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THE SPECTRAL LAMP.

MIX some common salt with spirit of wine in a platinum or metallic cup; set the cup upon a wire frame over a spirit-lamp, which should be inclosed on each side, or in a dark-lantern: when the cup becomes heated, and the spirit ignited, it will burn with a strong yellow flame; if, however, it should not be perfectly yellow, throw more salt into the cup. The lamp being thus prepared, all other lights should be extinguished, and the yellow lamp introduced, when an appalling change will be exhibited; all the objects in the room will be but of one colour, and the complexions of the several persons, whether old or young, fair or brunette, will be metamorphosed to a ghastly, death-like yellow; whilst the gayest dresses, as the brightest crimson, the choicest lilac, the most vivid blue or green—all will be changed into one monotony of yellow: each person will be inclined to laugh at his neighbour, himself insensible of being one of the spectral company.

Their astonishment may be heightened by removing the yellow light to one end of the room, and restoring the usual or white light at the other; when one side of each person’s dress will resume its original colour, while the other will remain yellow; one cheek may bear the bloom of health, and the other, the yellow of jaundice. Or if, when the yellow light only is burning, the white light be introduced within a wire sieve, the company and the objects in the apartment will appear yellow, mottled with white.

Red light may be produced by mixing with the spirit in the cup over the lamp, salt of strontian instead of common salt; and the effect of the white or yellow lights, if introduced through a sieve upon the red light, will be even more striking than the white upon the yellow light.

CURIOUS CHANGE OF COLOURS.

Let there be no other light than a taper in the room; then put on a pair of dark green spectacles, and having closed one eye, view the taper with the other. Suddenly remove the spectacles, and the taper will assume a bright red appearance; but, if the spectacles be instantly replaced, the eye will be unable to distinguish any thing for a second or two. The order of colours will, therefore, be as follows:—green, red, green, black.

THE PROTEAN LIGHT.

Soak a cotton wick in a strong solution of salt and water, dry it, place it in a spirit lamp, and, when lit, it will give a bright yellow light for a long time. If you look through a piece of blue glass at the flame, it will lose all its yellow light, and you will only perceive feeble violet rays. If, before the blue glass, you place a pale yellow glass, the lamp will be absolutely invisible, though a candle may be distinctly seen through the same glasses.

THE CHAMELEON FLOWERS.

Trim a spirit-lamp, add a little salt to the wick, and light it. Set near it, a scarlet geranium, and the flower will appear yellow. Purple colours, in the same light, appear blue.

TO CHANGE THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS.

Hold over a lighted match, a purple columbine, or a blue larkspur, and it will change first to pink, and then to black. The yellow of other flowers, held as above, will continue unchanged. Thus, the purple tint will instantly disappear from a heart’s-ease, but the yellow will remain; and the yellow of a wall-flower will continue the same, though the brown streak will be discharged. If a scarlet, crimson, or maroon dahlia be tried, the colour will change to yellow; a fact known to gardeners, who by this mode, variegate their growing dahlias.

CHANGES OF THE POPPY.

Some flowers which are red, become blue by merely bruising them. Thus, if the petals of the common corn-poppy be rubbed upon white paper, they will stain it purple, which may be made green by washing it over with a strong solution of potash in water. Put poppy petals into very dilute muriatic acid, and the infusion will be of a florid red colour; by adding a little chalk, it will become the colour of port wine; and this tint, by the addition of potash, may be changed to green or yellow.

TO CHANGE THE COLOUR OF A ROSE.

Hold a red rose over the blue flame of a common match, and the colour will be discharged wherever the fume touches the leaves of the flower, so as to render it beautifully variegated, or entirely white. If it be then dipped into water, the redness, after a time, will be restored.

LIGHT CHANGING WHITE INTO BLACK.

Write upon linen with permanent ink, (which is a strong solution of nitrate of silver,) and the characters will be scarcely visible; remove the linen into a dark room, and they will not change; but expose them to a strong light, and they will be indelibly black.

THE VISIBLY GROWING ACORN.

Cut a circular piece of card to fit the top of a hyacinth glass, so as to rest upon the ledge, and exclude the air. Pierce a hole through the centre of the card, and pass through it a strong thread, having a small piece of wood tied to one end, which, resting transversely on the card, prevents its being drawn through. To the other end of the thread attach an acorn; and, having half filled the glass with water, suspend the acorn at a short distance from the surface.

