MANY strange and unaccountable occurrences are attributed by ignorant people to “animal magnetism,” some even going to such an extreme as to refuse to shake hands with other persons for fear of parting with some of their precious magnetic properties. Where there is much smoke there must be some fire, as the old adage goes, and although the marvellous stories current in a certain class of literature are wholly untrue, animal electricity undoubtedly exists. All boys who use a comb to smooth out their tangled locks upon a cold winter morning, no doubt hear and wonder at the crackling of the electricity as the comb passes through their hair. Many of my readers have probably tormented poor puss by holding her in a dark closet, and watching the sparks fly from her fur as, with a pitiless hand, it was briskly rubbed the wrong way until a severe scratch or bite from the cat warned them that she took no interest in such scientific experiments. A less cruel and more entertaining experiment is to cut out a lot of little paper figures, and the next cold day, when your hair begins to snap and stand on end in its effort to follow the electrified comb, hold the comb over the figures; the little puppets will immediately appear to be endowed with life and commence to jump and dance, or stick to each other and to the comb (Fig. 237), as if fastened by glue. Often one little figure will stand on his head, and another, fixing himself by one hand, hold his tiny form upright in a most comical manner; sometimes they will form themselves into long strings and go through all manner of queer and seemingly intelligent movements. The same result can be produced by rubbing a piece of gutta-percha smartly upon a piece of woolen cloth, and then holding it over the paper puppets. When one of those intensely cold waves from the North strikes the country and frightens the mercury in the thermometers, until it retreats down to the very bottom of its glass tube, electricity is often so easily generated that I have known persons to light a gas-jet by simply applying the ends of their fingers to the burners. A certain professor, well known to the public, was so startled at seeing the gas blaze up upon touching the burner with his finger, that he dropped into a sitting posture upon the floor, and there, with his feet spread apart, and his eyes and mouth open, he presented a perfect picture of astonishment and wonder.
To Light the Gas with your Finger,
turn it on without applying a light, walk around the room, sliding your feet over the carpet, until you again reach the burner, touch the tip of the burner and instantly the light will blaze up as if by magic.
From what has been already said, the reader will understand that the gas-jet experiment is only successful under peculiar conditions of the atmosphere. Do not try to turn on the gas with one hand and light it with the other, for as soon as the first hand touches the metal key the electricity is expended, and there is none left in the other hand to ignite the gas. Turn the gas on first, walk around the room in the manner described, and touch nothing with your hand before it is applied to the burner.
There are many other experiments that may be tried by boys interested in this subject, but as they necessitate more or less complicated and expensive instruments they are omitted, it being the object of this book to describe only such things as can be manufactured by the boys themselves.