INFLAMMABLE POWDER.
Heat a small portion of the grey powder of aluminum, and it will ignite, inflame, and burn with great rapidity. Or, blow a little of this powder into the flame of a candle, and it will produce a small shower of sparks, brilliant as those from iron filings.
COMBUSTION WITHOUT FLAME.
Light a small green wax-taper; in a minute or two, blow out the flame, and the wick will continue red-hot for many hours; and, if the taper were regularly and carefully uncoiled, and the room kept free from currents of air, the wick would burn on in this manner until the whole taper were consumed. The same effect is not produced when the colour of the wax is red, on which account, red wax-tapers are safer than green; for the latter, if left imperfectly extinguished, may set fire to any object with which they are in contact.
COMBUSTION OF THREE METALS.
Mix a grain or two of potassium with an equal quantity of sodium; add a globule of quicksilver, and the three metals, when shaken, will take fire, and burn vividly.
TO MAKE PAPER INCOMBUSTIBLE.
Take a smooth cylindrical piece of metal, about one inch and a half in diameter, and eight inches long; wrap very closely round it a piece of clean writing paper, then hold the paper in the flame of a spirit-lamp, and it will not take fire; but it may be held there for a considerable time, without being in the least affected by the flame.