To Produce Metallic Lead From The Powder
Take one ounce of red lead, and half a drachm of charcoal in powder,
incorporate them well in a mortar, and then fill the bowl of a
tobacco-pipe with the mixture. Submit it to an intense heat, in a
common fire, and when melted, pour it out upon a slab, and the result
will be metallic lead completely revived.
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To Make Several Rockets Rise Together Take Six Or Any Number Of
sky-rockets, of any size; then cut some strong packthread into pieces of three or four yards long, and tie each end of these pieces to a rocket in this manner: Having tied one end of the packthread round the body of one rocket, and the other end to... To Make Squibs And Serpents
First make the cases, of about six inches in length, by rolling slips of stout cartridge-paper three times round a roller, and pasting the last fold; tying it near the bottom as tight as possible, and making it air-tight at the end, by sealing-wax. ... To Make The Appearance Of A Flash Of Lightning When Any One Enters A
Room with a lighted Candle. Dissolve camphor in spirit of wine, and deposit the vessel containing the solution in a very close room, where the spirit of wine must be made to evaporate by strong and speedy boiling. If any one then enters the room wi... To Make The Phosphorus Match Bottles
Nothing more is necessary for this purpose, than to drop small pieces of dry phosphorus into a common phial; gently heat it till it melts; and then turn the bottle round, that it may adhere to the sides. The phial should be closely corked; and when ... To Make Touch Paper
Dissolve in some spirits of wine or vinegar, a little saltpetre; then take some purple or blue paper, wet it with the above liquor, and when dry it will be fit for use. When you paste this paper on any of your works, take care that the paste does no... To Melt A Piece Of Money In A Walnut-shell Without Injuring The
shell. Bend any thin coin, and put it into half a walnut-shell; place the shell on a little sand, to keep it steady. Then fill the shell with a mixture made of three parts of very dry pounded nitre, one part of flowers of sulphur, and a little saw-... To Melt Iron In A Moment And Make It Run Into Drops
Bring a bar of iron to a white heat, and then apply to it a roll of sulphur. The iron will immediately melt and run into drops. This experiment should be performed over a basin of water, in which the drops that fall down will be quenched. These dr... To Name The Rank Of A Card That A Person Has Drawn From A Piquet
Pack. The rank of a card means whether it be an ace, king, queen, &c. You therefore first fix a certain number to each card; thus you call the king four, the queen three, the knave two, the ace one, and the others according to the number of their p... To Observe An Eclipse Of The Sun Without Injury To The Eye
Take a burning-glass, or spectacle-glass, that magnifies very much; hold it before a book or pasteboard, twice the distance of its focus, and you will see the round body of the sun, and the manner in which the moon passes between the glass and the s... To Prepare Charcoal For Fire-works
Charcoal is a preservative, by which the saltpetre and brimstone are made into gunpowder, by preventing the sulphur from suffocating the strong and windy exhalation of the nitre. There are several sorts of wood made use of for this purpose; some pre... To Procure Hydrogen Gas
Provide a phial with a cork stopper, through which is thrust a piece of tobacco-pipe. Into the phial put a few pieces of zinc, or small iron nails; on this pour a mixture, of equal parts of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) and water, previously mixed... To Produce Beautiful Fire-works In Miniature
Put half a drachm of solid phosphorus into a large pint Florence flask; holding it slanting, that the phosphorus may not break the glass. Pour upon it a gill and a half of water, and place the whole over a tea-kettle lamp, or any common tin lamp, fi... To Produce Fire By The Mixture Of Two Cold Liquids
Take half a pound of pure dry nitrate, in powder; put it into a retort that is quite dry; add an equal quantity of highly rectified oil of vitriol, and, distilling the mixture in a moderate sand heat, it will produce a liquor like a yellowish fume; ... To Produce Fire From Cane
The Chinese rattans, which are used, when split, for making cane chairs, will, when dry, if struck against each other, give fire; and are used accordingly in some places, in lieu of flint and steel. ... To Produce Metallic Lead From The Powder
Take one ounce of red lead, and half a drachm of charcoal in powder, incorporate them well in a mortar, and then fill the bowl of a tobacco-pipe with the mixture. Submit it to an intense heat, in a common fire, and when melted, pour it out upon a sl... To Produce The Appearance Of A Flower From Its Ashes
Make a tin box, with a cover that takes off. Let this box be supported by a pedestal of the same metal, and on which there is a little door. In the front of this box is to be a glass. In a groove, at a small distance from this glass, place a doubl... To Produce The Appearance Of A Spectre On A Pedestal In The Middle Of
a Table. Enclose a small magic lantern in a box, Fig. 11, large enough to contain a small swing dressing-glass, which will reflect the light thrown on it by the lantern in such a way, that it will pass out at the aperture made at the top of the box... To Pulverize Saltpetre
Take a copper kettle, the bottom being spherical, and put into it fourteen pounds of refined saltpetre, with two quarts or five pints of clean water; then put the kettle on a slow fire, and when the saltpetre is dissolved, if any impurities arise, s... To Remove Stains And Blemishes From Prints
Paste a piece of paper to a very smooth clear table, that the boiling water used in the operation may not require a colour which might lessen its success. Spread out the print you wish to clean upon the table, and sprinkle it with boiling water; tak... To Represent A Storm At Sea
Provide two strips of glass, whose frames are thin enough to admit both strips freely into the groove of the lantern. On one of these glasses paint the appearance of the sea from a smooth calm to a violent storm. Let these representations run gradua... To Represent Cascades Of Fire
In cutting out cascades, you must take care to preserve a natural inequality in the parts cut out; for if, to save time, you should make all the holes with the same pointed tool, the uniformity of the parts will not fail to produce a disagreeable ef... To Separate The Two Colours Of A Pack Of Cards By One Cut
To perform this amusement, all the cards of one colour must be cut something narrower at one end than the other. You show the cards, and give them to any one, that he may shuffle them; then holding them between your hands, one hand being at each ext... To Set Fire To A Combustible Body By Reflection
Place two concave mirrors at about twelve feet distance from each other, and let the axis of each be in the same line. In the focus of one of them place a live coal, and in the focus of the other some gunpowder. With a pair of strong bellows keep bl... To Show That The White Of Eggs Contains An Alkali
Add to a wine-glass half full of tincture of red cabbage a small quantity of the white of an egg, either in a liquid state or rendered concrete by boiling. The tincture will lose its blue colour and become changed to green, because the white of the ... To Show The Pressure Of The Atmosphere
Invert a tall glass or jar in a dish of water, and place a lighted taper under it: as the taper consumes the air in the jar its pressure becomes less on the water immediately under the jar; while the pressure of the atmosphere on the water without t... To Show The Spots In The Sun's Disk By Its Image In The Camera
Obscura. Put the object-glass of a ten or twelve feet telescope into the scioptric ball, and turn it about till it be directly opposite the sun. Then place the pasteboard mentioned in page 16, in the focus of the lens, and you will see a clear brig... To So Fill A Glass With Water That It Cannot Be Removed Without
spilling the whole. This is a mere trick, but may afford some amusement. You offer to bet any person that you will so fill a glass with water that he shall not move it off the table without spilling the whole contents. You then fill the glass, and,... To Soften Horn
To one pound of wood-ashes, add two pounds of quick lime; put them into a quart of water. Let the whole boil till reduced to one-third. Then dip a feather in, and if, on drawing it out, the plume should come off, it is a proof that it is boiled enou...