The smoky flame, as lately shown by Mr. Bidwell, does the same thing. The reason probably is that the dirt breaks through the air-film, just as dust in the air will make the two fountains join as they did when they were electrified. However, it is possible that oily matter condensed on the water may have something to do with the effect observed, because oil alone acts quite as well as a flame, but the action of oil in this case, as when it smooths a stormy sea, is not by any means so easily understood.
When I held the sealing-wax closer, the drops coalesced in the same way; but they were then so much more electrified that they repelled one another as similarly electrified bodies are known to do, and so the electrical scattering was produced.
You possibly already see why the tuning-fork made the drops follow in one line, but I shall explain. A musical note is, as is well known, caused by a rapid vibration; the more rapid the vibration the higher is the pitch of the note. For instance, I have a tooth-wheel which I can turn round very rapidly if I wish. Now that it is turning slowly you can hear the separate teeth knocking against a card that I am holding in the other hand. I am now turning faster, and the card is giving out a note of a low pitch. As I make the wheel turn faster and faster, the pitch of the note gradually rises, and it would, if I could only turn fast enough, give so high a note that we should not be able to hear it. A tuning-fork vibrates at a certain definite rate, and therefore gives a definite note. The fork now sounding vibrates 128 times in every second. The nozzle, therefore, is made to vibrate, but almost imperceptibly, 128 times a second, and to impress upon the issuing cylinder of water 128 imperceptible waists every second. Now it just depends what size the jet is, and how fast the water is issuing, whether these waists are about four and a half diameters apart in the cylinder. If the jet is larger, the water must pass more quickly, or under a greater pressure, for this to be the case; if the jet is finer, a smaller speed will be sufficient. If it should happen that the waists so made are anywhere about four diameters apart, then even though they are so slightly developed that if you had an exact drawing of them, you would not be able to detect the slightest change of diameter, they will grow at a great speed, and therefore the water column will break up regularly, every drop will be like the one behind it, and like the one in front of it, and not all different, as is the case when the breaking of the water merely depends upon accidental tremors. If the drops then are all alike in every respect, of course they all follow the same path, and so appear to fall in a continuous stream. If the waists are about four and a half diameters apart, then the jet will break up most easily; but it will, as I have said, break up under the influence of a considerable range of notes, which cause the waists to be formed at other distances, provided they are more than three diameters apart. If two notes are sounded at the same time, then very often each will produce its own effect, and the result is the alternate formation of drops of different sizes, which then make the jet divide into two separate streams. In this way, three, four, or even many more distinct streams may be produced.
I can now show you photographs of some of these musical fountains, taken by the instantaneous flash of an electric spark, and you can see the separate paths described by the drops of different sizes (Fig. 46). In one photograph there are eight distinct fountains all breaking from the same jet, but following quite distinct paths, each of which is clearly marked out by a perfectly regular series of drops. You can also in these photographs see drops actually in the act of bouncing against one another, and flattened when they meet, as if they were india-rubber balls. In the photograph now upon the screen the effect of this rebound, which occurs at the place marked with a cross, is to hurry on the upper and more forward drop, and to retard the other one, and so to make them travel with slightly different velocities and directions. It is for this reason that they afterwards follow distinct paths. The smaller drops had no doubt been acted on in a similar way, but the part of the fountain where this happened was just outside the photographic plate, and so there is no record of what occurred. The very little drops of which I have so often spoken are generally thrown out from the side of a fountain of water under the influence of a musical sound, after which they describe regular little curves of their own, quite distinct from the main stream. They, of course, can only get out sideways after one or two bouncings from the regular drops in front and behind. You can easily show that they are really formed below the place where they first appear, by taking a piece of electrified sealing-wax and holding it near the stream close to the nozzle and gradually raising it. When it comes opposite to the place where the little drops are really formed, it will act on them more powerfully than on the large drops, and immediately pull them out from a place where the moment before none seemed to exist. They will then circulate in perfect little orbits round the sealing-wax, just as the planets do round the sun; but in this case, being met by the resistance of the air, the orbits are spirals, and the little drops after many revolutions ultimately fall upon the wax, just as the planets would fall into the sun after many revolutions, if their motion through space were interfered with by friction of any kind.
