osphorus into a clear glass phial, and stop it
with a glass stopper, or a cork and sealing-wax. If this wire be kept
in a darkened room (which for this experiment must be very dark) it
will give no light; but let two or three strong sparks be drawn from
the prime conductor, when the phial is kept about two inches distant
from the sparks, so that it may be exposed to that light, and this
phial will receive the light and afterwards will appear illuminated
for a considerable time.

This powder may be stuck upon a board by means of the white of an egg,
so as to represent figures of planets, letters, or any thing else, at
the pleasure of the operator, and these figures may be illuminated in
the dark, in the same manner as the above described phial.

A beautiful method of expressing geometrical figures with the above
powder, is to bend small glass tubes, of about the tenth part of an
inch diameter, in the shape of the figure desired, and then to fill
them with the phosphoric powder. These may be illuminated in the
manner described; and they are not so subject to be spoiled, as the
figures represented upon the board frequently are.

_The Luminous Writing._

Small pieces of tin-foil may be stuck on a flat piece of glass, so as
to represent various fanciful figures. Upon the same principle is the
word LIGHT produced, in luminous characters.

It is formed by the small separations of the tin-foil pasted on a
piece of glass fixed in a frame of baked wood. To use this, the frame
must be held in the hand, and the ball presented to the conductor. The
spark will then be exhibited in the intervals composing the word, from
whence it passes to the hook, and thence to the ground by a chain. The
brilliancy of this is equal to that of the spiral tubes.

_The Electric Explosion._

Take a card, a quire of paper, or the cover of a book; and keep it
close to the outside coating of a charged jar: put one knob of the
discharging-rod upon the card, quire of paper, &c., so that, between
the knob and coating of the jar, the thickness of that card or quire
of paper only is interposed; lastly, by bringing the other knob of the
discharged rod near the knob of the jar, make the discharge, and the
electric spark will pierce a hole (or perhaps several) quite through
the card or quire of paper. This hole has a bur raised on each side,
except the card, &c., be pressed hard between the discharging-rod and
the jar. If this experiment be made with t