Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1874-06-25
Helena, Montana, Thursday, June IS, 1874
Happy Accidents.

Happy Accidents.
The cracking Of picture placed in the
sunshine set Van Eyck experimenting to pro-
duce varnish that would dry in the shade.
He found what he sought, aud found besides
that by mixing it with his colors they ac-
quired greater force and brilliancy, and re-
qulred no subsequent vanishing; and so
came about the discovery, or rcdiscOvery, of
the art Of painting in oil. MezzotintO owed
its invention by Prince Rupert to the simple
accident of sentry's gnn-barrel being rust
ed by the dew. Henry Schanward, Nurem-
berg gass-cntter, happened to let some aqua
FORTS fall upon his spectaclcs, and noticed
the glass was corrodcd and sOftencd where
the aqua-forti had touched it. Taking the
hint, he made liquid accordingly, drew
some figures upon piece of glass, covered
them with varnish and applied his corroding
fluid, cut away the glass around his drawing,
SO that when he removed the vanish the
figures appeared raised upon dark ground ;
and sketching upon glass was added to the
ornamental arts. Alois SencfeIder, playwright
and actor, thinking it possible to et,h upon
stone in lieu of copper, polished slab for
the purpose. He was disturbed by his mother
coming into his small laboratory with re-
quest that he would jot down her list of
ing to take the basket away. There being
scribbled the items ON his stone with his etch.
ing preparation. that he might copy them at
his leisure. Some time afterward, when
about to clean the stone, he thought he might
IA we'll see what would be the effect of Bit
ing the stone with aqua-fortis, and in a few
minutes saw the writing standing out in re-
lief. Taking up u pelt-ball charged with
printing ink, he linked the stone, took off .
few impressions upon paper, and he had In
vented lithography. The pelt-ball used by
Senefelder was long indispensable in print
ing Office. A Salopian printer, in hurry to
get on with job, could not find his ball, and
mixed the form with = piece Of soft glue that
had fallen Out of the glue-pot, with such ex-
cellent results that he thenceforth discarded
the pelt-ball altogether, and by adding trcace
to the glue, to keep it from hardening, bit
upon the composition of which printers rol-
lers have ever since been made.
Three very different discoveries are record
ed to have resulted from the unintentional
application of intense heat. Pliny attributes
the discovery of glass to some merchants
travelling with nitre, who, stopping on the
banks of river to take meal, were ut q
loss for stones To rcst their Kettles upOp.
Putting them upon pieces of nitrc. they kin.
died their fires; the nitre, dissolved by the
heat, mixed with the sand, and the merchants
were surprised 10 see q transparent matter
flowing over the ground, which was nothing
else but grass. Charles Goodyear had for
years experimental in vain, hoping to de-
prive india.rubber of its susceptibility to the
action Of heat and cold. Conversing with
friend on the subject, he emphasized an as
sertion by tlinging piece of sulphured rub
Der across the room. 1t lit upon the stove,
and when he picked it up, few days after
ward, he found the intense heat 10 which it
had been subjected had conferred upon the
india-rubber just the quality he had striven SO
long to impart to it. According to some he
stumbled upon the discovery in different
rubber was the creation of an accident. A
Limerick tobacconist, looking dolefully at
hls poor neighhOrs cropping among the smoul-
dering ruins of his burnt out shop, noticed
that some of them, after trying the contents
of certain canisters, carefully loaded their
waistcoat pockets from them. He followed
suit, and found that the snuff had come out
of the fiery ordeal very much improved in
pungency and aroma. Like wise man he
said nothing, but took another place, set up
lot of ovens, and before long Black Yard
Snuff otherwise ''lrish Blackguard"-
all the rage with lovers of nasal Utilization;
and in few years Lundyfoot was q rich
man, owing to the accident he thought had
ruined him. "A would-bc alchemist, seeking
to discover what mixture of earths would
make the Strongest crucibles, one day found
he had made porcelain. Instead Of trans-
muting metals, as he had fondly hoped to do,
BOttger transmitted himself; ''as if he had
been touched with conjurer's wand, he was
on 4 sudden transformed from an alchemist
into potter. CAana6ers Journal.