Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1870-10-15
Discoveries Made bv Accident.

Not few discoveries in the arts and
sciences have been made or suggested by
accident. The use Of the pendulum, sug.
gested by the vibration of chandelier in
a cathedral; the power of steam, intimated
by the oscillating of lid of tea kettle
the utility of coal gas for light, expert.
mented upon by an ordinary tobacco pipe
of white clay; the magnifying property Of
the lens, stumbled upon by an optician's
apprentice while holding spectacle glasses
between his thumb and fnger-are we'll
known instances in proof of the fact.
Galvanism was discovered by accident.
Professor Galvani, of Bologna, in Italy,
gave his name to the operation, but his wife
is considered as actually entitled to the
credit of the discovery. She being in bad
health, some frogs were ordered for her
As they lay upon the table skinned, she
noticed that their limbs became strongly
convulsed when near an electrical conduct
or. She called her husbands attention to
the fact, and he instituted a series of ex-
perimeuts, and in 1889 the galvanic battery
was invented.
Eleven years later, with that discovery
for his basis, Professor Alessandro Volta,
also an Italian, announced his discovery
of the voltaic pile"
The discovery ofglass making was effect
cd by seeing the sea sand vitrifed upon
which fire had been kindled.
NJ. Blancourt says that the making Of
Plate glass was suggested by the fact Of a
workmen happening to break crucible
filed with melted glass. The fluid ran
under one Of the large flag stones with
which the floor was paved. On raising
the stone to recover the glass, it was found
in the form of plate, such as could not
be produced by the ordinary process Of
blowing. sE
Glass pearls, though among the most
beautiful, Inexpensive, and common orna-
ments worn by ladies, are produced by a
very singular process. In 1856, Venitian
named Jaquin, discovered that the scales
of fish, called bleak-fsh, possessed the
quality Of communicating pearly hue to
the water. He found by experimenting,
that beads dipped into this water assumed, !,
when dried, the appearance Of pearls. 1t
proved, however, that the pearly coat,
when placed outside, was easily rubbed of;
and the next improvement was to make the
beads hollow. The making Of these beads
is carried on to this day in Venice. The
beads are all blown separately. BY means
of small tube the insides are delicately
coated with the pearly liquid, and a waxed
coating is placed over that. 1t requires
the scales Of four thousand fish to produce
half a pint of the liquid, to which small
quantity of sal.ammoniac and isinglass are
afterward added.
NJ. Luudy Foot, the celebrated snuff
manufacturer, originally kept a small to-
bacconists shop at Limerick. On one night
his house, which was uninsured, was burn
cd to the ground. As he contemplated the
smoking ruins on the following morning,
in state bordering on despair, some of the
neighbors, cropping among tho embers for
what they could find, stumbled upon scver.
al cannisters of unconsumed but half baked
snuff, which they tried and found it 50
pleasant to their noses that they loaded
their waistcoat pockets with it. NJ. Lundy
Foot, aroused from his stupor, initiated
their example, and took pinch Of his own
property, when he was struck by the supe-