Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1886-07-23
HAPPY ACCIDENTS.
Valuable Inventions and Discoveries Due to
Seemingly Ridiculous Trifies.

Valuable Inventions and Discoveries Due to
Seemingly Ridiculous Trifies.
Many accidents, very trifling in
themselves, have led to the most valu-
able discoveries and inventions. Some
of them, perhaps, are not so familiar
to all of us as the fact that the swaying
chandelier in a cathedral suggested to
Calico the application of the pendu-
lum. How few know that for the
method of refining sugar with wet clay
we are indebted to hen! Having just
returned from promenade over
neighboring moist clay bank, she
stepped into ladle of brown sugar
lying on the floor, and wherever her
tracks were found the sugar was
thoroughly whitened. But if old
Biddy's sojourn that day had been
among those who having eyes see not,
and having ears hear not, her valuable
lesson would not have been learned
1t is the observant only who put to use
these "trifes light as air." While
holding a pair of spectacles between
his thumb and finger, watch-maker's
apprentice was surprised at the sudden
enlarged appearance of near church
spire, and thus was discovered the
power of lenses as applied to tele-
scopes, opera glasses, etc. The truth
of the proverb that necessity
is the mother of invention" was
never more clearly proven, perhaps,
than by the discovery of the art of
photography. The poverty of mu-
stefan induced him to try the expert
ment of etching music upon stone in
stead of copper. Just as he had his
slab prepared for the trial, his mother
asked him to make out a memorandum
of the clothes for the laundry. Pen,
ink and paper being inconvenient, he
wrote the list upon the stone with the
etching preparation, to make copy
of it at leisure. When about to clean
the stone, few days later, he was
suddenly ceased with the desire to try
the effect of aqua forts upon it, and
10! in few moments the writing stood
out in bold relief. The next step
necessary was to ink the stone and
take off the impression. Tinted paper,
so dear to the aesthetic maiden's heart,
had its origin in very prosaic acct
dent. The wife of an En- lish paper
maker dropped blue-bag into one of
the watts of pulp, and was so frightened
at the CONSERVATION it caused among
the workmen, and at the anger of her
husband, that she had not the courage
to confess her carelessness, and the
damaged paper was stored for sew
eral years, when it was sent to Lon
don agent to be sold for what it would
bring. The paper was accepted as a
novelty, and disposed of quite profit
ably, and the manufacturer received an
order for large invoice of the same,
whereupon the wife acknowledged the
accident of the blue bag, which in time
led on to fortune. A glass-cutter ac-
cidentally spilled few drops of aqua
FORTS upon his eyeglasses, and noticed
that they became corroded and soft
ened thereby. He put on his thinking
cap, and the result was drawing of 8
set of figures upon glass with varnish
afterwards applyingth corroding fluid
and cutting away the glass around the
drawing. When the varnish was re
moved, the figures appeared raised
upon a dark ground. A paper-makel
one day strolled through field, and
thoughtlessly plucked few straws
and put them in his mouth, where, te
his surprise, they were soon reduced to
pulpy matter closely resembling the
substance from which paper is made
He set to work to try the experiment
in his mill, and, after great persever
ance, paper was manufactured out O.
straw.-Baptist Weekly,