TO MAKE A CARRIAGE RUN IN AN INVERTED POSITION WITHOUT FALLING.
It is pretty well known to most boys, that if a tumbler of water be placed within a broad wooden hoop, the whole may be whirled round without falling, owing to the centrifugal force. On the same principle, if a small carriage be placed on an iron band or rail, it will ascend the curve, become inverted, and descend again, without falling.
TO CAUSE A CYLINDER TO ROLL BY ITS OWN WEIGHT UP-HILL.
Procure a coffee-canister, and loading it with a piece of lead, which may be fixed in with solder, the position of the center of gravity is thus altered. If a cylinder so constructed be placed on an inclined plane, and the loaded part above, it will roll up-hill without assistance.
THE BALANCED STICK.
Procure a piece of wood, about nine inches in length, and about half an inch in thickness, and thrust into its upper end the blades of two pen-knives, on either side one. Place the other end upon the tip of the fore-finger, and it will keep its place without falling.
THE CHINESE MANDARIN.
Construct out of the pith of the elder a little mandarin; then provide a base for it to sit in, like a kettle drum. Into this put some heavy substance, such as half a leaden bullet; fasten the figure to this, and in whatever position it may be placed, it will, when left to itself, immediately return to its upright position.
TO MAKE A SHILLING TURN ON ITS EDGE ON THE POINT OF A NEEDLE.
Take a bottle, with a cork in its neck, and place in it, in a perpendicular position, a middle-sized needle. Fix a shilling into another cork, by cutting a nick in it; and stick into the same cork two small table-forks, opposite each other, with the handles inclining outwards and downwards. If the rim of the shilling be now poised on the point of the needle, it may easily be made to spin round without falling, as the center of gravity is below the center of suspension.