Make a stand with a box upon it, having the roof and front of an ancient temple, the front of the stand being in steps leading up to the porch. This conceals a simple apparatus of glass tubes, receivers and siphons.
Fig. 104.
The four tubes are shown just above and below the bends, so as to appear to be solid glass pillars. The water from the upper reservoir fills them in running to find its level in the other container. Little figures are made of wax and pith, two having cork in their heads, two leaden feet, and they are placed in the tubes alternately. A valve below prevents them sinking, and a fine hair prevents them rising into the bends. On the water being let flow, the figures are imbued with motion, and their rising and falling will greatly puzzle the spectators, for the fluid is not seen to run.
Fig. 105.
WATER RISING ABOVE ITS LEVEL.
Take two panes of common window-glass, about six inches square, set them together at one side, and at the other side prevent them exactly joining by a little wax, so that the two planes form a very small angle, as one or two degrees. Then place the bottom edge about an inch down into a dish of water, when the water will rise between the panes in the form of a hyperbola.
