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There is at the present time a great number of inquiring minds among the working classes of this kingdom, and a still greater number of the young of all classes thirsting for information, who in entering upon a course of general reading must be greatly at a loss for many things which are familiarly alluded to in ordinary conversation, with which every- body is understood to be acquainted, or would have people to think so, but which, in reality, are only familiar to persons who have been living for a considerable time in intimate converse with the world. Yiii PREFACE. The " Historical Account of Useful Inventions and Discoveries in Science," is intended in some measure to supply such information to the anxious inquirer after knowledge. Of the numerous arti- cles here treated of, it will be perceived that each has been traced to its origin in as lucid a style as possible, and in so doing we have endeavoured to combine instruction with amusement. As a proof of this we need only refer to the table of Contents, C N T E N T S. PAGE. " Printing . . . . . .11 Stereotype . . . . > .25 Engraving on Wood . . . . .27 " Copper .... 28 " " Steel ..... 30 Lithography ..... 32 Paper ....... 36 Paper Hanging . . . . . 41 Painting . . . . . .45 Statuary . . . . , . 48 Drawing ...... 55 Architecture .... 62 Chain Bridges . . . . . .68 Clocks ...... 69 Watches . , 74 Water Clocks 77 Spinning ...... 80 Stocking Manufacture . . . . 8i CONTENTS. Coaches .... 9 Saddles, &c. .... 104 Horse-Shoes . . . . . 107 Gunpowder .... 111 Guns .. . 114 Astronomy .... 119 Navigation . . 155 Light-Houses .... 159 Electricity .... . 167 Electric Telegraph .... 169 Steam-Engines .... , 171 Mills 195 Saw -Mills . . . .. , 211 Forks . 2H Music - . . 219 Sealing- Wax, Seals, &. 22& Black Lead Pencils . . , . 234 Coloured Glass .... 236 Etching on Glass, and Glass-cutting . 240 Hydrometers .... 245 USEFUL INVENTIONS. PRINTING. AMONG the many arts and sciences cultivated in society, some are only adapted to supply our natural wants, or assist our infirmities ; some are mere instruments of luxury, calculated to flatter pride, to gratify vanity, and to satisfy our desires of every description ; whilst others tend at once to secure, to accommodate, delight, and give consequence to man. Of this latter kind, Printing undoubtedly stands pre- eminent; and if viewed in its full extent, it may be truly said to possess a very considerable portion not only of the comforts, but the conveniences and positive utilities of life. The advantages derived from this invention must be acknowledged by all, this art has proved the principal step towards civilization : by it has Christianity been propagated ; and by its power- ful means are we made acquainted with all that is useful in knowledge, in art, and science. It would take the pen of an inspired writer to enumerate all the blessings which flow from it. It is a patent en- gine which possesses a preponderating influence over the mind of man either for good or evil, according as it is used. 12 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. As we proceed we will have frequent occasion to express our feelings in grateful eulogium, when con- sidering the benefits resulting to society from various ingenious inventions and discoveries ; but when we consider the advantages derived from the typographic art, it appears like a vortex, drawing every other sensation into its deep interest, and engulphing every consideration, so that we can think of nothing but printing, and its extensive catalogue of benefits. This interest is wonderfully increased, whether it be viewed on account of its ingenuity, the extent of its benefits, or the benevolence of its objects. In whatever point of view we behold it, whether as a medium for giving the utmost facility to the despatch of the common concerns of life ; or as affording the eager mind of the philosophic inquirer the ready means to gratify the inquisitive thirst of his knowledge; in every species of mental intelligence, the rapid facility which it affords to the multiplication of those mediums of com- munication, by which knowledge is promulgated in every part of the earth. We are at a loss for a term sufficiently comprehensive to express our sense of the infinite importance of those advantages which accrue to mankind from the invention of an art so replete with important consequences, which we hourly per- ceive to emanate from typography. We need there- fore scarcely offer an apology for inserting a brief his- tory of this divine art in our pages. The earliest specimens of printing which have been discovered, consist in the stamped marks on the bricks and tiles used in building the tower and city of Babel, and which may be dated as far back as two thousand two hundred years before Christ. A number of these stamped clay materials of Babel are still preserved in antiquarian repositories. It is remarkable that they generally differ in shape and appearance, and that the letters or words, which are in ancient character, seem to have been stamped by the hand with moveable PRINTING. 13 blocks. In Trinity College, Cambridge, some curious specimens are preserved, one of which is a round piece of clay, seven inches in height, and three in thickness at the end, resembling a barrel, being thickest at the middle. This interesting relic, this Chaldean book, is entirely covered with lines of letters and words running from the one end to the other ; from its portable character it may be called a pocket volume, and one which cannot be less than four thousand years old. It is mounted on a marble pedestal, covered with a glass case, secured by an iron bracket, and so contrived that the curious in- spector may cause it to revolve on its marble base ; but the greatest care is taken of this valuable relic of antiquity. It appears to have been printed by two moulds, and at the middle of the circumference a small blank square has been left, in case as it is sup- posed, room should be required for a portion of the clay to escape in the action of compression. Next to these extremely ancient stamped bricks, in point of interest and antiquity, are specimens of the earliest engraving of letters on stone. We are informed by various historical writers that Cadmus, a Phoenician, who lived one thousand five hundred years before Christ, at a period contemporary with Moses, and who was esteemed as the builder of the city of Thebes, was the first who taught the Greeks the use of alphabetic symbols, an art he most likely acquired from the Hebrews. The most ancient spe- cimen of an engraved inscription now known to be extant, is the Sigean Inscription, so called from having been disinterred upon a promontory named Sigeum, situate near the ancient city of Troy, in Phrygia. It is engraved on a pillar of beautifully white marble, nine feet high, two feet broad, and eight inches thick, and which, from the inscription, served as the pedestal of the heathen god Hermocrates. The letters used in this inscription are the capitals of the Grecian language, 14 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS, though rudely cut, but read from right to left like the Hebrew. This specimen of engraving must be about three thousand years old. Another not less interesting relic of the earliest age of printing is found in* a Roman signet ring or stamp, approaching in character to that species of stamp now used by the post-office on letters. This curiosity is preserved in the British Museum. It is the very earliest specimen we possess of printing, by means of ink or any similar substance. It is made of metal, a sort of Roman brass ; the ground of which is covered with a green kind of verdigris rust, with which antique medals are usually covered. The letters rise flush up to the elevation of the exterior rim which surrounds it. Its dimensions are, about two inches long, by one inch broad. At the back of it is a small ring for the finger, to promote the convenience of holding it. As no person of the name which is inscribed upon it is mentioned in Roman History, he is therefore supposed to have been a functionary of some Roman officer, or private steward, and who, perhaps, used this stamp to save himself the trouble of writing his name. A stamp somewhat similar, in the Greek character, is in the possession of the Antiquarian Society, of Newcastle- upon-Tyne. It will be perceived that however curious these relics of antiquity may be, they do not bear any con- nection with the art of printing books. The origin of this invention seems to be quite independent of a pre- ceding knowledge of impressing by means of stamps. What is, however, worthy of remark, the art of print- ing books, though ou a rude principle, was known and in use among the Chinese, at least one thousand four hundred years before it was invented in Europe. The printing of the Chinese has never resembled any- thing of the kind in this country. From the first it has been conducted without moveable types. Each page has been, and continues to be, a block PRINTING. 15 or cut stamp, which is thus useful for only one subject so that every hook must have its own blocks. No press is used. The paper being thin, when laid on the block receives the impression by being smoothed over with a brush. There is reason to infer that the art of printing, as thus practised by the Chinese, may have originated through a knowledge of the still more ancient Chaldean mode of printing by blocks on clay. But we may expect, from the well- known ingenuity of the Chinese, and their (in general,) having the organ of imitation so fully developed, that they will not much longer continue this primitive method of printing, as an enterprising practical printer has emigrated, with an excellent assortment of presses, types, &c., from Edinburgh, to conduct his business in the celestial empire. We wish him all success. The discovery of the art of printing with moveable types, which took place in the fifteenth century, in Germany, was considerably aided by a fashion, which had been some time prevalent, of cutting blocks of wood into pictures, or representations of scenes illustrative of Scriptural history, and printing them on paper, simply by the pressure of the hand, a brush, or cushion behind. One of the earliest of these wood-cuts is still extant, and represents the creation of man, as detailed in the book of Genesis. In the centre of the picture stands a figure, intended for the Divinity, having the appear- ance of an old man with flowing garments, a venerable beard, and rays proceeding from the head ; on the ground, before him, lies a human being, intended for Adam, fast asleep ; and from an opening in his side is seen proceeding the slender figure of a female, mean- ing Eve, who is taken by the hand by God, and is apparently receiving His blessing. The execution of this, and cuts of a similar nature, is of the rudest description, and is a striking testimony of the low scale of art at the time. Pictures of this nature, 16 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS, which were bound up into books, nevertheless, were the immediate forerunners of the great invention itself. Books of prints, it will naturally be imagined, would soon be found imperfect, for want of descriptive text; this, therefore, urged on the great discovery. The manufacturers of the books, at first, cut single sentences or words, and stamped them below the pictures ; but this not conveying a sufficient idea of the subject represented, an anxiety arose to give a lengthened description on the opposite pages. This it seems was, at length, accomplished ; still the sentences were all cut in a piece, and the notion of having separate letters, so as to form words at pleasure, \vaa unknown at that period. We will now proceed to the introduction of the modern art of printing. Ever since the typographic art has been introduced into modern Europe in its present form, the best, and one of the most certain criterion^- which prove the undoubted sense of our species, exists in the multi- plicity of claims which have been made by several cities for the honour of affording the earliest shelter to the infancy of this art. It really appears to be a question yet undecided, to what city, individual, cr even era, to attribute this beneficial invention. However, there is every reason to believe that in this art, as well as in most others, the improvements which have subsequently taken place, have benefited the art itself, as much as that has benefited mankind : therefore, the question of its origin does not appear to us to be of so much importance. Amidst the claims of various individuals, Mr, Bouzer, in his u Origin of Printing." says, that this honour ought to be adjudged to one of the three cities of Haerlem, Mentz, or Strasburg ; of which, in his opinion, the first named city has best established her legitimate right. " But it appears," to use his own words, " that all those cities, in a qualified sense, may PRINTING. 17 claim it, considering the improvements they have made upon each other." The real and original inventor of the modern art of printing, as at first used, and from whence the improved practice is descended, was one Lauren ti us, of Haerlem ; who, however, proceeded no further than to cut separate wooden letters. There is every reason to believe that, at first, these wooden forms .were made upon the principle of the forma literarum of the Romans. This Laurentius, it appears, made his first essay about the year 1 430 ; he died ten years afterwards, having first printed the u Horarium," the a Speculum Belgicura,'' and two editions of " Donatus." The individual on whom history most generally places the honour of being the earliest discoverer of the art of printing by means of moveable letters, or types, was John Guttenberg, a citizen of Mayence, or Mentz, who flourished from the year 1436 to 1466, in in the reign of Frederick III. of Germany. The ingenious Guttenburg was born at Mayence, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and removed to Strasbtirg about the year 1424, or, perhaps rather earlier. Here he became acquainted with the above- named Laurentius, with whom he proceed to Haerlem,' and continued in the employment of Laurentius for some time. However, he returned to Strasburg, where, in 1435, he entered into partnership with Andrew Dritzehan, John Riff, and Andrew Heelrnan, citizens of Strasburg, binding himself to disclose to them some important secrets, by which they would make their fortunes. The workshop was in the.house of Dritzehan, who dying, Guttenberg immediately sent his servant, Lawrence Beildick, to Nicholas, the brother of the deceased, and requested that no person might be admitted into the workshop, lest the secret should be discovered, and the forms stolen. But ,they had already disappeared ; and this fraud, as well as 18 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. the claims of Nicholas Dritzehan, to succeed to his brother's share, produced a law-suit among the sur- viving partners. Five witnesses were examined ; and from the evidence of Guttenburg's servants, it was incontrovertibly proved that Guttenberg was the first that practised the art of printing with moveable types in Strasburg ; and that on the death of Andrew Dritzehan, he had expressly ordered the forms to be broken up, and the types dispersed, lest any one should discover his secret. The words given in his order, which were supported by documentry evidence, were these " Go, take the component parts of the press, and pull them to pieces ; then, no one w r ill understand what they mean/' In the same document mention is made of four forms, kept together by two screws, or press spindles, and of letters and pages being cut up and destroyed. It has been asserted that Guttenberg stole the types from Laurentius, with which he repaired to Strasburg, and commenced business ; but of this we can find no corroboration. It has also been said that upon this occasion, Guttenherg stole his own materials, but this is likewise unauthenticated. The result of this law-suit, which occurred in 1439, was a dissolution of partnership ; and Guttenberg, after having exhausted his means in the effort, pro- ceeded, in 1445, to his native city of Meutz, where he resumed his typographic labours. Being ambitious of making his extraordinary inven- tion known, and of value to himself, but being at the same time deficient in the means, he opened his mind to a wealthy goldsmith and worker in precious metals, named John Fust, or Faust, and prevailed on him to advance large sums of money, in order to make further and more complete trials of the art. Guttenberg, being thus associated with Faust, the first regular printing office was begun, and the business carried on in a style corresponding to the infancy of the art. PRINTING. 10 After many smaller essays in trying the capabilities of a press and moveable types, Guttenberg; had the hardihood to attempt an edition of the Bible, which he succeeded in printing complete between the years 1450 and 1455. This celebrated Bible, which was the first important specimen of the art of printing, and which, judging from what it has led to, we should certainly esteem as the most extraordinary and praise- worthy of human productions, was executed with cut metal types, on six hundred and thirty- seven leaves ; and, from a copy still in existence in the Royal Li- brary of Berlin, some appear to have been printed on vellum. The work was printed in the Latin language. The execution of this the first printed Bible which has justly conferred undying honours on the illustrious Guttenberg, was most unfortunately, the immediate cause of his ruin. The expenses incident to carrying on a fatiguing and elaborate process of workmanship, for a period of five years, being much iwore considerable than what were originally contem- plated by Faust, lie instituted a suit against poor Guttenberg, who, in consequence of the decision against him, was obliged to pay interest, and also a part of the capital that had been advanced. This suit was followed by a dissolution of partnership ; and the whole of Guttenberg's materials fell into the hands of John Faust. Besides the above-mentioned Bible, some other specimens of the work of Guttenberg have been dis- covered to be in existence. One in particular, which is worthy of notice, was found some years ago, among a bundle of old papers, in the archives of Mayence. It is an almanack for the year 1457, which served as a cover for a register of accounts for that year. This would most likely be printed towards the close of the year 1456, and may, consequently, be deemed the most ancient specimen of typographic printing extant, with a certain date. 20 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. Antiquaries and Bibliomaniacs have found consi- derable difficulty in ascertaining by what process Gut- tenberg manufactured types ; but it appears to be the prevalent opinion, that those which he first used were individually cut by the hand ; and being all made as near a height and thickness as possible, they were thus put together in the forms. The cutting of these types must have been a tedious, as well as laborious, occupation. This ingenious man, however, soon dis- covered the mode of casting his types, by means of moulds ; for without this great accessory to the art of printing, he conceived it was next to impossible to carry on his business. The art of type-founding is therefore given to John Guttenberg, in which it would appear he has had no competitor for the honour; but, it is but justice to state that the plan of striking the moulds with punches was a subsequent invention of Peter Schoeffer, his successor, who became partner with Faust, and afterwards his son-in-law. That Guttenberg was a person of refined taste in the execution of his works, is sufficiently obvious to every person who has had the opportunity of seeing any of them. Adopting a very ancient custom com- mon in the written copies of the Scriptures and the missals of the church, he used a large ornamental letter at the commencement of books and chapters, finely embellished, and surrounded with a variety of figures as in a frame. The initial letter of the first psalm thus forms a splendid specimen of the art of printing in its early progress. It is richly ornamented with foliage, flowers, a bird, and a greyhound, and is still more beautiful from being printed in a pale blue colour, while the embellishments are red, and of a transparent appearance. What became of Guttenberg immediately after the unsuccessful termination of his law- suit with Fanst, is not well known. Like the illustrious discoverer of the great Western Continent, he seems to have retired PRINTING. 2 1 almost broken-hearted from the service of an ungrate- ful world, and to have spent most of the remainder of his days in obscurity. It is ascertained, however, that, in 1465, he received an annual pension from the Elector Adolphus, but that he only enjoyed this trifling compensation for his extraordinary invention for a period of three years, and died in February 1468. John Faust, who as we have seen, obtained the materials of Guttenberg, laid claim to the invention, which has been granted to him by several. Having sufficient capital at his command, he pushed the trade with great advantage to himself. In the Bibles which he .printed he frequently omitted the capital and initial letters, leaving them blank for illumination in gold or azure ; this was designedly done for the purpose of imposing upon the public printed copies for M.S. transcripts. The report which is in circula- tion concerning Faust, appears to come in support of this assertion : it being said he was at Paris, and offering a quantity of his Bibles for sale as M.S. The French, considering the number of them, and also remarking the exact similarity and accuracy of them, even to a single point, concluded it was impossible for the most accurate copyist to have transcribed them so correctly. They suspected him of necromancy, and -either actually indicted him, or threatened to do, as a magician ; and by this means obtained his secret : whence came the origin of the popular story of Dr. Faustus, his dealing with the devil, and tragical death. In 1462, when JVIentz was plundered and disfran- chised of its former liberties, printing rapidly spread through a great part of Europe, particularly its ar^izans in that branch of art, settled at Haerlem, Hamburgh, and other places; from Haerlem it travelled to Rome in 1466, when the Roman character was adopted in 1467, and soon perfected. In the reign of Henry VI., the Archbishop of Can- terbury sent R. Tumour, master of the robes, and ^Y. B 2 22 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. Caxton, merchant, to Haerlem, to learn the art* These individuals privately prevailed upon one Cor- selis, an under workman to come to England : and a printing press was established at Oxford. This appears in a MS. chronicle still preserved ; it informs us, that the execution of the concern entrusted to Tumour and Caxton cost 1500 marks; and that printing was established at Oxford before there was any printer or printing presses in France, Italy, or Spain. The University of Oxford press was soon discovered to be too remote from the seat of government, and too great a distance from the sea, other presses were speedily established at St. Alban's and the Abbey of Westminster. In 1467, printing was established at Tours, at Reuthlingen, and Venice, in 1469; and it is likely at the same period at Paris, where several of the German printers were invited by the Doctors of the Sorbonne, who established a press in that city. All important as the art of printing is acknow- ledged to be, yet three centuries elapsed from the date of the invention before it was perfected in many of its most necessary details. At first the art was kept entirely in the hands of learned men, the greatest scholars often glorying in affixing their names to the works as correctors of the press, and giving names to the various parts of the mechanism of the printing- office, as is testified by the classical technicalities still in use among the workmen. From the great im- provement of punching moulds for casting types by Schoeffer, as formerly mentioned, till the invention of italic letters by Aldus Manutius, to whom learning is much indebted, no other improvement of any conse- quence took place. It does riot appear that mechanical ingenuity w r as at any time directed to the improve- ment of the presses or any other part of the machinery used in printing, and the consequence was, that till PRINTING. 23 far on in the eighteenth century, the clumsy presses, which were composed of wood and iron, and slow and heavy in working, were allowed to screech on as they had done since the days of Guttenberg, Faust, and Caxton, while the ink continued to he applied by means of two stuffed balls, at a great expense of time and labour. At length, an almost entire revolution was effected in the printing office, both in the appearance of the workmanship and the mechanism of the presses. About the same period the art of stereotyping was discovered, and developed a completely new feature in the history of printing. One of the chief improve- ments in typography was, the discarding of the long s, and every description of contraction ; while, at the same time, the formation of the letters was executed with more neatness, and greater regularity. Among the first improvers of the printing press, the most honourable place is due to the Earl of Stan- hope, a nobleman who will be long remembered for his mechanical genius ; besides applying certain lever powers to the screw and handle of the old wooden press, l;y which the labour of the workman was dimi- nished, and finer work effected ; he constructed a press wholly of iron, which is known by his name. Since the beginning of the present century, and more especially within the last thirty years, presses wholly of iron, on the nicest scientific principles, have been invented by men of mechanical genius, so as to simplify the process of printing in an extraordinary de- gree ; and the invention of presses composed of cylin- ders, and wrought by steam, has triumphantly crowned the improvements in this art. The alteration effected by steam power has been as great in. the printing business, as in any branch whatever; for example, with the old wooden press, it took a man two days to complete 1000 sheets, (that is, printed on both sides); whereas the London " Times/' by means of the steum 24 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. press completes 24,000 in one hour ! Almost every newspaper in the kingdom is printed by cylinder- presses, although some are worked by hand instead of steam ; they are also used in other departments of the printing business. The introduction of steam- presses would have been of comparatively little benefit, if it had not been fur- thered by another invention of a very simple nature, now of great value to the printer. "We here allude to the invention of the roller for applying the ink, instead of the old clumsy and inefficient balls. The roller, which is simply a composition of glue and treacle, cast upon wooden centre-pieces, was invented by a journeyman printer from Edinburgh, about thirty years ago, and was so much appreciated by the trade, as at once to spread over the whole of Europe. "Were it possible to conjure up the spirits of the illustrious Guttenburg and his contemporaries within the office of the London " Times," or some other large printing-office, where everything is conducted with rapidity, quietness, and order, John Faust might well think that the printers of the nineteenth century had actually consummated what he was only accused of in the fifteenth completed a compact with the devil ! As it would be a waste of time for us to pretend to describe the various processes and materials required in this beautiful art, as we are aware that, without actual observation, no conception can be formed, this we know from experience, and though we might, like many others, have pretended to give a description, we are perfectly aware that we would have been un- intelligible to the majority of our readers, and very deservedly laughed at for our trouble by any practical printer who might happen to read our pages ; as far as we have gone, however, in giving a brief historical account of the art of printing, we have no doubt it will be found correct, as we have consulted the best authorities. STEREOTYPE. 25 STEREOTYPE. STEREOTYPE, as we have mentioned in the former article, was introduced about the middle of last cen- tury ; and as it is so intimately connected with the art of printing, we could not find a more appropriate place than immediately following that noble art. Earl Stanhope has been named as the inventor ; but for this we have not sufficient authority, and it appears extremely doubtful ; as stereotyping appears to have been invented simultaneously, in various parts of England and Scotland, by different persons ; still it was upwards of sixty years before it was brought to such perfection as to be applicable for any beneficial purpose. When properly made known, it was hailed with approbation by those more immediately interested the printers and publishers : but as experience more fully developed its powers, it was found available only for particular work. For the better understanding of this art, which is comparatively little know r n, we will give a description of the process, which we are enabled to do by the assistance of an experienced workman. In setting the types, they are lifted from the case, one by one, with the right hand, and built in a small iron form, called a composing- stick^ held in the left hand of the compositor, who sets line after line till the stick is filled, when he empties it upon a galley^ and commences again in the same manner, till he has got as much up as will make a page ; this page he ties firmly up, and places upon a smooth stone, or cast iron table. In this manner he continues, till he gets as many pages as will make a/orm, winch consists of 4, 8, 1 2, or more pages, as the case may be. If this form is to be worked off at press without stereo- 26 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. typing, the pages are all imposed in one chass, and carried to press for working, and when the whole of the impression is off, it is thoroughly washed, and carried back to the compositor for distribution that is, putting the types in their proper places. When these pages are to be stereotyped, they are imposed separately, and carried to the stereotype foundry, where they are examined, and all dirt taken from the face; they are then slightly oiled, and a moulding- frame put round each. The frame is filled with liquid plaster of Paris, which is well rubbed into the face of the type to expel the air. As soon as this plaster hardens, it is removed from the page, and shows a complete resemblance of the page from which it is taken. The mould is put into an oven to dry, where it remains till it resembles a piece of pottery ; it is then put into an iron pan, in which there is a thin plate of the same metal, called the floating - plate ; it has also an iron lid, which is firmly screwed down, and the whole is immersed in a pot of molten type- metal, which fills the pan by means of small holes in the corners of the lid. The length of time it remains in the pot depends upon the heat of the metal, but it is generally from ten to fifteen minutes, when it is taken out, and put aside to cool. On opening the pan, nothing is seen but a solid lump of metal, which, when carefully broke round the mould, a thin plate is obtained from the mass, exhibiting a perfect appear- ance of the page from which the mould was taken. This is called a stereotype plate, which in general is not above the eighth of an inch thick, and is printed from in the same manner as a page of types. Such is the process of stereotyping, which has become pretty general throughout the trade, but is not much known to the public. ENGRAVING. 27 ENGRAVING. ON WOOD. As we have shown in our article on Printing, Wood- engraving was in fashion prior to the invention of printing. We are informed by Alhert Durer that Engraving on Wood was invented about the year 1520; he may be a good authority in some matters, but in this he has committed a mistake of nearly one hun- dred years ; seeing that there is at least an impression of one engraving on wood, the representation of the Creation, which was in existence prior to 1430. It was undoubtedly a piece of rough workmanship; but what could be expected at that early period of the art? It has been, however, gradually improving ever since, and it has now attained a point of excel- lence equal to any of the fine arts, and calls forth the admiration of every lover of the beautiful. It would be invidious to select any of the numerous artists now flourishing perhaps it would be difficult to make a selection where so many are upon an equality ; and we are of opinion they themselves are more willing to accept the public approbation as their reward, than any praise our pen could bestow. All we can do is to recommend our readers to examine for themselves ; they have abundant opportunities in the numerous illustrated publications that are daily issued from the press, and bestow that meed of praise upon the respective artists they may deem proper. The process of engraving on wood is diametrically distinct and opposite to that of engraving on copper or steel ; as in the former, the shades are produced by the parts of the work which are made most promi- nent, and obtrude upon the surface of the substance ; 28 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. whence its chief merit has been regarded in leaving broad and well-proportioned lights. The parts to produce this effect being of necessity excavated, great art and a masterly judgment are necessary to effect this, and at the same time not to weaken the sub- stance, lest it should be injured in the pressure neces- sary to produce an impression. The substance usually employed for these engravings is wood of a close grain ; on this account box-w r ood is generally selected. The impressions are obtained from wood-engravings upon exactly the same prin- ciple as are the impressions from typography; and they can also be worked off at the same time with the descriptive text. This is a superiority which wood possesses over other engravings, and recommends itself to publishers on account of the immense saving in the expense of a double process in procuring copper- plate illustrations for typographical works, and enables them to keep pace with the ruling passion of this literary era cheap publications. ON COPPER. The art of engraving on copper -plates, for impres- sions, is alleged to have been invented by Peter Schoeffer, one of the early printers, and son in-law of John Faust, about the year 1450. The honour of this invention is also claimed by a Florentine gold- smith of the name of Finguires, w T ho dates his inven- tion in 1540. This artist having used liquid sulphur to take an impression of some chasing and engraving he had made, observed a blackness produced by the sulphur left in the deepest parts of his work, whence lie obtained an impression on paper. But we have no hesitation in giving the preference to Schoeffer, who, we have previously remarked, was of an ingenious turn, and assisted Guttenburg in pro- ducing moulds for casting his types; in addition to which, some of the books printed by him are or.na- ENGRAVING. 29 inented with head and tail-pieces, with other rude attempts at engraving; and likewise because Schoeffcr's claim to the honour was acknowledged before Finguires was born. Of engraving there are various kinds ; that called by connoisseurs, the legitimate mode of engraving, is what is termed the line or stroke mode. Numerous have been the British artists who have excelled in this style, in affording the means of multiplying our graphical productions. The next species of engraving we will notice is called the stipple, or chalk style, imitations of chalk drawings. Portraits and historical pieces are executed in this style, which the celebrated Bartolozzi brought to perfection. The third species we will mention, cannot properly be called engraving ; the effect is produced by scraping and rubbing ; this kind is called ckiaro obscuro, or mezzotinto ; producing prints which have the effect of Indian ink drawings. A fourth species of engraving is what is commonly used for landscapes, which produces an effect like a pencil water-colour drawing; which is called aqua- tinta. In all of these kinds of engravings upon copper the artists find the sulphuric acid, or aquafortis, a most powerful agent. Sometimes, indeed, it is suf- fered to execute the whole of the process of the graver, especially when it is called an etching. For the same reasons as those mentioned with regard to wood engravers, we shall abstain from naming any of the very eminent artists now living. We have already observed the mode of obtaining similar effects from wood and copper, are opposite to each other. The manner in which impressions from wood engravings are obtained, has likewise been noticed ; and it remains that we observe the mode by which impressions are obtained from copper- plates. 30 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. The plate is covered with appropriate ink ; the surface is then carefully cleansed, leaving ink only in the excavations or lines in the copper. The plate and paper are passed through a roller press of great power, the roller being covered with a blanket, which presses the paper into all the crevices of the plate, and brings away the ink there deposited. ON STEEL. For several years steel has been used in great quan- tities, instead of copper- plates, by engravers. By this fortunate application of so durable, and it may be added, so economical a material, not only has a new field been discovered admirably suited to yield in perfection the richest and finest graphic productions, which the ingenuity of modern art can accomplish, but to do so through an amazingly numerous series of impressions without perceptible deterioration. The art of engrav- ing on iron or steel for purposes of ornament, and even for printing, in certain cases, is by no means a discovery of modern times ; but the substitution of the latter for copper, which has invited the superi- ority of the British burin to achievements hitherto im attempted by our artists, is entirely a modern practice. In the year 1810, Mr. Dyer, an American mer- chant, residing in London, obtained a patent for certain improvements in the construction and method of using plates and presses, &c., the principles of which were communicated to him by a foreigner residing abroad. This foreigner w r as Mr. Jacob Per- kin, an ingenious artist of New England, and whose name has become subsequently so extensively known in this country, in connection with roller-press print- ing from hardened steel plates. The plates used by Mr. Perkins were, on the average, about five-eights of an inch thick ; they were either of steel so tem- pered as to admit of the operation of the engraver, ENGRAVING. 