silver in three ounces of nitric acid; put the bottle into a sand bath,
and let it remain over a slow fire till the liquid be half reduced;
then add three ounces of good white-wine vinegar, a little warmed;
shake the mixture, and place the bottle in any place where it is not
likely to be disturbed: in about a month’s time a beautiful metallic
fir will appear, ramifying to the very surface of the liquid.
_To make a Gold or Silver Tree, to serve as a Chimney Ornament._
Make an amalgam of a small portion of fine gold, and ten times the
quantity of purified cinnabar.
Grind and wash the amalgam in water, till no black colour appears: when
perfectly clean, dry the amalgam, and insert it into a glass retort;
place it in a sand bath over a slow fire, which must be preserved
ignited for a day or two; gradually increase the heat, to expel the
mercury from the gold, whose metallic vegetation will be perfectly in
proportion to the mercury which escapes. When the fire is extinguished
you will find the mercury expelled into the receiver, and the gold
remaining in the retort will be soft and malleable, possessing the
purest appearance; the mass will have sprouted branches, in perfect
imitation of small shrubs and trees of different forms and height,
which may be separated from the heap, serving as their base, when taken
from the retort. These will allow even of being made red hot without
injury to their appearance, or fear of decomposition, and may be used
as ornaments for any length of time.
For the silver, use the same proportion of metal as for the gold tree.
_Sympathetic or Secret Inks._
Sympathetic or secret inks are those fluids which, when written with on
paper, are invisible when dry, but acquire colour by heating the paper,
or by applying to the invisible writing another chymical agent. These
phenomena arrested particularly the attention of the old chymists, and
accordingly, in their fanciful way, they called them _sympathetic inks_.
The writing made with this ink may, therefore, at pleasure be made to
become visible or invisible successively, by alternately warming and
cooling, if care be taken not to expose the paper to a greater degree
of heat than is necessary to make the invisible writing legible.
_Preparation of Green Sympathetic Ink._
Put into a mattrass one part of cobalt or zaffree, and four ounces of
nitro-muriatic acid. Digest the mixture with a gentle heat until the
acid dissolves no more; then add muriatic of soda, equal in quantity to
the cobalt employed, and four times as much water as acid, and filter
the liquor through paper.
_Blue Sympathetic Ink._
This ink, which may be used like the preceding, is prepared in the
following manner. Take one ounce of cobalt reduced to powder, put it
into a Florence flask, and pour over it two ounces of pure nitric
acid. Expose the mixture to a gentle heat, and, when the cobalt is
dissolved, add, by small quantities, a solution of potash, until no
more precipitate ensues. Let these precipitates subside: decant the
super-natant fluid, and wash the residuum repeatedly in distilled
water, until it passes tasteless; then dissolve it in a sufficient
quantity of distilled vinegar, by the assistance of a gentle heat,
taking care to have a saturated solution, which will be known by part
of the precipitate remaining undissolved after the vinegar has been
digested on it for some time.
_Yellow Sympathetic Ink._
Neutralize muriatic acid with brown oxide of copper: the solution is
of a dark olive-green colour, and by evaporation yields crystals of a
grass-green colour of muriate of copper, which, when dissolved in ten
parts of water, forms this ink, and may be employed as before stated.
_Purple Sympathetic Ink._
Dissolve cobalt or zaffre in nitric acid, add salt of tartar gradually
and in small quantities to avoid too powerful an effervescence, let
the precipitate subside, and, having drawn off the super-natant clear
liquid, add a sufficient quantity of water, when the ink will be fit
for use.
_Rose-coloured Sympathetic Ink._
Dissolve zaffre in nitric acid, to which add saltpetre well purified,
and you will possess a rose-coloured ink, having the same properties as
the preceding.
_Application of the Secret Inks._
Write any unimportant matter with common ink, and let the lines
be tolerably wide apart; then between these lines write the
communication you wish to make with any of the above invisible inks.
Your correspondent, by holding the paper before the fire, will be
speedily enabled to peruse the letter; the characters will again become
invisible when the paper has cooled. The writing in common ink will
serve to lull the suspicions of those who might intercept the letter.
