Part 16

If a glass vessel, containing water, in which a couple of fish are put be placed under the receiver, upon exhausting the air, the fish will be unable to keep at the bottom of the glass, owing to the expansion of the air within their bodies, contained in the air bladder. They will consequently rise and float, belly upwards, upon the surface of the water.

THE MYSTERIOUS CIRCLES.

Cut from a card two discs or circular pieces, about two inches in diameter. In the center of one of them make a hole, into which put the tube of a common quill, one end being even with the surface of the card. Make the other piece a little convex, and lay its center over the end of the quill, with the concave side of the card downwards, the center of the upper card being from one eighth to one fourth of an inch above the end of the quill--attempt to blow off the upper card by blowing through the quill, and _it will be found impossible_.

If, however, the edges of the two cards be made to fit each other very accurately, the upper card will move, and sometimes it will be thrown off; but when the edges of the cards are, on two sides, sufficiently far apart to permit the air to escape, the loose card will retain its position, even when the current of air sent against it be strong. The experiment will succeed equally well, whether the current of air be made from the mouth or from a pair of bellows. When the quill fits the card rather loosely, a comparatively light puff will throw both cards three or four feet in height. When, from the humidity of the breath, the upper surface of the perforated card has a little expanded, and the two opposite sides are somewhat depressed, those depressed sides may be seen distinctly to rise and approach the upper card, directly in proportion to the force of the current of air.

Another fact to be shown with this simple apparatus appears equally inexplicable with the former. Lay the loose card upon the hand with the concave side up; blow forcibly through the tube, and, at the same time, bring the two cards towards each other; when within three eighths of an inch, if the current of air be strong, the loose card will suddenly rise, and adhere to the perforated card. If the card through which the quill passes has several holes made in it, the loose card may be instantly thrown off with the least puff of air.

For the explanation of the above phenomenon, a gold medal and one hundred guineas were offered, some years since, by the Royal Society. Such explanation has been given by Dr. Robert Hare, late of the University of Pennsylvania, and is as follows:

Supposing the diameters of the discs of card to be to that of the hole as 8 to 1, the area of the former to the latter must be as 64 to 1. Hence, if the discs were to be separated (their surfaces remaining parallel) with a velocity as great as that of the air blast, a column of air must, meantime, be interposed, 64 times greater than that which would escape from the tube during the interim; consequently, if all the air necessary to preserve the balance be supplied from the tube, the discs must be separated with a velocity as much less than that of the blast, as the column required between them is greater than that yielded by the tube; and yet the air cannot be supplied from any other source, unless a deficit of pressure be created between the discs, unfavorable to their separation.

It follows, then, that, under the circumstances in question, the discs cannot be made to move asunder with a velocity greater than one sixty-fourth of that of the blast. Of course all the force of the current of air through the tube will be expended on the moveable disc, and the thin ring of air, which exists round the orifice between the discs; and since the moveable discs can only move with one sixty-fourth the velocity of the blast, the ring of air in the interstice must experience nearly all the force of the jet, and must be driven outwards, the blast following it, in various currents radiating from the common center of the tube and discs.

THE DIVING BELL.

The diving-bell is a pneumatic engine, by means of which persons can descend to great depths in the sea, and recover from it valuable portions of wrecks and other matters. Its principle may be well illustrated by the following experiment. Take a glass tumbler, and plunge it into the water with the mouth downwards, and it will be found that the water will not rise much more than half way in the tumbler. This may be made very evident if a piece of cork be suffered to float inside of the glass on the surface of the water. The air within the tumbler does not entirely exclude the water, because air is elastic, and consequently compressible, and hence the air in the tumbler is what is called condensed. The diving-bell is formed upon the above principle, but instead of being of glass, it is a wooden or metal vessel, of very large dimensions, so as to hold three or four persons, who are supplied with air from above by means of a tube, having a corresponding tube to let off the breathed air, the circulation of which is kept up by pumps, which pump the air in and draw it out of the bell.

THE AIR BALLOON.

The art of sailing or navigating a body through the air is called aëronautics. In remote ages, Icarus is said to have risen so high in the air that the sun melted his wings, and he fell into the Ægean sea, and was drowned; and there is reason to believe, from some figures that have recently been discovered on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, that the ancients possessed means of rising in the air with which we are not now acquainted.

The air-balloon, as now constructed, is a bag of silk of large dimensions, usually cut in gores, and is, when expanded by gas, of a pear shape. It ascends in the atmosphere because its whole bulk is much lighter than the air would be in the space it occupies. It is, in fact, a vessel filled with a fluid which will float on another fluid lighter than itself.

HOW TO MAKE AN AIR-BALLOON.

