Weigh five ounces of dry nitrate of strontia, one ounce and a half of finely-powdered sulphur, five drams of chlorate of potash, and four drams of sulphuret of antimony. Powder the chlorate of potash and the sulphuret of antimony separately in a mortar, and mix them on paper; after which, add them to the other ingredients, previously powdered and mixed. No other kind of mixture than rubbing together on paper is required. For use, mix with a portion of the powder a small quantity of spirit of wine, in a tin pan resembling a cheese-toaster, light the mixture, and it will shed a rich crimson hue: when the fire burns dim and badly, a very small quantity of finely-powdered charcoal or lamp-black will revive it.
PURPLE FIRE.
Dissolve chloride of lithium in spirit of wine; and when lighted, it will burn with a purplish flame.
SILVER FIRE.
Place upon a piece of burning charcoal a morsel of the dried crystals of nitrate of silver, (not the lunar caustic,) and it will immediately throw out the most beautiful sparks that can be imagined, whilst the surface of the charcoal will be coated with silver.
THE FIERY MOUNTAIN.
Put into a glass tumbler fifteen grains of finely granulated zinc, and six grains of phosphorus cut into very small pieces, beneath water. Mix in another glass, gradually, a dram of sulphuric acid with two drams of water. Remove both glasses into a dark room, and there pour the diluted acid over the zinc and phosphorus in the glass: in a short time, beautiful jets of bluish flame will dart from all parts of the surface of the mixture; it will become quite luminous, and beautiful luminous smoke will rise in a column from the glass; thus representing a fountain of fire.
THE ARTIFICIAL CONFLAGRATION.
Put into a small, narrow-necked earthen bottle, half an ounce of muriate of ammonia, an ounce of camphor, and two ounces of highly rectified spirit of wine; set fire to it, and the room will seem to be in flames. This experiment should be performed in the dark.