With some lycopodium, powder the surface of a large or small vessel of water; you may then challenge any one to drop a piece of money into the water, and that you will get it with the hand without wetting your skin. The lycopodium adheres to the hand, and prevents its contact with the water. A little shake of the hand after the feat is over will dislodge the powder.
Image of a Volcano.
This is another experiment on the density of liquids. In a small jar put some wine or colored alcohol, and close it with a cork, through which you have passed a small tube, a quill or a hollow straw. In lowering this jar gently in a pail full of water, you will soon see the liquid escape and rise to the surface of the water, describing spirals which resemble smoke, and give a pretty good image, considerably diminished, of a volcano.
Reciprocal Images.
Make two holes in the wainscot of a room, each a foot high and ten inches wide, and about a foot distant from each other. Let these apertures be about the height of a man’s head, and in each of them place a transparent glass in a frame like a common mirror.
Behind the partition, and directly facing each aperture, place two mirrors inclosed in the wainscot, in an angle of forty-five degrees. These mirrors are each to be eighteen inches square, and all the space between must be inclosed with pasteboard painted black, and well closed that no light can enter; let there be also two curtains to cover them, which you may draw aside at pleasure.
When a person looks into one of these fictitious mirrors, instead of seeing his own face, he will see the object that is in front of the other; thus, if two persons stand at the same time before these mirrors, instead of each seeing himself, they will reciprocally see each other.
There should be a sconce with a lighted candle placed on each side of the two glasses in the wainscot, to enlighten the faces of the persons who look in them, or the experiment will not have so remarkable an effect.