The best shape for an air-balloon, or rather a gas-balloon, is that of a peg-top. And in preparing the gores proceed as follows: Get some close texture silk, and cut it into a form resembling a narrow pear with a very thin stalk. Fourteen of these pieces will be found to be the best number; and, of course, the breadths of each piece must be measured accordingly. When sewing them together, it will be of advantage to coat the parts that overlap with a layer of varnish, as this will save much trouble afterwards, and hold the silk firmer in its place during the stitching. The threads must be placed very regularly, or the balloon will be drawn out of shape, and it will be found useful if the gores are covered with an interior coating of varnish before they are finally sewn together. Take care not to have the varnish too thick. To the upper part of the balloon there should be a valve opening inwards, to which a string should be fastened, passing through a hole made in a small piece of wood fixed in the lower part of the balloon, so that the aëronaut may open the valve when he wishes to descend; and this should be imitated on a small scale, so that the young aëronaut may be perfectly familiar with the construction of a balloon. The gores are to be covered with a varnish of India rubber dissolved in a mixture of turpentine and naphtha. Over the whole of the upper part should be a net-work, which should come down to the middle, with various cords, proceeding from it to the circumference of a circle about two feet below the balloon. The circle may be made of wood, or of several pieces of slender cane bound together. The meshes should be small at the top, against which part of the balloon the inflammable air exerts the greatest force, and increase in size as they recede from the top.

The car is made of wicker work; it is usually covered with leather, and is well varnished or painted. It is suspended by ropes proceeding from the net which goes over the balloon. Balloons of this kind cannot be made smaller than six feet in diameter, of oiled silk, as the weight of the material is too great for the air to buoy it up. They may be made smaller of thin slips of bladder, or other membrane glued together, or of thin gutta-percha cloth, which is now extensively used for this purpose; with this they may be made a foot in diameter, and will rise beautifully.

HOW TO FILL A BALLOON.

Procure a large stone bottle which will hold a gallon of water, into this put a pound of iron filings, or granulated zinc, with two quarts of water, and add to this by degrees one pint of sulphuric acid. Then take a tube, either of glass or metal, and introduce one end of it through a cork, which place in the bottle, then put the other end into the neck of the balloon, and the gas will rise into the body of it. When quite full withdraw the tube, and tie the neck of the balloon with strong cord very tightly. If freed it will now rise in the air.

TO MAKE FIRE-BALLOONS.

Cut the gores, according to the form already given, from well woven tissue paper, paste the gores nicely together, and look well over the surface of the paper for any small hole or slit, over which paste a piece of paper, and let it dry. Pass a wire round the neck of the balloon, and have two cross pieces at its diameter a little bent, so that a piece of soft cotton dipped in spirits of wine may be laid on them. When all is prepared let some one hold the balloon from its top by means of a stick, while you dip the cotton in spirits of wine till it is thoroughly saturated, place it under the balloon and set fire to it, but be very careful you do not set fire to the balloon. When the air is sufficiently heated within, the balloon will indicate a desire to rise, and when it pulls very hard, let it go, and it will ascend to a great height in the air, and at night present a very beautiful appearance.

PARACHUTES.

These are easily made by cutting a piece of paper in a circular form, and placing threads round the edges, which may be made to converge to a point, at which a cork may be placed as a balance. They ascend by the air getting under them, and are frequently blown to a great distance.

THE MYSTERIOUS BOTTLE.

Pierce a few holes with a glazier's diamond in a common black bottle; place it in a vase or jug of water, so that the neck only is above the surface. Then, with a funnel, fill the bottle and cork it well, and while it is in the jug or vase. Take it out, notwithstanding the holes in the bottom, it will not leak; wipe it dry, and give it to some person to uncork. The moment the cork is drawn, to the party's astonishment, the water will begin to run out of the bottom of the bottle.

CAOUTCHOUC BALLOONS.

Put a little ether into a bottle of caoutchouc, close it tightly, soak it in hot water, and it will become inflated to a considerable size. These globes may be made so thin as to be transparent.

A piece of caoutchouc, the size of a walnut, has thus been extended to a ball fifteen inches in diameter; and a few years since a caoutchouc balloon, thus made, escaped from Philadelphia, and was found one hundred and thirty miles from that city.

THE MAGIC OF

OPTICS AND OPTICAL AMUSEMENTS.

Optics is the science of _light_ and _vision_. Concerning the nature of light, two theories are at present very ably maintained by their respective advocates. One is termed the Newtonian theory, and the other the Huygenean. The Newtonian theory considers light to consist of inconceivably small bodies emanating from the sun, or any other luminous body. The Huygenean conceives it to consist in the undulations of a highly elastic and subtle fluid, propagated round luminous centers in spherical waves, like those arising in a placid lake when a stone is dropped into the water.