With this kind of ink, some very ingenious and amusing tricks may be
performed.
_A Drawing which alternately represents Winter and Summer Scenes._
Draw a landscape, and delineate the ground, the trunks, and branches
of the trees, with the usual water-colours employed for that purpose,
tracing the grass and trees with sympathetic ink. By these means
you will have a drawing, which, at the common temperature of the
atmosphere, will represent a winter piece; but if it be exposed to a
proper degree of heat, not too strong, you will see the ground covered
with verdure, and the trees suddenly wrapped with a beautiful foliage;
replace the picture in the cool, and the dreary aspect of winter
re-appears. The colours must be lighter for the back grounds.
Screens painted in this manner were formerly made at Paris. Those to
whom they were presented, if unacquainted with the artifice, were
astonished to find, when they made use of them, that the views they
exhibited were totally changed. Persons not understanding drawing may
amuse themselves in this manner, by colouring an outlined engraving
representing winter, following exactly the process enjoined for the
above.
_Demonstration of the various Strata of Earth which cover the Globe._
In a middling-sized glass bottle, three parts full of clear water,
infuse pure alumine precipitated by ammonia, till the bottle is nearly
filled.--Expose the bottle to the cold air in frosty weather; or, at
other times, to artificial frost. At the moment when the frigorific
effect ensues, the alumine will divide all over the surface of the
water, and form itself into separate and very regular strata.
_To freeze Water in the Midst of Summer, without the Application of
Ice._
Take eleven drachms of muriate of ammonia, ten of nitrate of potash,
and sixteen of sulphate of soda; reduce each of these salts separately
to a fine powder, and mix them gradually in a glass, or rather in a
thin metal vessel, with five ounces of water (the capacity of the
vessel should be only just large enough to hold the materials): the
result will be, that, as the salts dissolve, cold will be produced, and
a thermometer immersed in the mixture will sink at or below freezing.
A little water, about half an ounce, in a test tube, when immersed in
the mixture during its solution, becomes frozen in about ten minutes.
The salts employed in this experiment may be recovered from the
solution, if the sulphate of soda be omitted, by evaporating the water,
to serve again any number of times. Five parts of muriate of ammonia,
five of nitre, and eight of sulphate of soda, mixed with sixteen of
water, at the usual temperature, sink the thermometer from 50 to about
10 degrees.
The salts, to produce their fullest frigorific effect, should be
recently crystallized in fine powder, and contain as much water of
crystallization as possible, but they should not be damp.
If to three parts of ice thus procured, you add four parts of potash,
the thermometer will sink from 32° to 61° below Zero, or the freezing
point; giving 93 degrees of cold. Snow or common ice, mixed with potash
in the same proportions, would serve equally well; but the above
experiments are given under the supposition that they are difficult to
be procured.
MISCELLANEOUS TRICKS AND EXPERIMENTS.
_To swallow a long Pudding made of Tin._
This pudding must be made of tin, consisting of twelve or thirteen
little hoops, round, and in little ringlets, so that they may seem to
fall one through another. It must have little holes made at the biggest
end, that it may not hurt your mouth: hold this pudding, for so it is
called, privately in your left hand, with the hole end uppermost, and
with your right hand take a ball out of your pocket, and say, “_If
there is any old woman that is out of conceit with herself, because
her neighbours deem her not so young as she would be thought, let her
come to me, for this ball is a present remedy_;” then seem to put the
ball into your left hand, but let it slip into your lap, and clap the
pudding into your mouth, which will be thought to be the ball that
you showed them; then decline your head, and open your mouth, and the
pudding will slip down at its full length, which, with your right hand,
you may strike into your mouth again; doing this three or four times:
then you may discharge it into your hand, and clap it into your pocket
without any suspicion, by making three or four wry faces after it, as
though it had stuck in your throat; and if you practise smiting easily
on your throat, with your fist on each side, the pudding will seem to
chink as if it was laying there; then say, “_Thus they eat puddings in
High Germany; they fling them down their throats before their teeth can
take possession of them._”
_An Artificial Spider._
Take a bit of burnt cork, as big as a pea, and give it the shape of a
spider; make its legs with threads of hemp; put a grain of lead into
the cork to give it some weight; then hang this artificial spider by a
bit of gray sewing silk (that is not twisted), between two bodies, the
one electrified, and the other not; or between two bodies endowed with
different electricities: it will go and come between these two bodies,
and the movement of the legs will be seen as plainly as if it were a
living spider.