There is only one thing needed to make the demonstration of the behaviour of a musical jet complete, and that is, that you should yourselves see these drops in their different positions in an actual fountain of water. Now if I were to produce a powerful electric spark, then it is true that some of you might for an instant catch sight of the drops, but I do not think that most would see anything at all. But if, instead of making merely one flash, I were to make another when each drop had just travelled to the position which the one in front of it occupied before, and then another when each drop had moved on one place again, and so on, then all the drops, at the moments that the flashes of light fell upon them, would occupy the same positions, and thus all these drops would appear fixed in the air, though of course they really are travelling fast enough. If, however, I do not quite succeed in keeping exact time with my flashes of light, then a curious appearance will be produced. Suppose, for instance, that the flashes of light follow one another rather too quickly, then each drop will not have had quite time enough to get to its proper place at each flash, and thus at the second flash all the drops will be seen in positions which are just behind those which they occupied at the first flash, and in the same way at the third flash they will be seen still further behind their former places, and so on, and therefore they will appear to be moving slowly backwards; whereas if my flashes do not follow quite quickly enough, then the drops will, every time that there is a flash, have travelled just a little too far, and so they will all appear to be moving slowly forwards. Now let us try the experiment. There is the electric lantern sending a powerful beam of light on to the screen. This I bring to a focus with a lens, and then let it pass through a small hole in a piece of card. The light then spreads out and falls upon the screen. The fountain of water is between the card and the screen, and so a shadow is cast which is conspicuous enough. Now I place just behind the card a little electric motor, which will make a disc of card which has six holes near the edge spin round very fast. The holes come one after the other opposite the hole in the fixed card, and so at every turn six flashes of light are produced. When the card is turning about 21-1/2 times a second, then the flashes will follow one another at the right rate. I have now started the motor, and after a moment or two I shall have obtained the right speed, and this I know by blowing through the holes, when a musical note will be produced, higher than the fork if the speed is too high, and lower than the fork if the speed is too low, and exactly the same as the fork if it is right.
To make it still more evident when the speed is exactly right, I have placed the tuning-fork also between the light and the screen, so that you may see it illuminated, and its shadow upon the screen. I have not yet allowed the water to flow, but I want you to look at the fork. For a moment I have stopped the motor, so that the light may be steady, and you can see that the fork is in motion because its legs appear blurred at the ends, where of course the motion is most rapid. Now the motor is started, and almost at once the fork appears quite different. It now looks like a piece of india-rubber, slowly opening and shutting, and now it appears quite still, but the noise it is making shows that it is not still by any means. The legs of the fork are vibrating, but the light only falls upon them at regular intervals, which correspond with their movement, and so, as I explained in the case of the water-drops, the fork appears perfectly still. Now the speed is slightly altered, and, as I have explained, each new flash of light, coming just too soon or just too late, shows the fork in a position which is just before or just behind that made visible by the previous flash. You thus see the fork slowly going through its evolutions, though of course in reality the legs are moving backwards and forwards 128 times a second. By looking at the fork or its shadow, you will therefore be able to tell whether the light is keeping exact time with the vibrations, and therefore with the water-drops.
Now the water is running, and you see all the separate drops apparently stationary, strung like pearls or beads of silver upon an invisible wire (see Frontispiece). If I make the card turn ever so little more slowly, then all the drops will appear to slowly march onwards, and what is so beautiful,—but I am afraid few will see this,—each little drop may be seen to gradually break off, pulling out a waist which becomes a little drop, and then when the main drop is free it slowly oscillates, becoming wide and long, or turning over and over, as it goes on its way. If it so happens that a double or multiple jet is being produced, then you can see the little drops moving up to one another, squeezing each other where they meet and bouncing away again. Now the card is turning a little too fast and the drops appear to be moving backwards, so that it seems as if the water is coming up out of the tank on the floor, quietly going over my head, down into the nozzle, and so back to the water-supply of the place. Of course this is not happening at all, as you know very well, and as you will see if I simply try and place my finger between two of these drops. The splashing of the water in all directions shows that it is not moving quite so quietly as it appears. There is one more thing that I would mention about this experiment. Every time that the flashing light gains or loses one complete flash, upon the motion of the tuning-fork, it will appear to make one complete oscillation, and the water-drops will appear to move back or on one place.
