New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-12-30
NUMBER a54.
solemn address Of Pericles over the supposed
dead body Of his queen, which he is about to
copsign to the ocean:

Where, for monument upon thy bones
And age-remainiDg lamps, the bechng whale,
And humming water must o'erwhsim thy corpse,
Lying with simple shsls Act Ill, &c. l.
Spenser also has an Eternal Lamp-not, how
ever, in connection with death, but with we'd
ding:
His owns two hands the holy KNOTS did knit,
That none but death for divide
His two hands for such turn most fit,
The bousling fire. did kndle and provide,
And holy water thereon sprinckled wide
At which the bushby tesdef zroor1e did light,
And sacred lamp in secret chamber hide,
Where it should not be queuched day nor night,
Por fesre Of evil fstes, but burner ever bright.
Book T.. c, IL, VS..
Upton says that Spenser here seems to allude
to the mystic. meaning Of the Wise Virgins
lamps in the parable, which, like the typical
fire in Levitt vi, shall ever be burning upon
the altar of love; shall never 60 OUT" But
it ought to have been added, that in this case
special directions are given that the fire shall
be supplied with fuel.
Would the reader like to know the compost
ton Of Eternal Lamps. We are in possession of
two or three receipts, which we do not mind i'm
parting to him. According to some authorities |
they are made Of the oiliness of gold, resolved |
by art into liquid substance. That is one |
way. Oil Of gold is no doubt obtainable at any |
chemists shop; il not, write to some friend or |
relation at the Australian or California diggins |
Another method has been set forth, from personal
experiment, by Tithemius, a learned German ec- |
clesiastic Of the fifteenth century. He assures
US that he had himself made an oil Of -four Of
birthstone, borax, and spirit Of wine which burnt
many years without wasting. 1t does not APP
pear, however, that it would burn an indef-
mite number of years; SO that, after all, this
was not an Eternal Lamp Athanasius Kircher,
philosophical German Jesuit, who lived about
two hundred years ago, and who has written q
great deal on the subject of lamps, speaks Of q
way to reduce the flame back k into wax, so as to
keep up perpetual supply; which would GER
| tainly be economical The ineonsumable wick
is to be of asbestos. And here it may be re-
| marked that lamps with asbestos wicks have in
fact been made; which, as far as the wicks
themselves were concerned, have had some ap-
pearance of immortality. That this singular
mineral has the power of resisting the action Of
| fire is perfectly well known although it is prob
able that some slight dminution in weight does
really take place, which would necessarily end
at length in the destruction Of the substance.
| The same author mentions q chemical prepara-
tion of gold, which is thereby rendered spongy,
is called Salamander's wool, and which he also
recommends as material for wicks. Fortunio
Liceto, a Genoese physician Of the seventeenth
century, who strenuously contended for the
possibility of Eternal Lamps, says: that the an
clients had a secret of making an inconsumable
oil, or of constructing their lamps in such q
manner that, as they burned, the smoke con-
densed insensibly, and resolved itself into oil
again. This looks like an anticipation of those
modern stoves which consume their own smoke,
and by means of which, and Lord Palmerston's
Bill, we may hope to gee the air Of London puri-
fed. Liceto contends that everlasting fires
burning on the affairs of some Of the pagan di-
whites were of the same nature as Eternal
Lamps; but it is we'll known that these fires
were sedulously maintained by their appointed
guardians, and that the punishment Of death
J was ordained for letting them expire.
, Our countryman, Friar Bacon, believed in
the possibility Of making lamps that should
l burn for ever; and even the scientific DR.. Plott
who died as late as the year one thousand sil
: hundred and ninety six, entertained the same
. opinion He proposed asbestos as the material
for the wick. Indeed he conceived that to bs
the only possible substance for the purpose, and
Q that its failure would be proof, either that
Perpetual Lamps are altogether fabulous, OF
: that the ancients made them without wicks
t For the fluid which is to support the life Of
/. the fame, he suggested naphtha, or liquid btu
e men, which will burn without a wick; and
f thought that trial might be made of the btu
; men springing into the coal mines at Pitchford
9 in Shropshire. This is in fact shrewd gues
y in the direction of gas lamps; though the gas
: contractors will tell you that for perpetua
: light there must be perpetual supply. 1t Il
Y quite certain, however, that a species of illumi
: nation may be produced which will continue fol
: great length of time without any fresh ma
e terial for combustion. In a book of chemca
and other scientific experiments, printed no
many years age, we find the following direction
for making lamp that will burn twelve month
without replenishing 6 Take a stick of phos
9 phorus, and put it into a large dry phial, no
II corked, and it will afford light sufficient t
n discern any object in room when held near il
n and will continue its luminous appearance 70
= more than twelve months" 1t is possible tina
8 the Rosicrucian philosophers possessed som
Q such knowledge as this, and SO deluded thei
I; more ignorant cotomporaries
Q On the sceptical side of the question, Ottari
70 Ferrari, who lived in the same century wit
1t Liceto, wrote work, printed at Padua, in SIX
le teen hundred and eighty five, entitled Dissel
l. tatio de Veterum Lucernis Sepulchralibus.
l. this treatise he contends, "that the use
o sepulchral lamps cannot be of such standing j
70 Italy as is pretended; because they used
burn their dead, and put the ashes in urns
o such narrow necks that a lamp could not be g
IL into them'' He then endeayors to prove thi
n there cannot be a perpetual flame either b
8, means of the oil or wick.
1t The best mode, as it seems to us, of accountin
l. for the phenomenon, has been put forth in IL
le Ana of Vigneul Marville, where we find IL
le following: s'It happens frequently when ant
ie quarians are searching by torchlight old sepu
Id chres which they have opened. that thick vapor
m produced by decomposition of the bodies, becon
| ~
L, great astonshment of the attendants, who haN
sh more than once shouted q miracle This sudde
lie effect is quite natural; but it has occasione
of the belief THAT these flames proceed frol
Mt Perpetual Lamps" At the same time extir
a. gushed lamps may really have been discovere
IT, which, of course, would aid the delusion.
t. Rosencrantz, the supposed founder of IL
g, Rosicrucian sect, is said to have made an Etel
lie nal Lamp, which was discovered some yeal
tn after his death, in a subterranean vault whe
ng he lay buried. This story, (Which is a sort
r improved edition Of the legends relating to tt
Up alleged burial-places Of Tullia and Pallas,)
n thus related in number three hundred al
s. seventy-nin of Addison's Spectator:
e- GA certain person, having occasion to d
at somewhat deep in the ground, met with a sma
at door having wall on each side of it. His Gu,
4 osity, and the hopes of finding some hidden tire
it sure, soon prompted him to force open the doc
IT, He was Immediately surprised by sudden bla
mp of light, and discovered very fair vault !
the upper end of it was statue Of man
rst armour, sitting by table and leaning on b
a left arm. He held a truncheon in his right han
mt and had lamp burning before him. The mi
ell had no sooner set one foot within the vault, th
p. the statue erected itself from its leaning Pc
en- ture, stood bolt upright, and upon the fellow
y; advancing another step, lifted up the trunche
ua in his right hand. The man still ventured
Al ~, t,rrNt