The Magic Javelin. "Magical Experiments or Science in Play" by Arthur Good. Philadelphia: David McKay, (1894).
Take a medium-sized sewing-needle with a very sharp point. Take up a position about three feet away from a wooden wainscot or door, and, holding the needle between your finger and thumb, endeavor, strongly launching it, to throw it, point forward, into the wood. No matter what your skill and perseverance, you will not succeed.
Now pass through the eye of the needle a simple bit of thread, and you will be successful in the feat without the slightest difficulty. The little light "make-weight" that you have added to your impromptu javelin transforms it into a veritable arrow, and causes the point, given the impulsion, to strike the object aimed at and "to stick."
The Magic Javelin. "Magical Experiments or Science in Play" by Arthur Good. Philadelphia: David McKay, (1894).
Take a medium-sized sewing-needle with a very sharp point. Take up a position about three feet away from a wooden wainscot or door, and, holding the needle between your finger and thumb, endeavor, strongly launching it, to throw it, point forward, into the wood. No matter what your skill and perseverance, you will not succeed.
Now pass through the eye of the needle a simple bit of thread, and you will be successful in the feat without the slightest difficulty. The little light "make-weight" that you have added to your impromptu javelin transforms it into a veritable arrow, and causes the point, given the impulsion, to strike the object aimed at and "to stick."