This book is included in the Family Affairs - Children, Parents & Home Economics section.
Preface
Every time my boys return from school I am called upon to show them some new
wonder in the world of alchemy.
There are four of them, and, as the initials of their names are N., S., E., and
W., they have obtained from their playmates the soubriquets of North, South,
East, and West.
North is rather of a cold quiet disposition; nothing seems to put life into him
except fire clouds; blue flame and spectral lights are his delight.
East is a dry dog. If any stranger calls him "East," he proudly replies "The
wise men came from the east." To see him swallow an orange (down the sleeve of
his tunic) pleases his sister Jessie beyond measure.
When there is a pound of cherries or a box of lozenges to divide, West
"calculates" that he knows exactly how many there will be for each of his
brothers and sisters, and to whose pocket the odd, by accident, falls.
South is a warm-hearted, merry fellow, sharp as a rose thorn, quick as the
flutter of a gnat's wing. He passes a shilling through the table so dexterously
that I am tired of hearing (when we have our Christmas party) one and another
say "Do it again," while vainly trying to "find him out."
Now, I have had to provide amusement for these four boys and also for two little
girls, their sisters, and how I accomplished my task is shown by this tiny book.
I always "took to children," and like them to be round and about me even to
riper years. Thus, it may easily be conceived that I soon fell into the belief
that if home was made the happiest place, my children would not be likely to
"seek" amusement elsewhere, and so, practically, I have found it, and the
American Colonel's words to them are true, "There is no place like Home."
Some author (Notes and Queries will perhaps find him
out for me) has said that "Youth are alike in all nations" - that the children
of the Chinese, that the boys of Boston, that the lads of Lapland, or the youths
of Yucatan all play alike and at the same games, and that the same things amuse
them.
Backed by this assertion, and knowing how well I have pleased my own children, I
now send these puzzles, experiments, recreations, and magic legerdemain on the
errand to amuse others who have not yet smiled at them.
If I succeed in giving entertainment I shall soon have to increase the circle of
my little friends, and, when I am borne to the grave, may children be my
mourners.
A few of these pastimes were in print before the writer was born, and will be
found in Hooper's "Rational Recreations," published in the last century. All
such are, however, rewritten, not better, perhaps, but in a modern style.
Many readers of the popular periodicals will recognize in the following pages
much that has already passed before them, from the fact that I have from time to
time "contributed" these articles for their amusement. Herein I have brought
them together to please the present and future generations of youth, who seem
determined to make their appearance in geometrical proportion as Time produces
beards, that he may cut them off with his ever-whetted scythe when they become
grey.
SEPTIMUS PIESSE; 2, New Bond Street, London
CONTENTS
Preface
1. - The pepper-Box Trick
2. - The Inverted Glass of Water
3. - The Vital Cards
4. - Electrical Experiment
5. - The Rainbow Fire-cloud
6. - What did you wish?
7. - Amusement
8. - Colored Flames
9. - To Reveal a Person's Thoughts
10. - The Revolving Syhon
11. - The Expunged Figure discovered
12. - A Brown Paper Magnet
13. - Extraordinary Optical Illusion
14. - A Liquid converted into a Solid
15. - Singular Arithmetical Fact
16. - Strength of the Human Frame
17. - The Watch Trick
18. - The young Chemist's Chameleon Mineral
19. - To Tell any Number Thought of
20. - The Cannon-Ball Trick
21. - Who Wears the Ring?
