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 at each end, and the

upper end must be above the water in the vessel. To the bottom also

fix five or six small tubes, F, about one-eighth of an inch in

diameter. By these p pes, the water in the vessel is to run slowly

out.






Place this machine in a tin basin, G H, with a hole in the middle,

about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Fix to the tube D E, any sort

of ornament that will keep the machine firm on the basin, observing,

that these supports are sufficiently long to leave about a quarter of

an inch between the end of the tube and the orifice in the basin; and

let there be a vessel under the basin to catch the water that runs

out.



As the small pipes discharge more water into the basin than can run

out of the central orifice, the water will rise in the basin above the

lower end of the pipe, and prevent the air from getting into the

vessel, by which the water will cease to flow from the small pipes.

But as the water continues to flow from the basin, the air will have

liberty again to enter the vessel by the tube, and the water will

again flow from the small pipes, and alternately stop and flow, while

any water remains in the vessel.



As you can guess when the pipes will flow, and when they will stop,

you may so manage it, that they will appear to act by word of command.