31 or, as was more generally the case, of steel decarbo- nated so as to become very pure soft iron, in which case, after they had received the work on the surface, they were case hardened by cementation. The decarbonating process was performed by en- closing the plate of cast steel properly shaped, in a cast iron box, or case, filled about the plate to the thick- ness of about an inch with oxide of iron or rusty iron filings; in this state the box is luted close, and placed on a regular fire, where it is kept at a red heat during from three to twelve days. Generally about nine days is sufficient to decarbonize a plate five-eighths of an inch in thickness; when the engraving or etching has been executed, the plate is superficially converted into steel, by placing it in a box as before, and sur- rounding it on all sides by a powder made of equal parts of burned bones, and the cinders of burned ani- mal matter, such as old shoes or leather. In this state the box, with its contents, closely luted, must be exposed to a blood-red heat for three hours ; after which, it is taken out of the fire, and plunged perpen- dicularly edgeways into cold water, (which has been previously boiled) to throw off the air. By this means the plate becomes hardened without the danger of warping or cracking. It is then tempered or let down by brightening the under surface of the plate with a bit of stone ; after which it is heated by being placed upon a piece of hot iron, or melted lead, until the rubbed portion acquire a pale straw-colour. For this purpose, however, the patentee expressed himself in favour of a bath of o ; l heated to the temperature of 460 degrees, or thereabouts of Fahrenheit's scale. The plate being cooled in water, and polished o*n the surface, was ready for use. A more material peculiarity in Mr. Perkins* inven- tion, and one which does not seem to have been approached by any preceding artist, was the contri- vance of what are called indenting cylinders. These 32 IJISTOUY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. are rollers of two or three inches in diameter, arid made of steel, decarbonized by the process above described, so as to be very soft. In this state they are made to roll backward and forward under a pow- erful pressure, over the surface of one of the hardened plates, until all the figures, letters, or indentations are communicated, with exquisite precision, in sharp relief upon the cylinder ; which, being carefully har- dened and tempered, becomes, by this means, fitted to communicate an impression to other plates, by an operation similar to that by which it was originally figured. It will be obvious that one advantage gained by this method must be the entire saving of the labour and expense of re- cutting in every case, on different plates, ornaments, borders, emblematical designs, &c., as these can now be impressed with little trouble on any number of plates, or in any part thereof, by the application of the cylinder. At first sight, the per- formance of such an operation as the one now alluded to may appear difficult, if not impracticable ; and, indeed, many persons on its first announcement were disposed to doubt or deny its possibility altogether. With a proper and powerful apparatus, however, this method of transferring engravings from plates to cylinders, and vice versa, is every day performed with facility and success, not only in the production of bank notes, labels, &c., but in works exhibiting very elaborate engravings. LITHOGRAPHY. LITHOGRAPHY is the art of printing from store, which claims for its author Aloys Senelfelder, a native of Munich, in the kingdom of Bavaria. The history of this useful art is recorded by the only person capable of assigning proper and correct motives, and of tracing LITHOGRAPHY. S3 the various means which were employed to arrive at the desired end, to ultimate success : had all other useful inventions, profitable and elegant arts, had the good fortune which this has happily experienced, we should not have had so much cause to regret defi- ciencies as we have frequently experienced in the course of our inquiries ; then would the various illus- trious authors of arts have had justice rendered to them, and still have remained possessed of that glo- rious immortality so justly the reward of transcendant merit ; for the history of this meritorious invention is given by the author himself, thereby securing to it those advantages, which the erudite author of the preface congratulates the public upon, when in his concise epistle he uses that beautiful expression of his countryman, Klopstock, where he says, " Covered with eternal darkness are the great names of inventors." This work has been translated into English, and published with the following title : A complete Course of Lithography, containing clear and explicit Instructions in all the different branches and manners of the Art ; accompanied by Illustrative Specimens of Drawings ; to which is prefixed a History of Litho graphy, from its Origin, by Aloys Senefelder, Inventor of the Art of Lithography, or Chymical Printing," -, L' in^ ebon satisfied, be yet artifi';i;ii in the mind, an 1 ar: D! lu-i coijjf'^ i~f; their gratification \'i' J'i- liirn Jii^fii 'I'-li^lit. Having huilt him a h'- from the oxig*-neie.s of the- vvcath'-r, to enlarge the sphere of iii.s ple;i-uje.-s, !: i.-j o'f-r-.iroii- to ornament it ; and becftttte be cannot, perhaps, construct boa6 of Sllrer, ^/oM, or costly stonf;.-, he- endea- vours, at least, to have an imitation ; and ^il iinr/, lao fjnf-rinr/, painting. or sbnnin^ is sul>.-titute'i. r ] l,i- idea, we \\iiJ presume, to liave rjiven oii^in tr> every spf rosment in the eon-trnetioji of lio and amon^ the re.-.t, to ij,ij>er-}jan^in^, whie-h i.-^ carried on to a greater extent in thi.-j country, than at any former period. Thoancifnt di ordin;/ to Arr] J }>i-hop Potter, con.-.tructed iH)t only their arm-, hut al-o th(-ir hoi; ion;i.ily of hia~,s, \vhil.-t the Jtomi-.ns frequently gilt their-,; they oft 1 -d them with eo-tly or veneers, H/j)iietinc8 with jji-eciou.-. Btones ; they vv(.-nt to such great cost to ornament the of their habitations, we need not wonder that / .spared no '.:;' DS [fl / to ornfiinei.t th'.-m within. Those jj'-oplr-, hov. f:V(:r, v\ho cjujd not pro i reality, thought they nave the nr^.rent imitation of them ; ..jly they had recotHl ily ejnpl'/. h/ and luxurious, as well j-na- incnl as interior decoration; tho.-.e who could not c 2 42 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. afford this, had recourse to pigments and the graphic art; for this purpose, the ingenuity of man was employed to devise various modes of ornament and decoration. Hence arose the various kinds of paint- ing, the fresco, scagliolo, &c., and lastly, came staining of paper in use. To enumerate the various kinds of this, might be attended with very little benefit, because the principle of all is nearly the same. However, it has been remarked that three kinds are deserving of notice. The first and plainest is that which has on it figures, drawn and painted with one or more colours, con- sisting only of painted paper. The second contains a woolly stuff, dyed of various tints, and made to adhere to the paper, in certain forms, by a glutinous matter ; and the third is a species of paper covered with metallic dust. There are other papers used for hang- ings, which contain a representation of many kinds of stones, of which we understand there is a large manu- factory in Leipsic. There is also a species of velvet paper a paper covered with sham plush, or wool dyed and cut short, and made to adhere to the paper by some kind of cement, said to have been the invention of an English- man, of the name of Jerome Lanyer, in the reign of Charles I., for which he received a patent. In the specification it is stated, that he had found out an art and mystery for affixing wool, silk, and other mate- rial?, upon linen, cotton, leather, and other substances, with oil, size, and cements, so as to make them useful and serviceable for hangings and other purposes ; which lie called Londrindina ; and he said it was his own invention, and formerly used within this realm. However, it appears that this invention of Lanyer was afterwards disputed by a Frenchman of the name of Tierce, who said it was the production of a country- man of his, named Francois, who, he stated, had made such before 1620, and supported his assertion by pro- PAPER HANGING. 43 ducing patterns, and the wooden blocks with which it was printed, with the dates inscribed upon them. The son of Francois, it appeared, followed his father's business, at Rouen, for more than fifty years, where he died, in 1748. Some of his workmen are said to have left him, and gone to the Netherlands, Germany, and other places, where they sold their art. It appears that Nemetz ascribes the invention of wax-cloth hangings, with wool chopped and beat fine, to a Frenchman, named Andran, who, he says, in the beginning of the last century, was an excellent painter in arabesque and grotesque figures, and inspector of the palace of the Luxembourg at Paris, in which he had a manufactory for hangings of that kind. Jt is also stated that- a person of the name of Eccard in- vented the art of printing, on paper-lrangings, gold and silver figures, and that he carried on an extensive manufactory for such works. It certainly does appear that the Germans cannot claim the privilege of invention here, but were behind their neighbours in this art. One of the most ingenious of the many new improve- ments is said to consist in the art of manufacturing paper-hangings by affixing to the substance of the proper metallic dust, commonly called Nuremberg dust, by which it acquires the appearance of various costly metals in a state of fracture, varied with glit- tering particles of differently formed parts ; and re- ceiving the light in every direction, produce certainly a novel effect, which is rich and beautiful, while it is obtained at little expense. The Nuremberg metallic dust is said to have been the invention of an artist of that city, named John Ilautsch, born in 1595, died in 1670; his descendants have continued its preparation to the present time. It ij produced from filings of metals of several descrip- tions washed well in a strong lixivious water, then being placed upon a sheet of copper, are put upon a 44 HISTORY OP USEFUL IKVENTIONS. strong fire, and continually stirred till the colour is altered. Those of tin, by this process, acquire every shade of gold colour, with its metallic lustre; those of copper, different shades of flame colour ; those of iron or steel, a blue or violet; of tin and bismuth mixed, a white or bluish white colour. The dust tinged in this manner is then put through a flatting- mill, con- sisting of two rollers of the hardest steel, like those used by gold and silver wire-drawers; for the greater convenience a funnel is placed over them. French covered paper manufactured from this material is called papiers avec paillettes. Its lustre is so durable that it is said to continue unaltered for many years even on the walls of sitting apartments. This metallic dust is an article of commerce, being exported from Germany. As early as the seventeenth century, the miners of Silesia collected and sold, for various purposes, a material they call glimmer, being bright, shining par- ticles of various metals, which those mines produce in great profusion ; even the black, we are told, acquires a gold colour by being exposed to a strong heat. This was manufactured by the holy sisters of Reichen- stein, into a variety of ornaments ; witli it they de- corated their images, strewing over them a shining kind of talc. The silver coloured glimmer had not, however, so great a brilliancy or variety as the Nurem- berg metallic dust ; for which purposes that article has a decided superiority. For the various purposes to which these ornaments* are to be applied, different adhesive substances should be used ; in some cases glue would have the effect, to be first drawn over the substance ; in others, a strong varnish, in which wax is dissolved ; and for others, various kinds of gums. Those substances being so covered, the dust may be put in a common pepper-castor, and applied by sifting it over the substance to be so covered. Different figures may be drawn with a pencil, and the box of PAINTING. 45 dust shook over them, as far as the extent of the lines covered with glue ; the dust will only fasten so far as it meets with what produces adhesion. PAINTING. ITS origin is to be traced up to that known source, from whence most of those arts, which humanise society and lend a polish to life, first had being. Diodorus Siculus speaks of bricks burnt in the fire with various colours, representing the natural appearance of men and animals ; which is the first fact upon record. As this occurred during the building of Babylon, it is as remote an original as we are, perhaps, authorised to depend upon ; although it is extremely probable it might be traced to an anterior date : which conclu- sion, though made from inference alone, we are allowed to suppose must have been the case ; as a knowledge of the nature of pigments must first have been ascer- tained before the Chaldean artists could have been informed what colours would fade, or what would withstand the operation of the enamelling process in, the intense heat necessary to produce the effect. They must at least have understood the difference between vegetable colours, which are the first presented to the senses, and most probably were the first which were used, and those afforded by the mineral kingdom, which alone were proper for the operation they per- formed. Therefore, the arts of painting and chemistry, we would presume must have made considerable progress prior to the erection of the tower of Babel. The next people, who, in point of time as well as of importance, offer themselves to the notice of modern Europeans, are the Egyptians'; and their perfection in the use of the various colours which constitute the compound idea we entertain when we think of paint- 46 HISTOllY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. ing, is well known and appreciated ; when we may any day consult our judgment by inspecting those beautiful specimens of their eternal mode of colouring we have in the exhibition on mummy-cases in the British Museum, and other depositories of that species of antique preservation. The third people who ex- celled in giving a beautiful and tasteful variety to surfaces in colouring and effect, were the Etrurians, a people anciently inhabiting a district of Italy, now known as Tuscany. Of the perfection to which they brought the art we may form an adequate and proper judgment by inspecting those beautiful vases preserved in the Hamiltonian collection in the British Museum, and also in some very curious specimens of ancient painting, procured from the ruins of Herculaneum, collected likewise by Sir William Hamilton. It cannot be doubted, that most distinct societies of men have, after the gratification of their first wants, and when leisure hours permitted the exercise of their ingenious and inventive faculties, invented a great variety of useful and ornamental arts ; therefore, there cannot be a question, but various arts of utility as well as of ornament, have been invented by a great variety of people, who all, agreeably to our prior defi- nitions, are well entitled to the distinct appellation of original inventors ; consequently in such a case question must evidently submit to the determination of chronology. Eudora, the daughter of a potter of Corinth, is presumed to have introduced the art into Greece. The art of painting in Greece is also claimed by Sicyon as the original. Mr. Ftiseli has beautifully observed in his first lecture illustrative of the former of these two claimants, that " If ever legend deserved our belief, the amorous tale of the Corinthian maid, who traced the shadow of her departing lover by the secret lamp, appeals to our sympathy to grant it/' This invention is becoming doubly interesting in that PAINTING. 47 country, first, because of its elegance and utility ; and secondly, because it is ascribed to one of the noblest and most powerful .passions which distinguish the human species, the wonderful effects of which have given to humanity the most exalted and illustrious of actions, which ennoble the character of man to de- licate, refined, and almighty love. Numerous artists in the Grecian school brought the art of painting to great perfection. The restorer of this delightful art in Europe was Cimabue, a native of Italy, who first studied under some Grecian artists, and furnished some admirable productions in fresco, in several Italian churches about the renovation of the arts in modern Italy ; since which time, this purely intellectual art has been successfully cultivated in almost all the countries of Europe, certain masters in all schools of which have been eminent for some peculiar eminence. An analogy has been drawn by comparison between the fascinating effect of music on the ear, and colour on the eye, wherein it is observed the comparison very nearly approximates ; whence the term harmony, applied to the former, may correctly, and with singular propriety be used, when speaking of the latter. And also, it is said, for the same reason, and proceeding upon the like analogy, the term tone is applicable to both ; they are accordingly used indis- criminately. Without questioning their propriety, we give in to our sensations, and as far as our judg- ment goes, believe they are not improperly introduced into the pictorial art. It cannot be presumed that we should have the temerity to aspire to the task of giving a full and complete description of every variety which consti- tutes perfection iu the art ; for this would be to infer professional ability, equal, or perhaps, superior to what any one individual ever was, or, we may ven- ture to say, ever will be, known to possess. Besides 48 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. this inference, another must be presumed, because perfection in description must also anticipate the most delicate, refined, and, as termed, classically correct taste ; neither to these do we assume the possession of such well- known essentials as are positively neces- sary to its formation. It is, besides, altogether diffi- cult, as the world acknowledges, to fix a standard to the ideal faculty of taste, and which, we hereby take occasion to notice ; therefore we hope, to avoid the sin of presumption, and trust that our readers will observe that what we do state is upon good authority, if we have not full confidence in our own experience ; but our sin, if sin there be, is rather that of omission than of commission of saying too little, rather than too much. STATUARY. THE origin of Statuary, or what we would term its parent modelling, is of very great antiquity, as we are authoratively informed by the Grecian historians, whose testimony is supported by Monsieur D'Anville and Major Rennel, two of the most eminent geogra- phers of modern times. From them we learn that three massy statues of gold were erected to ornament the temple of Jupiter Beltis. Those were erected by the Chaldeans about two thousand two hundred and thirty years before Christ. There is also sufficient evidence, that the most emi- nent and intellectual people, subsequent to the Chal- deans, were the Egyptians. Every individual, who is in the slightest degree conversant with the history of the arts, knows that the Egyptian artisans had from the earliest periods been in the habit of constructing colossal statues of STATUARY. 49 their numerous deities, and also of their benefactors, raised from gratitude and adulation. To name only a single instance, the immense colossal statue of Memnon, who perished before the fall of Troy, according to Homer : also Ovid, who speaking of his mother Aurora, says, te Nor Troy, nor Hecuba could now bemoan, She weeps a sad misfortune now her own ; Her offspring, Memnon, by Achilles slain, She saw extended on the Phrygian plain." Professor Flaxman has informed us, that this cele- brated statue, had it stood upright, would have measured ninety-three feet and a half high ; calculating from the dimensions of its ear, which is three feet long. We are informed by Dr. Rees, in his valuable Cyclopedia, that sculpture in marble was not intro- duced till eight hundred and seventy-three years before Christ. But having said this much for the origin, let us proceed to the art ; and we candidly acknowledge that it is from the lectures of that truly distinguished individual, Professsor Flaxman, we are principally indebted for our information. Sculpture in Greece remained long in a rude state ; but we need not wonder at that, when we reflect that art is only an imitation of nature. Hence it follows that man, in a rude state of nature, for want of pro- per principles to direct his inquiries, and determine his judgment, is continually liable to errors, physical, moral, and religious ; all his productions, of what kind soever, partake of this primitive imbecility. The early arts of design in Greece resembled* those of other barbarous nations, until the successive intel- lectual and natural, political and civil advantages of this people raised them above the arts of the sur- rounding nations. The science employed by the Greeks may be traced in anatomy, geometry, me- f)0 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. chanies, and perspective. From their earlier authors and coeval monuments, Homer had descrihed the figure with accuracy, but insufficient for general pur- poses. OP ANATOMY. Hippocrates was the first who enumerated the bones, and wrote a compendious account of the principles of the human figure; he described the shoulders, the curves of the ribs v hips and knees; the characters of the arms and legs, in the same simple manner in which thev are represented in the basso relievo of the Parthenon, now in the National Gallery of the British Museum. The ancient artists saw the figure continually ex- posed in all actions and circumstances, so as to have little occasion for other assistance to perfect their works ; and they had also the assistance of casting, drawing, and other subsidiary means. The succeeding ancient anatomists did not describe the human figure more minutely or advantageously for the artist, than had been done by Hippocrates, till the time of Galen, whose external anatomy gave example for that ana- lytical accuracy of arrangement followed by more modern artists. Sculpture, however, profited little from Galen's labours, for the arts of design were in his time in a retrogade motion towards anterior barbarism. The anatomical researches from A 1cm aeon of Cro- tona, a disciple of Pythagoras, to those of Hippocrates and his scholars, assisted Phidias and Praxiteles, their contemporaries and successors, in giving select and appropriate forms of body and limbs to their several divinities, whose characters w r ere fixed by the artists from the rhapsodies of Homer, having then become popular among the Athenians. Phidias was the first in this reformation. Minerva, under his hand, became young and beautiful, who had before been harsh and elderly ; and Jupiter was awful, as when Ins nod shook the poles, but benignant, STATUARY. M as when he smiled on his daughter Venus. Apollo and Bacchus then assumed youthful resemblances of their sire; the first more majestic, the latter more feminine ; whilst Mercury, as patron of gymnastic exercises, was represented as more robust than his brother. Hercules became gradually more powerful ; and the forms of inferior heroes displayed a nearer resemblance to common nature ; from which, both sentiment and beauty can alone be given to imitative art. The near approach of ancient art to nature, considering their high advance to accuracy of imita- tion, should likwise encourage the modern to imitate the ancient artists. The moderns now also enjoy superior auxiliary assistance from engraving, printed books, &c., which the ancients did not possess. MECHANISM OF THE HUMAN FRAME. The human figure with the limbs extended, may be inclined and bounded by the circle and square ; the centre of gra- vity, its change of situation, is susceptible of descrip- tion, and may be exemplified in rest and motion; running, striving, leaping, walking, rising, and falling. Those principles of motion may be exhibited in a skeleton, by the bending of the backbone backwards and forwards, whilst the limbs uniformly describe sections of circles in their motions,- constantly moving on their axis. DIMENSIONS OF THE HUMAN FIGURE, as exhibited in Grecian Statuary. The height, eight heads (or usually ten faces) ; two heads across the shoulders ; one head and a half across the hips ; three noses, the thickest part of the thigh ; two, to the calf of the leg ; one, the narrowest part of the shin, &c. TliQ above is the general proportion of the male figure. The female figure is narrower across the shoulders, and wider across the hips than the male. The beauty of the human figure is found in its pro- portion, symmetry, and expression; it really appears that the beauty of the human figure is the chief or 52 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. ultimate of beauty observed in the visible works of creative Omnipotence. From thence every other species of beauty graduates in just ratios of propor- tion. From considering the intellectual faculties of man, we assimilate the idea, and connect beauty with utility, as this union of his physical and mental powers unquestionably renders him one of the most beautiful objects in the creation. This consideration leads us involuntarily to a train of thought, suggested by a principle laid down by Plato, " That nothing is beau- tiful which is not truly good;" which also induces the following corollary, and which is confirmed by reason, and sanctioned by revelation, that perfec- tion of human beauty consists of the most virtuous soul in the most healthy and perfect body. Inasmuch as painters and sculptors adhered io those principles in their work, they assisted to enforce a popular impression of divine attributes and perfections, even in ages of gross idolatry. In the highest order of divinities, the energy of intellect was represented above the material accidents of passion and decay. The statues of the Saturnian family, Jupiter, Nep- tune, and Pluto, were the most sublime and mighty of the superior divinities. Apollo, Bacchus, and Mer- cury, were youthful resemblances of the Saturnian family, in energetic, delicate, and more athletic beauty: Apollo -Belvidere supplies Homer's description to the sight ; he looks indignant, his hair is agitated ; he steps forward in the discharge of his shafts; his arrows are hanging on his shoulder. A youthful and infantine beauty of the highest class distinguish the Cupid of Praxiteles, and the group of Ganymede and the Eagle. The order of heroes or demigods excel in strength, activity, and beauty; Achilles, Ajax, Hcemon, Zethos, and Amphion, are examples in Grecian statuary to establish this remark. The Giants are human to the waist ; their figures STATUARY. 53 terminate in serpentine tails. Ocean and the great liivers have Herculean forms, and faintly resemble the Saturnian family, and have reclining positions. The Tritons resemble the Fauns in the head, and upper features, with finny tails, and gills on their jaws ; their lower parts terminate in the tails of fish. In the highest class of female characters, the beauty of Juno, is imperious ; that of Minerva, wise, as she presides over peaceful arts ; or warlike, as the pro- tectress of cities. Venus is the example and patroness of milder beauty and the softer arts of reciprocal communication ; of which the Yenus Praxiteles and Venus de Medicis are instances. The Greeks had also a Venus Urania, the goddess of hymenial rites and the celestial virtues. The Graces are three youthful, lovely sisters em- bracing : they represent the tender affections, as their name implies ; while their character gives the epithet graceful to undulatory and easy motion. The uni- verse was peopled by genii, good and evil demons, which comprehends every species and gradation from the most sublime arid beautiful in Jupiter and Venus, to the most gross in the Satyr, resembling a goat, and in the terrific Pan. As the public have now an opportunity of consult- ing many of the objects above referred to, in our great national gallery in the British Museum, those of our readers who can obtain this advantage will do well to pay a visit to that celebrated depository for the relics of antiquity, where they will have it in their power to convince themselves of the truth of the foregoing remarks. The progeny of Ham, the son of Noah, we find, peopled Egypt, Medea, Chaldea, Phoenicia, and several other adjoining countries. It will be remembered that two of the three sons of Noah possessed these countries which the folly of idolatry overflowed ; whilst it was in the line of Shem alone, that the true 54 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. faith was continued. The Mosaiac narrative is chiefly descriptive of events which occurred in the posterity of that patriarch, because from it the righteous line of the faithful in Abraham, David, Solomon, and ulti- mately Christ, proceeded. Thus more than two- thirds of the inhabitants of the world were gross {delators: we often find the Omniscience of the Highest forewarning the sacred line to avoid its fasci- nations. Nay, when, upon more occasions than one, the descendants of the faithful forgot themselves, and o those admonitions of the Creator were neglected, we find the sacred race flying before the face of puny foes, which defeat was declared to be from their having prostrated themselves before strange gods : they were bowed thus low in battle. Not to mention their dis- obedience immediately beneath Mount Sinai, which protracted their journey through the wilderness to forty years, which, perhaps, under other circum- stances, would not have required as many days. All those troubles, their subsequent captivities, and na- tional afflictions, were the produce of disobedience. This is one of those means which retributive justice resorts to punish wilful sin ; so, however, it was with the seed of Abraham. And so it is presumed to be with the present race of men ; either immediate or remote punishment vindicates the Omnipotence of Heaven. From the frequent maledictions we discover in the sacred volume against idol worship, we cannot doubt that it was peculiarly offensive to the Deity. that the great majority of the world were addicted to this proscribed practice is equally certain. And as the Spirit of Truth had declared in the decalogue, that u It would not be worshipped under any form in the heavens above, in the earth below, or in the waters under the earth j" so was image- worship, and consequently the construction of such things, forbidden. We discover that as this mania infected all nations, DRAWING. 55 tongues, and people, so did not the Israelites escape it ; but immediately after their departure from Egypt we find an exact similitude of the sacred calf of the Egyptians, cast in melted gold, which they constructed below Mount Sinai In Egypt, metallic statues, as well as those of stone, must have existed anterior to that event, as they actually had done to our own knowledge, and long before idolatry had made its ap- pearance in Egypt, it had existed in Chaldea, as already shown. As that worship had first its being in Chaldea, so had the art of statuary its origin in that country ; it was improved, perhaps, in Egypt, and perfected in Greece, from the time of Pericles to that of Alexander, commonly called the Great. DRAWING, THE HUMAN FIGURE. FROM what has been said in the previous article, it would appear that drawing of the human figure was nearly coeval with the art of statuary, or perhaps prior to it in Greece. As there is ample room to suppose the rude aboriginal inhabitants of Greece borrowed their art, as they did their religious and civil policy, from the Egyptians, and in fact from every nation where they discovered anything worthy their atten- tion, so must we suppose they had also this art, in its infancy it is true, from the same people. Upon re- flecting for a single moment, we are fully satisfied that the origin of the art now under contemplation came from Egypt. An ancient philosopher expressed him- self with great truth, when he said, " Necessity was man's first instructor." We accordingly perceive the necessity of the earliest inhabitants of Egypt to exer- 56 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. cise the art of drawing, they having determined to record their transactions by hieroglyphical representa- tion. "We have not the slightest doubt but we have now in the British Museum some of the earliest speci- mens of Egyptian hieroglyphical delineation, in the sarcophagi; from its inscription, it has been discovered that that identical monument cannot be less than three thousand five hundred and ninety- eight years old! Previous to this, we can have no doubt that the art of drawing must have existed. Like its sister art, sculpture, it received every im- provement of which it was susceptible, from the ma- ture conceptions and the delicate hand of Grecian artisans ; words are, perhaps, inadequate to convey this art to a second person. Years of incessant labour, with an attention to principles established and found to correspond correctly with nature, are the only means to obtain a just knowledge of its prin- ciples, and to judge tastefully of its correct execution. However, in addition to the rules laid down in the preceding article, we add the following, which have been approved by Sir Joshua Reynolds, by no means a contemptible judge of the art : 1. That from the crown of the head to the forehead is the third part of a face. 2. The face begins at the root of the lowest hairs that grow on the forehead, and ends at the bottom of the chin. 3. The face is divided into three proportionate parts ; the first contains the forehead or brow ; the second, the nose ; and the third, the mouth and chin. 4. From the chin to the pit between the collar- bones, is two lengths of a nose. 5. From the pit between the collar-bones to the bottom of the breast, one face. 6. From the bottom of the breast to the navel, one face. 7. From the navel to the genitories, one face. DRAWING. 57 8. From the genitories to the upper part of the knee, two faces. 9. The knee contains half a face. 10. From the lower part of the knee to the ancle, two faces. 11. From the ancle to the sole of the foot, half a face. 12. A man with his arms extended, is from his longest finger on each hand, as broad as he is long. 13. From one side of the breast to the other, two faces. 14. The bone of the arm called humerus, i.e., from the shoulder to the elbow joint, is the length of two faces. 15. From the end of the elbow to the joint of the little finger, the bone called cubitus, with a part of the hand, is also two faces. 16. From the box of the shoulder-blade, to the pit between the collar-bones, one face. 17. To be satisfied in measures of breadth. From the extremity of one finger to the other, so that his breadth should be equal to the length, it should be observed, that the bones of the elbows with the humeru?, and the humerus with the shoulder-blade, or scapula, bear the proportions of a face when the arms are extended. 18. The sole of the foot is one-sixth part of the length of the entire figure. 19. The hand is the length of a face. 20. The thumb contains a nose in length. 21. The inside of the arm, from the place where the muscle disappears, which is connected wijih the breast (called the pectoral muscle,) to the middle of the arm, four noses long. 22. From the middle of the arm, at the top, to the beginning of the head, five noses. 2,3. The longest toe is one nose. 24. The outermost parts of the paps, and the pit D 2 58 HISTORY OF USEFUL IKVENTIOJNS. between the collar-bones of a female, form an equila- teral triangle. The knowledge of the preceding proportions, are as mere rudiments essential to the delineation of the human figure ; but they relate to a body in a quiescent state only. Tiie more difficult task remains to become thoroughly acquainted with its actions. To obtain this, a rudimental and even an intimate acquaintance with the skeleton, and assiduous and incessant practice are necessary. However, the lectures delivered to the Royal Academy have furnished us with the probable extent to which the motions of the human frame may be carried. First, premising that the motions of the head and trunk of the body are limited by the several joints of the spine. 2. The motion of the body upon the lower limbs takes place at the hip-joints, at the knees, and at the ancles. 3. Those limbs, called great limbs (the whole frame being technically divided, and denominated the upper and lower extremities), have rotatory motions at their junctions with the trunk, by means of a ball and socket joints, at the shoulders and the hips. The analogy of parts between the upper and lower ex- tremities is not carried through the structure of those limbs in the body. 4. The fulcrum of the upper limb is itself movea'ble upon the trunk, as appears from the extensive motions of the scapula, which so generally accompany the rotation of the shoulder, and supply the limb with a great variety of motion, much more than the lower limb possesses. 5. The junction of the thigh with the mass without motion, called the pelvis, limits its rotation to the ball and socket-joint without farther extension. DRAWING. 5f) 6. The rotation of the head and neck takes place at the joint between the first and second vertebra?. 7. When the nose is parallel with the sternum, the face may be turned towards either shoulder, through an angle of 60 deg. on each side ; the whole range of its motion being 120 degrees. 8. The lateral bending of the neck is equally di- vided between the seven vertebrae ; but the bowing of the head, and violently tossing it backward, are chiefly effected at the joint of the skull, and the first bone of the vertebral column called the atlas. 9. Although the preceding motions are consistent with an erect stature of the neck, yet the lateral mo- tions demand a curvature of its whole mass. 10. The movements of the trunk are regulated by rotary and lateral motions, nearly equally divided among the several joints of the vertebrae of the-back and loins. ] J. The joints or the dorsal or back vertebras are, notwithstanding, more close and compact than those of the loins ; allowing of a wider range for bending and turning in the loins than the back. 12. The sternum and ribs move upward, to assist the chest in the expansion required for respiration ; drawing the clavicles and the shoulders upwards in full inspiration, arid tend to a contrary motion on ex- piration. Such movements also, characterise strong action and certain passion, and very apparent in a naked figure. 