I must now come to one of the most beautiful applications of these musical jets to practical purposes which it is possible to imagine, and what I shall now show are a few out of a great number of the experiments of Mr. Chichester Bell, cousin of Mr. Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
To begin with I have a very small jet of water forced through the nozzle at a great pressure, as you can see if I point it towards the ceiling, as the water rises eight or ten feet. If I allow this stream of water to fall upon an india-rubber sheet, stretched over the end of a tube as big as my little finger, then the little sheet will be depressed by the water, and the more so if the stream is strong. Now if I hold the jet close to the sheet the smooth column of liquid will press the sheet steadily, and it will remain quiet; but if I gradually take the jet further away from the sheet, then any waists that may have been formed in the liquid column, which grow as they travel, will make their existence perfectly evident. When a wide part of the column strikes the sheet it will be depressed rather more than usual, and when a narrow part follows, the depression will be less. In other words, any very slight vibration imparted to the jet will be magnified by the growth of waists, and the sheet of india-rubber will reproduce the vibration, but on a magnified scale. Now if you remember that sound consists of vibrations, then you will understand that a jet is a machine for magnifying sound. To show that this is the case I am now directing the jet on to the sheet, and you can hear nothing; but I shall hold a piece of wood against the nozzle, and now, if on the whole the jet tends to break up at any one rate rather than at any other, or if the wood or the sheet of rubber will vibrate at any rate most easily, then the first few vibrations which correspond to this rate will be imparted to the wood, which will impress them upon the nozzle and so upon the cylinder of liquid, where they will become magnified; the result is that the jet immediately begins to sing of its own accord, giving out a loud note (Fig. 47).
I will now remove the piece of wood. On placing against the nozzle an ordinary lever watch, the jolt which is imparted to the case at every tick, though it is so small that you cannot detect it, jolts the nozzle also, and thus causes a neck to form in the jet of water which will grow as it travels, and so produce a loud tick, audible in every part of this large room (Fig. 48). Now I want you to notice how the vibration is magnified by the action I have described. I now hold the nozzle close to the rubber sheet, and you can hear nothing. As I gradually raise it a faint echo is produced, which gradually gets louder and louder, until at last it is more like a hammer striking an anvil than the tick of a watch.
I shall now change this watch for another which, thanks to a friend, I am able to use. This watch is a repeater, that is, if you press upon a nob it will strike, first the hour, then the quarters, and then the minutes. I think the water-jet will enable you all to hear what time it is. Listen! one, two, three, four;... ting-tang, ting-tang;... one, two, three, four, five, six. Six minutes after half-past four. You notice that not only did you hear the number of strokes, but the jet faithfully reproduced the musical notes, so that you could distinguish one note from the others.
I can in the same way make the jet play a tune by simply making the nozzle rest against a long stick, which is pressed upon a musical-box. The musical-box is carefully shut up in a double box of thick felt, and you can hardly hear anything; but the moment that the nozzle is made to rest against the stick and the water is directed upon the india-rubber sheet, the sound of the box is loudly heard, I hope, in every part of the room. It is usual to describe a fountain as playing, but it is now evident that a fountain can even play a tune. There is, however, one peculiarity which is perfectly evident. The jet breaks up at certain rates more easily than at others, or, in other words, it will respond to certain sounds in preference to others. You can hear that as the musical-box plays, certain notes are emphasized in a curious way, producing much the same effect that follows if you lay a penny upon the upper strings of a horizontal piano.
Now, on returning to our soap-bubbles, you may remember that I stated that the catenoid and the plane were the only figures of revolution which had no curvature, and which therefore produced no pressure. There are plenty of other surfaces which are apparently curved in all directions and yet have no curvature, and which therefore produce no pressure; but these are not figures of revolution, that is, they cannot be obtained by simply spinning a curved line about an axis. These may be produced in any quantity by making wire frames of various shapes and dipping them in soap and water. On taking them out a wonderful variety of surfaces of no curvature will be seen. One such surface is that known as the screw-surface. To produce this it is only necessary to take a piece of wire wound a few times in an open helix (commonly called spiral), and to bend the two ends so as to meet a second wire passing down the centre. The screw-surface developed by dipping this frame in soap-water is well worth seeing (Fig. 49). It is impossible to give any idea of the perfection of the form in a figure, but fortunately this is an experiment which any one can easily perform.
