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TRICKS AND PUZZLES

Any one who wishes to play a trick or show off a puzzle should test it privately, before attempting to show it before company, for often, owing to some slight error, the trick may at first prove a failure, whereas a little practice will soon make one perfect.

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THE DANCING EGG

Get a hard-boiled egg and place it on the reverse side of a smooth polished plate or bread-platter.  If you now turn the plate round while holding it in a horizontal position, the egg, which is in the middle of it, will turn round also, and as the pace is quickened, the egg will move more and more quickly, until it stands up on one end and spins round like a top.  In order to be quite sure that the experiment will succeed, you should keep the egg upright while it is being boiled, so that the inside may be hardened in the proper position.

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THE MAGIC THREAD

Soak a piece of thread in a solution of salt or alum (of course, your audience must not know you have done this).  When dry, borrow a very light ring and fix it to the thread.  Apply the thread to the flame of a candle; it will burn to ashes, but will still support the ring.

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THE SWIMMING NEEDLES

There are several ways of making a needle float on the surface of the water.

The simplest way is to place a piece of tissue paper on the water and lay the needle on it; the paper soon becomes soaked with water and sinks to the bottom, while the needle is left floating on the top.

Another method is to hang the needle in two slings made of threads, which must be carefully drawn away as soon as the needle floats.

You can also make the needle float by simply holding it in your fingers and laying it on the water.  This, however, requires a very steady hand.

If you magnetize a sewing-needle by rubbing it on a fairly strong magnet and float it on the water, it will make an extremely sensitive compass; and if you place two needles on the water at the same time, you will see them slowly approach each other until they float side by side, that is, if they do not strike together so heavily as to cause them to sink.

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THE BRIDGE OF KNIVES

Three knives may be supported by their handles in the following manner:  Place three glasses in a triangle, each side of which must be about the length of one of the knives.  The blade of the first knife should rest on the blade of the second, by passing over it near to the point where the handle and blade are joined; the blade of the second passing in the same manner over the blade of the third, which is to be made to rest on the blade of the first.  The handles being then carefully placed upon the glasses, a bridge is formed strong enough to bear a considerable weight.