Trees Made of Chemicals

This experiment is one of the easiest, yet one of the most showy that you can perform. Get a tall gas jar, or if this is not handy, a glass tumbler will do. Place in it a tea spoonful of water glass. This is the syrupy liquid which chemists sell for picking eggs. Then fill up with water and stir well so that the water glass is well mixed.

When the solution has become still, drop into it one or two crystals each of cooper sulphate, nickel sulphate, and iron sulphate. The three are not necessary to perform the experiment if you cannot obtain them; any individual one will do, but the three provide more variety.

Now place the glass or jar in a position where it will not be agitated. In about an hour you will observe tendrils and other tree-like formations pushing their way up to the surface. Leave for a few days and these growths will have become particularly attractive. You will processes a forest in a bottle! The “tree” will be in various colours.