22. - Houdini's Nut Trick
23. - Golden Ink
24. - Inexplicable Motion and Sound
25. - Amusing Experiment
26. - A Mariner's Compass made on a Lady's Thimble
27. - An Arithmetical Trick with Cards
28. - A Pleasant Amusement for an Evening Party
29. - The Magic Egg
30. - Fire Upon Ice
31. - Fire by Percussion
32. - Walking on Red-Hot Iron Plates
33. - The Moon's Influence on Man and Plants
34. - A Paradox, and its Solution: an Interesting Astronomical Fact
35. - The Letters of the Alphabet most used in Composition
36. - The Magic Candle
37. - Natural Crystals
38. - The Feather Trick explained
39. - Crystal Baskets
40. - To pass a Shilling into a Ball of Worsted
41. - The Philosopher Puzzled: To put Sand into Water without wetting it
42. - Chemical Transmutations
43. - Changeable Pictures
44. - Laughing Gas
45. - To Prepare Crimson Flame
46. - The Elastic Egg
47. - Mysterious Disappearance Explained
48. - To Produce the Sensations of Heat and Cold at the Same Time
49. - To Burn the Poker in the Candle
50. - The Gyroscope: Extraordinary Effects of Motion
51. - To prove that Plants obtain their principle Nourishment from the Air
52. - The Pigeon's Nest
53. - Improved Sight
54. - Curious Experiment
55. - Spongy Lead
56. - Freezing Water in a Red-Hot Vessel
57. - Beautiful Ornament for a Room
58. - A Flying Toy
59. - Optical Amusement
60. - Parlour Magic
61. - A Tree without a Root
62. - Magic Mirrors
63. - "Clairvoyance" explained
64. - The Game of Scissors
65. - Curious Experiment: a Solid produced by mixing Two Liquids
66. - To Change the Color of a Flower
67. - The Three Halos
68. - Vapourgraphic Glasses
69. - To find the Difference between two Numbers, the greater of which is
unknown
70. - The Magic Coffee-pot
71. - To tell a Person any Number he may privately fix on
72. - Black Peter
73. - Hot and Cold, White and Black, Water in one Vessel
74. - Triplicity of the Year 1857
75. - The Temperature Cup
76. - The Remainder
77. - A Brown Paper Electrical Machine
78. - Phosphoric Oil
79. - Cards and their Origin
80. - Change of Colors
81. - The Number Eleven
82. - To make Sulphur Coins
83. - To Silver the Interior of Glass Vessels
84. - Solid Steel will Float on Water
85. - Ornamental Eggs
86. - Anderson's Scrap Book Trick
87. - Sympathetic or White Ink
88. - Living Cribbage
89. - The Parlour Laboratory
90. - The Protean Light
91. - The Walking Shilling
92. - Song of the Decanter
93. - Experiment to Set the Thames on Fire
94. - A Recreation
95. - The Druid's Flame
96. - To Balance a Shilling upon the point of a Needle, and make it spin on its
Edge
97. - Fireside Mesmerism
98. - Magic Milk
99. - The Best Card Trick Known
100. - To Prove that Air contains Water
101. - Singular Effect of Tears
102. - The Christmas Tree
103. - Conjuring a Ring
104. - To Place Water in a Drinking Glass upside-down
105. - Musical Flame
106. - To Discover the number of Pips on any Three Cards privately selected
107. - All Sorts of Colors
108. - The real Will-o'-th'-Wisp
109. - To cause Water to roll over Paper without wetting it
110. - Magic Money
111. - The Ring Suspended by a Burnt Thread
112. - Magical Square Problem
113. - To put a lighted Candle under Water without extinguishing it
114. - Curious Motions
115. - A Leviathan Calculation
116. - Wiljalba Frikell's Obedient Watch
117. - The Gong Poker
118. - The Inexhaustible Bottle Trick explained
119. - The Wizard's Chain
120. - Secret Letter-Writing
121. - The Aeolian Harp
122. - Instantaneous Crystallisation
123. - Acoustic or Sound Figures
124. - The Wine-Merchant and his Clerk
125. - Imitation of Hoar Frost
126. - To eat a Peck of Paper Shavings, and convert them into Ribbon
127. - To Copy Impressions
128. - To Light a Candle without touching the Wick
129. - To raise Fire by command
130. - Hearing with the Teeth
131. - To Stand an Egg upright
132. - To Pass Six Halfpence through a Table
133. - Houdini's Ink and Fish Trick explained
134. - A Color that appears and disappears by the Influence of the Air
135. - Curious Phosphoric Experiment
136. - Curious Multiplication
137. - The Game of Shadow Buff
138. - Rotatory Paradox
139. - Which is the Boiled Egg?
140. - Geometrical Progression
141. - Eatable Candle-Ends
142. - The Crowning Puzzle
143. - The Acrostic and Telestich
144. - Three Liquors in One Glass
145. - Boy's Marbles
146. - To cover Lace or Net with Copper
147. - The Galvanic Battery
148. - Rosin Bubbles
149. - To Dip the Hand into Water without wetting it
150. - The seed of Crystallisation
151. - Imitation Coral
152. - Crystal Ornaments
153. - To Change Water into the Color of Blood
154. - The Chemical Barometer
155. - Scraps for the Curious
156. - The Game of Natural History
157. - Colored Fires
158. - Dissected Leaves and Skeletons of Plants
159. - Experiment for producing Living Creatures
160. - Leather Modelling
161. - Potichomanis, or Glass Ornamenting
162. - The Card Chain Puzzle and Solution
163. - What a Glassful of Water will Hold
164. - Science in Sport: The Law of Force
165. - The Funny Funnel
166. - An Antimonal Experiment: Amorphous Antimony
167. - Enigma
168. - Ice made in a Drawing-Room
169. - To Prove that Sugar is a Compound of Charcoal and Water
170. - Pyrotechny, or Fireworks
171. - The Gun or Pistol Trick explained
172. - The Torn Card restored.
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