Rational Recreations

The great 18th-century collection of experiments in numbers and natural philosophy, all four volumes in one file. Arithmetical card and number tricks, mechanical, optical, magnetic and chemical amusements, each explained so you can perform it. This scan is the 1787 London edition.

What’s inside

1. Arithmetic — Vol. I: properties of numbers, the Roman abacus, recreations with numbers and dice
2. Combinations of the cards — card arrangements and recreations at piquet
3. Writing in cypher — secret messages with cards, the mystical dial, the musical cypher
4. Mechanics — levers and pulleys, clocks, the sailing chariot, the uninvertible carriage
5. Optics: dioptrics — Vol. II: lenses, the dark chamber, lantern shows
6. Optics: catoptrics — mirrors and reflections, the animated optic balls
7. Chromatics — the colours of light, the real apparition
8. Acoustics — sound, the communicative busts
9. Electricity — Vol. III: the electric machine and electrical recreations
10. Magnetism — artificial magnets, the magnetic wand, the magnetical and mechanical table
11. Pneumatics — Vol. IV: the air pump, the barometer, artificial rain and hail
12. Hydrology — syphons and pumps, the water-clock, fountains, the hydraulic dancer
13. Pyrotechnics — the properties of fire, phosphorus, illuminations
14. Chemical recreations — Appendix: colour-changing liquids, magical vegetation, the tree of Diana
15. Recreations of address and dexterity — card tricks, the magic ring, the penetrative guinea
16. An artificial memory — remembering numbers, dates and words

William Hooper, 1774. 1,434-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.