How to dispose two little Figures, so that one shall light a Candle, and the other put it out.
Take two little figures of wood or clay, or any other materials you please, only taking care that there is a little hole at the mouth of each: put in the mouth of one a few grains of bruised gunpowder, and a little bit of phosphorus in the mouth of the other, taking care that these preparations are made beforehand.
Then take a lighted wax candle, and present it to the mouth of the figure with the gunpowder, which, taking fire, will put the candle out; then present your candle, having the snuff still hot, to the other figure; it will immediately light again by means of the phosphorus.
You may propose the same effects to be produced by two figures drawn on a wall with a pencil or coal, by applying with a little starch, or water, a few grains of bruised gunpowder to the mouth of one, and a bit of phosphorus to the mouth of the other.
The Camera Obscura, or Dark Chamber.
We shall here give a short description of this optical invention; for though it is very common, it is also very pleasing: but every one knows not how to construct it.
Make a circular hole in the shutter of a window, from whence there is a prospect of the fields, or any other object not too near: and in this hole place a convex glass, either double or single, whose focus is at the distance of five or six feet: the distance should not be less than three feet; if it be, the images will be too small, and there will not be sufficient room for the spectators to stand conveniently; on the other hand, the focus should never be more than fifteen or twenty feet, for then the images would be obscure, and the colouring faint; the best distance is from six to twelve feet:—take care that no light enters the room but by this glass: at a distance from it, equal to that of its focus, place a pasteboard, covered with the whitest paper; this paper should have a black border, to prevent any of the side rays from disturbing the picture; let it be two feet and a half long, and eighteen or twenty inches high; bend the length of it inwards to the form of part of a circle, whose diameter is equal to double the focal distance of the glass: then fix it on a frame of the same figure, and put it on a moveable foot, that it may be easily fixed at that exact distance from the glass where the objects paint themselves to the greatest perfection: when it is thus placed, all the objects that are in the front of the window will be painted on the paper in an inverted position; this inverted position of the images may be deemed an imperfection, but it is easily remedied; for if you stand above the board on which they are received, and look down on it, they will appear in their natural position; or if you stand before it, and, placing a common mirror against your breast in an oblique direction, look down in it, you will there see the images erect, and they will receive an additional lustre from the reflection of the glass: or place two lenses in a tube that draws out: or, lastly, if you place a large concave mirror at a proper distance before the picture, it will appear before the mirror in the air, and in an erect position, with the greatest regularity, and in the most natural colours.
If you place a moveable mirror without the window, by turning it more or less, you will have on the paper all the objects that are on each side of the window.
There is another method of making the dark chamber, which is by a scioptric ball, that is, a ball of wood, through which a hole is made, in which hole a lens is fixed; this ball is placed in a wooden frame, in which it turns freely round: the frame is fixed to the hole in the shutter, and the ball by turning about answers, in great part, the use of the mirror on the outside of the window: if the hole in the window be no bigger than a pea, the objects will be represented without any lens.
If instead of placing the mirror without the window, you place it in the room, and above the hole, (which must then be made near the top of the shutter,) you may receive the representation on a paper placed horizontally on a table; and draw at your leisure all the objects that are there painted.