LIGHT AS AN EFFECT.

Light follows the same laws as gravity, and its intensity or degree decreases as the square of the distance from the luminous body increases. Thus, at the distance of two yards from a candle we shall have four times less light than we should have, were we only one yard from it, and so on in the same proportion.

REFRACTION.

Bodies which suffer the rays of light to pass through them, such as water or glass, are called refracting media. When rays of light enter these, they do not proceed in straight lines, but are said to be refracted, or bent out of their course, as seen in the drawing. The ray of light proceeding from B through the glass L G is bent from the point C, instead of passing in the direction of the dotted line. But if the ray F C falls perpendicularly on the glass, there is no refraction, and it proceeds in a direct line to K; hence refraction only takes place when rays fall obliquely or aslant on the media.

THE INVISIBLE COIN MADE VISIBLE.

If a coin be placed in a basin, so that on standing at a certain distance it be just hid from the eye of an observer by the rim or edge of the basin, and then water be poured in by a second person, the first keeping his position; as the water rises the coin will become visible, and will appear to have moved from the side to the middle of the basin.

THE MULTIPLYING GLASS.

The multiplying glass is a semi-circular piece of glass cut into facets or distinct surfaces; and in looking through it we have an illustration of the laws of refraction, for if a small object, such as a fly, be placed at D, an eye at E will see as many flies as there are surfaces or facets on the glass.

TRANSPARENT BODIES.

Transparent bodies, such as glass, may be made of such form as to cause all the rays which pass through them from any given point to meet in any other given point beyond them, or which will disperse them from the given point. These are called lenses, and have different names according to their form. 1 is called the plano-convex lens; 2, plano-concave; 3, double convex; 4, double concave; 5, a meniscus, so called from its resembling the crescent moon.

THE PRISM.

The prism is a triangular solid of glass, and by it the young optician may decompose a ray of light into its primitive and supplementary colors, for a ray of light is of a compound nature. By the prism the ray A is divided into its three primitive colors, blue, red, and yellow; and their four supplementary ones, violet, indigo, green, and orange. The best way to perform this experiment is to cut a small slit in a window-shutter, on which the sun shines at some period of the day, and directly opposite the hole place a prism P; a beam of light in passing through it will then be decomposed, and if let fall upon a sheet of white paper, or against a white wall, the seven colors of the rainbow will be observed.

TO MAKE A PRISM.

Provide two small pieces of window-glass and a lump of wax; soften and mould the wax, stick the two pieces of glass upon it, so that they meet, as in the cut, where _w_ is the wax, _g_ and _g_ the glasses stuck to it (Fig. 1). The end view (Fig. 2) will show the angle, _a_, at which the pieces of glass meet; into which angle put a drop of water.

To use the instrument thus made, make a small hole, or a narrow horizontal slit, so that you can see the sky through it, when you stand at some distance from it in the room; or a piece of pasteboard placed in the upper part of the window-sash, with a slit cut in it, will serve the purpose of the hole in the shutter. The slit should be about one tenth of an inch wide, and an inch or two long, with even edges. Then hold the prism in your hand, place it close to your eye, and look through the drop of water, when you will see a beautiful train of colors, called a spectrum; at one end red, at the other violet, and in the middle yellowish green.

The annexed Figure 3 will better explain the direction in which we look: here, _e_ is the eye of the spectator, _p_ is the prism, _h_ the hole in the shutter or pasteboard, _s_ the spectrum. By a little practice, you will soon become accustomed to look in the right direction, and will see the colors very bright and distinct.

By means of this simple contrivance white light may be analyzed, and proved to consist of colored rays, and several of its properties be beautifully illustrated.

COMPOSITION OF LIGHT.

The beam of light passing through the prism is decomposed, and the spaces occupied by the colors are in the following proportions: red, 6; orange, 4; yellow, 7; green, 8; blue, 8; indigo, 6; violet, 11. Now, if you paste a sheet of white paper on a circular piece of board about six inches in diameter, and divide it with a pencil into fifty parts, and paint colors in them in the proportions given above, painting them dark in the center parts, and gradually fainter at the edges, till they blend with the one adjoining; and if the board be then fixed to an axle, and made to revolve quickly, the colors will no longer appear separate and distinct, but becoming gradually less visible, they will ultimately appear _white_, giving this appearance to the whole surface of the paper.

A NATURAL CAMERA OBSCURA.

The human eye is a camera obscura, for on the back of it, on the retina, every object in a landscape is beautifully depicted in miniature. This may be proved by the

BULLOCK'S EYE EXPERIMENT.

