Fig. 7.—Changing water into wine.
Changing Water into Wine
This is not a reproduction of the miracle performed at the wedding feast of Cana, but it is, nevertheless, a most interesting experiment.
Fill two tumblers (A), or wine glasses, of equal diameter, with water, by completely immersing them in a basin of that liquid, standing one upright and the other upside down upon it. When they are both completely full, with not a bubble of air in either, join their rims and remove them from the basin. Now place them upright on a dish, and, if their rims fit accurately upon each other, the water will remain in them. It is now necessary to place on the top of the upper glass a third glass, (B), containing wine, or better still, spirits of wine in which is dissolved a little aniline dye.
Now announce to your friends that without touching any of the glasses, you will, before the eyes of the audience, cause the wine to pass from the glass (B) into the upper (A) glass without a drop entering the lower (A) glass.
In order to perform this amazing experiment take a strip of wool or cotton, moisten it with the liquid contained in the top glass (B), and hang it over the edge of this glass with one end completely immersed in the liquid.
This forms an excellent siphon, for it allows the liquid in the top glass (B) to flow away in drops which fall on and run down the glass underneath until they reach the junction of the rims. Here they are drawn in by capillary attraction, and, the wine being lighter than the water, they rise to the top of the upturned glass (A), displacing the water contained therein by causing it to flow out between the rims, after which it collects in the dish below.
This action will go on until the top glass (B) is empty, when the whole of its contents will find their way into the upturned glass, whilst the lower one (A) remains perfectly clear ([Fig. 7]).