The glass must be kept in a warm room; and, in a few days, the steam which has generated in the glass will hang from the acorn in a large drop. Shortly afterwards, the acorn will burst, the root will protrude and thrust itself into the water; and, in a few days more, a stem will shoot out at the other end, and, rising upwards, will press against the card, in which an orifice must be made to allow it to pass through. From this stem, small leaves will soon be observed to sprout; and, in the course of a few weeks, you will have a handsome oak plant, several inches in height.

CHANGES IN SAP GREEN.

Sap green is the inspissated juice of the buckthorn berries: if a little carbonate of soda be dropped into it, the colour will be changed from green to yellow; it may be reddened by acids, and its green colour restored by chalk.

TO REVIVE APPARENTLY DEAD PLANTS.

Make a strong dilution of camphor in spirit of wine, which add to soft water, in the proportion of a dram to a pint. If withered, or apparently dead plants be put into this liquid, and allowed to remain therein from two to three hours, they will revive.

SINGULAR EFFECT OF TEARS.

If tears are dropped on a dry piece of paper, stained with the juice of the petals of mallows or violets, they will change the paper to a permanently green colour.

BEAUTIES OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

Dissolve alum in hot water until no more can be dissolved in it; place in it a smooth glass rod and a stick of the same size; next day, the stick will be found covered with crystals, but the glass rod will be free from them: in this case, the crystals cling to the rough surface of the stick, but have no hold upon the smooth surface of the glass rod. But, if the rod be roughened with a file at certain intervals, and then placed in the alum and water, the crystals will adhere to the rough surfaces, and leave the smooth bright and clear.

Tie some threads of lamp-cotton irregularly around a copper wire or glass rod; place it in a hot solution of blue vitriol, strong as above, and the threads will be covered with beautiful blue crystals, while the glass rod will be bare.

Bore a hole through a piece of coke, and suspend it by a string from a stick, placed across a hot solution of alum; it will float; but, as it becomes loaded with crystals, it will sink in the solution according to the length of the string. Gas-coke has mostly a smooth, shining, and almost metallic surface, which the crystals will avoid, while they will cling only to the most irregular and porous parts.

If powdered tumeric be added to the hot solution of alum, the crystals will be of a bright yellow; litmus will cause them to be of a bright red; logwood will yield purple; and common writing ink, black; and the more muddy the solution, the finer will be the crystals.

To keep coloured alumn crystals from breaking, or losing their colour, place them under a glass shade with a saucer of water; this will preserve the atmosphere moist, and prevent the crystals getting too dry.

If crystals be formed on wire, they will be liable to break off, from the expansion and contraction of the wire by changes of temperature.

TO CRYSTALLIZE CAMPHOR.

Dissolve camphor in spirit of wine, moderately heated, until the spirit will not dissolve any more; pour some of the solution into a cold glass, and the camphor will instantly crystallize in beautiful tree-like forms, such as we see in the show-glasses of camphor in druggists’ windows.

CRYSTALLIZED TIN.

Mix half an ounce of nitric acid, six drams of muriatic acid, and two ounces of water; pour the mixture upon a piece of tin plate previously made hot, and, after washing it in the mixture, it will bear a beautiful crystalline surface, in feathery forms. This is the celebrated moirÉe metallique, and, when varnished, is made into ornamental boxes, &c. The figures will vary according to the degree of heat previously given to the metal.

CRYSTALS IN HARD WATER.

Hold in a wine-glass of hard water, a crystal of oxalic acid, and white threads will instantly descend through the liquid, suspended from the crystal.

VARIETIES OF CRYSTALS.

Make distinct solutions of common salt, nitre, and alum; set them in three saucers in any warm place, and let part of the water dry away or evaporate; then remove them to a warm room. The particles of the salts in each saucer will begin to attract each other, and form crystals, but not all of the same figure: the common salt will yield crystals with six square and equal faces, or sides; the nitre, six-sided crystals; and the alum, eight-sided crystals; and if these crystals be dissolved over and over again, they will always appear in the same forms.

HEAT FROM CRYSTALLIZATION.

