The Magic Candle Extinguisher.
Cut out of thin cardboard a couple of little figures, and insert in the mouth of each, fixing it, say, with sealing-wax, a piece of quill (a portion of a toothpick, for instance), through which he or she appears to be blowing. Fill each tube with sand, but leave a minute space empty at the end remote from the figure. In the cavity of the one place a few grains of gunpowder, and in the other a tiny morsel of phosphorus. The figures being thus privately prepared beforehand, you call for a lighted candle, and announce that the one figure will blow it out and the other relight it.
The moment the tube with the powder is brought near the candle, the powder will ignite, and will produce an explosion of infinitesimal proportions, but large enough to blow out the candle and cause a jet of smoke in the direction of the second figure, which you hold in the opposite hand. The heat of the smoke will cause the phosphorus to ignite, and if you hold the tube which contains it pretty close to the wick, the candle will again be lighted.
This is an experiment which should not be attempted by unskilled hands. Both gunpowder and phosphorus require to be handled with great care, but it might be possible to make, out of thin paper, little cartridges containing a minute portion of each substance, to be introduced into the tubes as occasion required. Unless the reader has some practical knowledge of laboratory work, he should not attempt this experiment.