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Amoretti biscuits are sometimes served with a coffee, especially in Italian restaurants. But after you have eaten the biscuit, you can have fun with the paper wrapper. As well as cellulose fibres, many types of paper include fillers such as chalk or china clay. This makes it easier to write or print on the paper's surface. It also makes the paper heavier. But the paper wrappers on Amoretti biscuits are made from a particularly light weight paper, apparently without fillers, which makes this trick possible.

First flatten the paper, then roll it up into a loose tube, and stand it on one end. Light the top of the paper, ideally at both sides of the tube so that it burns evenly. It is important that there are no drafts, since that will simply cause the paper to fall over. The paper burns rapidly, and people that have not seen the trick can start to panic, and can sometimes try to blow it out or even throw a glass of water over the burning paper! But as the paper burns away, the paper that is left becomes lighter and lighter, and eventually, the last piece of the tube gets carried up into the air, on the updraft caused by the heat from the burning paper. At anything from 3 to 8 feet above the table, the last piece of the paper burns away, and a piece of black ash slowly descends. Magic!

Other paper items...

Pages from a book have been cleverly folded, creating the figure of an angel...

A paper item that can be folded different ways, to create different shapes...

A paper slinky, known as 'Flurry Fun'.

Finally, an amazing sheet of paper that Tim has just bought from Japan. Roll the paper up into a tube, and you have... a torch! There are a couple of very small batteries, attached to one end of the sheet, and the sheet is covered with an array of LEDs. The other side of the sheet does not have LEDs, but it has a metallic grid that covers it. When you bring the two sides of the sheet of paper into contact - for example by rolling the sheet up - the circuit is completed, and the LEDs light up. The paper torch. Amazing!