Publisher’s Note:
AMONG the experiments contained in this book, many are simple pastimes meant for the recreation of young and old, assembled round the family table.
Others, on the contrary, being of a really scientific character, are designed to introduce the reader to the study of Physics, that marvellous science to which we owe the discovery of the
steam-engine, the telephone, the phonograph, and many other wonders—a science which, there can be little doubt, holds in reserve many other miracles for man.
The whole of these experiments, whether simple or complex, may be performed without any special apparatus whatever, consequently without the least expense. Our improvised laboratory is
composed, as you will perceive, of such articles as kitchen utensils, corks, matches, glasses, knives, forks, and plates — in fact, such things as every house, the humblest in the land
possesses.
To the young person who wishes to make himself agreeable and entertaining in company, this book will be one of the most helpful in literature. It will show him not only how to do things by
which he can render himself more entertaining than the best talker or the best joker in the company, but will reveal to him a hundred things by which he can amuse and astonish everybody he
knows. For the experiments here displayed are not only entertaining, but instructive; not only amusing, but surprising; not only attractive to the young man and the maiden, but to the old man
and the matron. By means of the simplest and commonest objects, always at hand, the reader can illustrate some of the most wonderful things in science, and convey valuable instruction while
amusing his audience and creating a feeling of admiration for the amusement-maker.
To the teacher who wishes to create in his scholars an interest in science, no book can be of greater assistance. It will enable him practically to illustrate and enforce scientific principles,
and render his instructions as interesting as an Arabian tale.
