The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1875-03-03
Happy

Tie cracking of a picture placed il
the sunshine set Van Eyck expert
menting to produce a varnish tnat
would dry in the shade. He iouna
what be sought. and found BESIDE
that by mixing it with his eoiors
thew ACQUIRED greater force and bril-
Iiancy. and required no subsequent
vanishing; and so came about the
discovery. or re-discoyery. OF the art
of najn;iog in oil. Mezzotint owed
its discovery by Prince Rupert to the
SHINE accident OF a sentry's gun
barrel being rusted by the dew.
Henry Schanward, a Nuremberg
glass cutter, happened TO let some
aquafortis fall upon his ~spectacles,
and noticed the glass vas corroded
and softened where the aquafortis
had touched it. Taking the hint, he
made a liquid accordingly, drew
some figures upon a piece OF glass,
covered them with varnish, and APP
piled his coFroding fluid, which cut
away the glass around the drawing,
so that when be removed the varnish
the figures appeared raised upon
dark ground and etching upon glass
was added to the arts. Alois Senetei-
der. playwright and actor, thinking
il possible to etch upon stone in lieu
Of copper, polished a slab for that
purpose. He was disturbed by his
mother coming in his small laboratory
with a request that he would Jot
down her list of things for the wash,
as the woman was waiting to take
the basket away. There being nei-
Their paper CT ink handy, Senefelder
scrubbed the items on his stone
with his etching preparation, that he
might copy them at his leisure.
Sometime afterward, when about to
clean the stone, be thought be might
see what would be the effect, Of bit
ing the stone with aquafOrtis, and
in a few minutes saw the writing
standing out in relief Taking up a
pelt ball charged with printing ink,
be linked the stone, took of a few m
pressioas upon paper, and he invent
ed TYPOGRAPHY. The pelt ball used
by Senefelder was long inGispensa-
BILE 10 q printing Office. A Salop'sn
printer, 10 q hurry to get Cd with a
lob. could not find his ball, and ink
ed the form with a piece of glue that
had fallen out of the glue pot, with
such excellent results that be hence
forth discarded the pelt ball alto
gether. and by adding treaele to glue,
to keep it from hardening, bit upon
the composition of which printers
rollers have ever since been made.
Three very different discoveries
are recorded to have resulted from
the u%nintentional application of IN
tense heat. Pliny attributes the dis
eovery of glass to some merchants
travelling with inter, who, stopping
on the banks Of the river to take a
meal, were at a loss for stones to rest
their kettles upon. Putting them
upon pieces of inter, they kindled
their dres the inter, dissolved by the
heat, mixed with the sand, and the
merchants were astonished to see
transparent matter flowing over the
ground, which was nothing else but
glass. Charles Goodyear had for
years experimental in vain, hoping
to deprive India rubber Of its suscep-
tibility to the action of heat and
cold. Conversing with a friend on
the subject, be emphasized an asser-
ton by aiDging a piece of sulphur
rubber across the room. 1t lighted
upon the stove; and when he picked
it up q few days a%fterward, be found
the intense heat to which il had
been subjected had conferred upon the
India rubber just the quality he had
striven so hard to impart to it. Ac-
cording to some be stumbled upon
the discovery in a different way ;
but, at any rate, vulcanized India
rubber was the creation of an accl-
dent. A Limerick tobacconist look
ing dolefully at his poor neighbours
grouping among the smoldering ruins
Of his burned out shop, noticed that
some of them, after trying the con-
tents of certain canisters, carefully
loaded their waistcoat pocket from
them. He followed suit, and found
the snuff had come out of the fiery
ordeal very much improved in pun.
gency and aroma. Like a wise mar
he said nothing, but took up another
place, set up o lot of ovens, and be
fore long Black Yard Snuff-sther
wise Irish Blackguard"-was all thu
rage with lovers of nasal Utilization
and in a few years Lundyfoot was O
rich man, owing to the accident h'
thought had ruined him. A would
be alchemist seeking to discover
what mixture Of earth would MAKE
: the strongest crueibles, one day
found be had made porcelain. In
stead of transmitting metals, as b.
had fondly hoped to do, Bottgel
transmitted himself; "as if be haC
been touched with a conjurer's wanC
be was on a sudden transformed
from an alchemist into a potter
Chambers Journal.