Then again, if a wire frame is made in the shape of the edges of any of the regular geometrical solids, very beautiful figures will be found upon them after they have been dipped in soap-water. In the case of the triangular prism these surfaces are all flat, and at the edges where these planes meet one another there are always three meeting each other at equal angles (Fig. 50). This, owing to the fact that the frame is three-sided, is not surprising. After looking at this three-sided frame with three films meeting down the central line, you might expect that with a four-sided or square frame there would be four films meeting each other in a line down the middle. But it is a curious thing that it does not matter how irregular the frame may be, or how complicated a mass of froth may be, there can never be more than three films meeting in an edge, or more than four edges, or six films, meeting in a point. Moreover the films and edges can only meet one another at equal angles. If for a moment by any accident four films do meet in the same edge, or if the angles are not exactly equal, then the form, whatever it may be, is unstable; it cannot last, but the films slide over one another and never rest until they have settled down into a position in which the conditions of stability are fulfilled. This may be illustrated by a very simple experiment which you can easily try at home, and which you can now see projected upon the screen. There are two pieces of window-glass about half an inch apart, which form the sides of a sort of box into which some soap and water have been poured. On blowing through a pipe which is immersed in the water, a great number of bubbles are formed between the plates. If the bubbles are all large enough to reach across from one plate to the other, you will at once see that there are nowhere more than three films meeting one another, and where they meet the angles are all equal. The curvature of the bubbles makes it difficult to see at first that the angles really are all alike, but if you only look at a very short piece close to where they meet, and so avoid being bewildered by the curvature, you will see that what I have said is true. You will also see, if you are quick, that when the bubbles are blown, sometimes four for a moment do meet, but that then the films at once slide over one another and settle down into their only possible position of rest (Fig. 51).
The air inside a bubble is generally under pressure, which is produced by its elasticity and curvature. If the bubble would let the air pass through it from one side to the other of course it would soon shut up, as it did when a ring was hung upon one, and the film within the ring was broken. But there are no holes in a bubble, and so you would expect that a gas like air could not pass through to the other side. Nevertheless it is a fact that gases can slowly get through to the other side, and in the case of certain vapours the process is far more rapid than any one would think possible.
Ether produces a vapour which is very heavy, and which also burns very easily. This vapour can get to the other side of a bubble almost at once. I shall pour a little ether upon blotting-paper in this bell jar, and fill the jar with its heavy vapour. You can see that the jar is filled with something, not by looking at it, for it appears empty, but by looking at its shadow on the screen. Now I tilt it gently to one side, and you see something pouring out of it, which is the vapour of ether. It is easy to show that this is heavy; it is only necessary to drop into the jar a bubble, and so soon as the bubble meets the heavy vapour it stops falling and remains floating upon the surface as a cork does upon water (Fig. 52). Now let me test the bubble and see whether any of the vapour has passed to the inside. I pick it up out of the jar with a wire ring and carry it to a light, and at once there is a burst of flame. But this is not sufficient to show that the ether vapour has passed to the inside, because it might have condensed in sufficient quantity upon the bubble to make it inflammable. You remember that when I poured some of this vapour upon water in the first lecture, sufficient condensed to so weaken the water-skin that the frame of wire could get through to the other side. However, I can see whether this is the true explanation or not by blowing a bubble on a wide pipe, and holding it in the vapour for a moment. Now on removing it you notice that the bubble hangs like a heavy drop; it has lost the perfect roundness that it had at first, and this looks as if the vapour had found its way in, but this is made certain by bringing a light to the mouth of the tube, when the vapour, forced out by the elasticity of the bubble, catches fire and burns with a flame five or six inches long (Fig. 53). You might also have noticed that when the bubble was removed, the vapour inside it began to pass out again and fell away in a heavy stream, but this you could only see by looking at the shadow upon the screen.
You may have noticed when I made the drops of oil in the mixture of alcohol and water, that when they were brought together they did not at once unite; they pressed against one another and pushed each other away if allowed, just as the water-drops did in the fountain of which I showed you a photograph. You also may have noticed that the drops of water in the paraffin mixture bounced against one another, or if filled with the paraffin, formed bubbles in which often other small drops, both of water and paraffin, remained floating.
In all these cases there was a thin film of something between the drops which they were unable to squeeze out, namely, water, paraffin, or air, as the case might be. Will two soap-bubbles also when knocked together be unable to squeeze out the air between them? This you can try at home just as well as I can here, but I will perform the experiment at once. I have blown a pair of bubbles, and now when I hit them together they remain distinct and separate (Fig. 54).
I shall next place a bubble on a ring, which it is just too large to get through. In my hand I hold a ring, on which I have a flat film, made by placing a bubble upon it and breaking it on one side. If I gently press the bubble with the flat film, I can push it through the ring to the other side (Fig. 55), and yet the two have not really touched one another at all. The bubble can be pushed backwards and forwards in this way many times.