Make a strong solution of Epsom salts in hot water, and while warm, bottle it, cork it closely, and it will remain liquid: draw out the cork, when the salts will immediately crystallize, and in the process, the remaining liquid and the bottle will become very warm.

SPLENDID SUBLIMATION.

Put into a flask a small portion of iodine; hold the flask over the flame of a spirit-lamp, and, from the state of rich ruby crystals, the iodine, on being heated, will become a ruby-coloured transparent gas; but, in cooling, will resume its crystalline form.

ARTIFICIAL ICE.

Mix four ounces of nitrate of ammonia, and four ounces of subcarbonate of soda, with four ounces of water, in a tin vessel, and in three hours the mixture will produce ten ounces of ice.

MAGIC INKS.

Dissolve oxide of cobalt in acetic acid, to which add a little nitre; write with this solution, hold the writing to the fire, and it will be of a pale rose colour, which will disappear on cooling.

Dissolve equal parts of sulphate of copper and muriate of ammonia in water; write with the solution, and it will give a yellow colour when heated, which will disappear when cold.

Dissolve nitrate of bismuth in water; write with the solution, and the characters will be invisible when dry, but will become legible on immersion in water.

Dissolve, in water, muriate of cobalt, which is of a bluish-green colour, and the solution will be pink; write with it, and the characters will be scarcely visible; but, if gently heated, they will appear in brilliant green, which will disappear as the paper cools.

CHAMELEON LIQUIDS.

Put a small portion of the compound called mineral chameleon into several glasses, pour upon each water at different temperatures, and the contents of each glass will exhibit a different shade of colour. A very hot solution will be of a beautiful green colour; a cold one, a deep purple.

Make a colourless solution of sulphate of copper; add to it a little ammonia, equally colourless, and the mixture will be of an intense blue colour; add to it a little sulphuric acid, and the blue colour will disappear; pour in a little solution of caustic ammonia, and the blue colour will be restored. Thus, may the liquor be thrice changed at pleasure.

THE MAGIC DYES.

Dissolve indigo in diluted sulphuric acid, and add to it an equal quantity of solution of carbonate of potass. If a piece of white cloth be dipped in the mixture, it will be changed to blue; yellow cloth, in the same mixture, may be changed to green; red to purple, and blue litmus paper to red.

Nearly fill a wine-glass with the juice of beet-root, which is of a deep red colour; add a little lime water, and the mixture will be colourless; dip into it a piece of white cloth, dry it rapidly, and in a few hours, the cloth will become red.

WINE CHANGED INTO WATER.

Mix a little solution of subacetate of lead with port wine; filter the mixture through blotting paper, and a colourless liquid will pass through; to this add a small quantity of dry salt of tartar, when a spirit will rise, which may be inflamed on the surface of the water.

TWO COLOURLESS TRANSPARENT LIQUIDS BECOME BLACK AND OPAQUE.

Have in one vessel some sulphuric acid, and in another an infusion of nut-galls; they are both colourless and transparent; mix them, and they will become black and opaque.

TWO COLOURLESS FLUIDS MAKE A COLOURED ONE.

Put into a wine-glass of water, a few drops of prussiate of potash; and into a second glass of water, a little weak solution of sulphate of iron in water: pour the colourless mixtures together into a tumbler, and they will be immediately changed to a bright deep blue colour.

Or, mix the solution of prussiate of potash with that of nitrate of bismuth, and a yellow will be the product.

Or, mix the solution of prussiate of potash with that of sulphate of copper, and the mixture will be of a reddish brown colour.

CHANGE OF COLOUR BY COLOURLESS FLUIDS.

Three different colours may be produced from the same infusion, merely by the addition of three colourless fluids. Slice a little red cabbage, pour boiling water upon it, and when cold, decant the clear infusion, which divide into three wine-glasses: to one, add a small quantity of solution of alum in water; to the second, a little solution of potash in water; and to the third, a few drops of muriatic acid. The liquor in the first glass will assume a purple colour, the second, a bright green, and the third a rich crimson.

Put a dram of powdered nitrate of cobalt into a phial containing an ounce of the solution of caustic potass; cork the phial, and the liquid will assume a blue colour, next a lilac, afterwards a peach colour, and lastly a light red.

