The Inverted Cards
Prepare a pack of cards, by cutting one end of them about one-tenth of
an inch narrower than the other; then offer the pack to any one, that
he may draw a card; place the pack on the table, and observe carefully
if he turn the card while he is looking at it; if he do not, when you
take the pack from the table, you offer the other end of it for him to
insert that card; but if he turn the card, you then offer him the same
person, for them to draw or replace a card in the same manner. You
then let any one shuffle the cards, and, taking them again into your
own hand, as you turn them up one by one, you easily perceive by the
touch which are those cards that have been inverted, and, laying the
first of them down on the table, you ask the person if that card be
his; and if he say no, you ask the same of the second person; and if
he say no, you tell the third person it is his card; and so of the
second or third cards. You shall lay the pack on the table after each
person has drawn his card, and turn it dexterously in taking it up,
when it is to be turned, that the experiment may not appear to depend
on the cards being inverted.
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The Electrified Ball
Place an ivory ball on the prime conductor of the machine, and take a strong spark, or send the charge of a Leyden phial through its centre, and the ball will appear perfectly luminous; but if the charge be not sent through the centre, it will pass ... The Electrified Camphor
A beautiful experiment of the same nature is made with camphor. A spoon holding a piece of lighted camphor is made to communicate with an electrified body, as the prime conductor of a machine; while the conductor continues electrified by keeping the... The Electrified Cotton
Take a small lock of cotton, extended in every direction as much as can conveniently be done, and by a linen thread about five or six inches long, or by a thread drawn out of the same cotton, tie it to the end of the prime conductor; then set the ma... The Enchanted Bottle
Fill a glass bottle with water to the beginning of the neck; leave the neck empty, and cork it. Suspend this bottle opposite a concave mirror, and beyond its focus, that it may appear reversed. Place yourself still further distant from the bottle; a... The Enchanted Palace
On the six-sided plane A B C D E F, Fig. 21, draw six semi-diameters; and on each of these place perpendicularly two plane mirrors, which must join exactly at the centre, and which, placed back to back, must be as thin as possible. Decorate the exte... The Exploded Bladder
Take a glass pipe open at both ends, to one of which tie fast a wet bladder, and let it dry. Then place it on the plate of the pump. While the air presses the bladder equally on both sides, it will lie even and straight; but as soon as the air is ex... The Exploding Bubble
If you take up a small quantity of melted glass with a tube, (the bowl of a common tobacco-pipe will do,) and let a drop fall into a vessel of water, it will chill and condense with a fine spiral tail, which being broken, the whole substance will bu... The Fiery Fountain
If twenty grains of phosphorus, cut very small, and mixed with forty grains of powder of zinc, be put into four drachms of water, and two drachms of concentrated sulphuric acid be added thereto, bubbles of inflamed phosphoretted hydrogen gas will qu... The Fiery Shower
On the plate put a number of any kind of seeds, grains of sand, or brass dust. The conductor being strongly electrified, those light particles will be attracted and repelled by the plate suspended from the conductor, with amazing rapidity, so as to ... The Floating Stone
To a piece of cork tie a small stone that will just sink it; and, putting it in a vessel of water, place it under the receiver. Then exhausting the receiver, the bubbles of air will expand from its pores, and, adhering to its surface, will render it... The Four Confederate Cards
A person draws four cards from the pack, and you tell him to remember one of them. He then returns them to the pack, and you dexterously place two under and two on the top of the pack. Under the bottom ones you place four cards of any sort, and then... The Four Inseparable Kings
Take the four kings, and behind the last of them place two other cards, so that they may not be seen. Then spread open the four kings to the company, and put the six cards at the bottom of the pack. Draw one of the kings, and put it at the top of th... The Globular Fountain
