Lucifers consist of chips of wood tipped with a paste of chlorate of potass mixed with sulphuret of antimony, starch, and gum-water; when a match is pinched between the folds of glass-paper and suddenly drawn out, a light is instantly obtained.
Prometheans consist of small rows of waxed paper, in one end of which is a minute quantity of vitriol, in a glass bulb, sealed up and surrounded with chlorate of potass; when the end thus prepared is pressed so as to break the bulb, the vitriol comes in contact with the composition, and produces light instantly.
Loco-foco Matches are made of a compound of phosphorus, rice-flour, &c., colored with any suitable article.
Phosphoric Fire-bottle.—Take a common brimstone match, introduce its point into a bottle containing oxide of phosphorus so as to cause a minute quantity of it to adhere to it; if the match be then rubbed on a common bottle cork, it instantly takes fire; care should be taken not to use the same match immediately, or while still hot, as it would inevitably set fire to the oxide of phosphorus in the bottle. The phosphoric fire-bottle may be prepared in the following manner: Take a small phial of very thin glass, heat it gradually in a ladleful of sand, and introduce into it a few grains of phosphorus; let the phial be then left undisturbed for a few minutes, and proceed in this manner until the phial is full; or, put a little phosphorus into a small phial; heat the phial in a ladleful of sand, and when the phosphorus is melted, turn it round, so that the phosphorus may adhere to the sides of the phial; and then cork the phial closely.
A Combustible Body set on Fire by Water.—Fill a saucer nearly full of water, and drop into it a small piece of potassium the size of a pepper-corn (about two grains); the potassium will instantly become red-hot and dart from one side of the saucer to the other, and burn vividly on the surface of the water.
Curious Experiment.—Procure three basins, and put water of the temperature of thirty-three degrees into one basin, of fifty degrees into another, and of a hundred degrees into the third; then plunge one hand into the water of thirty-three degrees, and the other into that of a hundred degrees, and when they have both remained a few seconds, withdraw them, and plunge both hands into the water of fifty degrees: the one which was before in warm water will now feel cold, and the one that was in the cold water will feel warm.