The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-03-11
Tho Arts q Hundred Years Ago.

One hundred years ago what q
man discovered in the arts he con-
cealed. Workmen were putupon oath
in the name OF God never 10 reveal
the process used by their employers
Doors were kept closed, artizans going
out were searched, citizens were rig
orously excluded from admission,
and false operations blinded the work
men themselves.
The mysteries ofevery craft were
hedged in by picket fences of empiri-
cal pretensions and judicial affirma-
tion. The royal manufactures of
porcelain, for example were long car
ried on in Europe in spite Of jealous
exclusiveness. His Majesty of Saxo-
ny was specially circumspect Not
content with the oath Of secrecy i'm
posed upon his work people, he would
not abate his kingly suspicious in ia
vUr of brother monarch. Neither
kings nor kings delegates might en-
ter the tabood walls Of Meissen.
What is enormously called the Dress
den pOreelain-that exquisite pottery
Of which the world has never seen
the like-was produced for two hun
dred years by q process so secret
that neither the bribery ofprinces nor
the garrulity of the operatives ever
revealed it.
Other discoveries have been less
successfully guarded, fortunately for
the world The manufacture of tin
ware in England originated in a sto-
len secret. Few readers need be in
formed that tinware is simply iron
plated with tin by being dipped into
the molten metal In theory it is an
easy matter to clean the surface of
iron, dip it into a bath of boiling tin,
and remove it, enveloped with the
silvery metal, to place for cooling.
In practice however, the process is
one of the most difficult in the arts.
1t was discovered in Holland and
guarded from publicity for nearly
half a century. England tried in
vain to discover the secret, until
James Sherman, a Cornish miner,
crossed the Channel, and insinuated
himself master of the secret and
brought it home The secret of
cast-steel was also
stealthily obtained, and is now within
I he roach of all artizans
Another stolen secret is the method
Of inventing citric acid The inven-
tor of the prOcess-whO was a resi-
dent of London, England-for a long
time enjoyed the monopoly Of his in
vention. More favorably circum-
stanced than other secret manufacture
ers, his was a process that required
no assistance. He employed no
workmen. Experts came to sample
and assort and bottle his prOaucts. /
They never entered his labratOrv.
The mystic operations byEwhich he
grew rich were confined to himself |
One day having locked the doors
and blisded the windows, sure a.
usual of the safety of his secret, the
chemist went home to dinner. \
or boy disguised
rs such, wide-awake in chemistry,
was on the watch. Following the
so far on his way to-
ward Charing Cross, as to be sure he |
would not return on that day, the
;oOty philosopher hied rapidly back
70 Temple Barr, ascended the Tow
building, dropped down the fue, saw
III he wanted, and returned, carrying
with him the mystery of making cit
-ic acid. The monopoly OF the in
Tentor was gone. \ few months af-
.er and the price of that article was
reduced four-ffths. The poor man
was heart broken, and died shortly |
,fterward, ignorant of the trick by
which he had been victimized. He
was to be pitied as an individual
but the wheel of progress is
bound to crush all obstacles which
threaten to impede its course, sacrif-
ing the,,man to the need of the null
itude Fortunately inventors Of the
present day can work openly, and
,nrich themselves whilst they benefit
,thers.