TO CHANGE A BLUE LIQUID TO WHITE.

Dissolve a small lump of indigo in sulphuric acid, by the aid of moderate heat, and you will obtain an intense blue colour: add a drop of this to half a pint of water, so as to dilute the blue; then pour some of it into strong chloride of lime, and the blue will be bleached with almost magical velocity.

VERITABLE “BLACK” TEA.

Make a cup of strong green tea; dissolve a little green copperas in water, which add to the tea, and its colour will be black.

RESTORATION OF COLOUR BY WATER.

Water being a colourless fluid, ought, one would imagine, when mixed with other substances of no decided colour, to produce a colourless compound. Nevertheless, it is to water only that blue vitriol, or sulphate of copper, owes its vivid blueness; as will be plainly evinced by the following simple experiment. Heat a few crystals of the vitriol in a fire shovel, pulverize them, and the powder will be of a dull and dirty white appearance. Pour a little water upon this, when a slight hissing noise will be heard, and at the same moment, the blue colour will instantly re-appear.

Under the microscope, the beauty of this experiment will be increased, for the instant that a drop of water is placed in contact with the vitriol, the powder may be seen to shoot into blue prisms. If a crystal of prussiate of potash be similarly heated, its yellow colour will vanish, but re-appear on being dropped into water.

THE MAGIC WRITING.

Dissolve a small portion of green-copperas in water, and soak in it sheets of writing paper, so as to allow them to be taken out whole, and then dried; then, cover the paper with very finely powdered galls, and write on it with a pen dipped in water; when dry, brush off the galls, and the writing will appear.

TWO LIQUIDS MAKE A SOLID.

Dissolve muriate of lime in water until it will dissolve no more; make also a similar solution of carbonate of potash; both will be transparent fluids; but if equal quantities of each be mixed and stirred together, they will become a solid mass.

TWO SOLIDS MAKE A LIQUID.

Rub together in a mortar, equal quantities of the crystals of Glauber’s salts and nitrate of ammonia, and the two salts will slowly become a liquid.

A SOLID OPAQUE MASS MADE A TRANSPARENT LIQUID.

Take the solid mixture of the solutions of muriate of lime and carbonate of potash, pour upon it a very little nitric acid, and the solid opaque mass will be changed to a transparent liquid.

TWO COLD LIQUIDS MAKE A HOT ONE.

Mix four drams of sulphuric acid, (oil of vitrol,) with one dram of cold water, suddenly, in a cup, and the mixture will be nearly half as hot again as boiling water.

QUADRUPLE TRANSMUTATION.

Dissolve a small piece of nickel in nitric acid, and it will appear of a fine grass-green colour; add to it a little ammonia, and a blue precipitate will be formed; this will change to a purple-red in a few hours, and the addition of any acid will convert it to an apple-green.

QUINTUPLE TRANSMUTATION.

Heat potassium over the flame of a spirit-lamp, and the colour will change from white to a bright azure, thence to a bright blue, green, and olive.

COMBINATION OF COLOURS.

Cut out a disc or circle of pasteboard, and cover it with paper half green and half black: cause the disc to be rapidly turned round, (like the shafts of a toy wind-mill,) and the colours will combine and produce white.

UNION OF TWO METALS WITHOUT HEAT.

Cut a circular piece of gold-leaf, called “dentist’s gold,” about half an inch in diameter; drop upon it a globule of mercury, about the size of a small pea, and if they be left for a short time, the gold will lose its solidity and yellow colour, and the mercury its liquid form, making a soft mass, of the colour of mercury.

MAGIC BREATH.

Half fill a glass tumbler with lime-water; breathe into it frequently, at the same time stirring it with a piece of glass. The fluid, which before was perfectly transparent, will presently become quite white, and, if allowed to remain at rest, real chalk will be deposited.

TWO BITTERS MAKE A SWEET.

It has been discovered, that a mixture of nitrate of silver with hypo-sulphate of soda, both of which are remarkably bitter, will produce the sweetest known substance.

VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE.

Write with French chalk on a looking-glass; wipe it with a handkerchief, and the lines will disappear; breathe on it, and they will re-appear. This alteration will take place for a great number of times, and after the lapse of a considerable period.

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