The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-03-13
CURIOUS AND gcTENTrIc.


CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.
THE OLD DYEs.-For the Fgyptinns,
color was means of recording history. |
We find upon the stucco Of their walls |
their kings holding court, their armies
marching out, their craftsmen in the |
ship-yard, with the ships floating in the
dock, and, in fact, we trace all their
rites and customs painted In undyinp
colors. The French, who went to
Egypt with Napoleon, said that all the
colors were perfect except the greenish
white, which is the hardest for us. They
had no difficulty with the Tyrian pur-
pie. The burned city of Pompeii was
city of stueco. All the houses are
stucc0 outside, and it is stained with
Tyrian purple-the royal color of an
tiquity and the flaming hues are as
bright as if painted but yesterday.
Come down from Titan, whose colors
are wonderfully and perfectly fresh, to
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and although his
colors are not yet a hundred years old,
they are fading the eolors on his lips
are dying out, and the cheeks are losing
their tints. He did not know how to
mix well. The French have a theory
tkat there is a certain delicate shade OF
blue that Europeans cam not see. Rus
kin says that we can not initiate in
colors that would last for twenty years
the magnificent scarlet in old illumin-
ated missals, now 1--WE centuries old.
The Frenchman says I am the best
| dyer IN Europe; nobody can equal me,
and nobody can surpass Lyons. Yet
/ in Cashmere, where the girls MAKE
shawls worth thirty thousand dollars,
they will show him three hundred dis
tinct colors, which he not only cannoi
make, but can not even distinguish.
ANCIENT MAsTHR ARTISANS. Taking
/ the metals, the Bible in its first chap
ters shows that man first conquered
metals there IN Asia, and on that spo;
= to-day he aan Tort Hz0re wonders vitl
those metals than we can. One of the
surprises that the European artists re
ceived when the English lundered tn,
summer palace of the King of China,
was the curiously wrought metal yes
sells every kind, far exceeding all Tia,
boosted skill of the workmen of Eu-
rope. English surgeons going to India
are advised to have their instruments
/ gilded because English steel can nst
bear the atmosphere. Yet the Damas-
Gus blades of the Crusades were no,
gilded and they are as perfect as they
we're eight centuries ago There was
one at the London Exhibition, the
point of which could be made to toucl.
the hilt, and could be put into a scab-
bard like a corkscrew, and bent every
way without breaking Ii London
chronometer maker wants the best steel
to use in his chronometer, he does not
send to Sheffield, the centre of all
science, but to the Puniaub, the empire
of the seven rivers, where there is nc
science at all. The first needle ever
made in Europe was made IL the time
of Henry the VIII and made by q
negro ; and when he died, the art died
with him. Some OF the first travellers
in Africa stated that they found a tribe
in the interior who gave them better
razors than they had. Scott, in '' Tales
of the Crusaders" describes a meeting
between Richard Coeur de Lion
and Saladin. Saladin asks Richard &c
show him the wonderful strength fol
which he is famous, and the Norman
sovereign responds by seyering a bal
of iron which lies on the floor Of his
tent. Saladin says, 81 can not do that,
but he takes an elder down pillow from
the sofa, and, drawing his keen blade
across it, it falls in two pieces. Richard
saws "This Is the black art it i
the devil you can not cut that whicl
? has no resistance :" and Saladin, t.
r show him that such is not the case
: takes from his shoulders q scarfewhici
IS so light that It almost floats ia tin
air, and, tossing il up, sewers 1t beforl
it can descend. George Tbompsoi
! states that he saw q man in Calcutt
throw q handful OF floss silk INTO tn
air. and Hindoo sever it into piece
with his saber. We can produce no
thing like this.
r CAvA1s.-The Suez Canal absorb
q half its receipts IN cleaning ont th
e sand which fills It annually, and it
2 not vet known whether it is pecuniar
{ success. The ancients built a canal q
y right angles to ours, because they Ane-
i IT would not fll up If built up in tina
!. ss.-,s.-., .-a fl,e-y t-y,a-g s,.h a one a
+ ours would There we're magnifce1
4 canals IN the land Of the jews, wit
? perfectly arranged gates and aluicei
, We have only just began to uadei
r, stand ventilation properly for on
e houses: yet late experiments st Il
Ie Pyramids in Egypt show that tho'
D. Fgvptian tcznbs we're ventilated in II
= moss perfect and scientific Inanne
i Aoain. cement IS modern, for the q
v clients dressed and joined their stoa'
g. 20 closely that, 10 buildings Thousand
ie Of yeaps old. the chin blade 81 psi
N knife can not be forced between ther
u The railroad dates back to Egypt. a
"a ago has claimed that they had q know
A edge Of steam A painting has be
Of discovered Of a ship fuii q machiuer
en- and a French engineer said that {
en- arrangement Of this machinery cor
to only be accounted for by supposing 6
ng aaotfve power 70 have been steal
VI Brarnah acknowledge that he took 8
.gs idea Of his calebrRted lock from an !
eient Egyptian pattern De Toeql