ENCHANTED TAPERS.
Mr. Panky has concluded a trick in which a borrowed hat was used, and out of it has produced a number of lanterns. These he ranks on the table, and, taking up a glass rod, has but to touch the little tapers to have them catch fire.
Fig. 119.
Explanation.—The lantern frames are telescopic, so that a dozen fold into the space of one. The tapers are prepared by being once lit, blown out, and when cold a grain of phosphorus is put on the wick. One end of the glass rod is red-hot; for a glass stick a foot long may be hot enough at one end to inflame phosphorus, and yet be harmless to finger at the other.
The wicks may be prepared with match composition, and have a glass drop containing sulphuric acid; on breaking this with a pinch the acid will fire the wick, but, unfortunately, the fizz betrays too much.