Part 30

You tell a person you will place him in the centre of a room, and draw a circle of chalk round him, which shall not exceed three feet in diameter, yet out of which he shall not be able to leap, though his legs shall be perfectly free. When the party has exhausted his ingenuity in trying to discover by what means you can prevent his accomplishing so seemingly easy a task, you ask him if he will try, and on his assenting, you bring him into the middle of the room, and having requested him to button his coat tightly, you draw with a piece of chalk, a circle round his waist, outside his coat, and tell him to jump out of it!

It will greatly improve this trick if the person be blindfolded, as he will not be aware of the mode of performing it till the bandage is removed, provided his attention be diverted while you are drawing the line round him.

ILLUSIONS OF TOUCH.

APPLY the points of a pair of compasses, distant from each other one or two lines, to the cheek, just before the ear; then move them successively to several other parts of the cheek, and you will find, on approaching the mouth, that the points will appear to recede from each other; this effect being produced by the great difference of the sense of touch in these parts, It is a general law, that in the more sensitive portions of the skin, any two points appear to be further asunder from each other, than points of equal distance appear to be to a less sensitive portion. The same experiments may be made by holding together the extremities of the fore-finger and thumb, and then passing the tips of both in a line from the ear to either the upper or the under lip; as they approach the latter, they will feel to the cheek as if they were becoming more and more distant from each other.

If the skin be touched with the points of a pair of compasses, one inch asunder, the person so touched, while he shuts his eyes, will instantly be aware that his skin is touched in two places; but by continually drawing the two points closer, a degree of nearness may be reached at which the person will imagine his skin to be touched by only one body: he will, however, describe this body, or the compasses, to be a little longer in one direction than another; and it appears that this difference of length corresponds with the distance between the two points of the compasses. When these points are brought still nearer together, the inequality will no longer be felt, and the person will fancy he is being touched by one body only.

Handle a pea: it is one—place it between the first and second fingers of the right hand, in their natural position, and you will still feel the pea but as one. Then cross the two fingers, bringing the second over the first, and place the pea in the fork between them, so as to feel the left side of the pea with the right side of the second finger, and the right with the left of the first The impression will then be that you have two peas touching the fingers, especially if the eyes be shut, and the fingers be placed by another person. The illusion will be equally strong if the two fore-fingers of both hands be crossed, and the pea placed between them.

ILLUSION OF THE TASTE.

If the nose be held tightly while you are eating cinnamon you will perceive scarcely any difference between its flavour and that of a deal shaving.

THE GENERAL BLEACHER.

Provide some strong chloride of lime, soak in it strips of printed cotton; take them out, dry them, and you will find them very white, but very rotten, slitting and dropping into holes upon the slightest touch.

The dazzling whiteness of paper is caused by bleaching it with chloride of lime. Thus, if you write on printing paper with common ink, it will fade, because the chloride will destroy the colouring matter of writing ink. It will not, however, change printing ink, as that owes its blackness to charcoal, which is a singularly permanent substance. Blot over a printed page with common writing ink, wash it with chloride of lime, when the blots will disappear, and leave the printing unchanged.

INFLUENCE OF COLOURED GLASS ON BULBOUS ROOTS.

Put a bulb, as a hyacinth, narcissus, &c., into a white glass, and another into a purple glass: the latter will grow faster than the former; and, if a pinch of salt, or a piece of nitre, be put into the water whenever it is changed, the brightness of the colour of the flower will be considerably heightened.

THE SPINNING-TOP “ASLEEP.”

Spin a top, and it will for some time stand “asleep,” as it is called in the parlance of the play-ground. The cause is thus explained by Dr. Arnot, in his valuable Elements of Physics: “While the top is perfectly upright, its point being directly under its centre, supports it steadily, and although turning so rapidly, has no tendency to move from the place; but, if the top incline at all, the side of the peg, instead of the very point, comes in contact with the floor, and the peg then becomes a little wheel or roller, advancing quickly, and, with its touching edge, describing a curve somewhat as a skater does, until it becomes directly under the body of the top, as before. It thus appears that the very fact of the top inclining causes the point to shift its place, so that it cannot rest until it come again directly under the centre of the top.”

TO JUDGE OF WEIGHTS.

Persons accustomed to estimate weights by poising them in their hands, will distinguish perfectly between two, only differing by a thirtieth part. In comparing two weights, poise one and then instantly the other, in the same hand; the few seconds of time that pass between the poising of the two weights will not prevent their accurate comparison. The interval may amount to twenty seconds, yet a just estimate may still be made; but when it amounts to forty seconds, all accuracy will be lost.

QUICKSILVER AND OIL UNITED.

Let fall a very small drop of oil upon a large drop of mercury, and the latter will become enlarged. This phenomenon is attributed to a combination of the oil with the mercury, which produces a compound, the attraction of which is less strong than that of pure mercury.

TO DISSOLVE THE SODA IN GLASS.

Glass consists of sand, carbonate of soda, and red lead, heated together. If water be poured into a glass vessel, neither of the ingredients will be affected by it; but, if the glass be reduced to a fine powder, and water be poured on it, the soda will instantly be dissolved.

Or, moisten, with water a piece of tumeric, or test-paper, drop on it a little powdered glass, and the soda in it will change the yellow paper to brown.

WATERPROOF PAPER.

Make a solution of caoutchouc in caoutchoucine, plunge into it, once or twice, unsized paper, and dry it by a gentle heat. It may then be used as writing paper, and will resist all humidity; and small vessels made of it will even contain water.

TO DISSOLVE GOLD OR PLATINUM.

Mix a little nitric acid with half the quantity of muriatic acid, into which put the metal for solution.

Or, pour a little aqueous solution of chlorine into a small glass, and put in a bit of pure gold leaf; stir it with a glass rod, and the gold will dissolve. Thus gold, which cannot be dissolved in nitric, sulphuric, or other strong acids, will quickly disappear in water, with a little chlorine in solution.

COLDER THAN ICE.