Transcriber’s Notes:
The Table of Contents follows the body of the text.
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at theend.
PHYSICAL
AMUSEMENTS
AND DIVERTING
EXPERIMENTS.
PHYSICAL
AMUSEMENTS
AND DIVERTING
EXPERIMENTS.
COMPOSED AND PERFORMED IN DIFFERENT
CAPITALS OF EUROPE, AND IN LONDON.
By Signor GIUSEPPE PINETTI,
DE WILDALLE,
KNIGHT OF THE GERMAN ORDER OF MERIT OF
ST. PHILIP, PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS
AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, PENSIONED
BY THE COURT OF PRUSSIA, PATRONIZED
BY ALL THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE,
AGGREGATE OF THE ROYAL
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
AND BELLES LETTRES
OF BORDEAUX, &C.
LONDON:
PRINTED IN THE YEAR M DCC LXXXIV.
PREFACE.
The honour of performing severalphysical amusements beforetheir Britannic Majesties and theRoyal Family, was an event thatflattered my ambition in the highestdegree. To obtain their suffrages,and those of that part of this enlightenednation, before which I have repeatedthe same experiments and amusementsat the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market,was the summit of my wishes.Having obtained these two desirableends, I blessed the moments Ihad devoted to the study of naturalphilosophy and mathematics; to themI am indebted for these inestimableadvantages.
Some invidious hints insinuatedrelative to the means I practisedfor performing these several experimentscame to trouble the happinessI enjoyed. The opportunitiesI had of demonstrating publicly thesimplicity and fairness of the executionof my experiments, which hadappeared complicated to such a degreeas to require a confederate, have putme in the happy way of destroyingthose unfavourable impressions, andof undeceiving t