I have now blown a bubble and hung it below a ring. To this bubble I can hang another ring of thin wire, which pulls it a little out of shape. Since the pressure inside is less than that corresponding to a complete sphere, and since it is greater than that outside, and this we can tell by looking at the caps, the curve is part of one of those represented by the dotted lines in C or E, Fig. 31. However, without considering the curve any more, I shall push the end of the pipe inside, and blow another bubble there, and let it go. It falls gently until it rests upon the outer bubble; not at the bottom, because the heavy ring keeps that part out of reach, but along a circular line higher up (Fig. 56). I can now drain away the heavy drops of liquid from below the bubbles with a pipe, and leave them clean and smooth all over. I can now pull the lower ring down, squeezing the inner bubble into a shape like an egg (Fig. 57), or swing it round and round, and then with a little care peel away the ring from off the bubble, and leave them both perfectly round every way (Fig. 58). I can draw out the air from the outer bubble till you can hardly see between them, and then blow in, and the harder I blow, the more is it evident that the two bubbles are not touching at all; the inner one is now spinning round and round in the very centre of the large bubble, and finally, on breaking the outer one the inner floats away, none the worse for its very unusual treatment.
There is a pretty variation of the last experiment, which, however, requires that a little green dye called fluorescine, or better, uranine, should be dissolved in a separate dish of the soap-water. Then you can blow the outer bubble with clean soap-water, and the inner one with the coloured water. Then if you look at the two bubbles by ordinary light, you will hardly notice any difference; but if you allow sunlight, or electric light from an arc lamp, to shine upon them, the inner one will appear a brilliant green, while the outer one will remain clear as before. They will not mix at all, showing that though the inner one is apparently resting against the outer one, there is in reality a thin cushion of air between.
Now you know that coal-gas is lighter than air, and so a soap-bubble blown with gas, when let go, floats up to the ceiling at once. I shall blow a bubble on a ring with coal-gas. It is soon evident that it is pulling upwards. I shall go on feeding it with gas, and I want you to notice the very beautiful shapes that it takes (Fig. 59, but imagine the globe inside removed). These are all exactly the curves that a water-drop assumes when hanging from a pipe, except that they are the other way up. The strength of the skin is now barely able to withstand the pull, and now the bubble breaks away just as the drop of water did.
I shall next place a bubble blown with air upon a ring, and blow inside it a bubble blown with a mixture of air and gas. It of course floats up and rests against the top of the outer bubble (Fig. 60). Now I shall let a little gas into the outer one, until the surrounding gas is about as heavy as the inner bubble. It now no longer rests against the top, but floats about in the centre of the large bubble (Fig. 61), just as the drop of oil did in the mixture of alcohol and water. You can see that the inner bubble is really lighter than air, because if I break the outer one, the inner one rises rapidly to the ceiling.
Instead of blowing the first bubble on a heavy fixed ring, I shall now blow one on a light ring, made of very thin wire. This bubble contains only air. If I blow inside this a bubble with coal-gas, then the gas-bubble will try and rise, and will press against the top of the outer one with such force as to make it carry up the wire ring and a yard of cotton, and some paper to which the cotton is tied (Fig. 62); and all this time, though it is the inner one only which tends to rise, the two bubbles are not really touching one another at all.
I have now blown an air-bubble on the fixed ring, and pushed up inside it a wire with a ring on the end. I shall now blow another air-bubble on this inner ring. The next bubble that I shall blow is one containing gas, and this is inside the other two, and when let go it rests against the top of the second bubble. I next make the second bubble a little lighter by blowing a little gas into it, and then make the outer one larger with air. I can now peel off the inner ring and take it away, leaving the two inner bubbles free, inside the outer one (Fig. 63). And now the multiple reflections of the brilliant colours of the different bubbles from one to the other, set off by the beautiful forms which the bubbles themselves assume, give to the whole a degree of symmetry and splendour which you may go far to see equalled in any other way. I have only to blow a fourth bubble in real contact with the outer bubble and the ring, to enable it to peel off and float away with the other two inside.
We have seen that bubbles and drops behave in very much the same way. Let us see if electricity will produce the same effect that it did on drops. You remember that a piece of electrified sealing-wax prevented a fountain of water from scattering, because where two drops met, instead of bouncing, they joined together. Now there are on these two rings bubbles which are just resting against one another, but not really touching (Fig. 64). The instant that I take out the sealing-wax you see they join together and become one (Fig. 65). Two soap-bubbles, therefore, enable us to detect electricity, even when present in minute quantity, just as two water fountains did.