_To pass a Ring through your Cheek._
You must have two rings made of silver or brass, or what you please,
of one size, colour, and likeness, saving that one must have a notch
through it, and the other must be whole, without a notch; show the
whole ring, but conceal that which hath the notch, and say, “_Now I’ll
put this ring through my cheek_,” and privately slip the notch over one
side of your mouth; then take a small stick, which you must have in
readiness, and slip the whole ring upon it, holding your hand over it
about the middle of the stick; then bid somebody hold fast the stick
at both ends, and say, “_See this ring in my cheek,--it turns round_;”
then, while you perceive them fasten their eyes upon that ring, on a
sudden, whip it out, and smite upon the stick therewith; instantly
concealing and whirling the other ring you hold your hand over, round
about the stick. It will be thought that you have brought that ring
upon the stick which was upon your cheek.
_To cut a Hole in a Cloak, Scarf, or Handkerchief, and by Words to make
it whole again._
To do this, you must have a piece of the same ready in your hand, the
sample of that you intend to cut; then, amongst other tricks, clap your
hand upon the place you intend to cut. Now drawing the false piece
through, cause it to be cut off, and, griping your hand, show the hole
from whence the piece came away which is in your hand. This is done by
pretending to feel in your pocket for a needle and thread to sew it
up again. But, drawing your hand out of your pocket, say “_I have no
needle, but I have a charm that will do as well_;” so, muttering some
words, bid them blow upon it, and, pulling your hand from the place,
show it entire.
_The Dancing Egg._
Three eggs are brought out; two of them are put on a table, and the
third in a hat; a little cane is borrowed from one of the company, and
it is shown about, to convince the spectators there is no preparation.
It is then placed across the hat; the hat falls to the ground, and
the egg sticks to it as if glued; the orchestra then plays a piece of
music, and the egg, as if it was sensible of the harmony, twists about
the cane from one end to the other, and continues its motions till the
music stops.
_Explanation._--The egg is fastened to a thread by a pin, which is put
in lengthways; and the hole, which has been made to introduce this pin,
is stopped with white wax. The other end of the thread is fastened to
the breast of the person who performs this trick, with a pin bent like
a hook; the cane, passing under the thread, near to the egg, serves
for it to rest on. When the music begins, the performer pushes the
cane from left to right, or from right to left; it then appears as if
the egg ran along the cane, which it does not, being fastened to its
thread; its centre of gravity remains always at the same distance from
the hook that holds it; it is the cane which, sliding along, presents
its different points to the surface of the egg.
N. B. To produce the illusion, and persuade the company that it is
the egg which carries itself to the different points of the cane, the
performer turns a little on his heel; by this means the egg receives a
motion, which surprises the spectators, it remaining always at the same
distance from the point to which it was fastened.
_To make Three Figures dance in a Glass._
Take little hollow figures of glass about an inch and a half high,
representing little children, or grown-up persons. These may be had
of the glass-blowers; and, as they contain a body of air, are lighter
than water. Immerse them in water contained in a glass of the following
shape:--
[Illustration]
This glass is about a foot or fifteen inches high, and covered with a
bladder, which is tied fast over the top; a small quantity of air is
to be left between the bladder and surface of the water; so, when you
command them to walk down, press your hand hard upon the top, and they
will immediately go down. Thus you may make them dance in the middle of
the glass, at your pleasure; and, when you would have them go up to the
top, take your hand away, when they will go up.
_To shoot a Swallow, and to bring him to Life again._
Load your gun with the usual charge of powder, but, instead of shot,
put in half a charge of quicksilver: prime and shoot. If your piece
bears ever so far from the bird, the swallow will find itself stunned
to such a degree, as to fall to the ground in a fit. As it will regain
its senses in a few minutes, you may make use of the time, by saying
that you are going to bring it to life again. This will greatly
astonish the company. The ladies will, no doubt, interest themselves in
favour of the bird, and intercede for its liberty;--sympathizing with
their feelings for the little prisoner may be the means of some of them
sympathizing with yours.