13. In stooping to touch the ground, the thigh-bone forms an ano-le of somewhere about 55 decrees with ^ the average direction of the vertebras. . 14. The leg bends upon the thigh at an angle of about 75 degrees, and the line of the tibia forms, with the sole of the foot, when that is elevated, an angle of 65 degrees. 15. The whole of this limb is susceptible of motion at the hip-joint forwards to a right angle with its 60 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. perpendicular position ; and backwards to an angle of 20 degrees. The leg will then continue to move by itself to its own angle of 75 degrees with the thigh. Its extreme motion does not exceed 45 degrees. 16. When the shoulders are quiescent, the clavicles usually meet in an angle of 110 degrees at the sternum. 17. The utmost elevation of the upper joint of the arm generally forms an angle of 155 degrees with the vertebrate, and about 125 degrees with the line of its clavicle. The flexion of the fore-arm upon its upper part is confined to an angle of nearly 40 degrees. 18. The whole arm is capable of moving forward or outward through nearly 80 degrees, and backward to nearly the same angle with its perpendicular station. 19. The actions of pronation and supination in the hand, range through all intermediate degress from a horizontal or perpendicular direction to 270 degrees ; but 90 degrees of its rotary motion in pronation comes from the shoulder- joint. 20. The palm of the hand admits of flexion and extension to 65 degrees in eacli direction ; its lateral motions are 35 outward, and 30 inward. The flexion of the fingers at each phalanx is a right angle. But it must be observed that in drawing the joints, very considerable difference is found in their length, from inequality of action. The elbow joint, when bent inward, lengthens the arm nearly one eighth ; the ^ame general law operates on the knees, fingers, &c. When a man is at rest, and standing on both feet, a line drawn perpendicularly between the clavicles will fall central between his feet. Should he stand on one foot, it falls upon the heel of that foot which supports his weight. If he raises one arm, it will throw as much of his body on the other side as nature requires to support the equilibrium. One of his legs thrown back brings the breast forward, to preserve the gravity of the DRAWING. 61 figure : the same will be observed in all other motions of the parts to keep the central gravitation in its proper place. The equipoise of a figure is of two sorts : simple, when its action relates to itself; and compound, when it refers to a second object. The equilibrium of nature is constantly preserved ; for in walking, leaping, running, &c., similar precau- tions are taken. By the flexibility of our bodies in striking, according to the proportionate force meant to be employed, the body is first drawn back, then the limb propelled forward, bringing with it the weight of the body. In striking, lifting, throwing, &c., a greater propor- tion of force is employed than may be necessary to effect the intended purpose. This is mentioned be- cause, in representation, the force employed in an action should be marked in the muscle producing that action ; if it be marked rather stronger than may be necessary, the cause is obvious, for Nature so employs her powers. In studying this art, students should have selected for them the best examples to copy from at first ; then they should draw from the figure as soon as possible, and if it be possible from the best specimens of the antique. Their first drawings are recommended to be made with chalk, and in large proportion ; attention to these will communicate ease and freedom to their future performances. It will be likewise found necessary for them to draw upon geometrical principles ; this communicates a truth, which greatly adds to their certainty and. confi- dence, and ultimately to their ease. This is mentioned, because it will be found that there is no portion of the human frame, quiescent, or in an active state, but what is susceptible of geome- trical definition. 62 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. Experience arid exercise communicate truths which produce certainty, whence come ease and grace. ARCHITECTURE. Tnis is a science most beneficial to humanity. Tt is very evident that it must have an extremely ancient origin. The origin of this art is presumed to have been imitated by man, from those natural caves and recesses, which are discovered in various parts ot the earth. For in those, it is reported, the first men took shelter from the inclemency of elemental strife, and to avoid the piercing contingencies of ultimate and pre- carious uncertainty. The oldest buildings in the world are accordingly said to be beneath the surface of the earth ; among which are reckoned the famous temple of Elephanta, in the Delta of the Ganges; the Catacombs, in Egypt; and upon the surface of the earth, the tower of Belus, at Babylon ; the Egyptian Mausoleum, and the Druidical Temples in Gaul and Britain. Architecture may well be denominated one of those arts which accommodate, delight, and give consequence to the human species ; while at the same time it is calculated to flatter pride, and gratify vanity. If viewed in its full extent, it may be truly said to pos- sess a very considerable portion, not only of the com- forts, but the conveniences, the positive utilities, and many of the luxuries of life. The advantages derived from houses only are very great, being the first step towards civilization, having great influence both on the body and mind of man. Secluded from each other tn woods, caves, and wretched huts, the inhabitants of such recesses are generally found to be men, indo- lent, dull, inactive, and abject ; their faculties be- numbed, their views limited to the gratification of ARCHITECTURE. C3 their individual and most pressing wants. But when societies are formed, and commodious dwellings pro- vided, where well sheltered, they may breathe a tem- perate air, amid summer's scorching heat, and winter's biting cold ; sleep, when Nature requires, in ease and security ; study unmolested ; converse and taste the sweets of social enjoyments ; they are spirited, active, ingenious, and enterprising, vigorous in body, and active in mind. If benefits like these previously enu- merated result from any art, then will that of the architect claim a decided pre-eminence. When we reflect on the almost infinity of useful purposes to which this art is conducive; that it erects us temples for the worship of our Creator, the benevolent dis- penser of all good things, that it provides us with habitations, where ease and simplicity are agreeably combined ; that it is conducive to our safety, comfort, and convenience, in uniting different districts of the country by the facility of bridges, roads, &c., is con- tributive to the gratification of our natural wants, and to our safety. As inhabitants of a great commercial country, the benefits we derive from naval architecture are un- speakably great ; when we reflect that it operates as a medium of communication between us, an insulated people, and the whole earth, in its remotest colonies; that it serves to convey between our people and the most distant nations the native produce of the respec- tive countries, with the effects of mutual industry ; that it clothes, feeds, and furnishes employment to thousands of our fellow-countrymen ; and, in a national point of view, our wooden bulwarks have bejen the wonder of the world, and continues to afford us pro- tection from our enemies, should all other hopes fail. What can surpass its utility in the latter point of view? what can exceed the assistance derived from it ? By the criterions formerly mentioned let us determine. \Ve shall find, that of all the arts the world hus ever 64 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. boasted, there are but few, if any, that can claim a superiority. There are no other designs, whether necessary or superfluous, so certainly productive of their desired object, so beneficial in consequences, or so permanent in their effects, as is the art of the architect. Most other inventions which afford pleasure and satisfaction soon decay ; their fashion fluctuates their value is lost ; but the productions of architecture command general attention, and are lasting monuments, beyond the reach of ephemeral modes : they proclaim to dis- tant ages the consequence, genius, virtues, achieve- ments, and munificence of those they commemorate to the latest posterity. The most obvious and imme- diate advantages of building are, the employment of numerous ingenious artificers, industrious workmen, and labourers of all kinds ; converting materials of small value into the most noble productions, beauti- fying countries, multiplying the comforts and conve- niences of life. But not the least desirable effects of the architect's art, perhaps, remain yet to be noticed, in affording to the numerous train of arts and manufactures, con- cerned to furnish and adorn the works of architecture, which employ thousands, constituting many valuable branches of commerce. Also from that certain con- course of strangers to every country celebrated for stately structures, who extend your fame into other countries, where otherwise, it would never have been heard of; adopt your fashions, give reputation, and create a demand for your productions in foreign parts; these are circumstances which certainly should not be too lightly valued, and these circumstances result from architecture. At this day, the ruins of ancient Rome support the splendour of the modern city, by inviting travellers, who flock, from all nations, to witness those majestic remains of former grandeur. The same may be said ARCHITECTURE. 65 of many other countries famous for architectural remains. Thus architecture, by supplying men with commodious habitations, procures that health of body and energy of mind, which facilitates the invention of arts : when by the exertion of their skill and industry, productions multiply beyond domestic demand, she furnishes the means of transporting them to foreign markets : whenever by commerce they acquire wealth, she points the way to employ their riches rationally, nobly, and benevolently, in methods honourable and useful to themselves, and beneficial to posterity, which add splendour to the state, and yield benefit to their descendants. She further teaches them to defend her possessions, to secure their liberties and lives from attempts of lawless violence or unrestrained ambition. So variously conducive to human happiness is this art, to the wealth and safety of nations, so, naturally, does it demand that protection and encouragement which has ever been yielded it in all well governed states. The perfection of virtuous other arts we have beheld to be a consequence of this ; for when building is encouraged, painting, sculpture, and every species of decorative art will flourish of course. It should not, however, be imagined that the heaping of stone upon stone can be of consequence, or reflect honour on individuals or nations. The practice of architecture infers actual art to be an essential pre- liminary ; without this, and having some laudable end in view, it is apt to raise disgust. This art is gene- rally classed under three distinct heads, viz., Civil, Military, and Naval Architecture. . In the first attempts of architecture it was extremely rude, as might naturally be expected. It has, however, from time to time, as improvements have advanced, been raised to relative importance, as the education of the people progressed ; and it certainly gives the best record of the mental progress of every people which G3 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. can be collected. It has always been found to flourish best in free states, and when the rulers have possessed genius, virtue, and good taste. The most eminent era of Grecian architecture was when the Athenian republic was under the direction of Pericles ; at this period, also, existed the firvt of statuaries, Praxiteles. Where that eminent artist and their admirable archi- tects were employed, in the words of Pausanius, " they rendered the whole of Acropolis as an entire orna- ment." There are various characteristic distinctions to be made in the several orders of architecture which distinguish the Grecian people. The Doric is eminent for primeval simplicity; the Tuscan embraces more ornament ; the Ionic unites simplicity and elegance ; but the sum of all excellence appears to be united in the Corinthian. The Composite is also a most elegant order, but appears to have added but little to the Corinthian elegance and majesty. Various nations have a great diversity of architecture; as the Fgyp- tian, Persian (distinguished by human figures blip- porting entablatures), Hindostanee, Arabasque or Marisquo, which are very peculiar, generally having the walls to project most at the top, which is indica- tive of the natural jealousy of all oriental people ; they all regarding their women as their chief treasure, it appears meant for their especial protection. A greater simplicity does not appear anywhere than in the architecture of the Druids, consisting of most extensive circles of immense stones, chiefly raised perpendicularly, with occasionally a larger stone placed upon the apex of two others horizontally. There are in Great Britain numerous remains of these constructions : the chief are Stonehenge, near Salis- bury ; at Avebury, also in Wiltshire ; Pomonca, in the Orkneys ; Rollrigbt, in Oxfordshire. But the most eminent spot for Druid temples was Mona, in Anglesea, in Wales. The reason for such apparently ARCHITECTURE. 67 unmeaning erections will be found in their peculiar belief, in tlie religion they professed. The Saxon is a very heavy order of architecture. It was used in this kingdom much in the erection of religious edifices, and is frequently found mixed with the Norman in such structures. The grand and most obvious distinction is a semi-circular arch, with massy columns, variously ornamented, and most frequently the Columns which support the same arch are diversely sculptured. The chief sculptures of this kind in Bri- tain, are Gloucester Cathedral ; Malmesbury Abbey, Wilts ; Sedbury Church, Herefordshire ; several churches in Rutland, Lincoln, Somerset, Devon, and other counties. There appears to us to be no order of architecture better calculated for the purpose to which it is gene- rally adopted, than the chaste and pure Norman style, barbarously denominated Gothic. It affords a great variety of light, airy beauty, and tasteful grandeur. In this country, the Norman order succeeded the Saxon, and we lost nothing by the exchange ; for even now, that we have the entire benefit of a choice of the purest Grecian (since its revival by Inigo Jones), it is a matter of taste to be certain ; but in our esti- mation, the chaste Norman is to be preferred to the purest Grecian, for the purposes for which it is in- tended ; and if the means answer the ultimate end, we submit this to be the proper criterion for preference. We find it usually employed in religious edifices ; it is pure, light, airy, and cheerful : and we are of opinion that the service of gratitude and thanks to the Creator demands a disposition of mind wdiich these feelings are best calculated to inspire. Domestic architecture is various, and chiefly regu- lated by the various purposes for which it is designed. Its characteristic is utility. 68 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. CHAIN-BRIDGES. (See Frontispiece.) It appears, from a description of bridges of suspen- sion, communicated by R. Stephenson, civil engineer, some time ago, to the " Philosophical Journal," that the first chain-bridge constructed in this country is believed to be one over the Tees, forming a communi- cation between the counties of Durham and York. It is supposed, on good authority, to have been erected about 1741, and is described in the "Antiquities of Durham" as " a bridge suspended on iron chains, stretched from rock to rock, over a chasm nearly sixty feet deep, for the passage of travellers, particularly miners. This bridge is seventy feet in length, and little more than two feet broad, with a hand-rail on one side, and planked in such a manner that the traveller experiences all the tremulous motion of the chain, and sees himself suspended over a roaring gulf, on an agitated and restless gangway, to which few strangers dare trust themselves." In 1816-17, two or three bridges of iron were constructed ; the first, by Mr. Lees, an extensive woollen manufacturer, at Galashiels, in Scotland. This experiment, although made with slender wire, and necessarily imperfect in its construction, deserves to be noticed, as affording a practical example of the tenacity of iron so applied. These wire bridges w r ere suspended not upon the catemarian principle so successfully adopted in the larger works subsequently undertaken, but by means of diogonal braces, radiating from their points of suspension on either side towards the centre of the roadway. The unfortunate fabric next mentioned was constructed on this defective principle. Among the earliest practical exhibitions of this novel archi- tecture in the United Kingdom, may be mentioned the uncommonly elegant and light chain- bridge which CLOCK?. 69 was thrown over the Tweed at Dryburgh, in 18 IT, by the Earl of Buchan, for the accommodation of foot passengers. Its length, between the points of sus- pension, was two hundred and sixty -one feet, being considered the greatest span of any bridge in the kingdom. This useful structure, the theme of such just applause, and which harmonised so finely with the far-famed scenery of Dryburgh Abbey, was entirely destroyed by a tremendous gale of wind, at the beginning of the year following its erection. This bridge was subsequently restored upon a more secure system. CLOCKS. THE invention of clocks, such as are now in use, is ascribed to Pacificus, Archdeacon of Yerona, who died in 846 ; but they were not known in England before the year 1368. They were ultimately im- proved by the application of pendulums, in 1657, by Huygens, a Dutch astronomer and mathematician. Although Dr. Beckmann differs in some slight degree from the previous relation concerning clocks, yet he says, " It is sufficiently apparent that clocks, moved by wheels and weights, began certainly to be used in the monasteries of Europe, about the eleventh cen- tury." He does not think, however, that Europe has a claim to the honour of the invention, but that it is rather to be ascribed to the Saracens ; this con- jecture, he confesses, is chiefly supported by wjiat Trithemius tells us, of one which was sent by the Sultan of Egypt to Frederick II., in 1232. He thinks that the writers of that century speak of clocks as though they had been then well known ; he adds, that in the fourteenth century, mention is made of the machine of Richard de Wallingford, which has hitherto been 70 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTION?. considered as the oldest clock known. The fabricator of this machine called it Albion It appears that clocks had been hitherto shut up in monasteries and other religious houses, and that it was not tilf after this time they were employed for more general purposes^ as the convenience of cities, opinion of the early existence of those machines in this country. Dr. Derham, in his " Artificial Clockmaker," published in 1714, mentions a watch of Henry VIII., which at the period he wrote was in good order. Indeed, Dr. Demairihray says that he had heard Sir Isaac Newton and Demoire both speak of that watch. An anecdote is related of the Emperor Charles V., contemporary with Henry VIII., which it appears has reference to the policy of Europe at that day. It is said, the emperor, after dinner, used to sit with several watches on the table, with his bottle in the centre. After the prince's retirement to the abbey of St. Just, he still continued to amuse himself with keeping them in order. From his inability to effect this correctly, it is reported he drew the rational re- flection, that it was impossible to effect what he had attempted the regulation of the policy of Europe. It also appears that many watches of that day struck the hours. The " Memoirs of Literature" report that such watches having been stolen from Charles V. and Louis XI. whilst they were in a crowd, the thieves were detected from their striking. It also appears from the evidence of certain watches of ancient construction formerly held by Sir Ashton Lsver, and also by Mr. Ingham Forster, that catgut usually supplied the place of a chain in ancient watches ; also that they were of a smaller size than now made, and generally of an oval form. Imperfections of this nature, and probably other causes, might have rendered their truth uncertain, and this most probably precluded their general use, until the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth. The instances we have shown will prove they were generally known, and perhaps used at the time of Shakspeare writing the " Twelfth Night/' And in the first edition of Harrington's " Orlando Furioso," published in 1591, the frontispiece represents the author with what appears I 6 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. to be a watch, although the engraving is extremely indistinct ; moreover, the inscription to which engraving, of II Tempo passo, clearly indicates the same thing. Charles I., in 1631, incorporated the clockmakers company, and by charter, which prohibits clocks, watches, and alarums from being imported ; which circumstance proves, that the English at this period, had no need of the aid of foreign ingenuity in this branch of mechanism. We are told that Gay Fawkes and Percy were detected in the third year of James I., with a watch about them, which they had purchased, u to try con- clusions for the long and short burning of the touch- wood," (in the words of the time) which was prepared to give fire to the train of gunpowder. The most material improvement introduced in this branch of mechanical knowledge took place in the addition of pendulums, by Huygens, as applied to clocks ; for which conception he was indebted to Galileo, which that philosopher adopted for measur- ing time, he having taken the idea from observing the vibrations of a lamp in a church. This reign also boasts of the production of repeating- watches in England ; first fabricated under the direction of the celebrated Dr. Hook, and manufactured by Tompion. An anecdote is related of the attention paid to watches by James II., recorded by Derham, in the 44 Artificial Clockmaker :" One Barlow had procured a patent, in conjunction with the lord chief justice Allebone, for repeaters; but a person of the name of Quare making one at the same time, upon principles he had entertained before the patent was granted to Barlow, the king tried both in person, and gave the preference to Quare's, and caused it to be notified in the gazette. In the next reign, the reputation of British watch- makers had increased so much, that an act was passed CLOCKS. i 7 by parliament, enacting that British-made watches should be marked with the maker's name, in order to preserve the reputation of this branch of British manufacture from coming to discredit in foreign markets. Thus we have given a general outline of the history of this branch of mechanics, for a period of nearly a thousand years, from the first invention of clocks by Pacificus of Verona, in 846, to the beginning of last century, since which period they have become an article of such general u^e to require no comment from us. AVe have noticed the various improvements in the order in which they occurred, among which the most striking feature appears to be the addition of the pendulums, as serving to regulate the motion of the machine; from its given length, certain weight and uniform vibration, it must be conceived to have been a happy thought in Galileo, for the admeasurement of time, and its application to this branch of mechanics was no less fortunate in Iluygens. To discover the first invention of time, we will require to look back for upwards of two thousand years, at which period we will find WATER-CLOCKS. These are called Clepsydras. Yitruvius, the Roman architect and mechanist, attributes the invention of the water-clock to Ctesibus of Alexandria, who flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, about two hundred and forty-five years before the Christian era. The same author says, the machine was first introduced at Home, two hundred and fifty seven years previous to the Christian era. There is reason to believe it was first introduced at Rome into courts of justice, from Greece, as it had been originally used in Greece for this purpose ; the Roman orators being guided in, the time they occupied the court, by this instrument, as we may learn from this expression of Cicero, E 2 78 HISTORY OF USEFUL IiNVENTIONS. " Latrare ad clepsydram" Cicero also informs us, that it was first introduced into courts of justice, in the third consulate of Pompey. It has been discovered that the inventions of Egypt, Chaldea, and other Oriental countries constantly travelled to Rome and the West. Long since the respective periods previously mentioned, has the honour of this invention heen claimed by Burgundians, Bolognese, and other Italians; sometimes by French- men, but chiefly by Germans. Their claim for invention seems to be questionable in numerous instances, whatever it may be for im- provement ; they certainly cannot, consistently with what we have stated, be considered as the first inventors ; although there is nothing to be alleged against these respective people being the discoverers of designs which had a previous existence unknown to them. With equal or much more propriety might the Arabians, in point of time (could that be of conse- quence) be considered as inventors of this machine; and they are well known to possess the least claim to original invention of any people. They, however, have a merit, notwithstanding: but it is of a negative kind ; for those arts, sciences, &c. which were (by chance) saved from the destruction of their bigoted ignorance, and which, when the fortune of war had thrown into their hands those pure designs of intellec- lectual Greece, mere accident had wrested from their zealous fury. These they transmitted to a more inge- nious people as pure as they had received them ; but upon precisely as good grounds as the before-named Europeans claimed this original invention, might the Arabians have assumed that honour. For we read that Haroun al Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad, then the chief of the Saracen empire, sent as a present to Charlemagne, a clock of curious workmanship, which was put into motion by a clepsydra ; which instru- CLOCKS. 79 merit is said, by Dr. Adams, " to have been used by the ancients to measure time by water running out of a vessel." It consists of a cylinder divided into small cells, and suspended by a thread fixed to its axis in a frame, on which the hour distances, found by trial, are marked oat. As the water flows from one cell into another, it changes slowly the centre of gravity of the cylinder, and puts it in motion. The form of this instrument is thus described by Dr. Beck man : " The most common kinds of these water-clocks, however, correspond in this, that the water issued drop by drop through a hole of the vessel, and fell into another, in which a light body, that floated, marked the height of the water as it rose, and by these means the time that had elapsed." The most improved form the same instrument has acquired, is thus described, by the same author, from one in his own possession. " Amongst the newest improvements added to this machine may be reckoned an alarum, which consists of a bell and small wheels, like that of a clock that strikes the hours, screwed to the top of the frame in which the cylinder is suspended. The axis of the cylinder, at the hour when one is desirous of being awakened, pushes down a small crank, which, by let- ting fall a weight, puts the alarum in motion. A dial plate with a handle is also placed over the frame." In respect to the invention of clepsydras, we should think the original inventor took his first idea from the use of an instrument common in Egypt, which* that people called a Canob, or Nilometer, being a large stone vessel of the shape of a sarcophagus, into which water was daily poured, by proper officers, during the increase of the Nile, to show the people whether they had a prospect of plenty, or were to expect a scarcity in the ensuing year. As the fall of the water, after SO HISTORY OF USEFUL it had risen to a due height, was of equal importance to them ; so the water was suffered to run out pro- portionably to its decrease in the river, being ascer- tained by just and equal marks which they generally well understood. Vitrum horae had also been invented to describe the progress of time. These were conical hour-glasses, in which were placed a portion of sand; the glasses were joined together at the apex of the cone, with a ^mall aperture of communication between the two. From the glass, in which the sand is deposited, it dropped, grain by grain, into the sand below, standing upon its flat basis. These machines are called hour- glasses, and well known. We have been unable to (iiscover any account of the origin of this instrument ; but, from its simplicity, it admits of no improvement, it is also believed this had its origin in a convent. SPINNING. THE necessity for human clothing must be so obvious, we should think, at nearly the first existence of our race, that two opinions upon that subject cannot exist. For, admitting the region where our first parents were stationed was more genial to life than these, our northern countries, yet the difference in temperature between the heat of noon- day, and the chilly damps of night, must be obvious to every one who has resided in, or has read of, tropical climates. Therefore, from necessity, we contend, our first parents could not have dispensed with the benefit of clothing. However, independent of the necessity of the thing, the Jewish History informs us that the first man, Adam, and his wife, in consequence of their unfortu- nate disobedience and positive violation of the com- uiiiudii of their Divine Creator, knew of their own SPINNING. 81 nakedness; and, therefore, they were ashamed to answer to the sacred summons. This they confessed, with a simplicity congenial to truth, arid in the same moment, frankly owned the cause ; answering to the awful interrogatory of " Who told thee that thou wast naked ? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I com- manded thee that thou shouldest not eat ?" " The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." However, we are previously informed that, " the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made them- selves aprons." It should be observed, that the leaf of the Banyan, or Indian fig, is probably here meant ; if it is, the luxurious leaf of this tree is about three feet long, and proportionally wide; therefore, we may rationally conclude, much art was not required; probably a thorn might supply the place of a needle, and a blade of grass would do for a thread. Afterwards, we are told, in the same chapter, " Unto Adam, also to his wife, did the Lord Jehovah make coats of skins, and clothed them.'* The pre- ceding is the earliest account of humanity ; at the same time, it also furnishes the most ancient relation: of the original of human clothing. From hiero- glyphical inscriptions still extant, the most ancient inhabitants of Egypt wore sometimes clothing made of feathers, fastened together ; sometimes of shells, also attached to each other ; but the most general ancient clothing consisted of the skins of various animals. So is Hercules, and many of the heroes, clothed, in antique statuary. Although the sacred history is silent on this head, we may, perhaps, by inference, arrive at some clue or thread to guide us through the labyrinth of uncertainty. Accordingly we find in the first passage?, which will admit of constructive inference, that thread, of 82 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTION'S. some sort, must, of necessity, have bad existence : " Arid Ada bare Jubal : be was tbe fatber of sucb as dwell in tents, and of sucb as bave cattle." Gen. iv., 20. Now, we submit, tbe inference of not only spinning, but also of weaving, and even sewing, must be conceded, before we can conceive tbe existence of tents. Tbe clotb wbereof they were made at that period, it is probable, was of tbe fleece of sheep ; because of tbe early existence of woollen clotb among the Greeks, we bave no doubt, from tbe following and numerous other passages in their poets ; and also from tbe practice of Tyrian artisans, who were, we know, generally and confessedly eminent for their dying tbe imperial purple, and other scarce, valuable, and beautiful colours; and no substance better receives, or so well retains tbe most splendid of colours than does wool. But Homer speaks expressively in point, where, in bis "Iliad," he expresses the truce which took place between the belligerent armies of Greeks and Trojans. After the defeat of Paris by Merielaus, and where tbe laughter-loving goddess, Terms, is said to have rescued her favourite from tbe fate be deserved to find ; after she had conveyed the recreant hero from the field to his apartment, she then, like a true friend to matrimonial infidelity, goes in search of the Spartan queen, for the purpose of bringing tbe lovers together. She discovered the beautiful adultress on tbe walls of the city, where she had been describing to Priam, and bis ancient nobles, tbe Trojan councillors, the various persons of the heroes of Greece. Upon this occasion, Venus, to use the language of the poet (as translated by Pope), assumes a disguise. " To her, beset by Trojan beauties,, came, In borrowed form, the laughter-loving dame ; She seemed an ancient maid, well skill'd to cull The snowy fleece, and wind the twisted wool." The labours of Penelope, Helena herself, and innu- SPINNING. 83 merable passages in the works of the poet, all tend to confirm the fact. That linen had also an early existence is proved at ' a very anterior period of the Jewish history. They had even fine linen previous to the construction of the utensils used in sacred worship ; as, in Exodus, an ephod of linen is expressly mentioned ; likewise in the xxvth chapter, 4th verse of that book, fine linen is expressly enumerated among those presents that the people were expected to offer freely to the Lord Je- hovah. Whence we are justified in inferring they had most probably learned in Egypt to carry its struc- ture to great perfection. We have linen mentioned likewise, in Homer, upon the breach of the truce between the Grecians and Trojans with their auxiliary forces. On Menelaus having been wounded by an arrow from the bow of Pandarus, where the poet sweetly sings . " But thee, Atrides, in that dangerous hour, The gods forgot not, nor thy guardian power, Pallas assists, (and weakened in its force), Diverts the weapons from its destined course ; So, from her babe, when slumber seals his eye, The watchful mother wafts the envenom' d fly. Just where his belt, with golden buckles join'd, Where LINEN folds the double corslet lin'd. She turn'd the shaft, which, hissing from above, Passed the broad belt, and through the corslet drove ; The folds it pierc'd, the plaited LINEN tore And raz'd the skin, and drew the purple gore.'* From what appears in the subsequent, as well as the former, part of this article, we submit, that the general manufacture of cloth, both woollen and Ikien, has been established ; and if this is made out, the prior existence of the other subsidiary arts of spinning, weaving, &c. cannot be denied. There are hieroglyphical symbols in the British Museum, which denote the various operations of the 84 , HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. manufacture of cloths ; and upon a monument upwards of three thousand six hundred years old. Numerous arts have been discovered by mere acci- dent. We are told, the very valuable operation offe/dt- making was discovered by a British sovereign, whose feet being always cold in the winter, he had wool put into his shoes ; the moisture there contracted, the natu- ral heat of the body, with the action to whidh this wool was exposed, between the foot and the shoe, caused the fleecy substance to consolidate ; whence the origin of that very necessary article, the Hat. STOCKING MANUFACTURE. THE invention to which this article refers, affords a warm subject for panegyric. That clothing for the feet be warm, medical writers have in all ages recom- mended, and truly upon the most rational as well as philosophic and experimental practice ; the feet, lying the most remote of any member from the heart, require, and particularly by people in years, to be kept warm, in order for their present comfort, as well as to pro- mote the essential evacuation of superfluous humours, by perspiration, without which no frame can be healthy. So strongly is this precept impressed in our national moral habits, that it has formed a general maxim for the preservation of health. Even Thomas Parr is said to have observed, upon being asked to what cause he attributed the protraction of his life, c; To keep the head cool by temperance, and the feet warm by exercise, to eat only when hunger required satisfaction, and to drink only when thirsty." We should suppose that this recipe would be at least worth a waggon load of the puffed quack pills which are palmed upon the public as made from a recipe left by that venerable man. STOCKING MANUFACTURE. 