We can use a pair of bubbles to prove the truth of one of the well-known actions of electricity. Inside an electrical conductor it is impossible to feel any influence of electricity outside, however much there may be, or however near you go to the surface. Let us, therefore, take the two bubbles shown in Fig. 56, and bring an electrified stick of sealing-wax near. The outer bubble is a conductor; there is, therefore, no electrical action inside, and this you can see because, though the sealing-wax is so near the bubble that it pulls it all to one side, and though the inner one is so close to the outer one that you cannot see between them, yet the two bubbles remain separate. Had there been the slightest electrical influence inside, even to a depth of a hundred-thousandth of an inch, the two bubbles would have instantly come together.
There is one more experiment which I must show, and this will be the last; it is a combination of the last two, and it beautifully shows the difference between an inside and an outside bubble. I have now a plain bubble resting against the side of the pair that I have just been using. The instant that I take out the sealing-wax the two outer bubbles join, while the inner one unharmed and the heavy ring slide down to the bottom of the now single outer bubble (Fig. 66).
And now that our time has drawn to a close I must ask you whether that admiration and wonder which we all feel when we play with soap-bubbles has been destroyed by these lectures; or whether now that you know more about them it is not increased. I hope you will all agree with me that the actions upon which such common and every-day phenomena as drops and bubbles depend, actions which have occupied the attention of the greatest philosophers from the time of Newton to the present day, are not so trivial as to be unworthy of the attention of ordinary people like ourselves.
PRACTICAL HINTS.
I hope that the following practical hints may be found useful by those who wish themselves to successfully perform the experiments already described.
Drop with India-rubber Surface.
A sheet of thin india-rubber, about the thickness of that used in air-balls, as it appears before they have been blown out, must be stretched over a ring of wood or metal eighteen inches in diameter, and securely wired round the edge. The wire will hold the india-rubber better if the edge is grooved. This does not succeed if tried on a smaller scale. This experiment was shown by Sir W. Thomson at the Royal Institution.
Jumping Frame.
This is easily made by taking a light glass globe about two inches in diameter, such, for instance, as a silvered ball used to ornament a Christmas-tree or the bulb of a pipette, which is what I used. Pass through the open necks of the bulb a piece of wire about one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, and fix it permanently and water-tight upon the wire by working into the necks melted sealing-wax. An inch or two above the globe, fasten a flat frame of thin wire by soldering, or if this is too difficult, by tying and sealing-wax. A lump of lead must then be fastened or hung on to the lower end, and gradually scraped away until the wire frame will just be unable to force its way through the surface of the water. None of the dimensions or materials mentioned are of importance.
Paraffined Sieve.
Obtain a piece of copper wire gauze with about twenty wires to the inch, and cut out from it a round piece about eight inches in diameter. Lay it on a round block, of such a size that it projects about one inch all round. Then gently go round and round with the hands pressing the edge down and keeping it flat above, until the sides are evenly turned down all round. This is quite easy, because the wires can allow of the kind of distortion necessary. Then wind round the turned-up edge a few turns of thick wire to make the sides stiff. This ought to be soldered in position, but probably careful wiring will be good enough.
Melt some paraffin wax or one or two paraffin candles of the best quality in a clean flat dish, not over the fire, which would be dangerous, but on a hot plate. When melted and clear like water, dip the sieve in, and when all is hot quickly take it out and knock it once or twice on the table to shake the paraffin out of the holes. Leave upside down until cold, and then be careful not to scratch or rub off the paraffin. This had best be done in a place where a mess is of no consequence.
There is no difficulty in filling it or in setting it to float upon water.
Narrow Tubes and Capillarity.
Get some quill-glass tube from a chemist, that is, tube about the size of a pen. If it is more than, say, a foot long, cut off a piece by first making a firm scratch in one place with a three-cornered file, when it will break at the place easily. To make very narrow tube from this, hold it near the ends in the two hands very lightly, so that the middle part is high up in the brightest part of an ordinary bright and flat gas flame. Keep it turning until at last it becomes so soft that it is difficult to hold it straight. It can then be bent into any shape, but if it is wanted to be drawn out it must be held still longer until the black smoke upon it begins to crack and peel up. Then quickly take it out of the flame, and pull the two ends apart, when a long narrow tube will be formed between. This can be made finer or coarser by regulating the heat and the manner in which it is pulled out. No directions will tell any one so much as a very little practice. For drawing out tubes the flame of a Bunsen burner or of a blow-pipe is more convenient; but for bending tubes nothing is so good as the flat gas flame. Do not clean off smoke till the tubes are cold, and do not hurry their cooling by wetting or blowing upon them. In the country where gas is not to be had, the flame of a large spirit-lamp can be made to do, but it is not so good as a gas-flame. The narrower these tubes are, the higher will clean water be observed to rise in them. To colour the water, paints from a colour-box must not be used. They are not liquid, and will clog the very fine tubes. Some dye that will quite dissolve (as sugar does) must be used. An aniline dye, called soluble blue, does very well. A little vinegar added may make the colour last better.
