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tincture; if the bottle be stopped, the colour will immediately disappear, but when it is unstopped the colour soon returns. This experiment may be repeated frequently.
to make an 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 burst with a loud explosion, without injury either to the party that holds it, or to him who breaks it; but if the thick end be struck, even with a hammer, it will not break.
how to lift up a flint glass bottle with a straw.
Take a straw which is not broken or bruised, and having bent one end of it into a sharp angle, put this curved end into the bottle, so that the bent part may rest against its side; you may then take the other end and lift up the bottle by it, without breaking the straw, and this will be the more readily accomplished as the angular part of the straw approaches nearer to that which comes out of the bottle.
to make a cone or pyramid move upon a table without springs or any other artifical means.
Roll up a piece of paper or any other light substance, and put a lady beetle, or some such small insect privately under it; then, as the animal will naturally endeavour to free itself from its captivity, it will move the cone towards the edge of the table, and as soon as it comes there will immediately return for fear of falling; and by thus moving to and fro, will occasion much sport to those who are unacquainted with the cause.
to make a peg that will exactly fit three different kinds of holes.
Let one of the holes be circular, another square, and the third oval, then it is evident that any cylindrical body of a proper size may be made to pass through the first hole perpendicularly, and if its length bo just equal to its diameter, it may be passed horizontally through the second or square hole; also, if the breadth of the oval be made equal to the diameter of the base of the cylinder, and its longest diameter of any length whatever, the cylinder being put in obliquely, will fill it as exactly 113 any of the former.
the mysterious bottle.
Pierce a few holes, with a glazier’s diamond, in a common
