The Pharaoh’s Serpent demonstration

[Proclaimer]

The synthesis of mercury thiocyanate forming the “Pharaoh’s serpents” is a spectacular reaction first described nearly two hundred years ago. The volume of distinctive yellow branches that grow from a tiny quantity of flaming reactants makes this reaction look like a serpent or snake being created from nothing. Could this be how the Pharaoh’s magicians made serpents appear?

Exodus 7:8-13
⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. ¹² For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The Pharaoh’s Serpent demonstration

[Proclaimer]

Making the Pharaoh’s Serpent

If this is how they did it.

Perhaps they put the compound inside the top of their staffs. Then lit the top of the staff.

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