Physical Amusements and Diverting Experiments

The Italian showman who dazzled the courts and theatres of Europe in the 1780s describes his amusements and experiments, published in London during his performances there.

What’s inside

1. Restoring a drowned fly to life
2. Colour secrets — a colour that appears in the air, changing the colour of a rose, a blood-red colour, fine blue wax
3. Optical curiosities — a deformed figure that looks well proportioned from one point, making the company look hideous
4. Engraving in relief on an eggshell
5. The swallow shot and brought back to life
6. The calf’s head that bellows when served
7. Puzzles and wagers — a puzzling question, an agreeable wager you are sure to win
8. Card tricks — passing a card from hand to hand, changing a card a person is holding, a thought-of card written beforehand
9. Number divinations — guessing the points under each parcel, adding before the figures are set, guessing a struck-out number by smell
10. Sympathetic inks
11. Little automata — two figures that light and put out a candle, an artificial spider moved by electricity
12. Marksman feats — candles put out and lit by a pistol shot, a candle put out by a gun at a hundred paces
13. Useful secrets — cutting glass without a diamond, melting steel like lead, uniting wax and water, sealing a letter, a philosophical mushroom
14. The flying ring and the jumping penknife
15. To pull off a person’s shirt without undressing him

Giuseppe Pinetti, 1784. Complete 70-page PDF. Free to download: check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page.

This classic is in the public domain. Scans come from library copies, so expect the odd stain or stamp of an old book.