_Singular Trick with a Fowl._
Take a cock from roost at night, or off its walk by day, and bring
him into a room full of company; keep both your hands close to his
wings; hold them tight: put him on a table, and point his beak down as
straight as possible; and then let any one draw a line with a piece of
chalk, directly from his beak, and all the noise you can possibly make,
with drums, trumpets, or even crowing of other cocks, will not disturb
him from the seeming lethargy, which that position you have laid him
in, with the chalked line, has effected. Strange as this seems, yet the
certainty of it is past a doubt, as many gentlemen who have, ere this,
sported some hundreds on the turf, are ready to assert its truth.
_To put a Lock upon a Man’s Mouth._
You must have a lock made for this purpose, according to the figure;
one side of its bow must be immoveable, as that marked A; the other
side is noted B, and must be pinned to the body of the lock, as appears
at E.
[Illustration]
It must be so pinned that it may play to and fro with ease; this side
of the bow must have a leg as at B, and then turn it into the lock;
this leg must have two notches filed on the inner side, which must be
so managed that one may lock or hold the two sides of the bow as close
together as possible, and the other notch to hold the said part of the
bow a proportionable distance asunder: so that, being locked upon the
cheek, it may neither pinch too hard, nor yet hold it so slight that
it may be drawn off. Let there be a key fixed to it to unlock it, as
you see at D; and, lastly, let the bow have divers notches filed in
it, so that the place of the partition, when the lock is shut home,
will the least of all be suspected in the use of the lock. You must
now get one to hold a sixpence, edgeways, between his teeth; then take
another sixpence, and with your left hand proffer to set it edgeways
between a second man’s teeth, pretending that your intent is to turn
both into which of their mouths they shall desire, by virtue of your
words; which he shall no sooner consent to do, but you, by holding the
lock privately in your right hand, with your fore-finger a little down,
after certain words, and the lock having hung on a while, may seem to
pull the key out of his nose.
_To thrust a Bodkin into the Forehead, without Hurt._
Take a hollow bodkin, so that the blade may slip therein as soon as
the point is held upwards. Seem to thrust it into your forehead, and,
with a little sponge in your hand, bring out blood or wine, making the
spectators think that the blood or wine (whereof you may say you have
drank very much) runs out of your forehead; then, after showing some
appearance of pain, pull away your hand suddenly, holding the point
downwards, and it will fall out, and seem never to have been thrust
into the haft; but, immediately afterwards, throw that bodkin into
your lap or pocket, and pull out another plain one like it, which will
completely deceive the spectators.
_To thrust a Bodkin through your Tongue._
This trick is to be performed in much the same manner as the former,
and, as in the first case, without hurt; if the reader will take
the pains to practise this trick, he will be in no more danger of
performing one than the other.
To render the deception as complete as possible, proceed as
follows:--Make a bodkin, or nail, the blade thereof being cut in the
middle, so that one part may not be close to the other, by almost three
quarters of an inch, each part being kept asunder by a small crooked
piece of iron, of the fashion described in the next trick; then thrust
your tongue between the aforesaid place, to wit, into the space left in
the bodkin-blade, thrusting the said part behind your teeth, and biting
it. It will seem to stick so fast in, and through your tongue, that one
can hardly pull it out. You must have another bodkin or nail, just like
the false one, to show the company.
_To appear to cut your Arm off, without Hurt or Danger._
You must provide yourself with two knives, a true one and a false one,
and let them be so like each other, that no person can tell one from
the other. When you go to show this feat to the company, put the true
knife into your pocket; then take out the false one, and clap it on
your wrist undiscovered. If, with a sponge, you make the knife bloody,
it will seem so much the more strange. This is the form of the knife:--
[Illustration]
_Tricks with a Cat._
Fix a little bell to the end of a cat’s tail, and let her go; she,
feeling the tightness of the string, and hearing the bell jingle,
will run up and down as if she were mad, flying against the doors and
windows; then, if she can, she will get into some hole to hide herself;
but, when she wags her tail ever so little, out she comes, and will be
as mad as before, and will never rest till it be off. Walnut shells,
fastened with a little warm wax or pitch to the cat’s feet, will make
sport all over the house; and at night, on the stairs, will make the
superstitious think that it is a ghost going up and down.
