Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-26
LITTLE WONDERS.

IL
what the Ingenuity of Man Has Accom-
pnshed IN the Way Of EconomixinR
Myrmecides, one of the a%ncients.
a1ter many years of toll. made out of
ivory q little chariot with four wheels
ano four horses, the whole cquippage
SO small that a bumblebee could com
pletely hide it with one of her wings.
Al another time he made, also out of
ivory, a miniature ship with all its
ropes and rigging, likewise so small
that a bee could hide the little vessel
beneath its wing.
In the twentieth year of the reign of
queen Elizabeth Of England, a sturdy
blacksmith, by the name of Mark
ocaiist, who lived in London, manu-
1actured a paddock of iron, steel and
prass, OF eleven pieces, and pipe KEY,
an OF which only weighed one grain.
ne also made u chain of gold of forty
1lve links which fastened to the lock
M key and put it around the neck of
q flea, whichsdrew the whole with per-
feet ease. The chain, kew. lock and
q half,
Junius relates that at Mechlin. in
bsabant, he saw a cherry stone cut in
to the form of basket, in which were
fourteen pair of dice, the spots and
numbers on each being easily discerned
with the naked eye.
Turriana, of whose wonderful skill
so many tales have been told, is said I'd
have manufactured an iron mill so
minute in size that a monk could carry
1t in his sleeve, yet.the mill was power
tul enough to grind sufficient grain in
a day to furnish food for eight men.
Still more wonderful was a set of six
hundred dishes which were all perfect
in every part, and which could easily
be enclosed in a peppercorn, a fruit Of
the pcpper-tree. These were manu-
featured by an artist named Oswaldus
Northingenus, in the time of Pope Paul
the Fifth; the Pope is said to have
himself counted the diminutivc frag-
ments with the aid Of a pair of spec
tacles.
In 1864, upon the birthday of King
George the Third Of England, Mr.. Ar.
nold, a matchmaker of London. waited
upon the King and presented him with
a curious repeating watch which he
had constructed. His Majesty, as well
as the rest of the royal family to whom
MI. Arnold was introduced, expressed
their utmost admiration of the work.
Extraordinary as it may be thought. it
is known that this repeating watch was
somewhat less than a silver dime in
diameter. and contained one hundred
and twenty distinct parts. Altogether
it weighed five pennyweights, seven
grains and three fourths. This was
considered at the time as the sublimity
of %littleness.
In Penmanship the productions of
this class ave been very numerous. In
the reign of Queen Elizabeth '.there
was a man who wrote the Ten Com
mandments, the Creed, the Paternoster,
and name of the Queen, and the year
OF our Lord, within the compass, or on
as small a surface as a penny; and gave
her Majesty a pair of s%pcctacles of such
an artificial making that by the help
thereof she did plainly and distinctly
discern every letter" This feat was
equaled some years since by an en-
graver of London named Daires. who
wrote the Lords Prayer, the Greed OF
the English Church, the Ten Com
mandments, and his own name in the
space occupied by half a dime. A gen
tleman now living in Liverpool has
written the poem mount Pleasant in
a space three by two inches. He also
wrote Goldsmith's poem of the '.Trav-
eler," OF four hundred and thirty-eight
lines, in a square of three and
one-aalf inches, and his greatest
feat was the writing of the
Lords Prayer in a circle three six
teenths of an inch in diameter, which
may be distinctly read with a magnify
ing glass. 1t is very common to see
the Lords Prayer written or engraved
on the space OF a two-cent piece or q
silver dime, but the specimen Just men,
toned is the smallest writing of the
Lords Prayer ever known to exist.
In the year 1916 a knife was made at
Manchester, England, which contained
seventeen articles; three blades, a but
ton hook, saw, punch and screw
driver, box, corkscrew, hook and GIN
let, two phlemes, picker, tweeZer and
two %lanccts, with a ring at the head of
the knife. The entire knife was only
eleven siNteenths OF an inch long, and
| weighed one pennyweight and fourteen
grains.-UW NJ Clemens. IN Vide
! Quake.
Cautious Car Horses.