The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-07-26

expelled for marrying, contrary to the
college. His wife was poor and helped
him by knitting stockings. Sitting
watching the motion of her fingers, the
idea struck him of some device to facili.
tate her work, and the ingenious stock.
ing-frame was the result of his thoughts.
In handwriting polished steel needles OF
wires are used to link threads together ir
a series of loops closely resembling thost
in tambouring. In framework knit
ting one person can manage larg'
number of needles at once. Bill Lees
machine led to the circular rotary
hosiery machine, which is to-day such
a power in manufacture.
A girl combing her hair led to- the
discovery of q combing-machine for
lonr-staple cotton. Joshua Heilman
was a cotton manufacturer at Mulhouse,
in Alsace, and for n number of years
he studied to invent machine for card
ing long-staple cotton. He spent a
great deal of money in models and
making experiments, and at last was
one day watching his daughters comb
their hair, and noticed how they drew
the long tresses between their fingers
alternately without drawing the comb
through them. Why could he not
invent machine which combined
this two-fold action, so as TO comb out
long fibers of cotton and drive back the
shorter by reversing the action of tho
comb? This new idea he at once set
to work upon, and soon was enabled to
comb cheap cotton into moderately fine
yarn more easily and economically than
had heretofore been done.
The accident of a game of whist raised
an English Lord into royal favor. Lord
Butte once wanted to go to a cricket
match at Mousley, and a city apothe-
cary~offered to drive him. Frederick,
the Prince of Wales, was a spectator,
and to amuse him while the players
were waiting for the rain to cease a
rubber of whist was proposed. Noble
men were scarce, but finally some one
remembered to have seen Lord Butte on
the ground. He was found and asked
to join the royal party; and, having
played his cards so well, when the game
was ended the Prince invited him to
Kew. The acquaintance ripened into
friendship, and ere long the Scotch Earl
was chief adviser at Leicester house and
director of the education of the heir to
the throne. When George Ill. acceded
to the throne Lord Bute's advancement
was rapid from Privy Counselor to Sec
rotary of State. thence on to Prime Min
lister. The plucky Scotsman owed ii
all to the chance game of whist.
A bet was the cause of the invention
of the rejecting apparatus of light
houses. Some one in small Liverpool
scientific society made bet that he
could read the smallest print of news
paper by the light of farthing candle
placed thirty feet off. The wager being
taken up, he coated the inside of a
wooden board with pieces of looking
glass, forming a rough substitute for a
concave mirror; placing a small lighted
candle in front of the mirror the rays OF
light were reflected and converged to a
focus thirty feet on the other side of the
candle, and the light at that focus
was sufficiently strong to enable the
man to read the paper and win his bet.
A practical man, a dock-master, was
present. and the idea at once struck
him that if the light of a farthing candle
could in this way be thrown out dis
lance, the light of a large lamp could
be projected mile or so away. The
result was the invention of the reflect
ing apparatus for lighthouses.
Mezzotinto was invented by Prince
Rupert, owing to the simple accident OF
the sentry's gun being rusted with
dew.
Henry Schonward, glass-cutter, of
Nuremburg, let some aqua FORTS drop
on his spectacles, and he noticed that
the glass corroded and softened. That
was hint enough. He made a liquid,
drew some figures upon glass, covered
them with varnish, applied this corrod-
ing fluid, cut away the glass around the
drawing, so that when the varnish was
removed the figures appeared raised
upon dark ground, and etching upon
glass was added to the arts.
Plny relates that the invention OF
glass was due to some merchants trav-
cling with inter, who stopped on the
bank of river to cook meal. MOI
having anything to rest their kettle on
they took pieces of inter. The heal
melted this, which, mixing with the
sand, formed glass.
Charles Goodyear discovered vulcan
lied rubber by throwing piece OF sui
phured rubber across the room to amuse
friend 1t alighted ON a hot stove
and he found that the intense heat had
impaired to the rubber the very quality
he had so long been experimenting t.
produce.
A Limerick tobacconist was burned
out, and looked sadly on while his
neighbors rushed in among the ruins,
and, after trying the contents of'certair
canisters, stuffed their waistcoat pockets
with them. What could they want
with burned snuff, wondered the tobac-
conist. He tried the snuff and found il
was improved in pungency and aroma
He opened a new shop, built an oven,
and in short time backyard snuff,
sometimes called 1.-THE Irish black
guard" had great run, and the
fortune of Landyfoot was made.-Chi-
cago Times.