The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-08-29
LITTLE WONDERS.

what the Ingenuity of Man Has Accom-
plished in the Way of EcOnomizing
Space.
Myrmecides, one of the ancients,
after many years of toll, made out of
ivory little chariot with four wheels
and four horses, the whole equippage
so small that bumblebee could COM
pletely hide it with one of her wings.
At another time he made, also out of
ivory, a miniature ship with all its
ropes and rigging, likewise SO small
that bee could hide the little vessel
beneath its wing.
In the twentieth year of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth of England, sturdy
blacksmith, by the name of Mark
Scalist, who lived in London, manu-
featured paddock of iron, steel and
brass, of eleven pieces, and pipe key,
all of which only weighed one grain.
He also made chain of gold of forty
FIVE links which fastened to the lock
and key and put it around the neck of
a flea, which drew the whole with per-
feet case. The chain, key. lock and
flea all together weighed one grain and
half,
Junius relates that at Mechiin, in
Srabant, he saw cherry stone cut in
20 the form of basket, in which were
fourteen pair of dice, the spots and
numbers on each being easily discerned
with the naked eye.
Turrana, of whose wonderful skill
so many tales have been told, is said to
have manufactured an iron mill so
minute in size that monk could carry
it in his sleeve, yet the mill was power
full enough to grind sufficient grain in
day to furnish food for eight men.
Still more wonderful was set of six
hundred dishes which were all perfect
in every part, and which could easily
be enclosed in peppercorn, q fru of
the pepper-tree. These were manu-
featured by an artist named 0swaldus
Northingenus, in the time of Pope Paul
the Fifth; the Pope is said to have
himself counted the dim nutive frag-
ments with the aid of pair of spec
tacles.
In 1854, upon the birthday of King
George the Third of England, Mr.. Ar
mold, matchmaker of London. waited
upon the King and presented him with
curious repeating watch which he
had constructed. His Majesty, as well
as the rest of the royal family to whom
Mr.. Arnold was introduced, expressed
their utmost admiration of the work
Extraordinary as it may be thought, il
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, sever
grains and three fourths. This was
considered at the time as the sublimity
of littleness.
In penmanship the productions o.
this class have been very numerous. Ii
the reign of Queen Elizabeth ''there
was man who wrote the Ten Com
mandments, the Greed, the Paternoster
and name of the Queen, and the veal
of our Lord, within the compass, or OF
as small surface as penny; and gav'
her Majesty pair of spectacles of sucl
an artificial making that by the hell
thereof she did plainly and distinctl1
discern every letter. This feat wa
equaled some years since by an en-
graver of London named Daires, VIII,
wrote the Lords Prayer, the Creed O
the English Church, the Ten Com
InduuLueubS, anu MS own HdU1O III III
space occupied by half dime A gen
tleman now living in Liverpool ha
q written the poem mount Pleasant" il
space three by two inches. He ais
, wrote Goldsmith's poem of the "IraV
0 eler," of four hundred and thirty -eigh
b lines, in square of three an
!. one-half inches, and his creates
feat was the writing of tn
Lords Prayer in a circle three SIX
teenths of an inch in diameter, whic
T. may be distinctly read with a magnify
ing glass. 1t is very common to sc
d the Lords Prayer written or engrave
e on the space of a two-cent piece or
e silver dime, but the specimen just mer
+ toned is the smallest writing of tn
It Lords Prayer ever known to exist.
y In the year 1916 knife was made 8
}, Manchester, England, which containe
j seventeen articles; three blades, bu
= ton hook, saw. punch and scre'
D driver, box, corkscrew, hook and gin
: let, two phlemes. picker, tweezer an
: two lancets, with a ring at the head {
n the knife. The entire knife was onl
:. eleven sixteenths of an inch long, an
! weighed one pennyweight and fourtee
} grains. -WiU N. Clemens. In Wiz
e At0GEe.
e -