The World's Encyclopedia of Wonders and Curiosities

Everything a Victorian found astonishing, gathered into one enormous volume — burning springs and buried cities, freaks of storm and flood, the habits of bees and the manners of nations, filed under headings like “Curiosities Respecting Man.”

Appendix

42 pages in this part of Wonders and Curiosities.

Amusing Recreations

WHICH MAY BE PERFORMED WITH EASE, AND AT A SMALL EXPENSE. - A Person having an even Number of Coumers in one Hand, and an odd Number in the…

Example I

No. in right hand. 18 3 No. in left hand. 7 2 - 54. 54 14 - - 14 68 sum of the products.

Example I: Numbers

To find the Difference between any two Numbers, the greater of which is unknown.

Example I: Henry

He privately deducts 22, his own age, from 99, and the difference, which is 77, he tells Henry to add to his age, and to take away the…

Example I: Multiply

Double the order is Add Multiply by...

Example I: Take

Take a solid body, the specific gravity of which is less than that of water, deal, or fir-wood, for instance, and put it into each of the…

Example I: Water

To hold a Glass full of Water with the Mouth downwards, so that the Water shall not run out.

Example I: Power

The following Experiment shews the Power of Attraction. If we take two pieces of lead, as two musket or pistol balls, and with a knife…

Example I: Experiments

Experiments to shew the Power of Repulsion.

Example I: Experiment

The following Experiment shews the Power of Steam.

Example I: Boil

Get a vessel of hot water, and put a phial into it, with the mouth downwards; the expanded air will bubble out. Let the water cool, or pour…

Example I: Symmer

A curious Experiment made by Mr. Symmer, on the Electricity of Silk Stockings.

Example I: Voltaic

Cheap and Easy Method of constructing a Voltaic Pile. Mr. Mitchell, in his useful little work on natural philosophy, proposes the following…

Example I: Suspend

Put a piece of iron in one scale of a balance, and an equal weight in the other scale; bring a magnet under the scale which contains the…

Example I: Artificial

Artificial Coruscations. or There is a method of producing artificial coruscations sparkling fiery meteors, which will be visible not only…

Diagrams of Experiments

DG H . considerable quantities of which are brought to Bristol, and enter into the composition of china ware. By means of two pieces of…

Diagrams of Experiments: Hydraulic

A curious Hydraulic Experiment, called the Magical Bottle. Take a small bottle, (see Plate) AB, Fig. 9, the neck of which must be very…

Diagrams of Experiments: Sympathetic

A Sympathetic Gold Ink of the Second Class. - Put as much gold into a small quantity of aqua-regia as will dissolve it, and then dilute it…

Diagrams of Experiments: Winter

An Experiment with Sympathetic Ink, called Winter changed to Spring.

Append X

where they accumulate, and at length perish when entirely deprived of moisture. Previously to this, they appear in great distress, writhe…

Appeni IX

ween through the same instrument, exhibits every where a polish exceedingly beautiful, without the least flaw, blemish, or inequality, and…

The Barometer

Rules for judging of and predicting the State of the Weather by the Barometer.

The Barometer: Impression

To take the Impression of the Wings of a Butterfly in all their Colours.

The Barometer: Experiments

Instead of black, any other colour may be used. Verdigris makes a pleasant green; and by adding yellow ochre, or Prussian blue, you may…

The Barometer: Fifteen

Thirty Soldiers having deserted, so to place them in a Ring, that you may save any Fifteen you please, and it shall seem the Effect of…

The Barometer: Josephus

It is reported that Josephus, the author of the Jewish History, escaped the danger of death by means of this problem; for being governor of…

The Barometer: Number

To find the least Number of Weights, that will weigh from One Pound to Forty.

The Barometer: Glasses

To break a Stick which rests upon two Wine Glasses, without injuring the Glasses.

The Barometer: Archimedes

Vitruvius, in his Architecture, reports, that Hiero, king of Sicily, having employed an artist to make a crown of pure gold, which was…

The Barometer: Take

Take two bottles, which are as nearly equal as possible, both in neck and belly, and let one be filled with oil, and the other with water…

The Barometer: Body

How to prevent a heavy Body from falling, by adding another heavier Body to it on that side towards which it inclines. On the edge of a…

The Barometer: Recreation

An ingenious Recreation, called the Two Communicative Busts. Take two heads of plaster of Paris, and place them on pedestals on the…

The Barometer: Experiment

A curious Experiment, of nearly the same kind as the last, called Optical Augmentation.

The Barometer: Square

This, in arithmetic, is a square figure made up of numbers in arithn.etical proportion, so disposed in parallel and equal ranks, that the…

Temperance and Intemperance

LIQUORS, with their EFFECTS in their usual Order. 70- Water. 60- Milk and Water 50 Small Beer 40--- -- Cider and Perry 30- Wine ....... 20…

Temperance and Intemperance: Burning-glasses

Bowthorpe oak, 382 Bread-fruit tree, 372 Bread, old, curious account of, 807 Bridge, great trestle, 837 Bridge, great suspension, 843…

Temperance and Intemperance: Cave

Carrier, or courier pigeon, 244 Carthage, ancient grandeur of. 542 Case, John, celebrated quack doctor, 113 Catching a hare, curious custom…

Temperance and Intemperance: England

F Fact, the most extraordinary on record. 744 Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, curious effects of, Fairy rings, 667 390 Cleopatra's barge, 822…

Temperance and Intemperance: John

Hair, ancient and modern opinions respecting the, 29 Halo, or corona, and similar appearances, 680 Hand-fasting, Harmattan, 511 Heat…

Temperance and Intemperance: Human

Mahometan paradise, 811 Maiden, 599 beria, Man-turtle, the, 827 170 Horse. remarkable instances of sagacity in a, Magnetic experiments, 876…

Temperance and Intemperance: Obelisk

Obelisk, the Egyptian, in New York Central Park, 844 Obelisk, remarkable, near Forres, in Scotland, 573 Okey Hole, 458 Orang-Outang, 178…

Temperance and Intemperance: Stone-eater

Stone, the meteoric, 401 Stone, the Labrador, 402 Stone, the changeable, 404 Stone-eater, remarkable account of, 94 Stonehenge, 592 Storks…

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of Wonders and Curiosities (1900) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.