The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1899-03-22
A Bit Of Magic

In the course Of his experiments
thr other day Prof n. fuTan. OF
Columbia College. New York. did n
very remarkable thlnE lie made
water boil BY simply holding his
handa around the outside ~ the bot
,ie which contained H. lie also made
the waiss boil ~ dAHhtas o. pauFin
wAtcr against the nldes 81 the bot
tie. n was a very curious trick. and
one well calculated 10 excite seadef
~ the secret be- not known. Yet AIRY
boy may perform u in hls own bone
with little trouble.
No apparatus except a bottle tr
needed. The bottle. however.
should be one with q long. thin neck
Prof. Pupin used ore which looked
like those used 10 decorate the shsl-
YES Of French and italian fcstaur-
ants. Such bottles generally arr
wound with straw 10 prevent break.
age, and restaurant keeper viii
sell one for n few pennies.
F1n your bottle half fun ~ wa
ter and place u over a Eas jet or a
flame until the water boiia When II
boila fercely. remove the fame and
at the same time quickly place n
cork in the mouth Of the bottle. OF
course. the water In the bottle VIII
instantly stop boiling whom the
fame IL removed. but " you now
turn the bottle upside down and
pour water on the outside. the wa
ter within viii again boil aefeelr,
~ al this juneture you take the
bottle twlthout the fiamsl into an
other room fun sf unsuspeetlnE pso-
pie. and show them how 10 boil wa
ter with water" they VIII b. very
much surprised. But you Will add 10
their establishment u In y moment
when the bottle has becume cold
enouEh). you Will place both ~ your
hands around the outside % the bot
tie. foe the water inside VIII agala
boil ferreiy-
Any hoy who owns "a bicycle pump
may add % the FUN Of the occasion.
lie will be able 10 do exactly the op.
ponite OF the above. That r.. he VIII
be able to do exactly the opposite
Of the above. That is. he vii he
able 10 make water stop boiling
even when there u name burning
brightly under u. To do this u IL
necessary to merely pump afr into
the bottle In which the water is boil
ing. No matter how violent the wa
ter may be boiling. it viii cease do
ing 10 the instant fresh air IT. pump
ed into the bottle. You may attach
the pump to the mouth Of the bot
tie by means OF a shor, length OF
rubber tubing.
Now the reason for the above phe-
nouana II very simple. u Is all n
auesTion % how hard the utmo-
spherc presses down on the surface
OF the boiling water 4 column Of
air many miles hlgh presses down
on everything on the garth. When
water bolts It must generate heat
and power enough to overcome the
pressing % this air on Ito surface.
II you we're somehow 10 ren.ye this
pressing air. water would boil more
quickly and at. lower temperature
than u does ordinarily. on the top
Of a very high mountain or In va
CUM. water viii boil NJ a low tenn
parature. Now. when u the first
instance. you took the flame from
under your bottle mouth YOU thus
prevented the air from pressing on
the water at a moment when the
bottle contained nothing but water
and steam. when you turned the
bottle upside down you effectively
prevented any more air from getting
inside. There was. ~ course. n small
empty space between the surface OF
the water and the bottom tnow the
toni OF the bottle. There WAS va
cuum there. You viii remember that
the water must yet have been quito
hot after you removed the dame. II
was, In fact. nearly at the boiling
point in ordinary air, yet YOU sud
denly removed that air pressure and
placed the fluid In vacuum. II
would now boil at much lower
tempernture than before. md being
already quite hot. the heat Of your
hands around the warm bottle was
quite sufficient TO set II on.