_To make a Calf’s Head bellow, when served up to Table._
This is effected by the following simple stratagem:--Take a frog that
is alive, and put it at the further end of the calf’s head, under the
tongue, which you must let fall all over it, taking care not to put
the frog there till the calf’s head is going to be served up. The heat
of the tongue will make the frog croak; which sound, coming from the
hollow part of the head, will be like the bellowing of a calf, as if it
were alive.
_To make a Ball rise above the Water._
Place on the spout of the fountain an inverted cone of wire net-work;
throw into it a light hollow copper ball, two inches and a half in
diameter, which let fall to the narrow part of the cone to reach the
spout: it will rise, and remain suspended in the air till brought down
by the wind, and repeatedly re-ascend.
_Mode of sealing Letters, whereby an impression cannot be taken._
Take a piece of any aromatic resin, or of amber, and set fire to it on
an earthen plate. It will emit a smoke of an agreeable smell: hold your
watch-seal over the fumigation; it will become black: then melt some
sealing-wax, in the usual way, spread it on paper, and apply to it the
seal, prepared as above; and, when you take it off, the engraving will
be seen very plainly.
In order to prevent the impression from being taken, flatten the
sealing-wax with the blade of a knife: this is easily done, by means
of making a thick iron plate red hot, and bringing it close to the
impression without touching it; the wax then gets soft, but, before it
melts, you must flatten it with a knife, or any other cold instrument.
Although thus flattened, the exact impression will remain conspicuous.
_The Enchanted Egg._
Have ready a penny-worth of quicksilver in a quill, sealed at both ends
with good hard wax; then cause an egg to be boiled, and take off a
small bit of the shell of the narrow end, and thrust in your quill of
quicksilver, and lay the egg on the ground; you will have sport enough;
for it will keep tumbling about as long as there is any heat in it.
_To cut a Man’s Head off, and to put it into a Platter, a Yard from the
Body._
This is a noble trick, if it be performed by a skilful hand. To show
it to advantage, you must cause a board, a cloth, and a platter to be
purposely made, and in each of them to be made holes, for a man’s neck.
[Illustration]
The board must be made of two planks, the longer and broader the
better; there must be left, within half a yard of the end of each
plank, half a hole, so as, both the planks being thrust together, there
may remain two holes, like to the holes in a pair of stocks. There
must be made likewise a hole in the cloth; a platter, also, must be
set directly over or upon one of them, having a hole in the middle
thereof, of the like size, and also a piece cut off the same as big as
the neck, through which the head may be conveyed into the middle of the
platter; and then, sitting or kneeling under the board, let the head
only remain upon the board, in the frame. Then, to make the sight more
dreadful, put a saucer, containing saffron, common salt, and spirits of
wine, burning, before the head of the boy, who must gasp two or three
times. The head will presently appear quite dead, if the boy set his
countenance accordingly; and, if a little blood be sprinkled on his
face, the sight will be the stranger and more horrible still.
This is practised with a boy instructed for the purpose, who, being
familiar with the company, may be known as well by his face as by
his apparel. At the other end of the table, where the like hole is
made, another boy, of the same size, must be placed, having on his
usual apparel; he must lean or lie upon the board, and put his head
underneath it, through the said hole; so that the body shall seem to
lie on one end of the board, and his head shall lie in a platter on
the other end. There are other rules to be observed; as, to put about
his neck a little dough, kneaded with bullock’s blood, which, being
cold, will look like dead flesh, and, being pricked with a sharp quill,
filled with blood, will seem to bleed.--You must be particular to have
the table-cloth so long and so wide as that it may almost reach the
ground. Also, let this be your last trick, taking care not to suffer
the company to stay too long in the place after it is performed.
_To cause Beer to be wrung out of the Handle of a Knife._