Pounded swinestone, calcareous spar, and powdered quartz, will also give out light, if strewn upon a fire-shovel which has been heated red-hot, and has just ceased glowing.
A variety of fluor spar, found in granite in Siberia, will shine in the dark when warmed, with a remarkably strong phosphorescent light, increasing as the temperature is raised. The light augments when the spar is plunged into water; and in boiling water, the spar becomes so luminous that the letters of a printed book can be seen in a dark room near the glass containing it.
Another variety of fluor spar, also found in Siberia, is of a pale violet colour, and emits a white light merely by the heat of the hand; and when put into boiling water, it will give out a green light.
LIGHT FROM OYSTER-SHELLS.
Put oyster-shells into a common fire; burn them for about half an hour; then remove them into a dark room, when many of the shells will exhibit beautiful specimens of prismatic colours.
RINGS OF LIGHT IN CRYSTAL.
This is one of the most striking of optical exhibitions, and may be thus simply produced. Provide a sheet of clear ice, about an inch thick, frozen in still weather; let the light fall through the ice upon a pane of window-glass, or a polished table, and by placing a fragment of plate-glass near the eye as a reflector, the most beautiful rings of light may be observed.
TO STRIKE LIGHT WITH CANE.
Strike a piece of rattan cane with a steel, and it contains so much silex, or flint, that it will exhibit sparks of light in the dark.