Capillarity between Plates.
Two plates of flat glass, say three to five inches square, are required. Provided they are quite clean and well wetted there is no difficulty. A little soap and hot water will probably be sufficient to clean them.
Tears of Wine.
These are best seen at dessert in a glass about half filled with port. A mixture of from two to three parts of water, and one part of spirits of wine containing a very little rosaniline (a red aniline dye), to give it a nice colour, may be used, if port is not available. A piece of the dye about as large as a mustard-seed will be enough for a large wine-glass. The sides of the glass should be wetted with the wine.
Cat-Boxes.
Every school-boy knows how to make these. They are not the boxes made by cutting slits in paper. They are simply made by folding, and are then blown out like the "frog," which is also made of folded paper.
Liquid Beads.
Instead of melting gold, water rolled on to a table thickly dusted with lycopodium, or other fine dust, or quicksilver rolled or thrown upon a smooth table, will show the difference in the shape of large and small beads perfectly. A magnifying-glass will make the difference more evident. In using quicksilver, be careful that none of it falls on gold or silver coins, or jewellery, or plate, or on the ornamental gilding on book-covers. It will do serious damage.
Plateau's Experiment.
To perform this with very great perfection requires much care and trouble. It is easy to succeed up to a certain point. Pour into a clean bottle about a table-spoonful of salad-oil, and pour upon it a mixture of nine parts by volume spirits of wine (not methylated spirits), and seven parts of water. Shake up and leave for a day if necessary, when it will be found that the oil has settled together by itself. Fill a tumbler with the same mixture of spirit and water, and then with a fine glass pipe, dipping about half-way down, slowly introduce a very little water. This will make the liquid below a little heavier. Dip into the oil a pipe and take out a little by closing the upper end with the finger, and carefully drop this into the tumbler. If it goes to the bottom, a little more water is required in the lower half of the tumbler. If by chance it will not sink at all, a little more spirit is wanted in the upper half. At last the oil will just float in the middle of the mixture. More can then be added, taking care to prevent it from touching the sides. If the liquid below is ever so little heavier, and the liquid above ever so little lighter than oil, the drop of oil perhaps as large as a halfpenny will be almost perfectly round. It will not appear round if seen through the glass, because the glass magnifies it sideways, but not up and down, as may be seen by holding a coin in the liquid just above it. To see the drop in its true shape the vessel must either be a globe, or one side must be made of flat glass.
Spinning the oil so as to throw off a ring is not material, but if the reader can contrive to fix a disc about the size of a threepenny-piece upon a straight wire, and spin it round without shaking it, then he will see the ring break off, and either return if the rotation is quickly stopped, or else break up into three or four perfect little balls. The disc should be wetted with oil before being dipped into the mixture of spirit and water.
A Good Mixture for Soap-Bubbles.
Common yellow soap is far better than most of the fancy soaps, which generally contain a little soap and a lot of rubbish. Castille soap is very good, and this may be obtained from any chemist.
Bubbles blown with soap and water alone do not last long enough for many of the experiments described, though they may sometimes be made to succeed. Plateau added glycerine, which greatly improves the lasting quality. The glycerine should be pure; common glycerine is not good, but Price's answers perfectly. The water should be pure distilled water, but if this is not available, clean rain-water will do. Do not choose the first that runs from a roof after a spell of dry weather, but wait till it has rained for some time, the water that then runs off is very good, especially if the roof is blue slate or glass. If fresh rain-water is not to be had, the softest water should be employed that can be obtained. Instead of Castille soap, Plateau found that a pure soap prepared from olive-oil is still better. This is called oleate of soda. It should be obtained freshly prepared from a manufacturing chemist. Old, dry stuff that has been kept a long time is not so good. I have always used a modification of Plateau's formula, which Professors Reinold and Rücker found to answer so well. They used less glycerine than Plateau. It is best made as follows. Fill a clean stoppered bottle three-quarters full of water. Add one-fortieth part of its weight of oleate of soda, which will probably float on the water. Leave it for a day, when the oleate of soda will be dissolved. Nearly fill up the bottle with Price's glycerine and shake well, or pour it into another clean bottle and back again several times. Leave the bottle, stoppered of course, for about a week in a dark place. Then with a syphon, that is, a bent glass tube which will reach to the bottom inside and still further outside, draw off the clear liquid from the scum which will have collected at the top. Add one or two drops of strong liquid ammonia to every pint of the liquid. Then carefully keep it in a stoppered bottle in a dark place. Do not get out this stock bottle every time a bubble is to be blown, but have a small working bottle. Never put any back into the stock. In making the liquid do not warm or filter it. Either will spoil it. Never leave the stoppers out of the bottles or allow the liquid to be exposed to the air more than is necessary. This liquid is still perfectly good after two years' keeping. I have given these directions very fully, not because I feel sure that all the details are essential, but because it exactly describes the way I happen to make it, and because I have never found any other solution so good. Castille soap, Price's glycerine, and rain-water will almost certainly answer every purpose, and the same proportions will probably be found to work well.