85 The art of knitting nets is one of great antiquity, as those nets used by the Hebrews, as well as by the Greeks, are conceived to be similar to those used in the present day. It was thought by Ovid, in his sixth " Metamorphosis," that the public were indebted to the spider for the origin of this ingenious invention ; which would indeed seem probable, as it appears that the insect is prompted to be thus ingenious for the gratification of its natural wants, the web serving as a net or gin for the capture of flies and other small insects which supply it with food. And if our me- mory serve us, we recollect that the poet also, speak- ing of flies, observes that the web of the spider serves to secure the weak flies only, whilst the strong break it and escape; alluding to the influence of wealth and power to pierce through those laws which were made for the protection of the weak against the encroach- ments and violence offered by the strong. The author of Job, in the eighteenth chapter and ninth verse, mentions gins. However, in knitting stockings, the operation, as well as the effect, is essentially different from knitting nets. In the latter the twine is knotted into distinct meshes, which are secured by knots ; in the former, the entire substance is produced without knots. To this distinction is to be ascribed the reason why knit stockings may become unravelled. In the other species the knots not only prevent the material being taken apart, but they also render the nets suffi ciently strong to prevent even vigorous fish from escaping, yet being so capacious as to permit little fish to escape with the water. The art of knitting is not now, by any means, so general as it was formerly. It then unquestioaably rated among the number of female accomplishments ; and it is certainly rather wonderful, because when the mechanism is once obtained, it requires no exertion of intellect to practise it; it may be carried on while sitting, walking, and talking, or in almost every situa- 86 HISTORY OF USKPUL INVENTIONS. tion to which ordinary life is called; and when it is considered that its produce adds to the comfort of the indigent, to the advantage of the poor, and that to persons in easy circumstances habitual industry increases their happiness, these things considered, ifc is with wonder and regret we see it fallen into disuse ; particularly as it is an occupation suited to every age and capacity, which the infant is strong enough to practise ; and even in the infirmity and weakness of age it is practicable. We certainly do hope and trust these observations may invite the attention of those meritorious individuals who have the direction and management of our scholastic establishments, to revive the practice. Fishing nets are also in use among the most bar- barous nations of this period, as various navigators have satisfactorily proved ; frequently made of rude materials, it is true some of the bark of trees, and others of the beards of whales, besides a variety of other articles which the more refined inhabitants of civilised countries would never think of using for such a purpose. The art of making nets, or ornaments of fine yarn, is said not to be a modern invention, it having been practised for hangings, and articles of dress and orna- ment. In the middle ages, it appears, the clergy wore netting of silk over their clerical robes. Pro- fessor Beckmann also says, he suspects those transpa- rent dresses were used by ladies more than four hundred years ago, to cover those beauties they still wish to be visible. The invention for making coverings for the legs, of this manufacture, is, we understand, of much later invention. It is well known that the Romans and the ancient nations had no particular covering for their legs. Indeed the necessity was not so urgent with the inhabitants of warm climates, as with those in our northern regions, who, we find, generally covered not STOCKING MANUFACTURE. 87 only the feet, but the legs, -thighs, and loins, with the same garment. Such, there is reason to conclude, were the trews, or trowsers, anciently worn by the Scotch, but not knit hose, which the following lines, from an old song, will help to prove : " In days whan gude King Kobert rang, His trews they cost but half a croun : He said they were a groat o'er dear, And ca'd the tailor thief and loun." A celebrated author on antiquities says, " It is probable the art of knitting stockings was first found out in the sixteenth century ; but the time of the in- vention isdoubtful." He continues, " Savary appears to have been the first person who hazarded a con- jecture that this art is a Scottish invention, because when the French stocking-knitters became so nume- rous as to form a guild, they made choice of St. Fiacre, a native of Scotland, to be their patron ; and besides this, there is a tradition, that the first knit stockings were brought to France from that country/' This St. Fiacre, it appears, was the son of Eugenius, said to have been a Scottish king in the seventh cen- tury ; and Fiacre lived as a hermit at Meaux, in France ; in the Roman calendar, his name is opposite to the 30th of August. More probable, however, is the opinion in this country which respectable writers support among them. We are informed by the author of the " History of the World,*' that Henry VIII., who reigned from 1509 to 1547, and who was fond of show and mag- nificence, at first wore woollen stockings ; till by a singular occurrence he received a pair of silk knit stockings from Spain. His son Edward VI. , who succeeded him on the throne, obtained by means of his merchant, Thomas Gresham, a pair of long Spanish knit silk stockings; this present was at that time highly prized. Queen Elizabeth, in the third year of 88 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. her reign, A.D. 1561, received by her silk- woman, named Montague, a pair of knit silk stockings, and afterwards refused to wear any other kind. Stowe also relates, in his "General Chronicle of Eng- land," that the Earl of Pembroke was the first noble- man who wore worsted knit stockings. In the year J564, William Ridor, an apprentice of master Thomas Burdet, having accidentally seen, in the shop of an Italian merchant, a pair of knit worsted stockings, procured from Mantua, having borrowed them, made a pair exactly like them ; these were the first stockings that were knit in England, from woollen yarn. From this it would appear, that knit stockings were first introduced into England in the reign of Henry VIII., and that they were brought from Spain to this country; and probability appears to favour the belief that they were originally the produce of either that country or Italy. Should this be the case, it has been conceived by Professor Beckmann, that they came originally from Arabia to Spain. The investigation with respect to the feigned pro- ductions of Rowley, published by the unfortunate Thomas Chatterton, arose from the mention of knitting, in a passage of those poems ; it being contended that knit hose were unknown in the days of Rowley. The passage alluded to occurs in the tragedy of " Ella :" " She sayde, as herr whytte hands whytte hosen were knyt- tinge, Whatte pleasure ytt ys to be married !" A like ordeal took place with respect to Maepher- son's Ossian from a similar reason, the mention of the sun's reflection setting on a glass window : now the existence of Ossian being contemporary with that of Julius Caesar, it was contended that at that period it was not customary to glaze windows. The Johnsonian faction set about that business in a very unsystematic manner : they should have procured STOCKING MANUFACTURE. 89 some well qualified Erse scholar to have gone into those wilds where Macpherson declared he collected his materials from oral traditionary recitals, and have heard the poems themselves from the mouths of the aged inhabitants. If the traces of them could not have been found, they might then have ascribed the superior honour to Macpherson of writing a work that Greece, or Rome, in the splendour of literary glory, never surpassed, for many poetical beauties. The people of Scotland, in the beginning of the six- teenth century, had, in the proper sense of the word, breeches; and wore a kind of stockings, their hose coming only to the knees ; their stockings were made of linen or woollen, and breeches of hemp. It is supposed that these particular articles of dress were also common in England, at and after that time, for in the year 4510, Henry VIII. appeared upon a public occasion, with his attendants, in dresses of the following description : u The king and some of the gentlemen had the upper parts of their hosen, which was of blue and crimson, powdered with castels and sheafes of arrows of fine ducket gold, and the nether parts of scarlet, powdered with timbrels," &c. There may be occasion to suppose the upper parts of the hose were in separate pieces, as they were of different colours. Hollinshed, also speaking of another festival says, " The garments of six of them were of strange cuts, every cut knit with points of gold, and tassels of the same, their hosen cut in and tied likewise/' In A. D. 1530, the word knit appears to have been quite common in England, for John Palsgrave, a French master to the Princess Mary, daughter of Henry V III., published a grammar, in which he stated, thaf this word in French was applied to the making of nets as well as of caps and of stockings. In the household book of a noble family in the reign of Henry VIII., kept during the life of Sir Thomas I/Estrange, Knight of Hunstauton, Norfolk, by his 90 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. Lady, Ann, daughter of Lord Yaux, there are the following entries, whence the price of those articles at that period are ascertained : 1533. 25 H. 8. 7 Sept. Peyd for 4 peyr of knytt hose viii s. 1538. 30 H. 8. 3 Oct. 2 peyr of knytt hose i s. It is observed that the first four pairs were for Sir Thomas, and the latter for his children. Nevertheless, in the reign of Mary, i. e. 1558, many wore cloth hose, as is evidenced in the following anecdote of Dr. Sands, who was afterwards Archbishop of York. Being in the Tower, he had permission for a tailor to come and take an order for a pair of hose. This serves to prove the veracity of Stowe, that stockings were not an article manufactured in England generally, we suppose, till six years afterwards. fct Dr. Sands, on his going to bed in Ilurleston's house, he had a paire of hose newlie made, that were too long for him. For while he was in the Tower, a tailor was admitted to make him a pair of hose. One came into him whose name was Beniamin, dwelling in Birchin lane ; he might not speak to him or come to him to take measure of him, but onelie to look upon his leg ; he made the hose, and they were two inches too long. These hose he praied the good wife of the house to send to some tailor to cut his hose two inches shorter. The wife required the boy of the house to carrie them to the next tailor, which was Beniamin that made them. The boy required him to cut the hose. He said, 'j am not the maister's tailor/ Saith the boy, ' Because ye are our next neighbour, and my maister's tailor dwelleth far off, j come to you/ Beniamin took the hose and looked upon them, he took his handle work in hand, and said, ' These are not thy maister's hose, but Doctor Sands, them j made in the Tower/ " In a catalogue of the revenues of the Bishop of St. STOCKING MANUFACTURE. OJ Asaph, it is stated, " The bishop of that diocese was entitled, as a perquisite, upon the death of any bene- fited clergyman, to his best coat, jerkin, doublet, and breeches. Item, his hose or nether stockings, shoes, and garters." About 1557, knitting must have become common, for Harrison, in his description of the indigenous pro- duce of this island, says, the bark of the alder tree was used by the peasants' wives for dying stockings which they had knitted. Hollinshed also informs us, that about 1579, when Queen Elizabeth was at Norwich, " upon the stage there stood at one end eight small women children spinning worsted yarn, and at the other end as many knitting worsted yarn into hose." Silk stockings are said, in consequence of their high, price, for a long time to have been worn only upoa grand occasions. Henry II. of France, wore them for the first time, on the marriage of his sister with the Duke of Savoy in the year 1559. In the reign of Henry IIL who ascended the throne in 1575, the consort of Geoffrey Camus de Pontcarre, who held a high office in the state, would not wear silk stockings given to her by a nurse who lived at court, because she considered them to be too gay. Anno 1569, w T hen the privy-councillor Barthold vou Mandelsoh, w r ho had been envoy to many diets and courts, appeared on a week-day with silk stockings, which he had brought from Italy, the Margrave John of Austria said to him, a Barthold, 1 have silk stock- ings also ; but I wear them only on Sundays and holidays." The knitting stockings with wires, called weaving, has been thought to bear a resemblance to the wire work in screens of churches. However, the invention of the stocking -loom is thought more worthy of at- tention, because it is alleged to have been the produo - tion of a single person, and perfected at one trial; his 92 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. name, and the exact period is ascertained ; and, be- cause it is founded upon a similar incident to that of the beauteous Corinthian maid, elsewhere mentioned, as the introducer of painting in Greece ; we bestow a particular attention upon this incident which pro- duced the stocking loom, trusting our fair readers will favour us with their attention, when they are informed it is ascribed to Love. It is a complicated piece of machinery, consisting of no fewer than two thousand pieces ; it could not have been discovered accidentally, but must have been the result of deep combination and profound sagacity. Under the usurpation of Cromwell, the stocking- knitters of London presented a petition, requesting permission to establish a guild. In this petition they gave a circumstantial account of their profession, of its rise, progress, and importance. No doubt can exist but that in this document the petitioners rendered the best, and probably a true account of the origin and progress of their trade, that of stocking weaving being then scarcely fifty years old. The circumstances they stated being then within memory, any misrepresenta- tion would have militated against them, and could have been easily contradicted. In Deering's account of Nottingham, this petition is found. In that town the loom was first employed, where it has given wealth to many. From this account it appears the inventor's name was William Lee, a native of Woodborough, a village about seven miles distant from Nottingham, in which the following passage occurs : u Which trade is pro- perly styled frame work-knitting, because it is direct and absolute knit -work in the stitches thereof, nothing different therein from the common way of knitting, (not much more anciently for public use practised in this nation than this,) but only in the number of needles, at an instant working in this, more than in the other by a hundred for one, set in an -engine or STOCKING MANUFACTURE. 93 frame composed of above two thousand pieces of smith's, joiner's and turner's work, after so artificial and exact a manner that, by the judgment of all beholders, it far excels in the ingenuity, curiosity, and subtility of the invention and contexture, all other frames or instru- ments of manufacture in use in any known part of the world." The inventor of this ingenious machine was heir to a considerable freehold estate, and a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge. Being, it is said, deeply enamoured of a lovely young country-girl, who, during his frequent visits, paid more attention to her work, which was knitting, than to her lover or his proposals, he endeavoured to find out a machine which might facilitate and forward the operation of knitting, and by these means afford more leisure to the object of his affections to converse with him. Love, indeed, is confessed to be fertile in inventions, and has been the efficient passion which has perfected many inventions for which the gratitude of the world is due; but a machine so complex, so wonderful in its effects, would seem to require a longer time than was probably allowed, and a cooler judgment than a lover's to con- struct such mechanism. But even should the cause appear problematical, there cannot exist a doubt but the real inventor was Mr. William Lee, of Wood- borough, in Nottinghamshire. Deering says expressly, that Lee made the first stocking-loom in the year 1580; this account has also been adopted by various English writers. In the Stocking- weaver's Hall, London, is an old paint- ing, in which Lee is represented pointing out his loom to a female knitter, who is standing near him ; and below is seen an inscription with the date 1589, the period of the invention. u The ingenious Wil- liam Lee, Master of Arts of St. John's College, Cam- bridge, devised this profitable art for stockings, (but being despised, went to France,) yet of iron to himself, F 2 ,94 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. but to us and others of gold ; in memory of whom this is here painted." Lee set up an establishment at Calverton, a village five miles from Nottingham, but met with no success. In this situation he showed his work to Queen Eliza- beth ; from that princess he requested some assistance, his work having embarrassed rather than assisted him ; but instead of meeting with that remuneration to which his genius and invention so well entitled him, he was discouraged and discountenanced. It need not, therefore, excite surprise that Lee accepted the invitation of Henry IY. of France, who having heard of the invention, promised him a magnificent reward if he would carry it to France. He took nine journeymen, and several looms to Rouen, where he worked with much approbation; but the king being shortly after assassinated, and internal commotions taking place, the concern got into difficulties, and Lee died in poverty at Paris. A knowledge of the machine was brought back to England by some of the work^- men who had emigrated with Lee, and who established themselves in Nottinghamshire, which still continues the principal seat of the manufacture. During the first century after the invention of the stocking-loom, few improvements were made upon it, and two men were usually employed to work one frame. But in the .course of last century the machine was very greatly improved. The late ingenious Mr, Jedediah Strut, of Belper, Derbyshire, was the first individual who succeeded in adapting it to the manu- facture of ribbed stockings. Estimating the population of Great Britain, say sixteen millions, and the average annual expenditure of each individual upon stockings and knit gloves at five shillings, the total value of the manufacture will be 4,000,000, and we consider this rather to he under than over the mark. The effect of this invention was very late in making its appearance in Scotland. Till far on iu the eight - COACHES. 95 teenth century, the use of k-nitted stockings was uni- versal. Mittens, or woollen gloves for the hands, and boot- hose, for drawing over the legs in riding, were also quite common, and all were wrought by the hand. The manufacture was carried on solely by women, the wives and daughters of farmers, generally, and the produce was sold as the means of bringing in. a small -revenue. The introduction of the stocking- loom to Hawick, in 1771, and the change of manners which took place about this period, soon put an end to this traffic ; but still the greater part of the stockings worn by the country people on ordinary occasions are knitted at home. The art is aL>o still in use iu Shetland, where knitting forms the only amusement to relieve the tedium of a long winter, and where the articles produced are exceedingly fine in the texture : the Shetland hose bring the highest price of any woollen stocking. COACHES. COACH is said to be derived from caroche, Italian ; a term first used in the eleventh century, and invented to designate a military machine, so called. We intend the word coaches to stand for the generic name of all those machines used for the carriage of persons, on business or pleasure, (except, indeed, those for the conveyance of the dead.) from the state car- riage of the sovereign down to the humble gig. '1 he original, inventor of this species of carriage is said to have been an Athenian monarch, 1489 year*. before Christ, who being afflicted with lameness in his feet, first invented a coach for his convenience, and with a view to conceal his debility. This may be regarded as the first original, of the kind, of Grecian invention. The ancient historian, Diodorus Siculus, makes 96 HISTOHY OF USEFUL mention of a carriage in -which Sesostris was wont to be drawn ; and also, he says when he entered the city, or went out to the sacrifice, had four of his captive kings yoked to his chariot ; but it is conjectured this carriage, to which that historian alludes, was a warrior's car. There is, most assuredly, ample room to believe that this was the first species of carriage which was introduced ; if so, those existed long before the Athenian king above-named ; because all the Homeric heroes, Greeks as well as Trojans, and their auxiliaries, rode in these machines, called chariots, or warriors' cars, which are also known to have existed long antecedent to that period. We remain assured that war chariots were used in the first ages of the world, by all the great monarchy who possessed dominion. That species of carriage before said to have been invented by the Athenian monarch, we therefore presume, was a covered carriage, similar to that species designated in the twelve tables of the Roman law, and by them called arcera, which was said to be a carriage of the last presumed description, and mentioned as being intended for the conveyance of the infirm. To this species of carriage succeeded the soft lectica. But we will leave this part of our subject, and proceed towards our own times. After the subversion of the Roman power, the northern sovereigns, who had become the barbarous and ignorant oppressors of our species, introduced and established, among other political regulations, the feudal system, as it was called, by which all property in land was held by certain fiefs, whereby the king, or, as termed, lord of the soil, let certain portions of the land to his nobles, military officers, and other great persons, generally often on condition of certain services required to be performed, called knights' ser- vice, and other military tenures ; by which custom those tenants of the sovereign had to provide certain COACHES. 97 men and horses to serve him in his wars. These first tenants, or vassals, afterwards underlet those lands to villains, so named, in contradistinction to the present recognised term, from their living in villages or hamlets, and other tenants, from whom, in their turn, similar services and certain provisions were required. Thus the European world, which had become the prey of effeminacy and luxury, had, by this single important circumstance, their character so radically changed, that, like the mysterious power of the Cadmaean wand of Harlequin, wrought so uncommon a change in the morals of European society, that those who had for- merly kept carriages, and wallowed in all the soft luxurious delicacy of Asiatic effeminacy, suddenly, or, at least, progressively, became a society of hardy equestrian veterans. Insomuch, that masters and ser- vants, husbands and wives, clergy and laity, all rode upon horses, mules, or asses, which latter animals were chiefly used by women, monks, and other reli- gious professors. The minister rode to court ; the horse, without a conductor, returned to the stable, till a servant, regulated by the horologe, took him back to the court for his master. In this manner, we are assured, the magistrates of the imperial cities rode to council, till as late as the beginning of the sixteenth century; so that in the year 1502. steps to assist in mounting were erected by the Roman gate at Frank- fort. The members of the council who, at the diet and other occasions, were employed as ambassadors, were, on this account, called rittmeister in the language of the country ; at present the expression riding-ser- vant is preserved in some of the imperial cities. The entry of great lords in public into any place, or* their departure from it, was never in a carriage, but always on horseback ; in all the pontifical records, speaking of ceremonials, no mention is made either of a state coach, or body coachman, but of state horses and state mules. In the following regulation, it is 08 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. found that the horse which his Holiness rode " was necessary to be of an iron-grey colour ; not mettle- some, but a quiet, tractable nag. That a stool of three steps should be provided for the assistance of his Holiness in mounting : that the emperor, or kings, if present, were obliged to hold his stirrup, and lead the horse." Bishops made their public entry, on induction, on horses or asses richly caparisoned. At the coronation of the emperor, the electors and principal officers of the empire were ordered to make their entry on horse- back. It was formerly requisite, that those who received a fief, or other investiture, should make their appearance on horseback. The vassal was obliged to ride with two attendants to the court of his lord, where, after he had dismounted his horse, he received his fief. Covered carriages were again introduced in the beginning of the sixteenth century, for the accommo- dation of women of the very first rank ; the men, however, thought it disgraceful to ride in them. At that period, when the electors, and other Germanic princes, did not choose to be present at the meeting of the States, they excused themselves to the emperor, that their health would not permit them to ride on horseback, which was considered as an established point^ that it was unbecoming to them to ride like women. What, according to their prevailing ideas, was not permitted to princes, was much less allowed to their servants. In A.D. 1554, when Count Wolf, of Barby, was summoned by John Frederic, Elector of Saxony, to go to Spires, to attend the convention of the States assembled there, he requested leave, on account of ill health, to make use of a close carriage with four horses. When the counts and nobility were invited to attend the solemnity of the elector's half brother, John Ernest, the invitation was accom- panied with a memorandum, that such dresses of cere- COACHES. 09 mony as they might be desirous of taking with them, should be transported in a small waggon ; which notice would have been unnecessary, had coaches been generally used among those nobles. The use of covered carriages was in fact, for a long time, prohibited even to women, the consorts of princes. About the year 1545, the wife of a certain duke obtained from him, with great difficulty, permission to use a covered car- riage in a journey to the baths, in which permission there was this express stipulation, that none of her attendants were to be permited this indulgence ; though much pomp was displayed upon the occasion by the duchess. Such is the influence of example in our superiors, who can mould dependents and inferiors to whatever shape they please. Notwithstanding all these ceremonious regulations, about the end of the fifteenth century, kings and princes began to employ covered carriages in jour- neys, and afterwards on public solemnities. Whea Richard II., towards the close of the fourteenth cen- tury, was compelled to fly from his rebellious subjects, himself with all his followers, were on horseback ; but his mother, who was weak and bick, rode in a carriage. But this became afterwards unfashionable here, for that monarch's queen, Anna, daughter of the King of Bohemia, showed the English ladies how gracefully she could ride on a side-saddle; and there- fore whirlicotes (the ancient name for coaches in JCnglandj, and chariots, were disused in England, except on coronations and other public solemnities. In the year 1471, after the battle of Tewkesbury, which decided the fate of Henry VI., and that of the bouse of Lancaster, when others flew in different directions, the queen was found in her coach, almost dead with sorrow. In 1474, the Emperor Frederic III. came to Frank- fort in a close carriage ; and as he remained in it on account of the wetness of the weather, the inhabitants 100 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. had no occasion to support the canopy which was to have been held over him, while he went to the council house and returned. In the following year, the same emperor visited that city in a very magnificent car- riage. In 1487, on occasion of the celebration of the feast of St. George at Windsor, the third year of Henry VI I., the queen and king went in a rich chaise; they were attended by twenty-one ladies. In the description of the splendid tournament held by the Elector of Brandenburg, at Ruppin, in 1509, Beck- man n says, he reads of a carriage all gilt, which belonged to the Electress ; of twelve other coaches, ornamented with crimson ; and of another, belonging to the Duchess of Mecklenburg!), which was hung ... o with red satin. In the Northumberland household book, about this period, is an order of the duke for the chapel stuff to be sent before in my lord's chariot. At the coronation of the Emperor Maximilian, 1562, the Elector of Cologne had twelve carriages. In 1594, when John Sigismund did homage at War- saw, for Prussia, he had in his train thirty-six coaches, with six horses each. Count Kevenhiller, speaking of the marriage of Ferdinand II. with a princess of Bavaria, says, tfc The bride rode with her sisters in a splendid carriage studded with gold ; her maids of honour in carriages hung with black satin, and the rest of the ladies in neat leather carriages/' Mary, Infanta of Spain, spouse of Ferdinand III., rode, in 1631, in a glass carriage, in which no more than two persons could sit. The wedding carriage of the first wife of the Emperor Leopold, w r ho was a Spanish princess, cost, with the harness, 38,000 florins. The coaches used by that emperor are thus described : u In the imperial coaches no great mag- ni licence was to be seen ; they were covered over with red cloth and black nails. The harness was black, and in the whole work there was no gold. The panels COACHES. 101 were of glass, and on that account they were called the imperial glass coaches. On festivals the harness was ornamented with red silk fringes. The imperial coaches were distinguished only by their having leather traces ; but the ladies in the imperial suite were obliged to be content to be conveyed in carriages, the traces of which were made of ropes." At the mag- nificent court of Ernest Augustus, at Hanover, there were in Ki81, fifty gilt coaches, with six horses each. So early did Hanover begin to surpass other cities in the number and splendour of its carriages. The first time that coaches were introduced into Sweden was towards the end of the sixteenth century, when John of Finland, among other articles of luxury, brought one with him on his return from England. Beckmann also informs us, that the great lords of Germany first imagined that they could suppress the use of coaches by prohibitions. There is still pre- served an edict, in which the feudal nobility andf vassals are forbidden the use of coaches, under pain of incurring the punishment of felony. Philip II., Duke of Pomeranian-Stettin, reminded his vassals also, in 1 608, that they ought not to make so much use of carriages as of horses. All these orders and admonitions, however, were of no avail, and coaches became common all over Germany. Persons of the first rank (ladies we presume), in France, frequently sat behind their equerry, and the horse was often led by servants. When Charles VI., wished to see, incognito, the entry of the queen, he placed himself behind his master of the horse, with whom, however, he was incommoded in the crowd. Private persons in France, physicians, for instance, used no carriages in the fifteenth century. In Paris, at all the palaces and public places, there were steps for mounting on horseback. Carriages, notwithstanding, appear to have been 102 HISTORY OF USKFUL INVENTIONS. use I very early in France, as appears by an ordinance issued in 1294, for suppressing luxury, and in which the citizens were prohibited from using carriages. About 1550, there were at Paris, for the first time, only three coaches ; one of which belonged to the queen ; another to Diana of Poictiers, the favourite mistress of two kings, Francis I. and Henry II. ; and the third to Rene de Laval, a corpulent nobleman, unable to ride on horseback. Henry IV. was assas- sinated in a coach ; but he usually rode through the streets of Paris on horseback. For himself and his queen he had only one coach, as appears by a letter which he writes to a friend, which is still preserved : " I cannot wait upon you to-day, because my wife is using my carriage." Roubo, in his costly treatise on joiners' work, has furnished three figures of carriages used in the time of Henry IV., from drawings preserved in the King's Library: from them it is seen those coaches were not suspended by straps, that they had a canopy sup- ported by ornamental pillars, and that the whole body was surrounded by curtains of stuff or leather, which could be drawn up. The coach in which Louis IV. made his public entrance about the middle of the seventeenth century, appears from a drawing in the sime library to have been a suspended carriage. Our national chronicler, John Stowe, says coaches were first known in England about 1580 ; he likewise says, they were first brought from Germany by the Earl of Arundel, in 1589. Anderson places the pe- riod when coaches began to be used in common here about 1605. It is remarked of the Duke of Buck- ingham, that he was the first who was drawn by six horses, in 1619. To ridicule this pomp, the Earl of Northumberland put eight horses to his carriage. Things are altered now when we have carriages of every description for the high and low, the rich and the poor. Vis-a-vis, an open carriage chiefly con- COACHES. 103 structecl for the benefit of conversation, as its name implies. Landau, landaulets, phsetons, chaises, whis- keys, cahs, fiacres, &c., &c., are but names adapted to different purposes, and constructed nearly upon the same principles as coaches, but some of them close, others open, some to be opened or shut according to the weather, or taste of the passengers, and calculated to contain an indefinite number, from two to six persons ; nay, there are the jolly good omnibuses run- ning in every town and village in the kingdom, the generality of which are constructed to carry twelve inside and eight outside passengers. The number of hackney coaches which ply in the streets of London have been augmented from time to time, since their first establishment in 1625, when there were only twenty. Coaches, cabs, omnibuses, S. which, winding from the ground, is continued to the highest tower : in the middle of the whole structure there is a convenient resting place." Diodorus Siculus says, this tower was decayed in his time ; but, in his description of Babylon, he thus speaks of it describing it as the act of Semiramis, who flourished two thousand nine hundred and forty -four years before Christ : a In the middle of the city, she built a temple to Jupiter- Belus ; of which, since writers differ amongst themselves, and the work is now wholly decayed through length of time, there is nothing that can with certainty be related concerning it ; yet it is apparent it was of an exceeding great height ; and that, by the advantage of it, the Chal- dean astrologers exactly observed the rising and setting of the stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented with bitumen, with great art and cost. Upon the top she placed three statues of beaten gold, of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea: that of Jupiter stood upright, in the posture as if he was walking ; it was forty feet in height, and weighed one thousand Babylonish talents. The statue of Rliea was of the same weight, sitting on a golden throne, having two lions standing on either side, one at her knees, and near to them were two exceeding great serpents of silver, weighing thirty talents each. Here, too, the image of Juno stood upright, and weighed eight hundred talents, grasping a serpent by the head in her right hand, and holding a sceptre adorned with precious stones in her left. For all these deities there was placed a table made of beaten gold, forty feet long and fifteen broad, weighing five hundred talents, upon which stood two cups, weighing thirty talents, and near to them as many censers, weighing three hundred talents : there were likewise placed three drinking- bowls of gold the one to Jupiter weighed two hundred talents, and the others six hundred each/' We have been thus circumstantial in our description ASTRONOMY. 123 of Babylon, for obvious reasons. First that it was the first local situation where, since the deluge, men had associated for civil purposes ; and secondly be- cause it was the original station where the astrono- mical science was cultivated. From Chaldea, Astro- nomy travelled to Egypt, where she was studied for many ages ; she also went to Phoenicia, where she was regarded with equal attention. But the peculiar occa- sion which the Phoenician people had to improve their acquaintance with this science, will appear, upon reflecting that these people occupied a narrow and barren tract of land between the Mediterranean and Arabian seas ; therefore, they found it essentially necessary to improve their situation by those means which Divine Providence had apparently marked out for them to resort unto ; we accordingly find them applying to mercantile industry ; as a commercial people, in this character, they were the ready medium of communication between every part of the then known world. In consequence, they had factories or mercantile stations up the Mediterranean ; but parti- cularly on its European side, on the shores of the Atlantic, and even in the British sea : we recognise their occupying Marseilles, and others, on the coast of France ; Cadiz, on that of Spain ; the Lizard Point, and other places, in Cornwall, where they traded for tin in the British Isles. In brief, their commercial spirit carried them to every part of the globe : by the by, admitting that rational belief be allowed to Plato and Solon, we shall find that they had, in the first ages, explored the Atlantic Ocean, and even disco- vered America. A great variety of authorities may be adduced to prove the assertion that the Phoeni- cians made three descents on the American coast*; and others, who say that the inhabitants discovered there by the Spaniards, gave the same names to the plants as had been assigned them in Asia; that their reli- gious rites were similar,and general customs and 124 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. manners the same, we refer to Joseph Da Costa's " History of the Indies," published in 1694. This author was an eye-witness, and wrote from actual observation. The Phoenicians, in the exercise of their mercantile functions, had the most obvious necessity to cultivate the sideral science. We find that they accordingly did so, and made various im- provements and very important discoveries by their exercise. From the northern hemisphere being more known to them than it was to the Chaldeans, they discovered that splendid and beautiful asterism, Cyno- surce, or the polar-star, an asterism of_ the most singular service, before the properties of the magnet were discovered, and which star was sometimes called, from them, Phoenice. From Phoenicia and Egypt the celestial science of astronomy was brought into Greece, with which people the Phoenicians were intimate ; for they, by trade, having occasion to converse with the Greeks, and also from uniting in one national resemblance, the three opposite characteristics of soldiers, sailors, and men of science, the communications between the two people were very frequent. At every period, from the first establishment of the Grecian states, that highly eminent and intellectual people collected from all others every particular they could obtain in all matters having relation to sciences and arts ; those they cultivated with a success worthy of the motive which first induced them to make these collections. Loving Knowledge for herself, they succeeded beyond all others in obtaining her favours. The first Greek who appears on record to have cultivated the celestial science with success, was Thales, born at Miletus, in Asia Minor, six hundred and forty one years before Christ ; he explained the causes of eclipses, and predicted one. He also taught that the earth was round, and divided into five zones; he discovered the solstices and equinoxes, and likewise ASTRONOMY. 