This trick, if well managed, is one of the most wonderful that can be performed in a drawing-room without apparatus; but it requires dexterity at the conclusion.
The person performing the trick offers to pour from a common wine-bottle, port-wine, sherry, milk, and champagne, in succession, and in any order.
To accomplish the trick, you must make solutions of the following chemicals, and label the bottles with numbers, thus:
No. 1. A mixture of two parts perchloride of iron, and one part sulphuric acid (vitriol).
No. 2. A strong solution of the sulphocyanate of potash.
No. 3. A strong solution of acetate of lead.
No. 4. A solution of bicarbonate of soda, or potash.
No. 5. A clear solution of gum arabic.
Procure a champagne-bottle, and wash it out well; then pour three teaspoonfuls of No. 1 into it. As the quantity is very small, it will not be observed, especially if you are quick in your movements. Pour some distilled or rain water into a common water-bottle, or jug, and add a tablespoonful of No. 5 to it; then set it aside, ready for use.
Provide some wine-glasses, of four different patterns, and into one pattern put one drop of solution No. 2; into another, three drops of solution No. 2; rinse the third with solution No. 3, and the fourth with solution No. 4.