Fig. 5.
There are other ways of producing smoke rings. For instance, rings such as shown in [Fig. 4] are produced during the combustion of phosphuretted hydrogen, the white vapours of the phosphoric acid rolling up into the air in apparently whirling crowns. From guns and field-pieces the smoke often emerges in rings, and steam out of a small vertical jet is often shot forth in small circles, such as shown in [Fig. 5].
There is, however, a far simpler way of making smoke rings than any we have described, and that is by procuring a cubical cardboard box with a small round opening in two of its opposite faces, filling it with smoke from burning brown paper, and sending the ring into the air by hitting the palm of the hand against one hole so as to eject the smoke wreath at the other. In this way most excellent rings are formed, and if received on a piece of damp glass the rings can be caught and held for a few moments for examination. In a quiet room free from draughts the regularity and duration of the rings will provide a surprise for those who have not tried the experiment.
V.—Bubble Blowing.
We are all of us familiar with the ordinary bubble, and we have probably all had a try with a long clay pipe and a basin of suds, and succeeded more or less, principally less, in setting 4-inch balloons afloat over some quiet neighbourhood. It is possible that a few of us have filled such soap balloons with hydrogen, and by applying a light to them have caused an explosion in mid air. But how many of us have tried to attach a car to our bubbles?
This can be done easily after a little practice, and the sketches herewith make clear how to set about it. Get an ounce of glass tube from the nearest druggist, and cut out of thin paper whatever your fancy leads you to fix to the balloon. As something out of the ordinary lines, we give the exact size of an aëronaut we recently despatched on a cruise ([Fig. 1]). D is a small disc of paper—proper size; F is a fine thread—proper length below it is the paper figure, cut out of the orange wrapper of one of the Boy’s Own Paper monthly parts, and it is traced from the figure we used.
Fig. 1.