125 divided the year into three hundred and sixty- five days. He had travelled into Egypt in search of knowledge, where he ascertained the height of one of the pyramids, from its shade. He looked upon water as the principle of all things. From him the sect called the Ionic had their origin. Anaximander, his pupil, followed him, and sup- ported the opinions of his great master ; he was born before Christ six hundred and ten years ; he invented maps and dials, and is said to have constructed a sphere. His ideas of the planets were, however, erroneous. Anaximenes was a scholar of Anaximander, and born five hundred and fifty-four years before Christ. He taught that air was the origin of all things, and many erroneous notions ; among others, that the earth was a plane, and the heavens a solid concave sphere, with the stars affixed to it like nails. Anaxagoras of Clazomene, the pupil of, and suc- cessor to, Anaximenes, born before Christ five hundred and sixty years. The doctrines he sup- ported are a strange association of important truths, mixed with the most gross absurdities. He taught that the world was made by a being of infinite power ; that mind was the origin of motion ; that the upper regions, which he called ether, were filled with fire, that the rapid revolution of this ether had raised large masses of stone from the earth, which, being inflamed, formed the stars, which were kept in their places, and prevented from falling by the velocity of their motion. His ideas of the solar orb were extremely erroneous ; alleging, according to different authors, various un- certain positions respecting the materials of which that planet is composed : one says, he said it was a vast mass of fire ; another states his opinion, that it was red-hot iron ; 4md a third, that it was of stone. He taught that the comets are an assemblage of 126 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. planets ; that winds are produced in consequence of highly rarified air; that thunder and lightning are a collision of clouds ; earthquakes, by subterraneous air forcing its passage upwards ; that the moon is inhabited, &c. This philosopher removed his school from Miletus to Athens, which was thenceforth the grand seat of all learning. He had taught there for thirty years, when he was prosecuted for his philosophical opinions, particularly for his just ideas relative to the Deity, and condemned to death. When sentence was pro- nounced, he said : " It is long since Nature con- demned me to that/' However, according to the laws of Athens, he was permitted an appeal to the people, in which his scholar, the immortal Pericles, saved his life by his eloquence. His sentence of death was changed into banishment. Whilst in prison he determined exactly the proportion of the circumference of the circle to its diameter, denominated " squaring the circle." He died at Lampsacus. Archelaus, his scholar, was the preceptor of the divine Socrates. Pythagoras was another scholar of Thales. The place of his nativity is uncertain ; but having settled in the island of Samos, he is generally reckoned of that place. He travelled in search of knowledge through Phoenicia, Chaldea, Egypt, and India ; how- ever, meeting with little encouragement on his return to Samos, he passed over to Italy, in the time of Tarquin the Proud, and opened a school at Croto, a city in the Gulf of Tarenturn, where he had a number of students, and gained much reputation. His pupils were obliged to listen in silence for at least two years ; if talkative, longer ; sometimes, for five years, before they were permitted to ask him any questions ; for which time they were mathematical^ because they were set to study geometry, dialling, music, and other high sciences, called by the Greeks mathemata. But the name of mathematici was commonly applied to ASTRONOMY. 127 those who cultivated the stellary science, and who predicted the fortunes of men, by observing the stars under which they were born. This luminary of science first assumed the appella- tion of philosopher ; before him, those whose pursuits have now that title, were called sages or wise men ; lie was the founder of the sect called the Italic. He was so much honoured whilst living, and his memory honoured when dead, by the Romans, that they attri- buted to him the learning of Nuina, who lived much earlier. About the year of the city 411, the Delphian oracle having directed the Romans to erect statues to the bravest and wisest of the Greeks, they conferred that honour upon Alcibiades and Pythagoras. He taught publicly that the earth is the centre of the universe ; but to his scholars he gave his real opinions ; similar to those afterwards adopted by Co- pernicus, that the earth and all the planets moved round the sun, as their co centre, and which doctrine he is prQgumed to have derived from either the Chal- deans orlndians. He thought that the earth is round, and everywhere inhabited. Hence, he admitted that we might have antipodes, which name is said to have been invented by Plato. Pythagoras was distinguished for his skill in music, which he first reduced to certain firm principles, and likewise for his discoveries in geometry. He first proved, that in a right-angled triangle, the square of t4ie hypothenuse, or side subtending the right angle, is equal to the two other sides ; also that of all plain figures having equal circumference, the circle is largest; and of all solids having equal surfaces, the sphere is the largest. Pythagoras likewise taught that all things were made of fire. That the Deity animated the universe, as the soul does the body ; which doc- trine, with that of the metempsychosis, or transmigra- tion, he likewise taught ; and which thoughts were adopted by Plato, and are most beautifully expressed 128 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. by Virgil ; that the sun, the moon, the planets, and fixed stars, are all actuated by some divinity, and move each in a transparent solid sphere in the order following : next to the Earth, the Moon, then Mer- cury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn ; the sphere of the fixed stars last ot all ; that those move with a sound inconceivably beautiful, which ears can- not comprehend. Those eight spheres he imagined to be analogous to the eight notes in music. Empedocles, the chief scholar of Pythagoras, enter- tained the same sentiments with his teacher, con- cerning astronomy. He is said to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount Etna, to make himself pass for a god ; or, perhaps, which may approach nearer the truth, because he could not discover the cause of the eruption : or else in his endeavours to discover the cause. One of his iron sandals being thrown up by the volcano, revealed the mode in which he had perished. Philolaus, also a scholar of Pythagoras, first taught publicly the diurnal motion of the earth upon its axis, and its annual motion round the sun ; which first sug- gested to Copernicus the idea of that system which he established. Meteon, born at Leuconae, a village near Athens, first introduced into Europe the Lunar Cycle, consisting of nineteen solar years, or nineteen lunar years, and seven intercalary months. It had been first adopted by the Chaldeans. Meteon published it at the Olym- pic games, where it was received with so great ap- plause that it was then universally adopted through the Grecian States, and their colonies, and got the name of the Cycle, or Golden Number, to denote its excellence, which name it still retains. It was also called the Great Year ; which name was likewise applied to various spaces of time by dif- ferent authors ; by Virgil, to the solar year, to dis- tinguish it from the monthly revolution of the moon ; ASTRONOMY. 129 by Cicero and others, to the revolution of six hundred years, or three thousand six hundred years ; called also several ages, when all the stars shall come to the same position, with respect to one another, as they were in at a certain time before ; called likewise Annus Mundanus, or Vertens. The lunar cycle begun four hundred and thirty-two years before the commencement of our era, and ac- cording to it, the Greek calendars, which determined the celebration of their annual feasts, &c. were ad- justed. Meteon is said to have derived his knowledge of this subject from Chaldea. The opinions of the subsequently registered astrono- mer, Xonophanes, founder of the Eleatic school, are so truly monstrous, that after the light which had appeared, he must have travelled with his eyes shut ; or else the rage for novelty alike affected the scientific of Greece, as it did their literati ; choosing to travel a long way for new thoughts, when they might have found much better at hand. Xonophanes, among other whimsical opinions, maintained that the stars were extinguished every morning, and illuminated every evening ; that the sun is an inflamed cloud ; that eclipses happen by the extinction of the sun, which is afterwards lighted up; that the moon is ten times larger than the earth ; that there are many suns and moons to illumine different climates. The Eleatic school was chiefly famous for the study of logic, or the art of ratiocination, first invented by Zeno. Those of this sect paid but little attention to science, or the study of Nature. Philosophy was anciently divided into three parts, natural, moral, and the art of reasoning. Xonophanes was succeeded by Parmenides, his scholar, who, in addition to his master's absurdities, taught that the earth was habi- table in only the two temperate zones ; that the earth was suspended in the middle of the universe, in a fluid lighter than air ; that all bodies left to themselves light H 2 130 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. on its surface. This bore a slight resemblance to the Newtonian doctrine of attraction. Democritus, of Abdera, a scholar of Leucippus, who flourished four hundred and fifty six years before Christ, was the first publisher of the Atomic Cosmo- gony, invented by Mochus, the Phoenician, said to have been received by his master Leucippus. Both admitted plurality of worlds. Democritus was the first who taught that the milky way is occasioned by the confused light of an infinite number of stars ; which doctrine is still maintained by the best informed of philosophers. He also extended that idea to comets; the number of which Seneca says the Greek philoso- phers did not know; and that Democritus suspected there were more planets than we could see. This was also the opinion of many others, the truth of whieh has been verified in the discoveries of Pallas, Juno, Vesta, and the Georgium Sidus. Democritus is considered as the parent of experi- mental philosophy ; the greatest part of his time was devoted to it ; and he is said to have made many dis- coveries. He, like Meteon, and Newton, maintained the absurd idea of the existence of a vacuum, which was denied by Thales and Descartes. Democritus also maintained that the sea was constantly diminishing. He declared that he would prefer the discovery of one of the causes of the works of Nature, to the possession of the Persian monarchy. Often laughing at the follies of mankind, he was thought by the vulgar to be out of his mind; but Hippocrates, being sent to cure him, soon found him to be the wisest man of the age ; and Seneca reckons him the most acute and ingenious of the ancients, on account of his many useful inventions ; particularly his ingenious making of artificial emeralds, tinging them of any colour ; of softening ivory, dis- solving stones, &c. Although the chief attention of Plato and Aristotle was directed to other grand objects, yet they much ASTRONOMY. 131 contributed to the improvement of astronomy. Not- withstanding the most famous in this respect was Eudoxus, the scholar of Plato, who was famous for his skill in astrology, natural and judicial, or the art of foretelling future events by the relative situations of the stars, of their various influences, an art which prevailed for many ages among the ancients, and is yet assiduously cultivated by the modern Arabians and other orientals, although in a great measure exploded in European nations. By the former ot which divisions in this science are foretold the changes of seasons, rain, wind, thunder, cold, heat, famine, diseases, &c., from a knowledge of the causes that are believed to act upon the earth and its atmosphere; whilst the latter foretold the characters, fortunes, &c., of men, from the stellary disposition at the moment of their respective nativities. The philosopher, Eudoxus, spent much of his time on the top of a high mountain, to observe the motion of the stars. He regulated the Greek year as Caesar did the Roman. Had the ancient Grecian astrono- mers been equally attached to experiment with Demo- critus, they might have arrived at more certain con- clusions ; but they were content with speculative theory, and spoke rather from conjecture than obser- vation ; whence both Strabio and Polybius treated as fabulous the since recognised assertion of Pythius, a famous navigator to the north, who had sailed to a country supposed to be Iceland, where he said the sun, in the middle of summer, never set. The most important improvements in atronomy were made in the school of Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus ; and which seminary flourished for nine hundred and twenty-three years, till the invasion of the Saracen army, under the command of Amrou. Those astronomers were chiefly Greeks, or of Grecian extraction the most learned men being invited here by the liberality of the Ptolemies. The 132 HISTORY op USEFUL INVKNTIONS. first who distinguished themselves were Timocarus and Aristillus, prior to the foundation of the library, which was founded three hundred years before Christ. Those two men endeavoured to determine the places of the different stars, and thus to trace the course of the planets. The next and most eminent man was Aristarchus, about two hundred and sixty-four years before Christ ; who taught, that the sun was about nineteen times further from the earth than the moon (which is not the twentieth part of its real distance), although the philosophers of the Pythagorean school did not consider it above three times, and perhaps only one and a half further distant. Aristarchus also taught, that the moon was fifty-six diameters of our earth from this globe, which opinion comes near to the truth : he believed it to be scarcely one- third of its real size. He was widely erroneous in his concep- tion of the sun's dimensions. He also, in conformity to the doctrines of Pythagorus and Philolaus, sub- posed the sun to be placed in the centre, and that the earth moved round it ; on which account he was accused of impiety, as disturbing the repose of the Vesta and the Lares. This opinion was not, how- ever, retained by his successors in the Alexandrian school. Contrary to the doctrine of the Greek phi- losophers, he taught that the stars were at different distances, and that the orbit of the earth round the sun was an insensible point, in consequence of the immense distance of the stars. The only work of Aristarchus- which remains, is on the magnitude and distance of the sun and moon. Very nearly contemporary with Aristarchus was .Euclid, the celebrated geometrician of Alexandria; Manetho, an astrologer and historian ; arid Aratus and Cleanthus, disciples of Zeno, the stoic philosopher; all of whom contributed to the enlargement of astro- nomical knowledge ; but particularly the two first warned, ASTRONOMY. 133 Eratosthenes, born at Gyrene, succeeded Aristar- clius, being invited by Ptolemy Euergetes. This professor is said to be the inventor of the Armillary sphere, an instrument or machine composed of move- able sides, representing the equator, the two colures, with the meridian ; all of which turned round on an axis directed to the two poles of the world, each of which circles were anciently called armilla, and the whole machine, astrolabus. All instruments which could be contrived for the promotion of this science, were furnished at the public expense, and placed within the observatory of Alexandria. Assisted by these instruments, Eratosthenes first undertook to measure the obliquity of the ecliptics, or rather the double of that obliquity, that is, the distance from the tropics, which he made to be about 47 degrees ; the obliquity, or half of this distance, 23i degrees. This grand attempt was to ascertain the exact distance of a degree of the meridian, and thus to determine the circumference of the earth ; which he accomplished with wonderful exactness, considering the period at which he lived ; and he performed this by the same method since adopted by the moderns who have suc- ceeded him. He is also said to have discovered the true distance of the sun from the earth. The great Archimedes lived contemporary with Eratosthenes, that eminent geometrician of Syracuse, whose inventive genius in mechanics had constructed engines which protracted the fall of that capital, with its Island Sicily, to the almost omnipotent power of Rome for a considerable period. The most illustrious astronomer which had as yet appeared at Alexandria was Hipparchus, who flou- rished between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and twenty-five years before Christ. He first brought this science into a tangible elementary form, rendering it systematic. He discovered, or was the first who observed the difference between the autumnal and the 134 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. vernal equinox ; the former being seven days longer than the latter, which proceeds from the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, first discovered from observing the inequality of the solar motion. He framed tables for what is called equation of time, or to ascertain the difference between the shade on a well constructed dial and a perfectly regulated clock. He made great progress in explaining the motions and phases of the moon ; however, he was not so successful with respect to the planets. His greatest work was his ascertaining the number of the stars, marking their distances, and arriving at the means by which their precise places on the hemi- sphere of Alexandria could be known. He marked one thousand six hundred stars, in seventy-two signs, into which the heavens were divided. Pliny says this was a labour which must have been difficult even to a god. The appearance of a new star induced him to set about and accomplish this w r ork, which he did in a catalogue for the benefit of future observers. Hipparchus does not mention comets, whence it has been conjectured he had never seen any ; it has also been suggested, that he considered them with meteors, which are not objects of astronomical observation. He divided the heavens into forty- nine constellations, viz., twelve in the ecliptic, twenty-one in the north, and sixteen in the south. To one of these he gave the name of Berenice's Hair, in honour of the wife of Ptolemy Soter, who had consecrated her hair, which was very beautiful, to Yenus Urania, if her husband should return from a war in Asia victorious ; it being bung up in the temple of the goddess, soon after dis- appeared, and is said to have been carried off by the gods. Hipparchus likewise constructed a sphere, or celes- tial globe, on which all the stars visible at Alexandria were depicted ; and thought to have been similar to the Faranese globe at Rome, still extant. In his ASTRONOMY. 135 observations on the stars, he discovered that, when viewed from the same spot, their distance always appeared the same from each other ; but he discovered the distance of the moon to be different in various parts of the heavens ; for instance, in the horizon and zenith. This he conceived to be owing to the extent of the globe ; he, therefore, contrived a method of reducing appearances of this kind, to what they would be if viewed from the centre of the earth, which is called a parallax ; and the discovery of it was of the greatest importance to astronomy. He took this idea from observing that a tree, in the middle of a plain, appeared in different parts of the horizon, when viewed from different situations ; so does a star ap- pear in the various points of the heavens, when viewed in different parts of the globe. Hipparchus was the first who connected geography with astronomy, and this fixed both the sciences on certain principles. After the overthrow of the Roman empire, the first encourager of learning was Charles the Great, or Charlemagne; but little could be done in his time; after his death the former ignorance prevailed. Beda, or Bede, from his piety and modesty termed venera- bilis, and his scholar, Alcinius, both Englishmen, greatly excelled in general literature ; among other qualifications they were eminent in the astronomy of the preceding period. The first step towards the revival of knowledge, or the translation of the Astro- nomical Elements of Alfergan, the Arab, by order of Frederick IT., chosen Emperor of Germany in 1212. About the same time Alphonso X., King of Castile, assembled from all parts the most famous astronomers, who at his desire, composed what are called the Alphonsine Tables, founded on the hypothesis of Ptolemy. About the same period John Sacrobosco, of Holy- wood, a native of Halifax, in Yorkshire, who was educated at Oxford, and taught mathematics and J 36 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS, philosophy at Paris, made an abridgment of the amalgamist of Ptolemy, and of the commentaries of the Arabs, which was long famous as an elementary book under the title of " De Sphira Mundi." He died at Paris, in the year 1235. In the same year, Roger Bacon, an English Franciscan friar, made astonishing discoveries in science for the time he lived. He per- ceived the error in the Kalendar of Julius Csesar, and proposed a plan, for the correction of it, to Pope Clement IY. in 1267. He is presumed from his writings to have known the use of optical glasses, and the composition and effects of gunpowder. He believed in planetary influence on men's fortunes, and the transmutation of metals. On account of his vast knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry, he was called Doctor Miralilis ; but, for the same reason, he was suspected of magic. Under this pre- text, whilst at Paris, he was put in prison by order of the Pope's legate ; and after a long and severe con- finement, he was at last, by the interest of several noble persons, liberated, returned to England, and died at Oxford in i2 ( J2, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. In the fifteenth century two events happened which changed the face of the sciences ; the invention of printing, about 1440, and the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. The learned men of that city having escaped from the cruelty of the victors, fled into Italy, and again introduced the taste for classical literature ; which was greatly promoted by the munificence of the Emperor Frederick III., Pope Nicholas V., and particularly of Cosmo de Medici, who justly merited the title of Father of his Country, and Patron of the Muses. The restoration of astronomy began in Germany. The first who distinguished himself, was George Pur- bach, born at Purbach, on the confines of Austria and Bavaria, in 1423, who was cut off in the flower of his ASTRONOMY. 137 age only thirty -eight years old. He was succeeded by a scholar more skilful than himself. John Muller, born at Konigsberg, in 1436, who taught mathe- matics and astronomy with great reputation at Vienna. In February, 1471, appeared a comet, on which he published his observations. Being called to Rome by Pope Sextus IV., to assist in correcting the Kalender, he was cut off by the plague, in 1476. Bernard Waltherus, a rich citizen of Nuremberg, his friend and associate, succeeded him, who is said to have first made use of clocks in his astronomical observations, in 1484, and to have been the first of the moderns who perceived the effects of the refraction of light. Fracastorius, born at Verona, in 1483, was a cele- brated astronomer, and an eminent poet and good philosopher; he made considerable discoveries in this science, and with all his abilities may be considered as the precursor of the celebrated Copernicus. Nicholas Copernicus, the restorer of the Pythagorean philosophy, and the modern discoverer of the rational and true system of astronomy, as now universally received, under the title of his name, was born at Thorn, a city of Royal Prussia, 19th February, 1473. Having learnt the Latin and Greek Languages in his father's house, he was sent to Cracow, to be instructed in philosophy and physic, where he was honoured with the degree of doctor ; showing a greater pre- dilection for mathematics than medicine. His uncle by his mother's side was a bishop, who gave him a canonry upon his return from Italy, whither he had gone to study astronomy, under Dominic Maria, at Bologna, and had afterwards taught mathematics with success at Rome. In the repose and solitude of an ecclesiastical life, he bent his chief attention to the study of astronomy. Dissatisfied with the system of Ptolemy, which had prevailed fourteen centuries, he laboured to form a juster one. What led him to discover the mistakes of Ptolemy was his observations 138 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. on the motions of Venus ; he is said to have derived his first notion on this subject from various passages in the classics, which mention the opinions of Pytha- goras and his followers, as, indeed, he himself acknow- ledges in his address to Pope Paul Hi. He established the rotation of the earth round its axis, and its motion round the sun ; but to explain certain irregularities in the motion of the planets, he retained the epicicles and eccentrics of Ptolemy. His work was first printed at Nuremberg, in 1543, a short time before his death. The doctrines of Copernicus were not at first generally adopted. The most eminent professors in Europe adhered to the old opinions. Among the astronomers of this period, the Land- grave of Hesse deserves particular praise, who erectad a magnificent observatory at the top of the Castle of Cassel, and made many observations himself, in con- junction with Christopher Rothman and Justus Burge, concerning the place of the sun, of the planets, and of the stars. But the person who enriched astronomy with the greatest number of facts of any modern who had yet appeared, was Tycho Brahe, a Dane of noble ex- traction, born in 1 546, designed by his parents for the study of the law ; but attracted by an eclipse of the sun in 1560, at Copenhagen, whither he had been sent to learn philosophy, he was struck with astonishment in observing that the phenomenon hap- pened at the very moment it had been predicted. He admired the art of predicting eclipses, and wished to acquire it. At first, for want of proper instruments, he fell into several mistakes, which, however, he afterwards corrected. Having early per- ceived his future improvements must depend on in- struments, he caused some to be constructed larger than usual, and thu<* rendered more exact. On the llth November, 1572, he perceived a new star in ASTRONOMY. 139 Cassiopeia, which continued without changing its place till spring 1 574, equal in splendour to Jupiter or Venus. It last it changed colours and entirely disappeared. Nothing similar to this had been ob- served since the days of Hipparchus. Tycho, in imitation of that illustrious astronomer, conceived a design of forming a catalogue of the stars. To promote his views, the King of Denmark ordered a castle to be built in Hueun, an island between Seonia and Zealand, which Tycho called Uranibourg, " the city of heaven," and where he placed the finest collection of instruments that had ever yet appeared ; most of them invented or else improved by himself. He composed a catalogue of seven hundred and seventy-seven stars, with greater exactness than had ever been done before ; and constructed tables for finding the place of the most remarkable stars at any given time. He was the first who determined the effect of refraction, whereby we see the sun or any star above the horizon, before it is so in reality ; as we see the bottom of a vessel when filled with water, standing at a distance, which we could not see when empty. He made several other improvements and important discoveries, which he published in a work entitled " Progymnasmata." The labours of Tycho attracted the attention of Europe ; the learned went to consult him, and the noble to see him. James VI. of Scotland, when he went to espouse the sister of Frederic, King of Denmark, paid Tycho a visit, with all his retinue, and wrote some Latin verses in his praise. But these honours were of short continuance. After the death of his protector, King Frederic, the pension assigned him was withdrawn, and he* was compelled to exile himself from his native country. Having hired a ship, he transported his furniture, books, and instruments to a small place in Hamburgh, in 1597. The Emperor Rodolphus invited him into 140 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. his dominions, settled a large pension upon him, gave him a castle near Prague, to prosecute his discoveries, and appointed him Longomatus, a native of Jutland, and the celebrated Kepler, to assist him. But Tycho was not happy in his new situation ; he died 14th October, 1601, repeating several times, " I have not lived in vain." Kepler was one of the greatest philosophers that ever lived, and ought to be considered as the disco- verer of the true system of the world. He was born in Germany, at Wiel, near Wirtemberg, 27th De- cember, 1571. He early imbibed the principles of Copernicus. After the death of Tycho, he was em- ployed to finish the tables which he had begun to compose from his observations. Kepler took twenty years to finish them. He dedicated them to the emperor, under the title of the " Rodolphine Tables." Kepler united optics with astronomy, and thus made the most important discoveries. He was the first who discovered that the planets move not in a circle, but in an ellipse ; and that altogether they move sometimes faster and sometimes slower, yet that they describe equal areas in equal times; that is, that the spaces through which they move in different parts of their orbit, are of equal times, though of unequal length ; yet when two straight lines are drawn from the extremity of either space to the centre of the sun, they form triangles which include equal areas. He likewise demonstrated that the squares of the peri- odical times of the revolution of the planets round the sun, are in proportion to the cubes of their dis- tance from him ; a theorem of the greatest use in astronomical calculations : for having the periodical times of two planets given, and if the distance of one of them be known, by the rule of proportion, the distance of the other can be ascertained. Kepler is said to have used logarithms in framing his 5 or on each joint occurs tho central stone of tlie next course, Ihere are fourteen courses of these stones first laid in this manner, of a great thickness each course. On the 12th June, 1757, the first stone was laid in its place, each stone being pierced when it was laid, a strong oak pin was driven through to pin it fast to its place : the dovetails not fitting so close to each other, because it was necessary to leave some space for the cement, this pin was calculated to secure the stone till this could he applied and had fixed ; the cement used was composed of Watch et lime and puz- zolana, or Dutch terras, being made at the moment by mixing up in a pail, with water; this mixture was poured upon the work, and run into every cavity and crevice ; this, however, was sometimes not exempt from the injury of the sea; whenever it was injured, the defect was supplied by having some oakum cut fine, and mixed with this cement, introduced into the joints ; then they were secured with a coat of plaster of Paris, pro tempore^ and this was never known to fail, if the work stood for one tide. In this manner the platform was erected, all of the most solid materials, and substantial workmanship. On the 30th of September, 1758, the work having been continued from the llth of the preceding May, had arrived at the store-room floor; here an iron chain was let into the stone, as follows : the recess being made and the chain being well oiled before insertion, the groove which received it was divided into four separate dams by clay ; two kettles were used, to hold a sufficiency of melted lead, eleven hundred weight ; whilst the lead was in a state of fusion, two men with ladles filled one quarter of the groove; as. soon as it set, they removed one of the clay dams, and then filled the next quarter, pouring the liquid on the mid- dle of the first quarter, it melted together into the second ; the dam at the opposite end was now filled, and then the fourth ; by this means the lead wua K 2 166 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. associated into one solid mass The centring for the floor was next set up, the outward stones being first set, and then the inner ones. Thus the base floor was finished. The men could work no longer than till the 7th of October that year. The winter was spent in preparing the iron, copper, and glass work for the lantern ; and the spring in unsuccessful endeavours to discover the moorings for the vessel which attended the works, for the occasional retreat of the workmen. On the 5th of July the work was resumed : the stones for building had been hitherto raised from the boats by what are called shears, formed of two poles, with the lowermost ends extended to a sufficient width, whilst the upper ends met in a point; here was fastened tackle, pulleys, &c., to raise them to a sufficient height to be swung over the building ; this course was now of necessity altered; a block with pulleys being suspended from the top, projected to a sufficient distance, supported by beams. After the base had been formed as described, a different mode of operation was necessary to complete the super- structure ; the work being now advanced so high as to be out of the constant wash of the sea. Instead of grooves being formed to fasten the stones together, they were fixed by means of iron clamps and lead. The stones to complete the superstructure were landed, and first drawn up by machinery, called a jack^ through the well, in the interior of the building, being a cavity for the staircase. The work now proceeded more rapidly, so that by the 26th of August, the stairs and all the masonry were finished : the iron frame for the lantern was next screwed together in its place, and the lantern soon completed. It should have been noticed, that after the first entry was closed, the shears were supported by a tackle called a guy^ attached to the top of the shears, and hooked so far on the outside of the building; the stone being drawn up by a windlass, the guy was drawn iu to ELECT li 1C IT V. 167 swing the stone over the building. The balcony rails and the stone basement for the lantern having been completed, on the 17th of September the cupola was set up by a particular kind of shears constructed pur- posely, the guy in different places being fastened to booms projecting from the several windows of the upper rooms ; the next day the ball was screwed on, and on the 1 Ith of October, an electrical conductor was fixed, which finished the edifice. A light was then exhibited, which has continued to warn the ma- riner ever since. An ably constructed cornice throws the spray from off the building, so that it is often seen at Plymouth with the appearance of a white* sheet, throwing itself to double the height of the building, which from low water mark to the apex of the ball is one hundred feet. We have been thus minute, because this pharos is considered to be the best constructed of all our lighthouses. ELECTRICITY. ELECTRICITY was a property but imperfectly under- stood by the ancients ; indeed, it has been said, they were entirely unacquainted with it. But we propose, shortly, to show the extent to which we are informed their sphere of knowledge extended. This much cannot be denied, that they were acquainted with the electrical properties of amber, of which fact we are informed by Pliny. Even before Pliny, however, as early as the* days of Thalis, who lived near six hundred years anterior to the Roman historian, the Miletine philosophers a.scribed the attractive power of the magnet and of amber to animation by a vital principle. Our word fct electricity" appears to be derived from the name the 1G8 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. Latins gave to amber, eleclrum. It is also evident that they were acquainted with the shock of the torpedo; although they were ignorant, as are the moderns, of the concealed cause of this effect. It has been asserted that the ancients knew how to collect the electrical fire in the atmosphere; and it is also said, that it was in an experiment of this nature that Tullus Ilostilius lost his life. Etymologists have carried us still farther back, and assert that it was from the electrical property in the heavens that Jove obtained his surname of Jupiter Eliaus. This, however, may be only conjectural. The first discoveries made of sufficient importance to demand the appellation of " scientific" in the science of electricity, were effected by Dr. W. Gilbert, the result of which he gave the world, in the year 1660, in a book then published, entitled "De Magneto," and Dr. Gilbert was followed in his pursuits by that celebrated scientific character, the honourable and illustrious Boyle, and other men eminent for that species of information. This science was successfully cultivated in the last century by many eminent philosophers, among whom we may mention Ilawkesbee, Grey, Muschenbrook, Doctors Franklin and Priestly, Bishop Watson, Mr. Cavendish, and several other members of the Royal Society of England ; whilst those worthy of the true philosophic character in France did not neglect its cultivation. Many fatal accidents have resulted from experi- ments made by people ignorant of the science. On the 6th of August, 1753, at Petersburg, Professor Jlichmami lost his life by endeavouring to draw the electric fluid into his house. Electricity, like many others of the arcana of nature, still retains almost as deeply shaded from human view as when its existence was first made known. ELECTRICITY. lf>'9 Nature appears to have certain secret operations, which are not yet, perhaps, to be revealed. ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. This is the most surprising invention of modern times, and of the greatest importance to a commercial people ; by means of it intelligence is conveyed from, one end of the kingdom to another, in the twinkling of an eye. A company was fully organised for the carrying out this invention, which commenced its operations in 1848, and established a system of no ordinary complication and extent. Their wires stretch from Glasgow on the north, to Dorchester, on the south, from the east coast, at Yarmouth, to the west, at Liverpool. These have brought upwards of one hundred and fifty towns into instant communication with each other. The wires set up for the use of the public alone are vipwards of nine thousand eight hundred miles in length, and extend over a dis- tance of two thousand and sixty miles, and, exclu- sive of those running underground, and through tunnels or rivers, are stretched on no fewer than sixty-one thousand eight hundred posts, varying from sixteen to thirty feet in height, and of an average square of eight inches, with an expensive apparatus of insulators and winders attached to each. As the most trifling derangement of the wires or apparatus will stop the communication, it is obvious that the utmost care and watchfulness is requisite to prevent and detect accidents. Accordingly, the whole distance is divided into districts, each dis- trict having a superintendent, and under him several inspectors, and a staff of workmen, batteryirfen, and mechanics, more or less numerous, according to the extent over which he presides. When we consider these things, in conjunction with the central staff of engineers, secretaries, &c., at the head-establishment in 170 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTION?. London, a maximum charge of one penny per mile cannot be considered an exorbitant demand for the accommodation afforded to the public in keeping open so many receiving stations, and the maintenance of the expensive establishments. The telegraphic system is designed for important and urgent messages, and it may be safely averred that not one despatch in a hundred has been as yet forwarded by it, which has not been by many times worth more than the sum paid by the sender. A commercial house in Liver- pool will scarcely grudge 8s. 6d. for a communication by which a necessary payment may be made, an important order given, or a profitable operation faci- litated in London ; and the message from Glasgow, which traverses a distance of five hundred and twenty miles in an instant, to summon a son from the metropolis, it may be, to the bedside of a dying parent, cannot be judged exorbitant at a charge of 1 4s., considerably less than one halfpenny per mile. Messrs. Wilmer and Smith, of Liverpool, publishers of the a European Times," have arranged the most admirable code of signals in the world ; and by the use of forty-eight letters are capable of transmitting intelli- gence equal to half a column of an ordinary newspaper. The telegraphic company disapprove of this species of short-hand, and, therefore, charge for the forty -eight letters 13s. This Messrs. Wilmer and Smith consider excessive, as they have forwarded similar messages by telegraph, four thousand miles in America, for 8s., and from Philadelphia to New York for Is. These gentlemen, therefore, consider they have cause to find fault with the company in reference to charges for communications in cipher. STE A M -EN GIN ES. 171 STEAM-ENGINES. THE Steam-Engine is one of the most important of human discoveries, and is certainly one of those which afford the greatest portion of ease and advantage to the human species, as well in the operation of its cause, as in its ultimate effects. The most powerful of machines had its origin from the single idea of one individual of our own nation. It has been, from time to time, improved by different individuals, also natives of Britain, the precise period of which improvements can be traced, and their effects fortunately ascertained. Although we should observe, that the first principle of this mechanical power was discovered by some of the ancient nations, many ages before that which gave the origin to the present practised invention, but from the state of information, it is conceived, to answer no purpose of utility. Jt may be said to have occurred in a small machine which the ancients called an ^Eolipila (the bull of ^Eolus) consisting of a hollow ball of metal, with a slender neck, or pipe, also of metal, having a small orifice entering into the ball, by means of a screw ; this pipe being taken out, the ball being filled with water, and the pipe again screwed in, the ball is heated there issues from the orifice, when sufficiently hot, a vapour, with great violence and noise; care was required that this should not be by accident stopped, if it were, the machine would infallibly burst, and perhaps, to the danger of the lives of all in its vicinity, so immense is its power. Another way of introducing the water \vas first to heat the ball when empty, and then suddenly "to im- merse it in water. Descartes, in particular, has used this instrument to account for the natural generation of winds. Chauvin thinks it might be employed in- stead of bellows, to blow a fire. It would admirably 172 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. serve to fumigate a room, being filled with perfume instead of common water. It is said to have been applied to clear chimneys of their soot, a practice still alleged to be common in Italy. Dr. Plott, in his u His- tory of Staffordshire," records this singular custom, where the ^Eolipila is used to blow the fire. " The lord of the manner of Essington is bound by his tenure to drive a goose, every New Year's day, three times round the hall of the Lord of Hilton, while Jack of Hilton, a brazen ./Eolipila, blows the fire/' The last circumstance we shall mention of this instru- ment, has relation to an antique one, discovered whilst digging the Basingstoke canal, representing a grotesque metallic figure, in which the blast proceeded from the mouth. This figure is now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries of London. In this in- strument, the uncommon elastic force of steam was recognised before the suggestion of the Marquis of Worcester, which follows : " In 1655, or subsequent thereto, the Marquis of Worcester published the earliest account of the ap- plication of this power for the purposes of utility, and suggested it as applicable to raising water. ' Sixty-eight. An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire; not by draw- ing or sucking it upwards, for that would be what the philosopher calleth it, intra spherum actroctatis, which is, but at such a distance. But this way has ro bounder, if the vessel be strong enough ; for i have taken a whole piece of cannon, whereof the end was burst, stopping and screwing up the broken end, as also the touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within twenty- four hours it burst and made a great crack : so that having a way to make my vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within then), and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant fountain stream, forty feet high ; one vessel of cold water being consumed, STEAM-ENGINES. 173 another begins to force and refill with cold water, and so successively ; the fire being tended and kept con- stant, which the self- same person may likewise abundantly perform, in the interim between the necessity of turning the cocks/ " The marquis's ingenuity did not, it appears, meet with that attention which it deserved, from those to whom his communication was addressed. In the article of steam it has been since very much improved, and is acted upon for the most useful of purposes ; also his ideas for short-hand telegraphs, floating baths, escutcheons for locks, moulds for candles, and a mode to disengage horses from a carriage, after they have taken fright ; which, with several others, proclaim the originality and ingenuity of the mind of this nobleman an honour which very few of the British nobility aspire to. Since his time, another design upon the same principle has been projected by Captain Thomas Savery, a commissioner of sick and wounded, who in the year 1691 obtained a patent for "a new invention for raising water, and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill- work, by the impellant force of fire/' This patent bears date the 25th of July, sixteenth of Wil- liam III., A. D. 1698. The patent states that the invention will be of great use for drawing of mines, serving towns with water, and working all sorts of mills. "Mr. Savery, June 14th, 1699, entertained the Royal Society with showing a model of his engine for raising water by help of fire, which he set to work before them ; the experiment succeeded according to expectation/' The above memoir is accompanied with a copper- plate figure, with references by way of description ; from whence it appears, that the engine then shown by Captain Savery was for raising water, not only by the expansive force of steam, like the Marquis of Worcester's, but also by the condensation of steam, 17* HISTOIIY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. the water being raised by the pressure of a ratified atmosphere to a given height, by the expansive force of steam, in the same manner as the Marquis pro- posed. This action was performed alternately in two receiver?, so that while the vacuum formed in one was drawing up water from the well, the pressure of steam in the other was forcing up water into the re- servoir ; but both receivers being supplied by one suction-pipe and one forcing-pipe, the engine could be made to keep a continual stream, so as to suffer very little interruption. This engine of Captain Savery's displays much ingenuity, and is almost as perfect in its contrivance as the same engine has been made since bis time. We regret, that without a figure we can- not supply a perfect description of it. However, it appears that it was necessary to have two boilers, or vessels of copper, one large and the other smaller : those boilers have a gauge-pipe in- serted into the smaller boiler, within about eight inches of its bottom, and about the centre of the side of the larger boiler ; the small boiler must be quite full of water, and the larger one only about two-thirds full. The fire is then to be lighted beneath the larger boiler, to make the water boil, by which means the steam being confined, will be greatly compressed, and will, therefore, on opening a way for it to issue out (which is done by pushing the handle of a regulator from the operator), rush with great violence through a steam-pipe into a receiver, driving out all the air before it, sending it up into a force-pipe through a clack, as may be perceived from its noise ; when the air is expelled, the receiver will be very much heated by the steam. When it is thoroughly emptied of at- mospheric air, and grown very hot, which may be both seen and felt, then the handle of the regulator is to be drawn towards the operator, by which means the first steam- pipe will be stopped, so that no more steam can rise into the first receiver, by which means STEAM-ENGINES. 1?5 a second receiver will be filled in like manner. Whilst this is doing, some cold water must be poured on the first receiver, by which means the stearn in it will be cooled, and thereby condensed into smaller room : con- sequently the pressure in the valve, or cock, at the bottom of the receiver there being nothing to coun - terbalance the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the receiver in the inner part of the sucking- pipe, it will be pressed up into the receiver, driving up before it the valve at the bottom, which afterwards falling again, prevents the descent of the water that way. Then the first receiver being, at the same time, emp- tied of its air, push the handle of the regulator, and the steam which rises from the boiler will act upon the surface of the water contained in the first re- ceiver, where the force or pressure on it still increasing its elasticity, till it exceeds the w r eight of a column of water in another receiving-pipe, then it will neces- sarily drive up through the passage into the force- pipe, and eventually discharge itself at the top of the machinery. After the same manner, though alternately, is the first receiver filled and emptied of water, and by this means a regular stream kept continually running out of the top of a force-pipe, and so the water is raised very often from the bottom of a mine, to the place where it is meant to be discharged. It should be added, that after the machine begins to work, and the water has risen into and filled the force- pipe, it fills also a little cistern, and by that means fills another pipe, called the condensing- pipe, which may be turned either way, over any of the receivers, when either is thoroughly heated by. the steam, to condense it within, thereby producing a vacuum, which absorbs the water out of the well into the receiver, on the principle of a syphon. Also a little above the cistern goes another pipe to convey the water from the force- pipe into the lesser boiler, for 170 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. the purpose of replenishing the great boiler, when the water in it begins to be almost consumed. Whenever there is occasion for this, the cock is to be turned which communicates between the force- pipe and the lesser boiler, to close it effectually ; at the same time Laving put a little fire beneath the small boiler, which will grow hot ; its own steam, which has no vent to escape, pressing on its surface, will force the water up another pipe, through an aperture in the great boiler, and so long will it run, till the surface of the water gets so low as to be beneath the bottom of the pipe of communication then the steam and water running together, will cause the valve (called a clack) to strike, which will intimate to the operator that it has discharged itself into the greater boiler, and carried in as much water as is then necessary ; after which, by turning a cock, as much fresh water is let in as may be necessary ; and then, by turning another cock, new fresh water is let out of a recipient into the less boiler as before ; and thus the engine is supplied without fear of decay, or any delay in the operations ; and proper attention in the workmen is only necessary to prevent disorder in a machine so expensive and complicated. Also, to know when the great boiler wants replenish- ing, turn the gauge- cock ; if water comes out, it does not need a supply ; but if steam alone, then the want of water is certain. The like with the cock with which the lesser boiler is prepared for the same pur- pose, when the same state will be marked by like results. In w r orking this engine, very little skill, and less labour is required: Attention is the chief requi- site ; it is only to be injured by want of due care, extreme stupidity, or wilful neglect. The engine described above, does not differ essen- tially from that first designed by the inventor, Captain Savery ; the chief alteration which now occurs, is only in some few slight particulars. For example, the original engine had only one boiler, and there was no STEAM-ENGINES. 177 ready means for supplying it with water, to remedy the waste occasioned by evaporation of steam, without stopping the action of the engine, whenever the boiler was emptied to such a degree as to risk burning the vessel. After it was replenished the machine had to remain idle till the steam was raised, thus causing an immense loss of time ; which is remedied by the application of a second boiler. The description of the engine formerly mentioned is transcribed from Mr. Savery's publication, " The Miner's Friend," and which had a subsidiary boiler, with water of a boiling heat, always ready to supply the large boiler ; and the power of steam raised in it is employed to force the water into the larger boiler, to replace the waste occasioned by evaporation from that boiler ; by this means the transposition of the feeding water is not only speedily performed, but being itself of a boiling heat, it is instantly ready to produce steam for carrying on the work. There is also one more grand improvement in the modern machine : the first engine was worked by four separate cocks, which the operator was compelled to turn separately at every change of stroke ; if he turned them wrong, he was not only liable to damage the engine, but he prevented its effect, and, at the same time, lost a part of the operation : whereas, in the improved engine, the com- munications are made by a double sliding valve, or, as it has since been termed, regulator; that is, a brass plate, shaped like a fan, and moving on a centre within the boiler, so as to slide horizontally in contact with the under surface of the cover of the boiler, to which it is accurately fitted by grinding, and thus, at pleasure, opens or shuts the orifices, or entries, to the steam pipes of the two receivers alternately. This regulator acts with less friction than a cock of equal bore, and, by the motion of a single handle backwards, at once opens the proper steam pipe from one receiver, and closes that which belongs to the other receiver. Cap- ITS HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. tain Savery, in his publication before noticed, describes the uses to which this machine may be applied, besides those before described, viz. 1, to serve water for turning all sorts of mills ; 2, for supplying palaces, noblemen and gentlemen's houses with water, and affording the means for extinguishing fires therein, by the water so raised ; 3, the supplying cities and towns with water; 4, draining fens and marshes; 5, for ships ; 6, for draining mines of water ; and 7, for preventing damps in mines. Dr. Desaguliers, we conceive, ungenerously attacked Captain Savery's reputation, by alleging that this was not an original invention, and that he was indebted for the first idea to the previously mentioned plan of the Marquis of Worcester. Dr. Rees, with a generous liberality worthy his great critical discrimination, scientific skill, and general erudition, has, we think, ably defended the captain's character, by proving his ideas to have originated with himself; we have only an opportunity to notice the most prominent features in this justification, where Dr. Rees thus expresses himself. " We know that the Marquis of Worcester gave no hint concerning the contractibility or conden- sation of steam, upon which all the merit of the modern engine depends. The Marquis of Worcester's engine was actuated wholly by the elastic power of steam, which he either found out, or proved by the bursting of cannon in part filled with water ; and not the least hint that steam so expanded, is capable of being so far contracted in an instant, as to leave the space it occu- pied in a vessel, and occasion, in a great measure, a vacuum." Subsequent to the Marquis of Worcester's, and Captain Savery 's original ideas, and also, subsequent to the perfection the captain had brought his machine to, M. Amonton, a native of France, invented a machine which he called a fire- wheel ; but it does not appear that it was ever brought to that perfection to be con- STEAM E.NCJINK*. 1 8ft ducive to real utility, although it was certainly very ingenious. Also, M. Papin, a native of Germany, made some pretensions to what he alleged was an invention of his own, only it happened to appear, unfortunately for his claim, that he was in London, and present at the time when Captain Savery exhibited the model of his steam-engine to the Royal Society. He made some unsuccessful experiments, hy order of his patron, the Landgrave of Hesse, which sufficiently proved that, if he was the inventor, he did not understand the nature of his own machine. Not long after Savery had invented his engine, Thomas Newcomen, an ironmonger, and John Galley, a glazier, began to direct their attention to the employ- ment of steam as a mechanic power. Their first engine was constructed about the year 1711. This machine still acted on the principle of condensing the steam by means of cold water, and the pressure of the atmosphere on the piston. It was found of great value in pumping water from deep mines ; but the mode of its construction, the great waste of fuel, the continued cooling and heating of the cylinder, and the limited capacities of the atmosphere in impelling the piston downward, all tended to circumscribe its utility. The steam-engine was in this state, when it happily attracted the attention of Mr. Watt, to whom the merit and honour is due, of having first rendered this invention available as a mechanical agent. We can- not illustrate the improvements of this ingenious indi- vidual better than by giving a short biographical sketch of him to whom the world is so much indebted. James Watt was born at Greenock, an extensive seaport in the west of Scotland, on the 19eh of January, 1 736. His father was a merchant, and also one of the magistrates of that town. He received the rudiments of his education in his native place ; but his health being then extremely delicate, as it continued 190 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. to be to the end of his life, his attendance at school was not always very regular. He amply made up, however, for what he lost in this way, by the diligence with which he pursued his studies at home, where, without any assistance, he succeeded, at a very early age, in making considerable proficiency in various branches of knowledge. Even at this time it is said his favourite study was mechanical science, to a love of which he was probably in some degree led by the example of his grandfather and his uncle, both of whom had been teachers of mathematics, and had left a considerable reputation for learning and ability in that department. Young Watt, however, was not indebted to any instruction of theirs for his own ac- quirements in science, the former having died two years before, and the latter one year after he was born. At the age of eighteen he was sent to London, to be apprenticed to a maker of mathematical instru- ments; but in little more than a year the state of his health forced him to return to Scotland ; and he never received any further instruction in his profession. A year or two after this, however, a visit which he paid to some relations in Glasgow, suggested to him the plan of attempting to establish himself in that city, in the line for which he had been educated. In 1757, he accordingly removed thither, and was immediately appointed mathematical instrument maker to the College. In this situation he remained for some years, during which, notwithstanding almost constant ill health, he continued both to prosecute his profession, and to labour in the general cultivation of his mind, with extraordinary ardour and perseverance. Here also he enjoyed the intimacy and friendship of several distinguished persons, who were then members of the University, especially of the celebrated Dr. Black, the discoverer of the principle of latent heat, and Dr. Robison, so well known by his treatises on mechanical science, who was then a student, and about the same STEAM-ENCINF*. 1K1 age as himself. Honourable, however as his present appointment was, and important as were many of the advantages to which it introduced him, he probably did not find it a very lucrative. one ; and therefore, in 1763. when about to marry, he removed from his apartments in the University, to a house in the city, and entered upon the profession of a general engineer. For this his genius and scientific attainments most admirably qualified him. Accordingly he soon acquired a high reputation, and was extensively em- ployed in making surveys and estimates for canals, harbours, bridges, and other public works. Hw advice and assistance were sought for in almost all tho important improvements of this description, which were now undertaken or proposed in his native country. But another pursuit, in which he had been for some time privately engaged, was destined ere long to withdraw him from this line of exertion, and to occupy his whole mind with an object still more worthy of its extraordinary powers. While yet residing in the College, his attention had been directed to the employment of steam as a mechanical agent, by some speculations of his friend Mr. Robison, with regard to the practicability of applying it to the movement of wheel-carriages ; and he had also himself made some experiments with Papin's digester, with the view of ascertaining its expansive force. He had not prosecuted the inquiry, however, so far as to have arrived at any determinate result, when the winter of 1763-1, a small model of Newcomen's engine was sent him by the Professor of Natural Philosophy, to be repaired, and fitted for exhibition in the class. The examination of this model set \Yatt upon thinking anew, and witfi more interest than ever, on the powers of steam. Struck w r ith the radical imperfections of the atmospheric engine, he began to turn in his mind the possibility of employing steam in mechanics, in some new manner L 182 niSTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. which should enable it to work with much more powerful effect. This idea having got possession of him, he engaged in an extensive course of experiments, for the purpose of ascertaining as many facts as pos- sihle with regard to the properties of steam ; and the pains he took in this investigation were rewarded with several valuable discoveries. The rapidity with which water evaporates he found, for instance, depended simply upon the quantity of heat which was made to enter it ; and this again, on the extent of the surface exposed to the fire. He also ascertained the quantity of coals necessary for the evaporation of any given quantity of water, the heat at which water boils, under various pressures, and many other parti- culars of a similar kind, which had never before been accurately determined. Thus prepared by a complete knowledge of the properties of the agent with which he had to work, he next took into consideration, with a view to their amendment, what he deemed the two great defects of Newcomen's engine. The first of these was the necessity arising from the method employed to con- centrate the steam, of cooling the cylinder, before every stroke of the piston, by the water injected into it. On this account, a much more powerful applica- tion of heat than would otherwise have been requisite was demanded for the purpose of again heating that vessel when it was to be refilled with steam. In fact, Watt ascertained that there was thus occasioned, in the feeding of the machine, a waste of not less than three-fourths of the whole fuel employed. If the cylinder, instead of being thus cooled for every stroke of the piston, could be permanently hot, a fourth part of the heat which had hitherto been applied would be found sufficient to produce steam enough to fill it. How then was this desideratum to be obtained ? S a very, the first who really constructed a working engine, and whose arrangements, as we have already STEAM-EiN'GINES. 183 remarked, all sliowed a very superior ingenuity, employed the method of throwing cold water over the outside of the vessel containing the steam a perfectly manageable process, but at the same time a very wasteful one; inasmuch as every time it was repeated, it cooled not only the steam, but the vessel also, which, therefore, had again to be heated, by a large expenditure of fuel, before the steam could be pro- duced. Newcomen's method of injecting the water into the cylinder was a considerable improvement on this ; but it was still objectionable on the same ground, though not to the same degree ; it still cooled not only the steam, on which it was desired to produce that effect, but also the cylinder itself, which, as the vessel in which more steam was to be immediately manufactured, it was so important to keep hot. It w r as also a very serious objection to this last- mentioned plan, that the injected water, itself, from the heat of the place into which it was thrown, was very apt to be partly converted into steam ; and the more cold water was used, the more considerable did this crea- tion of new steam become. In fact, in the last of Newcomen's engines, the rarefaction of the vacuum was so greatly improved from this cause, that the resistance experienced by the piston in its descent was found to amount to about a fourth part of the whole atmospheric pressure by which it was carried down, or, in other words, the working power of the machine was thereby diminished one-fourth. After reflecting for some time upon all this, it at last occurred to Watt to consider whether it might not be possible, instead of continuing to condense the steam in the cylinder, to contrive that method of drawing it off, to undergo that operation in some other vessel. This fortunate idea having presented itself to his mind, it was not long before his ingenuity suggested to him the means of realising it. In the course of one or two days, according to his own 184 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVKNTIONS. account, he had all the necessary apparatus arranged in his mind. The plan which he devised wa, indeed, an extremely simple one, and on that account the more beautiful. / lie proposed to establish a commu- nication by an open pipe, between the cylinder and another vessel, the consequence of which evidently would be, that when the steam was admitted into the former, it would flow into the other to fill it also. If, then, the portion in this latter vessel only should be subjected to a condensing process, by being brought into contact with cold water, or any other convenient means, what would follow? Why, a vacuum would be produced here into that, as a vent, more steam would immediately rush from the cylinder that likewise would be condensed and so the process would go on till all the steam had left the cylinder, and a perfect vacuum had been effected in that vessel, without so much as a drop of cold water having touched or entered it. The separate vessel alone, or the condenser, as Watt called it, would be cooled by the water used to condense the steam and that, instead of being an evil, manifestly tended to promote and quicken the condensation./ When Watt reduced his views to the test of experiment, he found the result to answer his most sanguine expectations. The cylinder, although emptied of its steam for every stroke of the piston as before, was now constantly kept at the same temperature with the steam (or 212 deg. Fahrenheit) ; and the consequence was, that one- fourth of the fuel formerly required, sufficed to feed the engine. But besides this most important saving in the expense of maintaining the engine, its power was greatly increased by the most perfect vacuum produced in the new construction, in which the con- densing water, being no longer admitted within the cylinder, could not, as before, create new steam there while displacing the old. Such, then, was the remedy by which the genius STEAM-E^ 7 GINES. 185 of this great inventor effectually cured the first and most serious defect of the old apparatus. In carrying his ideas into execution, he encountered, as was to he expected, many difficulties, arising principally from the impossibility of realising theoretical perfection of structure with such materials as human art is ohliged to work with ; but his ingenuity and perseverance overcame every obstacle. One of the things which cost him the greatest trouble was, how to fit the piston so exactly to the cylinder, as, without affecting the freedom of its motion, to prevent the passage of the air between the two. In the old engine this end had been obtained by covering the piston with a small quantity of water, the dripping down of which into the space below, where it merely mixed with the stream introduced to effect the condensation, was of little or no consequence. But in the new construc- tion, the superiority of which consisted in keeping this receptacle for the steam always both hot and dry, such an effusion of moisture, although in very small quantities, would have occasioned material incon- venience. The air alone, besides, which in the old engine followed the piston in its descent, acted with considerable effect in cooling the lower part of the cylinder. His attempts to overcome this difficulty, while they succeeded in that object, conducted Watt also to another improvement, which effected the complete removal of what we have called the second radical imperfection of Newcomen's engine, namely, its non-employment for a moving power, of the expan- sive force of steam. The effectual way it occurred to him of preventing any air from escaping into the part of the cylinder below the piston, would be to dispense with the use of that element above the piston, and to substitute there likewise the same contrivance as below, of alternate steam and a vacuum. This was, of course, to be accomplished by merely opening communications from the upper part of the cylinder to the boiler on L 2 18S. TU STORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. the one hand, and the condenser on the other, and forming it at the same time into an air-tight chamber, by means of a cover, with only a hole in it to admit the rod or shank of the piston, which might, besides, without impeding its freedom of action, be padded with hemp, the more completely to exclude the air. It was so contrived accordingly, by a proper arrange- ment of the cocks and the machinery connected with them ; that, while there was a vacuum in one end of the cylinder, there should be an admission of steam into the other ; and the steam so admitted now served, not only by its susceptibility of sudden condensation to create the vacuum, but also, by its expansive force, to impel the piston. These were the great improvements which Watt introduced in what may be called the principle of the steam-engine, or, in other words, in the manner of using and applying the steam. They eonstitnte, therefore, the grounds of his claim to be regarded as the true author of the conquest that has been obtained by man over this powerful element. But original and comprehensive as were the views out of which these fundamental inventions arose, the exquisite and inex- haustible ingenuity which the engine, as finally per- fected by him, displays in every part of its subordinate mechanism, is calculated to strike us perhaps with scarcely less admiration. It forms undoubtedly the best exemplification that has ever been afforded of the number and diversity of services which a piece of machinery may be made to render to itself, by means solely of the various application of its first moving power, when that has once been called into action. Of these contrivances, however, we can only notice one or two, by way of specimen. Peihaps the most singular is that called the governor. This consists of an upright spindle, which is kept constantly turning, by being connected with a certain part of the machinery, and from which two balls are suspended. STEAM -ENGINES, 187 in opposite directions, by rods, attached by joints, somewhat in the manner of the legs of a pair of tongs. As long as the motion of the engine is uniform, that of the spindle is so likewise, and the balls continue steadily revolving at the same distance from each other. But as soon as any alteration in the action of the piston takes place, the balls, if it has become more rapid, fly further apart under the influ- ence of the increased centrifugal force which actuates them ; or approach nearer to each other in the opposite circumstances. This alone would have served to indicate the state of matters to the eye ; but Watt was not to be so satisfied. He connected the rods with a valve in the tube by which the steam is admitted to the cylinder from the boiler, in such a way, that as they retreat from each other, they gradually narrow the opening which is so guarded, or enlarge it as they tend to collapse ; thus diminishing the supply of steam when the engine is going too fast, and when it is not going fast enough, enabling it to regain its proper speed by allowing it an increase of aliment. Again the constant supply of a sufficiency of water to the boiler is secured by an equally simple provision, namely, by a float resting on the surface of the water which, as soon as it is carried down by the consump- tion of the water to a certain point opens a valve and admits more. And so on through ail the different parts of the apparatus, the various wonders of which cannot be better summed up than in the forcible and graphic language of a recent writer : u In the present perfect state of the engine it appears a thing almost endowed with intelligence. It regulates, with perfect accuracy and uniformity, the number of its strokes in, a given time, counting, or recording them moreover, to tell how much work it has done, as a clock records the beats of its pendulum ; it regulates the quantity of steam admitted to work ; the briskness of the fire ; the supply of water to the boiler ; the supply of coci'.s HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. to the fire ; it opens and shuts its valves with ahsoluf e precision as to time and manner ; it oils its joints ; it takes out any air which may accidentally enter into parts which should be vacuous ; and when any thing goes wrong, which it cannot of itself rectify, it warns Us attendants by ringing a bell ; yet, with all these talents and qualities, and even when exerting the power of six hundred horses, it is obedient to the hand of a child ; its aliment is coal, wood, charcoal, or other combustible it consumes none when idle it never tires, and wants no sleep ; it is not subject to malady when originally well made, and only refuses to work when worn out with age ; it is equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind ; it is a water-pumper, a miner, a sailor, a cotton -spinner, a weaver, a blacksmith, a miller, c., &c. ; and a small engine, in the character of a steam pony, may be seen dragging after it on a rail-road a hundred tons of merchandise, or a regiment of soldiers, with greater speed than that of the fleetest coaches. It is the king of machines, and a permanent realisation of the Genii of Eastern fable, whose supernatural powers were occa- sionally at the command of man." In addition to those difficulties which his unrivalled mechanical ingenuity enabled him to surmount, Watt, notwithstanding the merit of his inventions, had to contend for some time with others of a different na- ture, in his attempts to reduce them to practice. He had no pecuniary resources of his own, and was at first without any friend willing to run the risk of the outlay necessary for an experiment on a sufficiently large scale. At last he applied to Dr. Roebuck, an ingenious and spirited speculator, who had just estab lished the Carron iron- works, not far from Glasgow, and held also at the same time a lease of the extensive coal- works at Kinneal, the property of the Duke of Hamilton. Dr. Roebuck agreed to advance the requi- site funds, on having two-thirds of the profits made ST li A M - E N G I N F S . 