Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — “Prince Rupert’s Drops." [ARTICLE]

“Prince Rupert’s Drops."

The most wondrous wonder of the glees maker's art is the result of a philosophical experiment and is known toeeisstists as “Prince Rupert's Drop.” These glass drops known by a Prince’s same ass simply the drippings of molten pear or tadpole shaped,” their curious properties being the result of their befog suddenly glazed and their pores covered by coming in contact with water whoa at a white heat. One of these “drops'*' ean be removed from the water mod smartly hammered without pausing m fracture, but if the stnaiier end has hot the slightest atom clipped from ha surface the whole object instantly bursts with explosive violence and disappears aa fine dust. The theory of this phenomenon is that its particles, when in fusion, are in a stated repulsion; but,npon be-' ing dropped into tbe water, its snperficea are annealed and the atoms return into the power of each other’s attraction, the inner particles, atilt in a state of repulsion, being confined within tbeir outward covering.—[St. Louis Republic.