Smyrna times., 1872-02-07
Discoveries Made by Accident.

Not few discoveries in the arts and sciences |
have been made or suggested by accident !
The use Of the pendulum, suggested by the
vibrating of chandelier in a cathedral; the
power of steam, intimated by the oscillating of
the lid of tea-kette; the utility of coal gas
for light, experimental upon by an ordinary
tobacco pipe of white clay the magnifying
property of the lens, stumbled upon by an
opticians apprentice while holding spectacle
glasses between his thumb and fnger-are
Unknown instances in proof Of the fact.
Gavanism 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 conductor. She called her husband
attention to the TACT he instituted series of
experiments and in 1889 the galvanic battery
was invented.
! Eleven years later, with that discovery for
! his basis Professor Alessandro Y VOIta, also an
Italian, announced his discovery of the
''vOltaic pile.
The discovery of glass making was effected
by seeing the sand vitrifed upon which fire
had been kindled.
Bancourt says that the making of plate
glass was suggested by the fact of a workman
happening to break crucible filled with melt
ed glass. The fluid ran under one of the large
hag-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.
Glass pearls, though among the most beau
tiful, inexpensive, aud common ornaments
worn by the ladies, are produced by very
: singular process. In 1906, Venetian, named
) Jaauin, discovered that the scales of fish
called bleak fish, possessed the property o.
communicating a pearly hue to the water. HC
found by experimenting, that beads dipped
t into this water assumed, when dried, tht
appearance of pearls. 1t proved, however
! that the pcarly coat, when placed outside, wa
! easily rubbed off; and the next improvement
e was to make the beads halow. The makinl
S of these beads is carried on to this day il
: Venice. The beads are all blown separately
By means of small tube the inSdes ar
Il delcately coated with the pearly liquid. ant
n a waxed coating is placed over that. 1t re
: ouires the scales of four thousand fish to pro
duce half pint of the liquid, to which sma
J. quantity Of sal ammonia and i>lnglass are alter
n wards added.
e Lundy Foot the celebrated snuff manufac
)f turer, originally kept a small tobacconst sho
at Limerick One night his house, which wa
of uninsured was burned to the ground. AS h
d contemplated the smoking ruins, on the folov
ing morning, in state bordering on despair
d some of the poor neighbOrs, cropping anon
f." the embers for what they could find, stumble
upon several canisters of unconsumed, bl
of halfbakcd snuff, which they tried, and foun
rn it SO pleasant to their noses that they loade
their waistcOat pocket with it. Lundy Foo
of aroused from his stupor, initiated their e.
ample, and took a pinch of his own property
tt when he was struck by the superior pungen'
ch and flavor it had acquired from the great he
to which it has been exposed. Acting up'
.e, the hint, he took another house in pla
I'm called Black Yard, erected ovens, and $
IL about the manufacture of that high dri
commodity which soon became widely know
ri as BACKYARD snuff Eventually he took
larger house in Dublin, and, making his CT
N, mers pay literally through the nose, amass
fy- great fortune by having been ruined.
Ohrer Optic.