1 SD over to Imn ; and upon this Mr. Watt took out his first patent in the beginning of the year 1769. An engine with a cylinder of eighteen inches diameter was soon after erected at Kinneal; and although, as a first experiment, it was necessarily, in somo respects, of defective construction, its working com- pletely demonstrated the value of Watt's improve- ments. But Dr. Roebuck, whose undertakings were very numerous and various, in no long time after forming this connexion, found himself involved in such ^o pecuniary difficulties, as to put it out of his power to make any further advances in prosecution of its object. On this Watt applied himself for so me years almost entirely to the ordinary work of his profession as ^i e conceived to form an important epoch in the miller's art. This process, however, is not new ; it consists in first grinding the wheat not so fine as might be required for ordinary purposes ; afterwards putting the meal several times through the mill, and sifting it with various sieves. It should seem this method was practised in ancient Rome ; for Pliny, who took care to inform himself of most things, tells us, that in his time they had, at least, five different kinds of flour, all procured from the same corn. It appears, that the ancient Romans had advanced very far in this art, as well as in that of baking, &e., from what may be collected from its economical polity preserved by Pliny and others. Whence it may be fairly inferred, they knew how to prepare from corn more kinds of meal, and from meal more kinds of bread, than the moderns even now are acquainted with. Pliny reckons that bread should be one- third heavier than the meal used for baking it : this proportion it appears, was known in Germany nearly a century and a half ago, and discovered from experiments on bread made at different times. German bakers, although they may have been occasionally mistaken, have always undoubtedly given more bread than meal. It appears that in latter periods, the art of grinding, as well as baking, has declined very much in Italy ; and their bread, although produced from the finest grain in the world, is altogether bad when manufac- tured by Italians. On this account, bakers from Germany it seem?, are generally employed in public baking-houses, as well at Rome as in Venice. Bakers of that people are generally settled at those places, where they have been in the habit of manufacturing that article for the principal inhabitants, for upwards of three hundred years. From Beckmann's History, it would appear that the mouture econornique of the French has been known to MILLS. 207 the Germans for more than two hundred years. Many were the attempts, repeatedly enforced, to deter the experiments made, from time to time, by the French experimentalists, to perfect this article previous to its being accomplished. In this, the French suffered themselves to be taught by prejudice and directed by ignorance. Numerous and judicious were the experiments made by the scientific and phi- losophic of that people to produce the most in quantity and best in quality from a definite quantity of grain, at which the ignorant of their species suffered their prejudice to revolt, and the powerful readily come into the mode of thinking of the vulgar, to whom they lent their aid, to effect what Heaven in revelation had commanded, viz : cc Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you/' Mat. vii. 6. It will, from the succeeding statement, that in using the language which has just appeared, circumstances sanctioned us. The clergy of the chapel royal, and parish church at Versailles, sent their wheat in the beginning of last century to be ground at an adjacent mill : according to custom, it was put through the miil only once, and the bran, which yet contained much flour, was sold for fattening cattle. This miller having, however, in process of time learnt the process of the inouture economique y purchased the bran from these ecclesiastics, and found that it yielded him as good flour as they had procured from the whole wheat. The miller, at length, is presumed, in a -qualm of conscience, to have regretted cheating those holy men ; he accordingly discovered to them the secret, and gave them afterwards fourteen bushels of flour from their wheat, instead of eight, which he had only furnished them before. This voluntary discovery of the miller was made in 1760; and it is probable 208 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. the same discovery was made at the same time by oth ers. A baker, named Malisset, proposed to the lieu- tenant-general of the French police to teach a method by which people could grind their corn with more advantage ; and experiments were accordingly made and succeeded. A mealman of Senlis, named Buquet, having the inspection of the mill belonging to the large hospital at Paris, made the same proposal : the result of his experiments, made under the direction of the magistrates, was printed. The investigation of this art was now taken up by men of learning and science, who gave it a suitable denomination ; ex- plained it, made experiments and calculations upon it, and at the same time recommended it so much, that the mouture economique engaged the attention of all magistrates throughout France. Its government sent Buquet to Lyons in 1764, to Bourdeaux in 1766, to Dijon in 1767, and to Mondidier in 1768. The benefit which France derived from that trouble, shows that it was not taken in vain. Previous to that period, a Paris setier yielded from eighty to ninety pounds of meal, and from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty pounds of bran ; but the same quantity now yields one hundred and eighty-five pounds, and ac- cording to the latest improvements, one hundred and ninety-five pounds of meal. In the time of St. Louis, from four to five setters were reckoned necessary for the annual maintenance of a man ; these were scarcely sufficient ; as many were allowed to the patients in hospitals; and such were the calculations made in the sixteenth century. When the miller's art was every- where improved, the four setiers were reduced to three and a half, and from the latest improvements, they do not exceed two. From mills which only force the farinaceous parts from the husk, thereby rounding the grain, the com- mon denomination of barley -mills comes, from such MILLS. 209 mills being used in the manufacture of pearl barley. In their construction, these mills differ but little from wheat-mills, and the machinery for the former is generally added to the latter. The grand specific dis- tinction is, that the millstone is rough hewn round its circumference, and in the stead of a lower stone, there is generally a wooden case ; the middle lined with a plate of iron, pierced like a grater with holes, the sharp edge of which turns upwards. The barley is thrown upon the stone, which, as it turns round, frees it from the husk, and rounds it ; after which, it is put into sieves and sifted. So long as the policy of governments was blind to the interests of men, and so long as the griping avarice of a few was permitted to lay the free-born of their species under the most severe contributions, so long were permitted to build mills only, who had obtained a regal license for that purpose. But, thank heaven ! that ray of light it has lent generally to man, has, in some sort, illuminated even the minds of ministers and their tyrannical masters, to curtail that spirit which had cast the fetters of vassalage given by feudal tyranny to its upstart dependants. Men were left, at length, to improve their property according to their pleasure : since which period, more mills have been erected for the convenience of the species. This pri- vilege, it appears, was not prohibited by the Roman laws ; those irradiations of superior intellect well appreciated human rights. It was not till the dark- ness of the middle ages had obscured the mental hemi- sphere, that any person was presumed to possesss a superiority over others, and to abridge the small por- tion of general happiness that the favoured of fortune might add to his satiety. During those days of* uni- versal darkness, numberless were the evils which men suffered, and among them the present object of our consideration was not the least ; frequently having to travel for miles to a mill to procure the necessary 210 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. manufacture of so essential an article to human life as bread. Let us not be decoyed, however, by the resentment produced by the spirit of human oppression, beyond the bounds prescribed by reason, to inveigh against such ordinance when public and general utility ever was consulted ; and certain public streams were by wise laws to be kept free from individual encroach- ments with impunity. It is not against the dictates of sober reason we declare hostility, but the gross abuse of power. A time there was, when human baseness in princes and potentates, their vassals doubtless aping the man - ners of their masters, claimed as their right not only the common element of water, but also that of air ! A curious incident related by Jargow, and detailed by Professor Beckmann, as follows, establishes the inso- lence of upstart men : " In the end of the fourteenth century, the monks of the celebrated but long since destroyed monastery of Augustines, at Windshiem, in the province of Overyssel, were desirous of erecting a wind-mill not far from Zwoll; but a neighouring lord endeavoured to prevent them, declaring that the wind in that quarter belonged to him. The monks, unwil- ling to give up their point, had recourse to the Bishop of Utrecht, under whose jurisdiction the province had continued since the tenth century. The bishop, highly incensed against the pretender, who wished to usurp his authority, affirmed, that the wind of the whole province belonged only to him ; and, in 1391, gave the convent express permission to build a wind- mill wherever they thought proper." Without the convenience of human ingenuity heaven had sent the blessing of life in vain ; we have, under this impression, therefore, bestowed much time on this article, from a conviction of its vital importance to the necessities of human existence. SAW-MILLS. 21 I SAW-MILLS. THE invention of the plumb-line and saw, with other useful articles in mechanics, and handicrafts, are usually ascribed to that great that universal genius Daedalus : although others give the merit to one Talus, the nephew of Daedalus, and say, that the discovery was made under the following circumstances : Talus, they tell us, having found the jaw-bone of a snake, cut a piece of wood in two with the teeth ; thence, they say, he invented the saw ; his maternal uncle and master, they add, was so jealous of this invention, that he murdered the young man ; and the mode of the discovery of the murder is accounted for in this manner : some persons saw Daedalus covering up the grave of his victim, and asked what he was doing? "Oh," says he, "I am only burying a snake." How much credit may be due to this rela- tion, we do not take upon ourselves to determine. Pliny, as well as Seneca, were of the former opinion ; whilst Diodorus Siculus, and others, hold the latter. The youth is named by some Perdix. However, it appears to rest between these two, no other claimant appearing. Ovid says, it was not the jaw of a snake, but the back-bone of a fish. The former, however, appears to be the most rational opinion as to its origin, as it is conjectured that the vertebras would not be sufficiently strong, and the joints are too far apart, as well as too large. The Grecian saw is said to have been much the same as that instrument which the moderns now use. This idea is corroborated by an ancient painting dis- covered in Herculaneum ; likewise from an antique representation of this instrument, given by the cele- brated Montfaucon. 212 HIsTOJtY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. The preceding observations, however, have relation to the subject of this article only, inasmuch as they are introductory to what follows. The most beneficial and ingenious improvement that has been made in saws was the invention and introduction of machinery, called saw-mills, which, in woody countries, as well as for delicate and fine veneers, are of the greatest utility ; in the former case, wood forms the chief article of commerce where labourers are scarce; in the latter, it may be cut nearly as thin as a sheet of paper. These saw-mills also finish flooring deals, grooved, dovetailed, and planed on both sides, at the rate of two deals, of twenty feet each, in a minute ! They are commonly worked in this country by means of steam-engines; in woody countries they are generally erected on the banks of rivers, the water of which propels the machinery. It is said they were invented in Germany, as far back as the fourth century, upon the smaller river Roer; for, although Ansonius speaks of water-mills, for cutting stone, he says nothing of mills to cut timber. The art of cutting marble with a saw is very ancient ; Pliny thinks it was invented in Caria; at least, he knew of no place or building, incrusted with marble, older than the palace of King Mausolus, at Heli- carnassus. Yitruvius also names the circumstances, although he uses different terms for expressions of the same sense. He commends the beauty of its marble, whilst Pliny speaks of its different kinds : the former viewed it as an architect, whilst the latter inspected it as a naturalist. It alho does appear, from other writers, that the harder and precious kinds of stones were cut in the same manner; as Pliny speaks of a building adorned with agate, cornelian, lapis- lazuli, and amethysts. Yet there is no mention made of mills for cutting wood ; or, admitting they had been invented, it is probable they shared the fate of SAW-MILLS. 213 many other useful inventions, had been forgotten, or else some considerable modern improvement had been made in their construction. Since the period of the first invention, they have been erected in various parts of Europe and America. There appears to have been one erected in the vicinity of Augsburg, as early as 1337 ; at Erlinger, in 1417. Upon the discovery of the island of Madeira, in 1420, the Infanta Henry sent settlers there, and caused European fruits of every kind to be carried there; and amongst other productions, saw-mills and other machinery to cut the valuable timber *found there into portable pieces, which were afterwards transported to Portugal. In 1724, the city of Bres- lau had a saw-mill which produced the yearly rent or three marks. In 1490, the magistrates of Erfurt purchased a forest, and built a mill of this descrip- tion. In Norway, a country covered with wood, there was one built in 1530. This mode of manu- facture was called the new art ; and because the exportation of deals was by that means increased, a royal impost was introduced by Christian II f. in 1545, called the deal-tythe. Soon after Henry Ranzau caused the first mill to be erected at Holstein. In the year 1555, the Bishop of Ely, being ambas- sador from the Princess Mary of England to the court of Rome, saw a saw-mill in the neighbourhood of Lyons : the writer of his travels thought it worthy of particular description : "The saw- mill is driven by an upright wheel ; and the water that makes it go is gathered whole into a narrow trough, which deli- vereth the same water to the wheels. This wheel hath a piece of timber put to the axle-tree enoV, like the handle of a brooch, and fastened to the end of the saw, which being turned with the force of the water, hoisteth up and down the saw, that it continually eateth in, and the handle of the same is kept in a rigall of wood from swerving. Also the timber lieth 214 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. as it were upon a ladder, which is brought by little and little to the saw with another vice/' In the six teenth century, there was a grand improvement made in this machine by having several saws affixed to one beam, by which timber could be cut into several planks or boards, and of any thickness, at the same time. There was one of these at Ratisbon, upon the Danube, in 15? 5. In England saw- mills were at first received with as little encouragement as printing met with in Turkey, and from the same motive. When the attempt was made lo introduce them it was said the sawyers would be deprived of bread. For this reason it was found necessary to abandon a saw- mill erected by a Dutch- man, near London, in 1663. However, in the year 1700, a gentleman of the name of Houghton laid before the nation the advantages to be derived from them ; but he expressed his apprehension that it might cause a commotion among the people. What he feared, actually came to pass ; for, on the erection of one by a wealthy timber merchant, by the desire of the society for the promotion of arts, in 1 767, to be propelled by the wind, under the direction of James Stansfield, who had learnt the method of con- strncting them in Holland and Norway, a foolish mob assembled and pulled it to pieces. Many years pre- vious to this there had been a similar mill erected in Scotland. There is now hardly a town of any im- portance in the kingdom but what has one or more saw-mills in operation. FORKS. THE fork is an article of every- day use amongst us, and on that account little thought of ; still the short space we intend to occupy with this subject may, FOJiKS. 215 perhaps, convey a little information to many of our readers unknown to them before, or, at least, un- thought of. There is not the least room to suppose the ancients were at all acquainted with this little table utensil, now so necessary to our own comfort and convenience, to say nothing of our ideas of cleanliness. Pliny, who enumerated most things natural, physical, philo- sophical, and economical, makes no mention of them ; nor does it occur in any other writer of antiquity ; neither does Pollux speak of it in the very full cata- logue which he has given of things necessary for a table. Neither the Greeks or Romans had any name in the least applicable to its use, either direct or by inference, where it can be asserted that such an instrument was intended. The ancients had, it is true, in Greece, their creagra. In Rome, their furca^ fuscina, furcilla, &c. : the Grecian instrument some- what resembled a rake of an ordinary construction, and calculated for the purpose of taking meat out of a boiling pot, constructed in the shape of a hook, or rather the bent fingers of the hand. With reference to the Roman names, the first two were undoubtedly applied to instruments which approached nearer to our furnace and hay forks. The trident of Neptune is also called fuscina. The furcilla was large enough to be employed as a weapon of defence. The present Latin name for a fork, fusinula, is not to be found in any of the old Latin writers. It is the opinion, we understand, of a learned Italian writer, that the ancient Romans used the instruments they called liguloe, instead of forks. Now those instruments had some distant resemblance to our tea- spoons. Hence we must conclude that they and our ancestors used no forks, because, had they had any- 216 HISTORY OF USEFUL IJs VENTIONS. thing answering the purpose, even in effect, it must undoubtedly have had a name. In the East, we understand it was, and still is, customary to dress their victuals until they become so tender as to be easily pulled in pieces. We are told by modern travellers, that if an animal be dressed before it has lost its. natural warmth, it becomes tender and very savoury. This is the Oriental custom, and has been so from the most remote antiquity. Fortunately, all articles of food were cut up in small pieces before they were served up at table ; the necessity for which practice will appear, when we remember they usually took their meals in a recum- bent posture upon beds. Originally, persons of rank kept an officer for the purpose of cutting the meat, who used a knife, the only one placed at table, which, in opulent families, had an ivory handle, and was ornamented with silver. The bread was never cut at table ; it needed it not, being usually baked thin, somewhat resembling the Passover cake of the Jews ; this is not understood, however, to have been universal. The Chinese use no forks; however, to supply them, they have small sticks of ivory, often of very fine workmanship, inlaid with silver and gold, which each guest employs to pick up the bits of meat, it being previously cut small. The invention of forks was not known till about two centuries ago in Europe, where people eat the same as they do now in Turkey. In the New Testament we read of putting hands into the dish. Homer, as well as Ovid, mention the same custom. In the quotation from the sacred writings, we observe that the guests had, it is presumed, no instru- ment to help themselves out of the common dish which contained the repast ; for, upon the question being put of who was to betray the Saviour, the an- FORKS. 217 gwer was given in the following quotation, " !t is one of the twelve that dippeth with me in the dish." hi the passage cited from Homer, the phrase, according to the Latin translation, implies the same sense. And had the Romans been apprised of the utility of this instrument, or in fact of any substitute, there could have been no occasion for the master of the amorous art^to have given his instructions to his pupils in nearly similar terms which we now use to children. Although Count Caylus and Grignon both assert that ancient forks have been found, we still want further testimony. The former says, one with two prongs was found among some rubbish in the Appian Way, which he alleges to be of beautiful workman- ship, terminating in the handle with a carved stag's foot. Notwithstanding the high reputation of that author, this assertion is not credited. The latter says, he found some in the ruins of a Roman town in Champagne ; but he does not describe them, other- wise than to observe that one was of copper or brass, and the others of iron : and speaking of the latter, says, they appear to be table-forks, but are very coarsely made. The truth seems to be that table-forks were first used in Italy, as appears from the book of Galeotus Martius, an Italian in the service of Matthias Cor- vinus King of Hungary, who reigned from 1458 to 1490. Martins relates that at that period forks were not used at table in Hungary as in Italy ; but that at meals each person laid hold of the meat with his fingers, and on that account they were much stained with saffron, usually put into sauces and soups. He praises the king for eating without a fork, conversing at the same time, and never dirtying his clothes. In France, at the end of the sixteenth century, forks were quite unknown even at the court of the N 218 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. monarch. Neither at that period were they known in Sweden. From the history of the travels of our countryman, Coryate, entitled " Crudities," first published in 1611, and afterwards in 1776, the author says he first saw them in Italy, and he was also the first person who used them in England. As his account of them is curious, we may he excused giving an extract, slightly altering the orthography. " Here I will mention a thing that might have heen spoken of before in discourse of the first Italian town. I observed a custom in all those Italian cities and towns through which I passed, that is not used in any other country I saw in my travels; neither do* I think that any other nation in Christendom doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian, and also most stran- gers that are commorant in Italy, do always at their meals, use a little fork when they cut their meat. For while with their knife, which they hold in one hand, they cut the meat out of the dish, they fasten the fork, which they hold in their other hand, upon the same dish ; so that whatsover he be that, sitting in tha company of any others at meals, should unad- visedly touch the dish of meat with his fingers, from which all at the table do cut, he will give occasion of offence unto the company, as having transgressed the laws of good manners, insomuch that for his error he shall be at least brow-beaten if not reprehended in words. This form of feeding I understand is gene- rally used in all places of Italy ; their fork being for the most part made of iron or steel, and some of silver, but those are used only by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any means endure to have his dish touched with fingers seeing all men's fingers are not alike clean. Hereupon 1 myself thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meat, not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, MUSIC. 2 1 and oftentime in England, since I came home, being once equipped for that frequent using of my fork by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Mr. Lawrence Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call one at table farsifer, only for using a fork at feeding, but for no other cause." In many parts of Spain, we understand that, at present^ drinking-glasses, spoons, and forks are rarities. Jt is also said, that even in taverns in many countries, particularly in France, knives are not placed on the table, because it is expected that each person should have one of his own. This custom the modern French appear to have derived from their ancestors the ancient Gauls. But, as no person will eat any longer without forks, the landlords are obliged to furnish these, together with plates and spoons. Among the Highlanders in Scotland, Dr. Johnson asserts, that knives have been introduced at table since the Revolution only. Before that period the men were accustomed to cut their meat with a knife they carry as a companion to their dirk. The men cut the meat into small morsels for the women, who used their fingers to put it into their mouths. The use of forks at table was first considered as a superfluous luxury, and as such forbidden in convents, as appears from the records of the congregation of St. Maur. MUSIC. THE science of music, or rather of harmony, is ex- tremely ancient insomuch that, with respect to the latter, it is said to be coeval with Nature herself. But as it has relation to the science now in use, this, like most other arts, whose origin is very remote, is in- volved in obscurity ; and in proportion to the astonish 220 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. ment and wonder excited by its uncommon powers, in a commensurate ratio does mystery, fable, and obscurity envelope its original. However, always remembering that it was from harmony, "from heavenly harmony, this universal frame began." Proceeding step by step, it had eventually attained in Greece a very early perfection. Collins, who is justly entitled to the distinguished station held by all pupils of nature and of the muses, who is peculiarly eminent for a just poetical spirit, thus speaks of the heavenly science in his Ode on the Passions " Arise, as in that elder time, Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime ; Thy wonders in that god-like age Fill thy recording sisters' page. 'Tis said, and I believe the tale, Thy humblest reed could more prevail, Had more of strength, diviner rage Than all that charms this laggard age, Even all at once together found Cecilia's mingled world of sound." It will be remembered, however, that the poet calcu- lated as much upon the infant simplicity of nature as upon the uncommon powers of harmony ; this con- sideration will certainly reconcile the apparent ex- travagance of the thought. So great were the early powers of verse and harmony, that at one period the votaries of the muses were re- garded as persons divinely inspired ; they were the priests of man, his legislators, and his prophets. In- somuch was the possessor of the art, and the art itself reverenced, that the responses of the most eminent oracles were received in measured verse. Witness the response of the Delphian oracle received by the Athenian deputation, when Greece inquired for her wisest men, as given by Xenophon : MUSIC. 221 f ' Wise is Sophocles, more wise Euripides, But the wisest of all men is Socrates." Music eventually claimed the most unlimited con- trol over the affections of mankind, as could be proved by an infinity of instances ; we shall mention one only from a well authenticated fact, and finely illustrated in that of Timotheus from " Alexander's Feast/' by Dry den. We omit the hyperbolic represen- tation of the raising of the walls of Thebes by the power of Amphion's lute, and the apparently incredible relations of the harmony of tbe harp of Orpheus, which are all personifications of natural effects, and which we have neither room, time, nor opportunity to explain in this place. If its origin was as previously suggested by Collins, there is occasion to believe the shepherd's simple life afforded it first existence ; in the native and wild notes of the pastoral reed, may be discovered the germ of a science as various as its effects are beautiful. We shall for the present presume the simple Pandean pipe was the first effort of the construction of musical instruments ; its soft tone being analogous to the dulcet harmony of the voice. We are led to suppose this from the evidence of ancient statuary, where those pipes are frequently discovered ; and this will, perhaps, deduce its origin from the invention of the shepherd god, or oldest Pan. Nevertheless, the lyre, or harp, is alleged from records the most ancient, having at first but three strings, analogous to the three seasons of the primeval year; the treble typical of spring, the tenor resembling summer, and the bass representing winter. Tbe invention of that instrument, and of music altogether, is claimed in the pagan world by Am- phion, a successor of Cadmus, the first king of Thebes, in Bcetia, who is reported, by the music of his harp or lyre to have built the walls of the city ; Cadmus having erected the citadel only. N 2 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. Flutes were first invented by Hyognis, the Phrygian, about the year 1506 before Christ, and first played on the flute the harmony, called Phrygian, and other tunes of the mother of the gods, of Dionysius, of Pan, and of the divinities of the country and the heroes. Terpander also, who was the son of Derdineus, the Lesbian, directed the flute players to reform the tunes of the ancients, and changed the old music, about the year 645 before Christ, as we are informed by the Parian Chronicle. The same Terpander, likewise, added three more strings to the lyre. When Timotheus, the Spartan musician, was banished his native country for having increased his strings to the number of ten, he sought refuge at the court of Macedon, and accompanied his patron, Alex- ander, into Persia, when that prince conquered Darius. From the sacred records of Juiea, we may also infer the invention of musical instruments at a date long prior to either of the periods above mentioned, when they iuform us in Genesis iv. 21, that Adah, one of the wives of Lamech, had two sons, the name of one of whom was Jubal, who is said to have been " the father of all such who handle the harp and organ." This infers the anterior invention of that instrument. Music consists of effects produced by the operation of certain sounds proceeding from the dulcet voice, or musical instruments, regulated by certain time, and a succession of harmonious notes, natural, grave, or flat, i. 0., half a note below its proper tone ; and acute or sharp, i. e., half a note above its proper key ; and of such modulation of various tones, and of different value, and also of manifold denominations : the natural tones consisting of eight notes, with the addition of octaves, in various keys, with flats and sharps introduced to afford variety from the skill of MUSIC. 223 the master, at different periods, to produce the most agreeable diversity in his com position ; and sometimes according to the subject or words to which his music is adapted. Those musical notes, though proceeding from so small a number of radicals, are analogous to the incalculable, the endless forms, which ortho- graphy and rhetoric can afford to a well-informed orator, or elegant author, to embellish any subject. Thus from the definite number of twenty-four notes, varied in different degrees, by sharps, flats, semi- tones, &c., are produced all that is so magical, enthu- siastic, and transporting in the empire of omnipotent music. Like as the alphabetic characters may be varied into myriads of forms suitable to every multi- farious species of conversation or composition ; in a word, a few musical notes in the hands of a master may be made by his skill to produce, from agreeable interchanges of time, harmony, &c., every variety of musical sentiment which can affect the human soul. A stronger proof cannot be adduced than will be found in the before-cited ode of " Alexander's Feast," by the truly poetic Dryden. In all which harmony and melody form conspicuous characteristics. And of harmony, according to the learned Mr. Mason. The sense in which the ancient Greeks viewed harmony is as follows : " They by that term understood the succession of simple sounds according to their scale, with respect to acuteness or gravity." Whilst it appears that by harmony, the moderns understand " The succession of simple sounds, ac- cording to the laws of counterpoints." From the same authority u By melody, the ancients under- stood the succession of simple sounds, according to the laws of rhythm and metre, or in other words, according to time, measure, or cadence. Whereas, the moderns understand by the same term what the ancients meant by harmony, rhythm and metre being excluded." " And the modern air is what the ancients 224 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. understood by melody." Hence, from the preceding definitions, it appears that what is now called har- mony was unknown to the ancients ; and they viewed that term as we now see simple melody, when we speak of it as a thing distinguished from simple modu- lated air, and that their term, melody, was applied to what we now call air or song. Should this be true, the long- contested difficulty, and that train of endless disputes, which has existed among the learned and scientific world so long, will instantly vanish. Should we suppose an ancient flute-player used an improper tone or semi-tone, or had he transgressed the mode or key in which he was playing, he committed an error in harmony; yet his melody might have been perfect, with respect to the laws of rhythm or metre ; we should say of a modern musician, under similar circumstances, that he played wrong notes, or was out of tune, yet kept his time. "Whoever made such a distinction would be allowed to possess a good ear for music, though the moderns would be inclined to call it an ear for melody or into- nation. By the rules of musical conversation, we should be justified when we call an instrument out of tune inharmonious, although the intervals were nearly right. By harmonica^ the Greeks implied nothing more than that proportion of sound to sound, which mathe- maticians call ratio, or which would be understood in general musical conversation, by an agreeable succes- sion of musical notes ; as ancient harmony consisted of the succession of simple sounds, so does modern harmony consist of the succession of chords. Whether the diatonic scale be the effect of nature, or produced by art, has occasioned disputation between many ; but without losing time or space, we are, we think, authorised, from general opinion, to observe, that compositions formed on it, and on the plan MUSIC. 