Rings for Bubbles.
These may be made of any kind of wire. I have used tinned iron about one-twentieth of an inch in diameter. The joint should be smoothly soldered without lumps. If soldering is a difficulty, then use the thinnest wire that is stiff enough to support the bubbles steadily, and make the joint by twisting the end of the wire round two or three times. Rings two inches in diameter are convenient. I have seen that dipping the rings in melted paraffin is recommended, but I have not found any advantage from this. The nicest material for the light rings is thin aluminium wire, about as thick as a fine pin (No. 26 to 30, B. W. G.), and as this cannot be soldered, the ends must be twisted. If this is not to be had, very fine wire, nearly as fine as a hair (No. 36, B. W. G.), of copper or of any other metal, will answer. The rings should be wetted with the soap mixture before a bubble is placed upon them, and must always be well washed and dried when done with.
Threads in Ring.
There is no difficulty in showing these experiments. The ring with the thread may be dipped in the soap solution, or stroked across with the edge of a piece of paper or india-rubber sheet that has been dipped in the liquid, so as to form a film on both sides of the thread. A needle that has also been wetted with the soap may be used to show that the threads are loose. The same needle held for a moment in a candle-flame supplies a convenient means of breaking the film.
Blow out Candle with Soap-Bubble.
For this, the bubble should be blown on the end of a short wide pipe, spread out at one end to give a better hold for the bubble. The tin funnel supplied with an ordinary gazogene answers perfectly. This should be washed before it is used again for filling the gazogene.
Bubbles balanced against one another.
These experiments are most conveniently made on a small scale. Pieces of thin brass tube, three-eighths or half an inch in diameter, are suitable. It is best to have pieces of apparatus, specially prepared with taps, for easily and quickly stopping the air from leaving either bubble, and for putting the two bubbles into communication when required. It should not be difficult to contrive to perform the experiments, using india-rubber connecting tubes, pinched with spring clips to take the place of taps. There is one little detail which just makes the difference between success and failure. This is to supply a mouth-piece for blowing the bubble, made of glass tube, which has been drawn out so fine that these little bubbles cannot be blown out suddenly by accident. It is very difficult, otherwise, to adjust the quantity of air in such small bubbles with any accuracy. In balancing a spherical against a cylindrical bubble, the short piece of tube, into which the air is supplied, must be made so that it can be easily moved to or from a fixed piece of the same size closed at the other end. Then the two ends of the short tube must have a film spread over them with a piece of paper, or india-rubber, but there must be no film stretched across the end of the fixed tube. The two tubes must at first be near together, until the spherical bubble has been formed. They may then be separated gradually more and more, and air blown in so as to keep the sides of the cylinder straight, until the cylinder is sufficiently long to be nearly unstable. It will then far more evidently show, by its change of form, than it would if it were short, when the pressure due to the spherical bubble exactly balances that due to a cylindrical one. If the shadow of the bubbles, or an image formed by a lens on a screen, is then measured, it will be found that the sphere has a diameter which is very accurately double that of the cylinder.
Thaumatrope for showing the Formation and Oscillations of Drops.
The experiment showing the formation of water-drops can be very perfectly imitated, and the movements actually made visible, without any necessity for using liquids at all, by simply converting Fig. 35 (at end of book) into the old-fashioned instrument called a thaumatrope. What will then be seen is a true representation, because the forms in the figure are copies of a series of photographs taken from the moving drops at the rate of forty-three photographs in two seconds.[2]