Make a hollow globe, of copper or lead, and of a size adapted to the quantity of water that comes from a pipe (hereafter mentioned) to which it is to be fixed, and which may be fastened to any kind of pump, provided it be so constructed, that the wa... The Hand Fixed By Air
If a person hold his hand on an open receiver, and the air be exhausted, it will be fixed as if pressed by a weight of sixty pounds. ... The Hour Of The Day Or Night Told By A Suspended Shilling
However improbable the following experiment may appear, it has been proved by repeated trials: Sling a shilling or sixpence at the end of a piece of thread by means of a loop. Then resting your elbow on a table, hold the other end of the thread b... The Hydraulic Dancer
Procure a little figure made of cork, which you may dress as your fancy dictates. In this figure place a small hollow cone made of thin leaf brass. When the figure is placed on a jet d'eau, that plays in a perpendicular direction, it will be susp... The Igniting Mirrors
The rays of a luminous body placed in the focus of concave mirror, being reflected in parallel lines, and a second mirror being placed diametrically opposite to the first, will set fire to a combustible body, by collecting those rays in the focus. ... The Illuminated Cylinder
Provide a glass cylinder, three feet long, and three inches diameter; near the bottom of it fix a brass plate, and have another brass plate, so contrived that you may let it down the cylinder, and bring it as near the first plate as you desire. Let ... The Illuminated Fountain That Plays When The Candles Are Lighted
and stops when they are extinguished. Provide two cylindrical vessels, A B and C D, as in Fig. 6. Connect them by four tubes open at each end, as H I, &c., so that the air may descend out of the higher into the lower vessel. To these tubes fix cand... The Illuminated Vacuum
Take a tall receiver that is very dry, and fix through the top of it, with cement, a blunt wire; then exhaust the receiver, and present the knob of the wire to the conductor, and every spark will pass through the vacuum in a broad stream of light, v... The Illuminated Water
Connect one end of a chain with the outside of a charged phial, and let the other end lie on the table. Place the end of another piece of chain at the distance of about a quarter of an inch from the former; and set a glass decanter of water on these... The Inanimate Oracle
Place a bust on a pedestal in the corner of a room, and let there be two tubes, as in the preceding article, one to go from the mouth, and the other from the ear, through the pedestal and the floor to an under apartment; there may be also wires, tha... The Inconceivable Shock
Put in a person's hand a wire that is fixed on to the hook that comes from the chain, which communicates with one side of the battery, and in his other hand put a small wire with a hook at the end of it, which you direct him to fix on to a hook whic... The Inverted Cards
Prepare a pack of cards, by cutting one end of them about one-tenth of an inch narrower than the other; then offer the pack to any one, that he may draw a card; place the pack on the table, and observe carefully if he turn the card while he is looki... The Iron Tree
Dissolve iron filings in aqua fortis, moderately concentrated, till the acid is saturated; then add to it gradually, a solution of fixed alkali, (commonly called oil of tartar per deliquum.) A strong effervescence will ensue, and the iron, instead o... The Lamp Chronometer
Figure 4 represents a chamber lamp, A, consisting of a cylindrical vessel made of tin, in the shape of a candle, and is to be filled with oil. This vessel should be about three inches high and one inch diameter, placed in a stand, B. The whole appar... The Lead Tree
A more modern invention, and an easier method by far than the above, is the following: To a piece of zinc fasten a wire, crooked in the form of the worm of a still; let the other end of the worm be thrust through a cork. You then pour spring wate... The Leech A Prognosticator Of The Weather
Confine a leech in a large phial, three parts filled with rain water, regularly changed twice a week, and placed on a window frame, fronting the north. In fair and frosty weather it lies motionless, and rolled up in a spiral form, at the bottom of t... The Leyden Phial
When a nail or piece of thick brass wire, &c., is put into a small apothecary's phial, and electrified, remarkable effects follow; but the phial must be very dry or warm. Rub it once beforehand with your finger, on which put some pounded chalk. If a... The Long Card Another Stratagem Connected With The Performance Of
