Needles and Pins Made to Float
Take an ordinary pin, thoroughly dry. This is an object which water can moisten, but less easily than glass. If, by some means or other, you can manage to lay it on the water without wetting it, you will see the water take a convex shape on either side of the pin, and this latter, displacing a proportionate body of water, will float on the surface, just as a lucifer match would do. The same experiment may be performed with a needle, and it must not be supposed that a very fine needle or pin alone is suitable.