MECHANICAL BUCEPHALUS.

MICROSCOPE (TOY).

Toy microscopes, or miniature microscopes that may be easily made, are of two sorts. The first and simplest is sometimes called the Magnifying Pinhole. Take a blackened card, and make a hole in it with the point of a fine needle. Hold up the card, and look through the hole so made at any small object held at about an inch from the card, and the object so held will appear magnified about ten times. Remove the card from the eye, leaving the object looked at in its former position, and it will then not be seen at all; this is accounted for from the well-known quality of the eye that it is unable unaided to discover a single object not more than an inch away.

Another sort of toy microscope is made out of a thin plate of lead or brass. Bore a hole in it with a fine awl or a large needle, and let a drop of clear water fall into the hole so as to fill it up completely. Then place any object that it is wished to examine below the thin plate, and immediately below the globule of water. Look through the globule, and the object looked at will be seen, apparently magnified about a hundred and fifty times. A full water-bottle also has microscopic powers.