering the size of the orifice or the pressure of the water, or both.
_Fountain and Sealing-wax._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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