The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-07-18
FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.
Experiments.
FOR THE BOYS.

prise most persons by declaring that
paper, tender as it seems to be, is really
substance of exceeding strength.
Would you prove it to be so? 1t is
easily done.
Take a half sheet Of "foolscap" and
gum each end to a smooth, strong bar
or rod of wood. These bars must be
longer than the paper is wide, so that
each will project three or four inches on
both sides beyond the edges of the
sheet. In putting the paper upon the
sticks, carefully arrange them to n par
allel, and see that the paper is smoothly
laid. Your apparatus is then complete,
and you need wait, before using it, only
until it becomes thoroughly dry.
Then select friend, and each of you
grasp the ends of one of the bars as
handles. You may sit upon the carpet,
if you choose, and place your feet to-
gether, and, thus braced, you are ready
for the struggle. Pull steadily, at first
gently, tut gradually with more and
more strength-do not jerk, nor twist,
but pull steadily and squarely length
wise of the sheet. You may find your
selves unable to pull the sheet apart.
Not long ago, two good strong young
men, in my presence, and much to the
amusement of their classmates, found
themselves too weak to break half
sheet of letter paper Try it.
Now think of this. The paper is
made up of very small particles. Why
can you not pull them asunder? There
must evidently be some force among
them by which they are so firmly held
together. What shall we call it? Let
us give it the name by which philoso-
piers know it. 1t is called attraction.
Attraction binds the particles so firmly
together that the strength of two per-
sons is severely taxed to overcome it.
And this, too, in so tender a thing as
paper; what, then, may be expected of
1t III so strong a substance as iron? L
will tell you. A rod of good cast-steel
an inch i'll diameter will bear pull of
more than sixty thousand pounds at
each end before the attraction among
its particles will yield and the rod break.
FOR THE GIRLS.
Is not looking glass pleasant thing
to look upon? If looking into one
glass will show us pretty effects and
give us some pleasure, what must hap
pen IL we look into two at once? Do
not ask me, but go directly to the mir
rors and ask them.
Take two looking glasses of conven-
lent size, and stand them on their edges
upon table so that they are open like
the letter V. Next put your own face
down at the opening of the V and look
In you will find q aOhOle circle Of little
girls already in there to greet YOU
They watch you intently. If you smile,
each one smiles in return but the least
frown from you will drive all their
smiles away and sadden all their faces
You will surely be pleased with this
"surprise party"
If there are too many guests for your
convenience, then make the opening OF
the V wider by moving one or both the
mirrors outward, and they will take
their departure, one after another, until
only single individual is left. But if
the party is too small, just make the
opening of the V narrower, by moving
the mirrors gradually closer together
and the guests will enter, one by one.
until your circle is crowded even to its
utmost capacity. The opening of the
V is the open door; open it more
widely, and your guests depart; but
shut it more closely, and they not only
remain, but others enter.
Open the mirrors until they shall
make right angle, that is to say, until
one being lengthwise of the table, the
other stands directly across it, and then
put vase of flowers between them.
Three other vases make their appear
ance; there are four instead of one. Is
it not very pretty way to arrange bou-
quets?
Now these pictures, or, as they are
properly called, images, are painted by
the light that goes away from your face
or from your vase to fall upon the sur
faces of the mirrors. When a ball is
thrown against the floor it bounds away
again, and when light falls upon a mir
ror it, too, bounds away. You NAV
catch the ball on your hand, but the
light you may catch in your eye. If it
starts from your face and bounds back
into your eye the light enables you 20
see your image in the glass. But some
of the light bounds away from the sur
face of one glass and strikes against the
surface of the other, and then bounds
from thence into your eye, and this en-
ables you to see second image. In
deed, the light which starts from your
face bounds back and forth from one
mirror to the other, and at every bound
portion of it is thrown into your eye.
In this way the several images are pro-
duced.
The student of natural philosophy
has another word to describe this mo-
ton of the light. Instead of saying
that the light bounds away from the
mirror, he declares that the light is re-
fected by the mirror.
How many and how beautiful are the
effects produced by the reflection of
light! The sky, with all its floating
clouds or shining stars, is painted in
every pool of water because the light
from them, falling upon the surface of
the water, is reflected to our eyes.
Rock, and shrubbery, and dwellings,
and meadows, along the banks of the
quiet lake or smoothly flowing river, are
pictured in the water with skill exceed
ing that of any human artist.
We see by reflected light. Seldom,
indeed, do we get the direct rays of
light into the eye, but the sunbeams fall