225 recommended by a lute organist, would produce seusa > tions odiously disgusting to any musical ear. The diatonic is the most simple genera in music, consisting of tones and major semi-tones ; in the scale of which genus' the smallest interval is a conjoint degree, which changes its name and place, that is, passing from one to another; a prominent air in this species of modern music is " God save the Queen," entirely diatonic, without modulation, by the inter- vention of a single flat or sharp. It may not be unacceptable to our readers to add a few particulars of one of the greatest composers that ever existed ; we allude to the eminently illustrious GEORGE F REDE KICK HANDEL, a name dear to science, and entitled to the grateful veneration of every ama- teur in this divine art. He was born at Halle, in Upper Saxony, on the 24th of February 1684. S-carcely was he able to speak, before he articulated musical sounds. His father was a professor of the healing art as a surgeon and physician, then upwards of sixty, who intended his son for the study of the law. Grieved at the child's predeliction, he banished all musical instruments from his house. But the spark which nature had kindled in his bosom was not to be extinguished by the mistaken views of a blind parent. The child by some means or other contrived to get a little claverchord into a garret, where, applying him- self after the family had retired to rest, he discovered means to produce both melody and harmony. Before he was seven years of age, th-e Duke of Weissenfells by accident discovered hiss genius, and prevailed on his father to cherish his inclination. He was accordingly placed with Zachan, organist of the cathedral of Halle ; when, from nine to twelve years of age, he composed a church service every week. Losing his father whilst he was in that city, he thought he could best support his mother by repairing to Hamburgh, where he soon attracted general notice. This wonder of the age was ' 226 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. then only fourteen, when he composed " Almeria," his first opera. Having quitted Hamburgh, he travelled for six years in Italy, where, at both Florence and Rome, he excited much attention : at both which places he produced new operatic performances. In that clime of the harmonious muse, he was introduced to, and cultivated the friendship of, Dominico, Scar- latti, Gaspurini, and Zotti, with other eminent scien- tific characters. He was particularly caressed and patronised by Cardinal Ottoboni, in whose circle he became acquainted with the elegant and natural Co- relli. It was here he composed the sonata ' II trionfo del tempo," the original score of which is now in the Royal Collection. After which he went to Naples, where he set " Acis et Galatea," in Italian, to music. Returning to Germany, he was patronised by the Elector of Hanover, subsequently George the First. In 1710 he visited London, by permission of his patron, who had settled a pension of 200 per annum on him. In London he produced the opera of " Ri- naldo," universally admired equal with all his other productions that had preceded. He was compelled to leave, however reluctantly, the British shore, con- sistent with his engagement to his patron the Elector. Pie departed, not without exciting general regret, two years after his first arrival in this country. He soon appeared here again, however, and his return was welcomed like the rising of the genial orb of day before the wrapt Ignicolist ! But now seduced by the favour which awaited him, he forgot to return. On the death of Queen Anne, who had also settled an annual pension of 200 upon him equal to what he received from the Elector, his former patron when that prince ascended the throne, Handel was afraid to appear before his majesty, till, by an ingenious contrivance of Baron Kilmarfyge, he was restored to favour, Queen Anne's bounty being doubled by the king ; and the chief nobility accepted an academy of SEALING-WAX, SEALS, ETC. 228 music under Handel's direction, which flourished for ten years, till an unfortunate quarrel occurred between him and Senesino, which dissolved the institution, and brought on a contest ruinous to the fortune and the health of our musician. He was particularly patronised by the Earl of Bur- lington, the Duke of Chandos, and most of the distin- guished nobility of Great Britain. Having restored his health at the baths of Aix- la-Chapelle, he for the future chose sacred subjects, which were performed at his theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Covent Garden, and Westminster Abbey. He died in April, 1759, aged seventy-five, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where he was honoured with a public funeral, six peers supporting the pall ; the very reverend and truly learned translator of " Lon- gimus," Dr. Pearce, the Dean, and then Bishop of Rochester, performed the funeral service with a full choir. He had been a great benefactor to numerous public charities. The funds of the Foundling Hospital were improved through him with the amazing sum of 10,299. The organ in its chapel, and the MS. score of his " Messiah," were a present and a donation to the foundation from him. He left an amiable private as well as a good public character behind him. His character as a composer is too well appreciated by the British public to require any remarks from our feeble and inharmonious pen. SEALING-WAX, SEALS, in his Travels, says, that in Surat gum-lac is melted and formed into sticks, like sealing-wax. Wecker also gives directions to make an impression with calcined gypsum and a solution of gum or isinglass. Porta, likewise, knew that this might be done, and, perhaps, to greater perfection with amalgam of quick- silver. Among the records of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cas?el, are some letters of 1563, sealed with red and black wax. In the family of the Rhingrave, Philip Francis von Daun, the oldest letter sealed with wax, known in Germany, is found, of the date of August 3, 1554 ; it was written from London, by an agent of that SEALING-WAX, SEALS, ETC. 223 family, of the name of Gerrard Herman. The colour of the wax is dark red, and very shining. The oldest recipe known in Germany for making sealing-wax, was found by M. Yon Murr, in a work by Samuel Zimmerman, citizen of Augsburg, pub- lished in 1759. The copy in the library of the university of Gottingenjs signed by the author him- self. " To make hard sealing-wax, called Spanish wax, with which, if letters be sealed, they cannot be opened without breaking the seal ; take beautiful clear resin, the whitest you can procure, and melt it over a slow coal fire. When it is properly melted, take it from the fire, and for every pound of resin, add two ounces of cinnabar, pounded very fine, stirring it about. Then let the whole cool, or pour it into cold water. Thus you will have beautiful red sealing-wax. " If you are desirous of having black wax, add lamp-black to it. With smalt or azure, you may make blue : with white-lead, white ; and with orpi- ment, yellow. " If, instead of resin, you melt purified turpentine in a glass vessel, and give it any colour you choose, you will have a harder kind of sealing-wax, and not so brittle as the former/' It may be remarked, that in these recipes for the fabrication of sealing-wax there is no mention of gum- lac, which is known at present as a chief ingredient in the composition of this article. Zimmerman's sealing-wax approaches very near to the quality of that known as maltha, whence we may conclude, that the manufacture of it did not originally come from the East Indies. The most ancient mention of sealing-wax occurs in a botanical work, treating of the history of aromatics and simples, by Garcia ab Horto, published at Antwerp in 1563, where the author, speaking of gum -lac says, that those sticks used for sealing letters are made of it ; at which time 234 HISTORY OF USEFUL IKVEM'IONS. sealing-wax was common among the Portuguese, and has since been manufactured chiefly in Holland. M. Spiess, principal keeper of the Records at Ples- senberg, says, respecting the antiquity of Wafers, in Germany, that the most ancient use of them he has known, occurs in a letter written by D. Krapf, at Spires, in 1624, to the government of Bayreuth. The same authority informs us that some years after, the Brandenburg factor at Nuremberg sent such wafers to a bailiff, at Osternohe. During the whole of the seventeenth century, wafers were not used in the Chancery at Brandenburg, and only by private persons there. Seals, it appears, from certain passages of Egyptian history, parallel with, and perhaps anterior to the Israeli tish ingress, were formed or cut in emeralds, the native produce of that country. Other precious stones, metals, steel, lead, and a variety of materials, but chiefly of a hard and precious kind, have been always employed for that purpose. BLACK-LEAD PENCILS. THE period when this semi-metallic substance was introduced, for the purpose for which it is now applied, cannot with certainty be ascertained, as no record is found of the transaction : by the common expedient of inference, however, we certainly may conclude, it was in very remote ages; for transcribers of MSS. upwards of one thousand years ago, used a substance somewhat resembling it in effect. But, perhaps, the antiquity of the use of black-lead pencils cannot be so well determined from diplo- rnatiques, as their frequency might be proved from mineralogical writers. The first mention of this discovery occurs in the works of Gesner, who, in his BLACK-LEAD PENCILS. 235 M Book of Fossils," published in 1565, says that the British people had pencils for writing, with wooden- handles inclosing a piece of lead, which he believed to be an artificial composition ; and it was called stimmi Anglicanum ; which seems to import that it was a British production ; and we should consider, from the name of British antimony being gitfen to it, that it might have been Cumberland black-lead. About thirty years afterwards, Cfiesalpinus gave a more perfect account of it : he says it was a lead- coloured', shining stone, as smooth as glass, and appeared as if rubbed over with oil ; it gave to the fingers an ash-grey tint, with a plumbeous brightness ; and, he adds, pointed pencils were made of it, for the use of painters and draughtsmen. A closer description of the substance than this cannot be discovered. Somewhere about three years afterwards, a still more perfect description was furnished by Imperatis; who says, " It is much more convenient for drawing than pen and ink, because the marks made with it appear distinct upon a white grouriTl, also, in conse- quence of its brightness, show themselves on black, and can be preserved or rubbed out at pleasure. This mineral is smooth, appears greasy to the touch, and has a leaden-colour, which it communicates with a metallic brightness. It can resist, for a long time, the strongest fire, and even from it requires more hard- ness ; it has, in consequence, been thought to be a species of talc. This, in the arts to which it is applied, is a property which greatly enhanceth its value, being manufactured into crucibles, &c., with clay. These vessels are capable of enduring the strongest heat of a chemical furnace.'* Sometimes this lead is foliaceous, and may be crum- bled into small pieces or scales ; but frequently found denser and more strong. This latter is what writing pencils should be made of; but the former being more frequently found, and, also, coming from the refuse of 236 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. the workmen, is too often mixed up with some glutinous substance, and there is every reason to sup- pose it to be enclosed in the groove in a plastic state ; these pencils are commonly hawked about our streets by pedlars and Jews ; of purchasing which people should be cautious, as they are, in general, utterly worthless. , Robinson, in his Essay towards a natural History of Westmoreland and Cumberland states, that, at first, the country people round Keswick marked their sheep with black-lead. Afterwards, they discovered the art of employing it in their earthenware, and also to preserve iron from rust. The same writer says, the Dutch use it in dyeing, to render black more durable ; and that they buy it in large quantities for that pur- pose. But their application of it for dyeing, we should consider as highly questionable. The mode of eradicating black-lead by means of an elastic gum, called caoutchouc, or, Indian-rubber, was, we have been informed, first discovered in England somewhere about sixty years ago. COLOURED GLASS. THE manufacture of glass we find was quite common in Ethiopia, Syria, Assyria, and other Eastern coun- tries, in the earliest ages of the world, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, who says, the Ethiopians enclosed in glass, the bodies of their parents and friends ; we doubt, however, that on this point, the historian was deceived. But it really appears probable that soon after the art of making glass was discovered, the idea of communicating to it some colours would easily pre- sent itself. This probability appears increased, when it is recollected that much care is requisite to render glass perfectly colourless. As the various metallic COLOURED GLASS. 237 particles with which stone and sand abound, (these being the chief ingredients of which glass is com- posed, and which gradually give tints in fusion,) will almost unavoidably communicate some hue or other, therefore the perfection of glass is to have it perfectly colourless. But with respect to coloured glass; so frequently have people been imposed upon by having coloured glass sold to them for valuable stones, that some conscientious' authors have very laudably and care- fully abstained from lending the benefit of instruction in its manufacture, by publishing the method. The Egyptian artists were so famous in the manu- facture of glass, that the Romans were content to receive this article from the glass-houses in Alexan- dria, and did not interfere in endeavouring to procure the art themselves, until the latter part of the empire. We read that an Egyptian priest made a present to the Emperor Adrian of several beautiful glass cups, which sparkled with many colours ; and such value did that august personage place upon these toys, that he ordered them to be used only on high feasts and solemnities. Strabo relates, that a glass manufacturer of Alex- andria informed him that an earth was found in Egypt, without which the valuable coloured glass could not be made. It has been thought by some, the glass earth here meant was a mineral alkali which was readily found in Egypt, serving to make glass ; but this author speaking expressly of coloured glass, it has been suggested as probable, the alkali above named could not have reference to what the artisan intended to imply, but that it must be referred to some metallic earth or manganese. One Democritus is named by Seneca, as having discovered an art of making artificial emeralds ; but it has been conjectured that what the philosopher meant was the art of communicating colour to natu- o 2 238 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. ral rock crystal, or colouring glass already made, so as to resemble stones, which is a process performed by cementation. Directions have been furnished for this purpose by Porta, Neri, and others; but it is discovered that the articles so coloured are liable to such acci- dents in the process, that it is next to impossible to render things of any size tolerably perfect, so as to bear cutting afterwards. In the Museum Yictorium at Rome, there are shown a chrysolite and an emerald, both perfectly well exe- cuted, and thoroughly transparent, without a blemish. We have not from the ancients an account of what process they employed ; but it must be evident that nothing less than metallic calces could have been used ; and for this evident reason, that any other substance could not have resisted the influence of the necessary heat. The last century has, however, produced cer- tain artists in northern European nations, who have adopted a method of employing the precious metals, to communicate a tincture to glass in the process of making, where iron, &c. were originally only used ; and their endeavours have been attended with singular success. By means of an amalgam of gold, or a solution in aqua regia, and precipitated with a solution of tin, the metal then assuming the appearance of a rich purple coloured powder ; so prepared, it is mixed with the best frit^ and then called the precipitate or gold calx of Cassius, the inventor of gold purple, or mineral purple. This precipitate communicates a rich ruby coloured purple, so perfect that it is impossible to discover the deception, without the substances be tried by tho usual means cut with a diamond or a prepared file. We have had in England some very eminent artists in the practice of staining glass, and also for making artificial representations of various precious stones. Although the professed object of alchemy has now COLOURED GLASS. 239 met with that contempt it merited because, notwith- standing the immense sums which have been expended, the time lost, and unprofitable labour employed in the unavailing search after what probably never will be found yet the labour lost and money expended has not been totally useless, since it has served to open the seals which secured chemical science to the modern, world ; and which is the chief, if not the sole advan- tage it can claim over antiquity for superiority of information. Painting on glass, but, perhaps, staining had been a more appropriate expression, or, properly speaking, in enamel, with the preparations for colouring in mosaic work, may, to a certain extent, be justly con- sidered as branches of the art of colouring glass ; in all which there is no colour more difficult to be at- tained than a beautiful red ; it now is, and ever has been, most difficult, consequently the dearest colour. The presumed ignorance of ancient artists in preparing this colour has afforded some reason, it is said, to sup- pose the ancients knew of no other substance proper for that purpose but calx of iron, or manganese. To this we may reply, many specimens are found which show they were not so ignorant in that art, and that it is more than probable the same jealousy which is found to exist in modern days among artizans might prevent our sagacious predecessors from publishing the secrets of their respective professions to the world. We contend, that as the materials must then have had existence, which have been since so successfully em- ployed, pray what was the reason the ancients should not avail themselves of their benefit ? In all the higher speculations of science and arts, where the great and superior energies of genius were requisite, tliis perfection in the ancients far surpassed any exer- tions which have been since achieved by the moderns. To instance one artist and one art solely, we name the 240 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. great Praxiteles, so famous in the art of statuary, whose works were a model of perfection. ETCHING ON GLASS AND GLASS CUTTING. WITHOUT entering into the history of the lapidary's art, we only propose to speak of those things which ancient and modern authors have said upon the art of engraving on glass, observing, that it was an art anciently known to both the Greeks and Romans ; although it appears extremely probable, that from their expressed ignerance of many of those properties which modern chemistry has discovered to belong to matter, they were ignorant of the art of etching on glass. From antique specimens still preserved, a doubt cannot for a moment be suffered to exist on our minds, but that the art cf engraving upon glass was familiar to the Greek artists, who formed upon glass both linear figures, and in relievo, by the same means as are now employed for nearly the same purpose, if we can place any confidence in an able and learned lapidary, Natter, who has established, that the ancients em- ployed the same kind of instruments for this purpose, or nearly such as are now in use ; abating, perhaps the use of diamonds, and the dust of that precious ma- terial, for which it is conceived they used emery powder, and the dust of glass. From what is related by Pliny, it certainly appears that they used the lapidary's wheel, an instrument moving in a horizontal direction over the work-table. Some have thought that drinking cups and vessels may have been formed from the glass whilst in a state of fusion, by means of this wheel ; to this they think those words of Martial refer, where he says, calices S) having reference to the boldness of the artisan's ETCHING ON GLASS, ETC. 241 touch ; those vessels he was constructing often broke under the last touch he bestowed upon his transpa- rent labours, although, perhaps, of costly value ; these accidents must of necessity have rendered those articles extremely expensive. There are not wanting many who affirm the art of glass-cutting, with the instruments necessary for that operation, to be of modern invention. Those assign it to the ingenuity of Caspar Lehmann, originally an en- graver on iron and steel, and who, as Beckmann in- forms us, made an attempt, which succeeded, in cutting crystal, and afterwards glass iu the same manner. This artist, we are told, was in the service of Rodolphus, the second emperor of that name, who, in the year 1609, besides giving him valuable presents, conferred on him the title of lapidary and glass-cutter to his court, and gave him a patent, allowing him the exclusive privilege of exercising this new art. He worked at Prague, where he had an assistant of the name of Zacharias Belzer ; but George Schwanhard, one of his pupils, carried on the business to a much larger extent. The last named was a son of Hans Schwanhard, a joiner at Rothenburg, and was born in 1601 ; at the age of seventeen he went to Prague, to learn the art of cutting glass from Lehmann. His good behaviour won so much upon the affections of his master, that on his death in the year 1622, he left him his heir. Schwanhard succeed in obtaining a continuation of the patent from the emperor, and re- moved to Nuremburg, where he wrought for many of the nobility of that district. This was, we believe, the occasion of that city claiming the honour of being the birth-place of this new art. In the year 1652, he worked at Prague, and also at Ratisbon, by com- mand of the Emperor Ferdinand III. ; and he died in 1676. He left two sons, who both followed the lucra- tive employment of their father. Afterwards Nurem- burg produced many expert masters in the art, who, 242 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. from the improvement in the tools, and also from dis- covering more economical modes of using them, were enabled to execute the orders of the public at a more moderate rate than had been previously charged for some articles. Those latter masters likewise brought this art to a much greater degree of perfection. Not- withstanding Zahn was of the same country, and must have been apprised of the facts previously stated, yet he mentions it as a very recent invention at Nurem- berg, at the time he published his " Oculus Artificial." He also furnishes a plate, giving at the same time a description of the various instruments employed. However, that this invention is not purely nove^ may be perceived from those facts we have already submitted. It should be stated that before this latter re-intro- duction, artists used, with a diamond, to cut figures upon glass in almost every form, as far as the repre- sentation by lines went. The history of diamonds has been presented to the public by Mr. Mawe, in his observations on the diamond districts of Brazil. It appears to be yet undetermined whether the ancients used that stone for the purpose of cutting others ; upon this point Pliny appears to be satisfied that they did. Solintis and Isidore both express themselves in a manner the reverse. But although this may leave us in some doubt, it appears pretty clear that they did not attempt to cut that valuable production with its own dust, or to give it different faces, or render it more brilliant by the same means. If this point was settled, there could be no great difficulty in affirming or negativing the fact of their engraving upon that stone. Thus doubts appear to increase on this head, for Mariette denies that they did ; Natter appears uncertain ; and Klotz asserts with confidence it was certain. His authority, to be sure, has been consi- dered not to be of much weight. ETCHING ON GLASS, ETC. 243 The proper question, however, appears to be, whether the Greeks and Romans used diamonds for cutting and engraving other stones or glass. Natter, in his work already noticed, thinks they were em- ployed on some antique engravings. His authority is deserving respect. But if they were employed on other stones, the authority which at present directs us, confidently alleges they did not employ them in cutting glass ; but he points out the mode in which that article was wont to be divided, in the following terms: "They used for that purpose emery, sharp- pointed instruments of the hardest steel, and a red- hot iron, by which they directed the rents at their pleasure." The first mention which appears to occur of the use of the diamond for this purpose, is recorded of Francis I. of France, who, fond of the arts, sciences, and new inventions, wrote a couple of lines with a diamond, on a pane of glass in the Castle of Chambord, to let Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess of Estampes, know that he was jealous. About 1652, festoons and other ornaments, cut with a diamond, were made on Venetian glasses ; then con- sidered the best. Schwanhard was a professed adept in that art ; and since his time an artist of the name of John Rost, of Augsburg, cut some drinking glasses, which were purchased by the Emperor Charles VI., at an extravagant price. ETCHING ON GLASS. An acid to dissolve siliceous earth was discovered as late as 1771, by the celebrated chemist Scheele, in sparry fluor. It is conceived that this cannot be of older date than that period ; but itis alleged that an acid was discovered as early as the year 1670, by Henry Schwanhard. It being said that some aquafortis had dropped, by accident upon his 244 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. spectacles, the glass being corroded by it, he thence learned to improve the liquid that he could etch figures and write upon glass. How he prepared this liquid is a secret which has not been revealed. The Teuische Akedemie says on this subject, that he, by the acute- ness of his genius, proved that which had been con- sidered impossible could be accomplished ; and found out a corrosive so powerful that the hardest crystal glass, which had hitherto withstood the force of the strongest spirits, was obliged to yield to it, as well as metals and stones. By these means he delineated and etched, on glass, figures of men, in various situations, animals and plants, in a manner gerfectly natural, and brought them to the highest perfection. The glass proposed to be etched is made perfectly clean and free from grease; then the figure is covered with a varnish; then an edge of wax being raised round the glass, the acid is poured in, and the whole ground on the exterior of the figures appears rough, whilst the figure is preserved in its original beauty of outline, bright and smooth. This is the mode the inventor adopted. Professor Beckmann says, he mentioned this an- cient method of etching upon glass, to an artist of the name of Klindworth, who possessed great dexterity in such arts, and requested him to try it ; he drew a tree with oil varnish and colours on a plate of glass, applied the acid on the plate in the usual manner ; after it had been upon the plate for a sufficient time, poured off, and the plate afterwards cleaned of the varnish, a beautiful tree was left bright and smooth, with a rough back-ground. It is conceived that many great improvements may yet be made in this process. It appears that no other acid than that produced by the sparry fluor is capable of corroding every kind of glass, though Baume, in his " Chemique Experiment ETCHING ON GLASS, ETC. 245 tale," says, that many kinds of glass may be corroded by the marine and vitriolic acids. In this state of uncertainty was the public mind till the year 1725, when it was thought that a recipe, older than that previously mentioned, might possibly be discovered. Accordingly, in that year, in the month of January, the following is said to have been transmitted to the publisher of the " CEkonomische Encyclopedic," by Dr. John George Weygand, of Goldingen, which is reported to have belonged to Dr. Matthew Pauli, * of Dresden, then deceased ; with which the last named gentleman had etched, on glass, arms, landscapes, and figures of various kinds. We find, that in it, very strong acid of nitre was used, which entirely disengages the acid of sparry fluor, though the vitriolic acid has been commonly employed, and figures thus produced will appear as if raised above the plane of the glass. This sparry fluor is found abundantly in Derbyshire, as well as in the mines of Germany. Theophrastus is the first who notices the effect of sparry fluor, by observing that there are certain stones which, when added to silver, copper, and iron ores, become fluid. It appears that Cronstedt was the first systematic writer who gave it a name. When spiritus nitri per distillationem has passed into the recipient, ply it with a strong fire, and when well dephlegmated, pour it, (as it corrodes ordinary glass,) into a Waldenburg flask ; then throw into it a pulverised green Bohemian emerald, otherwise called hesphoruS) (which, when reduced to powder and heated, emits in the dark a green light,) and place it in warm sand for twenty -four hours. Take a piece of glass, well cleaned, and freed from all grea*se by means of a ley ; put a border of wax round it, about an inch in height, and cover it equally all over with the above acid. The longer you let it stand, so much the better; and at the end of some time the glass 246 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. will be corroded, and the figures which have been traced out with sulphur and oil varnish will appear as if raised above the plane of the glass. HYDROMETERS. THE Hydrometer is an instrument for admeasuring liquids; by it the strength or specific gravity of dif- lerent fluids is discovered, by the depth to which it sinks in them. It has been chiefly used for discovering the contents of different salt waters, without analysis, and is now almost entirely used by persons connected with the spirit -trade, to ascertain the different degrees of strength, and what alloy they will bear ; hence its utility to the manufacturer and the excise-officer is apparent. The laws respecting the comparative weight of different fluids, as well as of solid bodies immersed in them, was first discovered by that great geometrician Archimedes. It may be far from improbable that Archimedes constructed that instrument himself; and if it should appear that he did, it must have happened two him Ired and twelve years before the Christian era. The most ancient mention of this instrument by its specific name, occurs in the fifth century of our era, upon the following occasion. The anecdote is very singular and affecting, and also evinces the incapacity of humanity to act consistent and as it ought, when we suffer ourselves to be directed by passions unworthy of the human character. It is first discovered in those letters of Synesius to the philosophic and beautiful Hypatia. We trust we may be excused the liberty we propose to take in detailing this circumstance, which is comparatively little known ; and as its interest also recommends it, this furnishes an additional motive. HYDROMETERS. 247 Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, an eminent mathematician of Alexandria, some of whose writings are still extant. By her father she was instructed iti the mathematics, and from other great men, who at that period abounded in Alexandria, she learned the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy and acquired such a knowledge of these sciences, that she taught them publicly, with the greatest applause. She was young and beautiful, had a personable figure, was sprightly and agreeable in conversation, though, at the same time, modest ; and she possessed the most rigid virtue, which was proof against every temptation. She conducted herself with so much propriety towards her lovers, that they never could obtain more than the pleasure of her company, and hearing her discourse; and with this, which they considered as an honour, they were contented. Those who were so daring as to desire further communion she dismissed ; and even destroyed the appetite of one of her admirers, who would not suffer her to philosophise, by means of some strong preparation, which others appear not to have since imitated. She suffered so cruel a death, that had she been a Christian, and suffered from Pagan error, her name would have been ranked among its most honoured victims in the list of martyrology ; but being a Pagan, and suffering from the persecution of superstitious and anti-Christian zeal, she is honoured among the foremost of martyrs to celestial philosophy. The name of the Christian patriarch, at that period in Alexandria, was Cyrill, whose family had, for upwards of a hundred years before his time, pro- duced bishops, who had been much more serviceable to their own family connections than they had ever been towards the propagation of the Christian faith. The present was proud, litigious, and revengeful, vin- dictive and intolerant to the last degree ; his ignorance debasing his own character as a man, and scandalising 248 HISTORY OF USEFUL INVENTIONS. tlie religion of which he was so unworthy a minister. He stupidly conceived himself sanctioned in every- thing which his foolish and mistaken ideas might dictate to be for the glory of God, and acted as a persecutor, prosecutor, judge, and executioner: he had condemned Nestorias without hearing his defence. As the city of Alexandria was then very flourishing on account of its extended commerce, the emperor had there allowed greater toleration and more peculiar privileges to all religions, than in any other place : it consequently contained, among others, a great num- ber of Jews, who carried on a most extensive trade, as well as a great many Pagan families. In the eyes of the bigot Cyrill this was wrong ; he would have the sheep-fold clean, and the Jews must be banished. The governor, however, who was a man of prudence and sober discretion, much better acquainted with the real interests of the city, opposed a measure he saw replete with mischief, and even caused to be con- demned to death a Christian profligate, who had injured the Jews. This malefactor was, by the ex- press order of Cyrill, buried in the church as a mar- tyr ; and he collected an army of five hundred lazy monks, who abused the governor in the public streets, and excited an insurrection among the people against the Jews, so that the debased race of Abraham was expelled from the city where they had so long existed unmolested from the time of Alexander the Great. Cyrill, one day, whilst looking for objects of perse- cution, saw a number of carriages, attended with servants, belonging to the first families in the city, before a certain house. Inquiring what was the cause of the assembly, he was informed that it was the habitation of the lovely Hypatia, who, on account of her extensive learning and very eminent talents, was visited by people of the first respectability. This afforded to the malignant priest a sufficient object for the exercise of his jealousy against the meritorious. HYDROMETERS. 249 the unoffending, the beautiful Hypatia. He from that moment resolved upon her destruction. Accord- ingly he lost no time in exciting his myrmidons, the monks and priests, those who should have heen the ministers of that religion which they professed to teach, to destroy the fair philosopher. They accordingly, with diabolical rage, and instigated by infernal cruelty, took the earliest opportunity to seize her, hurried her to the church the temple of peace and good-will which they violated by an offence at which humanity must shudder ; having torn the clothes from her deli- cate form, they tore the flesh from her bones with potsherds, then dragged her mangled body about the city, and afterwards burnt it. This demoniacal tragedy took place in the year 415, and was perpetrated by the professed servants of Him who came into world to save those which were lost to preach peace and good-will to all men. The impressions which such an event made upon people of every persuasion may be conceived ; they admit not of description from a feeble pen : but we may ask the question, was it such a transaction as was calculated to make converts to the doctrines of Christianity ? whose avowed motive and maxim is, in the words of Milton, " By winning words, to conquer willing hearts, And make persuasion do the work of fear." All historians are not agreed in some circumstances of the preceding relation ; but they generally unite in bestowing praise upon Hypatia, whose memory was long honoured by her grateful and affectionate scholars, among whom was Synesius, of a noble Pagan family, who had cultivated philosophy and the mathematics with the utmost ardour, and who had been one of her most intimate friends and followers. On account of his learning and virtues, many eminent talents, and open disposition, the inhabitants of Ptolemais were 2.50 HISTORY OP USEFUL INVENTIONS. desirous lie should be bishop, having been previously employed on many public and important concerns with success. After modestly desiring, for a long period, that they would fix their choice upon a more worthy object, they still persisting, he assented, upon condition that he was not to believe in the resurrection, to which he could not at that time bring his internal conviction : he suffered himself to be baptised, and became their bishop ; he was confirmed by the orthodox patriarch Theophilus, the predecessor of Cyrill, to whose juris- diction Ptolemais belonged : he afterwards renounced his error respecting the resurrection. This learned man evinced his gratitude to Hypatia, by the honour- able mention which he made of her in some of his writings, still preserved. In his fifteenth letter to her, he tells Hypatia, that he was so unfortunate, or found himself so ill, that he wished to use an hydroscopium (the Greek for hydro- meter), and he requests that she would cause one to be constructed for him. He says, " It is a cylindrical tube, of the size of a reed or pipe ; a line is drawn upon it lengthways, which is intersected by others, and these point out the weight of water. At the end of the tube is a cone, the base of which is joined to that of the tube, so that they have both only one base. This part of the instrument is called baryllion. If it be placed in water, it remains in a perpendicular direc- tion, so that one can readily discover by it the weight of the fluid." Petau, who published the works of Synesius, in the year 1640, acknowledges that he did not understand this passage. An old scoliast, he says, who had added some illegible words, thought it was a water-clock ; but the ellepsydra was not immersed in water, but filled with it. He therefore thought that it might allude to the chorobates, which Yitruvius describes as an instrument employed in levelling ; but it appears that Synesius, who complained of ill health, could have no HYDROMETERS. 251 occasion for such an instrument. Besides, no part of that instrument he describes, has any resemblance to the one described by Synesius. From the works of Fermat, an excellent mathema- tician, and a very learned man, well acquainted with antiquities and the works of the ancients, we give the following explanation concerning the hydroscopium of Archimedes, as this article would be incomplete without it : "It is impossible," says he, "that the hydroscopium could be the level or chorobates of Vitruvius, for the lines on the latter were perpendicular to the horizon, whereas the lines on the former were parallel to it. The hydroscopium was undoubtedly a hydrometer of the simplest constrnction. The tube may be made of copper, and open at the top ; but at the other end. which, when used, is the lowest, it must terminate with a cone, the base of which is added to that of the tube. Lengthwise, along the tube, are drawn two lines, which are intersected by others, and the more numerous these divisions are, the instrument will be so much the more correct. When placed in water it sinks to a certain depth, which will be marked by the cross-lines, and which will be greater, according to the lightness of the water." A figure which is added, might have been dispensed with. When a common friend of Fermat and Petau showed it to the latter, he considered it to be so just, and explanatory of the real meaning of Synesius, that he wished to be allowed the opportunity of introducing it in a new edition of the works of Synesius. FINIS. J. S. Pratt. Stokeslcy, Yorkshire.