Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-08-24
Useful Discoveries,

From the Cincinnati Commercial
Porcelain, which has been known to
the Chinese and japanese for ages, was
not made in Europe until the beginning
of the last century, when German dis
covered the art purely accidental.
This man was an apprentice to an
apothecary at Berlin, when he met with
an alchemist who, in return for some
good offices done him by his master,
promised to teach him the art of making
gold. To discover the grand secret, he
labored necessarily, and it so happened
that, having mixed various earths togeth-
CT, in order to make strong crucibles, in
the course of baking them he accident
ally discovered the art of making porce-
lain. The intended transmutation took
place-not in the metals, indeed, but in
his own person-and, as if he had been
touched with conjuror's wand, he was
all of a sudden transformed from an al
chemist into potter. The first porce-
lain thus manufactured was of a brown
ish-red color, being made of brown clay.
The power of lenses, as applied to tel
escapes, opera glasses, and the like, was
discovered by watchmaker's apprentice.
While holding spectacle glasses between
his thumb and finger he was startled by
the suddenly enlarged appearance of a
neighboring church spire. The swaying
to and fro of a chandelier in cathedral
suggested to Calico, the application
of the pendulum. Mezzotinto a par
ticular manner of fine engraving on cop
per, owed it's invention to the simple
accident of the gun-barrel of a sentry
becoming rusted with dew. The art of
ithographing was perfected through sug-
gestions made by accident. A poor
musician was anxious to know whether
music could not be etched upon stone as
well as copper. After he had prepared
his slab his mother asked him to m axe a
memorandum of such clothes as she pro-
posed to send away to be washed. Not
having pen, ink and paper convenient,
he wrote the list on the stone with the
etching preparation, intending to make
copy of it at leisure. A few days later
when about to clean the stone, he won
dered what effect aquafortis would have
upon it, He applied the acid, and in a
few minutes saw the writing standing
out in bold relief. The next step neces-
sary was to ink the stone and take off the
impression. The art of etching upon
glass was discovered by a glass-cutter
accidentally letting few drops of aqua
FORTS fall upon his spectacles. He no.
ticed that the glass became corroded and
softened where the acid had touched it,
and that was hint enough. He drew
figures upon the glass with varnish ap-
piled the corroding fluid, and then cut
away the glass around the drawings.
When the varnish was removed the fig
ures appeared raised on q dark ground.
The shop of tobacconist was de-
stroyed by fire. While he was gazing
dolefully into the smouldering ruins he
noticed that his poorer neighbors were
gathering the snuff from the canisters.
He tested the snuff himself, and discov-
cred that fire had largely increased it's
pungency and aroma. It was hint
worth profting by. He secured anoth-
er shop, built lot of ovens, subjected
the snuff to a heating process, gave the
brand peculiar name, and in a few
years became rich through an accident
which he had at first thought had COM
pletely ruined him. The composition of
which printing rollers are made was dis
covered by singular accident. A printer,
not being able to find the pelt ball used
in olden times to ink the type with, sub
stituted piece of soft glue which had
fallen out of glue pot. 1t was such an
excellest substitute that, after mixing
molasses with the glue to give the mass
proper consistency, the old pelt ball
was entirely discarded. Water tabbies,
employed in the manufacture of waved
and watered silk, was invented by man
who got his first idea from the spreading
of squirt of tobacco spit on a smooth
floor.