many of the following tricks, is what is termed the Long Card; that is, a card, either a trifle longer or wider than the other cards, not perceptible to the eye of the spectator, but easily to be distinguished by the touch of the operator. ... The Luminous Writing
Small pieces of tin-foil may be stuck on a flat piece of glass, so as to represent various fanciful figures. Upon the same principle is the word LIGHT produced, in luminous characters. It is formed by the small separations of the tin-foil pasted o... The Magic Bell
Fix a small bell to the wire that goes through the top of the receiver. If you shake the wire, the bell will ring while the air is in the receiver; but when the air is drawn off, the sound will by degrees become faint, till at last not the least noi... The Magic Bottle
Take a small bottle, the neck of which is not more than the sixth of an inch in diameter. With a funnel, fill the bottle quite full of red wine, and place it in a glass vessel, similar to a show-glass, whose height exceeds that of the bottle about t... The Magic Chase
On the top of a finely-pointed wire, rising perpendicularly from the conductor, let another wire, sharpened at each end, be made to move freely, as on a centre. If it be well balanced, and the points bent horizontally, in opposite directions, it wil... The Magic Dance
From the middle of the brass arch suspend three small bells. The two outer bells hang by chains, and the middle one by a silk string, while a chain connects it with the floor. Two small knobs of brass, which serve as clappers, hang by silk strings, ... The Magic Picture
Take two level pieces of glass, (plate glass is the best,) about three inches long and four wide, exactly of the same size; lay one on the other, and leave a space between them by pasting a piece of card, or two or three small pieces of thick paper,... The Magic Tube
Procure a small tube of glass, whose canal is extremely narrow, and open at both ends; let one end of it be plunged in water, and the water within the tube will rise to a considerable height above the external surface: or if two or more tubes be imm... The Magic Vase
Construct a vase of wood, or pasteboard, see Fig. 20. On the inside let there be five divisions; two of them, c d, to be large enough to admit a pack of cards each; and the other three, e f g, only large enough to contain a single card. Place this v... The Magic Verse
The eight words which compose this Latin verse, "Tot sunt tibi dote, quot coeli sidera, virgo,"[F] being privately placed in any one of the different combinations of which they are susceptible, and which are 40,320 in number, to tell the orde... The Magic Vessel
On the bottom of a vessel, lay three pieces of money, the first at A, the second at B, and the third at C, Fig. 3. Then place a person at D, where he can see no farther into the vessel than E. You tell him, that by pouring water in the vessel you wi... The Magical Cascade
Procure a tin vessel, shaped like Fig. 5, about five inches high and four in diameter, with a cover, C, closed at top. To the bottom of this vessel, let the pipe D E be soldered. This pipe is to be ten inches long, and half an inch in diameter, open... The Magical Mirrors
Make two holes in the wainscot of a room, each a foot high and ten inches wide, and about a foot distant from each other. Let these apertures be about the height of a man's head, and in each of them place a transparent glass in a frame, like a commo... The Magician's Mirror
Construct a box of wood, of a cubical shape, A B C D, Fig. 23, of about fifteen inches every way. Let it be fixed to the pedestal P, at the usual height of a man's head. In each side of this box let there be an opening, of an oval form, ten inches h... The Magnetic Cards
Draw a pasteboard circle; you then provide yourself with two needles, similar to those used in the foregoing experiment, (which you must distinguish by some private mark,) with their opposite points touched with the magnet. When you place that needl... The Magnetic Dial
Procure a circle of wood or ivory, about 5 or 6 inches diameter, which must turn quite free on a stand with a circular border; on the ivory or wood circle fix a pasteboard, on which you place, in proper divisions, the hours, as on a dial. There must... The Magnetic Orrery
Construct a round box, Fig. 16, about eight inches diameter, and half an inch deep. On the bottom fix a circular pasteboard drawn like the figure. You are likewise to have another pasteboard, drawn exactly the same, which must turn freely in the box...