Procure a fresh bullock's eye from the butcher, and carefully thin the outer coat of it behind; take care not to cut it, for if this should be done the vitreous humor will escape, and the experiment cannot be performed. Having so prepared the eye, if the pupil of it be directed to any bright objects, they will appear distinctly delineated on the back part precisely as objects appear in the instrument we are about to describe. The effect will be heightened if the eye is viewed in a dark room with a small hole in the shutter, but in every case the appearance will be very striking.

THE CAMERA OBSCURA.

This is a very pleasing and instructive optical apparatus, and may be purchased for four or five shillings. But it may be easily made by the young optician. Procure an oblong box, about two feet long, twelve inches wide, and eight high. In one end of this a tube must be fitted containing a lens, and be made to slide backwards and forwards so as to suit the focus. Within the box should be a plane mirror, reclining backwards from the tube at an angle of forty-five degrees. At the top of the box is a square of unpolished glass, upon which from beneath the picture will be thrown, and may be seen by raising the lid A. To use the camera, place the tube with the lens on it opposite to the object, and having adjusted the focus, the image will be thrown upon the ground-glass as above stated, where it may be easily copied by a pencil or in colors.

The form of a camera obscura used in a public exhibition is as follows: D D is a large wooden box stained black in the inside, and capable of containing from one to eight persons. A B is a sliding piece, having a sloping mirror C, and a double convex lens F, which may, with the mirror C, be slid up or down so as to accommodate the lens to near and distant objects. When the rays proceeding from an object without fall upon the mirror, they are reflected upon the lens F, and brought to fall on the bottom of the box, or upon a table placed horizontally to receive them, which may be seen by the spectator whose eye is at E.

THE MAGIC LANTERN.

This is one of the most pleasing of all optical instruments, and it is used to produce enlarged pictures of objects, which being painted on a glass in various colors are thrown upon a screen or white sheet placed against the wall of a large room. It consists of a sort of tin box, within which is a lamp, the light of which (strongly reflected by the reflector T,) passes through a great plano-convex lens E fixed in the front. This strongly illuminates the objects which are painted on the slides or slips of glass, and placed before the lens in an inverted position, and the rays passing through them and the lens F, fall on a sheet, or other white surface, placed to receive the image. The glasses on which the figures are drawn are inverted, in order that the images of them may be erect.

THE CAMERA LUCIDA.

This instrument consists of a glass prism, C, D, D, E, having four sides covered. The sides C, D, being exposed to the object to be delineated, rays pass through the glass and fall on the sloping side D, E; from this they are reflected to the top, and finally pass out of the prism to the eye;[6] now from the direction at which the rays enter the eye, it receives them as if coming from an image at A, B, and if a sheet of paper be placed below the instrument, a perfect delineation of the object may be traced with a pencil. This is a very useful instrument to young draughtsmen.

PAINTING THE SLIDES.

The slides containing the objects usually shown in a magic lantern, are to be bought of opticians with the lantern, and can be procured cheaper and better in this way than by any attempt at manufacturing them. Should, however, the young optician wish to make a few slides of objects of particular interest to himself, he may proceed as follows:

Draw first on paper the figures you wish to paint, lay it on the table, and cover it over with a piece of glass of this shape; now draw the outlines with a fine camel's hair pencil in black paint mixed with varnish, and when this is dry, fill up the other parts with the proper colors, shading with bistre also mixed with varnish. The transparent colors are alone to be used in this kind of painting.

TO EXHIBIT THE MAGIC LANTERN.

The room for the exhibition ought to be large, and of an oblong shape. At one end of it suspend a large sheet so as to cover the whole of the wall. The company being all seated, darken the room, and placing the lantern with its tube in the direction of the sheet, introduce one of the slides into the slit, taking care to invert the figures; then adjust the focus of the glasses in the tube by drawing it in or out as required, and a perfect representation of the object will appear.

EFFECTS OF THE MAGIC LANTERN.

Most extraordinary effects may be produced by means of the magic lantern; one of the most effective of which is a

TEMPEST AT SEA.

This is effected by having two slides painted, one with the tempest as approaching on one side, and continuing in intensity till it reaches the other. Another slide has ships painted on it, and while the lantern is in use, that containing the ships is dexterously drawn before the other, and represents _ships in the storm_.

The effects of sunrise, moonlight, starlight, &c., may be imitated, also by means of double sliders; and figures may be introduced sometimes of fearful proportions.

Heads may be made to nod, faces to laugh; eyes may be made to roll, teeth to gnash; crocodiles may be made to swallow tigers; combats may be represented; but one of the most instructive uses of the slides is to make them illustrative of astronomy, and to show the rotation of the seasons, the cause of eclipses, the mountains in the moon, spots on the sun, and the various motions of the planetary bodies, and their satellites.

THE PHANTASMAGORIA.