The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-02-14
DLSC0VERIES BY ACCIDENT.

Not 4 few discoveries in the art and
sciences have been made or suggested by
accident. The use OF the pendulum, sug-
gested by the vibrating of a chandelier in
cathedral the power of steam intima-
ted by the oscillating OF the lid OF a tea
kettle, the utility of coal-gas for light, eI-
perlmented upon 10y an ordinary tobacco
pipe of white clay, the magnifying proper
ty of the lens, stumbled upon by an opti-
clan 8 apprentice while holding spectacle
glasses between his thumb and finger, are
wellknown instances in proof of the fact.
Galysnism was discovered 10y accident.
Professor Galvani, Of Bologna, in Italy,
gave his name to the operation, but his
wife is considered a. 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 strong
| IL convulsed when near an electrical con-
ductor. She called her husbands atten-
tion to the fact he instituted series of
experiments, and in 1879 the galvanic bat
terry was invented.
Eleven wears later, with that discovery
for his basis, Professor Alessandro Volta,
also an Italian, announced his discovery of
the ''voltaic pile"
The discovery;of glass. was effected by see
ing the sand vitrified upon which fire had
been kindled.
glass was suggested by the fact of 4 work
man happening to break crucible filled
with melted glass. The fuI6 ran under
one of the large flagstoneS with which the
floor was paved. On raising the stone to
recover the glass, it was found in the form
of a plate. such as could not be procured
by the ordinary process Of blowing.
Glass pearls, though among the most
beautiful, inexpensive, and common orna-
l,Nyt al hr
a very singular process. In 1856 a Vene-
tian, named Joaquin, discovered that the
scales of fish, called bleak-fish, possessed
the property of communicating \ pearly
hue to the water. He found, by expert
menting, that beads when dipped in this
water assumed, whom dried, the appear
ance of pearls. 1t proved, however, that
the pearls coat. when placed outside, was
easily rubbed Off and the next improve
ment 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 a small
tube, the insides are delicately coated with
the pearly liquid, and a waIed coating Is
placed over that. 1t requires the scales of
four thousand fish to produce half pint
Of the liquid, to which a small quantity Of
sal ammoniAc and isnglSss are afterward
added.
Luudy Foot, the. celebrated snuff manu-
facturer, originally kept 4 small tobacco
mist shop at Limerick. One night his
house, which was uninsured, was burned
to the ground. AS lie contemplated the
smoking ruins, on the following morning,
in a state bordering on despair, some of
the poor neighbors, groping among the
dying embers to see what they could find,
stumbled upon several canisters of uncon-
sumed, but half baked snuff, which they
tried, and found it SO pleasant to the
nose that they loaded their waistcoats peck
cts with it. Lundy Foot, aroused from his
stupOr. initiated their example, and took
pinch Of his own property, when he was
struck with the superior pungency and fla
vor il had acquired from the great heat to
which it had been exposed. Acting upon
the hint, he took another house in place
call Black Yard, erected ovens and set
about the manufacture of that high dried
commodity which soon became known as
Black Yard snuff. Eventually he took a
largo house in Dublin, and making his
customers pay literally through the nose,
amassed great fortune by having been
ruined.