Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1875-03-18
Accidental Discoveries.

a Limerick tobaeconist looking dole
fully at his poor neiglhors cropping among
tue smoulderimg ruins Of his burned ont
shop, noticed that some Of them, after try
ing the contents OF certain canisters, care.
fully loaded their waist coat pockets from
them. He followed suit, and found the
snuff had come out Of the fiery ordeal ve-
~ much improved in pungency and aTo,
ma. Like wise man he said nothing,
but took another place, set up a lot of ov
ems, and before long Black Yard Snuff
otherwise Irish Blackguard" was all the
rage with lovers of nasal titillation; and
in few years Lundyfoot was a rich man
owing to the accident which he thought
had ruined him. "A Woul1be alchemist,
seeking to discover what mixture of earth
would make the strongest crucibles, one
day found he had made porcelain; he
was on sudden transformed from an AL
chem ist to potter. When one Of Van
Eyck's pictures cracked in the sunshine
the artist experimental to produce var.
nish that would dry in the shade. Ue
found what he sought, and found beside
that by mixing it with his colors they ac-
quired greater force and brilliancy, and
required no subsequent vanishing; and
so came about the discovery, or re-dis-
covery, Of the art Of painting in oil. Mez-
zontints owed its invention by Prince
Rupert TO the simple acciden: of a scntry's
gun-barrcl being rusted by the dew
Henry Schanward, Nuremburg glass
cutter, happened to let SOME aeua-fortis
fall upon his spectacles, and noticed the
glass was corroded and softened where
the aqui-fortis 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 Re:
moved the varnish the figures appeared
raised upon dark ground, and etching
upon glass was added to the ornamental
arts. Alois Senefelder, playwright and
actor, thinking it possible to etch upon
stone in lieu Of copper. polished slab
for the purpose. He was disturbed by his
mother coming into his small laboratory
with a request that he would jot down
her list of things for the wash, as the wo-
man was waiting to take the basket away.
Lacking pen and ink, lie scribbled the
items on his stone with his etching prep
aration, that he might copy them at his
leisure Sometime af:crward, when about
to clean the stone, he thought he might
as we'll see what would he the effects Of
biting the stone with aqua-tortis, and in y
few minutes saw the writing standing out
in relief: Taking ap peltball charged
with printing ink, he linked the stone, took
off few impressions upon paper, and lo
had invented lithography.. The peltball
used by Senefelder was long indispcnsi.
BILE in printing Office. \ Salopian paint
er, in hurry to get on with job, could
not find his ball and linked the form with
q piece Of soft glue that had fallen out of
the glue-pot; with such excellent results
that he thenceforth discarded the pclt ha II
altogether, and by adding treacle to glue,
TO keep it from hardening, hit upon the
composition of which printers rollers
have ever since been made. SO much, fol
happy accidents,