The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1889-06-22

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rors, and, small as they must necessa-
rily have been, it is announced, on the
authority OF Mr.. Oliver, that the heads
of the popes and kings could readily be
distinguished from those of the queens
and saints by their mitres and crowns.
The gentleman who brought this little
wonder to England purchased it in
Prussia, allowing the original owner
$4,000 for his treasure. ..
Mark Scarlost, a blacksmith who
lived under the reign of Queen Eliza
beth, made a chain of forty-five links, to
which he attached paddock made of
steel and brass, consisting of fifteen
pieces besides the key. The chain was
so small as to freely admit of being
fastened about the neck of a common
every day flea, and the apparatus, flea,
chain, paddock, key and all weighed
but grain and half when exhibited
before the wondering royalty on plate
OF polished silver.
The reader. will, no doubt, think
these flea and cherry-stone stories
worthy to be taken with the proverbial
grain of salt, noting, as he will, that
they nearly all bear the date and stamp
rye olden times;" but what will he say
when informed that within the last
five years a San Francisco professor
has eqnaled Mark Scarlost's ingenuity
in every particular.
This Golden Gate grasper after the
infinitesimal exhibited perfectly
trained team of heas, drawing a minia-
ture tally-ho coach made of gold, with
all four wheels perfect, each turning
on it's axle. All the elite of San Fran
cisco witnessed the professors wonder
full exhibition of his control over these
risky little pests, and all were unspar-
ing in their praise of the queer little
team, tho professor and the golden
coach.
The first watch was made in Nurem-
berg in the cherry-stone about the
year 1477. Soon after its invention
curious gold and silversmiths began
to experiment in what they could do in
the way of diminutive time-pieces.
One of these, now over 200 years old,
is kept as q wonder in one of the Swiss
museums. 1t is only 3-16 of an inch in
diameter, but small as it is, it not only
indicates hours and minutes, but
seconds, days of the week. days of the
month and the number of the year.
Another of the old Nuremberg won
ders was in the form of an acorn, five
sixteenths of an inch in diameter and
half an inch long. 1t was perfect in
every particular, kept good time and
was used as charm on a lady's neck
lace.
One of exactly the same pattern, but
provided with a tiny pistol, which was
used as an alarm, is now to be seen in
the South Kensington Museum, Lon
don. King George III. of England had
watch not larger than an old-fash-
Toned silver five-cent piece, which had
12O different parts, the whole not
weighing as much as silver dime. 1t
would take a column of the Item to
enumerate all the dainty little time
pieces that have been invented during
the past 400 years. They have been
made no larger than peas, and set in
rings for physicians to facilitate the
counting of the pulse. They have also
been fixed in bracelets. brooches, eye
glasses, tops of pencils and even in
umbrella hands. Finished workman
ship and plenty of money will provide
almost any thing that can be conjured
up by a myriad-minded people.
The enginemakers, like the watch.
makers, have also tried to attain dis.
tinction in the matter of the diminu-
tive. In 1870, John Penn, the eminent
maker of great steam engines, who re.
sided at Greenwich, England, came in
possession of what was then the small.
est steam engine in the world. 1t stood
on a three-penny piece. It really
covered less space, for its base-plate
measured only three-eighths of an inch
by about three-tenths. From the ex-
IRENE smallness of the model some OF
the details were omitted, but not enough
to interfere in any way with it's going.
The screws were only one-eightieth OF
an inch in diameter, and these were
duly furnished with hexagonal nuts,
which could only be loosened by aid Of
a tiny wrench made for that purpose
The weight of the whole model, with
out the three-penny base, was less than
the weight of the coin itself.
Six years later, time of our Centen.
NAL exhibition, Penn would have fell
ashamed of his 'three-penny piece
engine had he had it on exhibition IL
Philadelphia. During the progress O.
that great exposition, Levi Taylor O.
Indianola, Ia, placed on exhibition
''side by side'' with the great Corlis:
engine, an engins perfect in all it!
parts, built on twenty-five cent gole
piece, and with some of it's parts sc
small as to only be seen by aid of {
powerful microscope. The entire en-
CINE weighed but three grains. In Other
words it would have taken 146 sucl
engines to balance an ounce avoirdu
pois. Three Of the Penn engines would
have weighed more than l46 like thai
made by Taylor.
The engine made by %. a. Buck, o.
Waterbury. Conn.,, is usually given ir
lists of small things as the smallest en-.
CINE in tho world, but this is mistake
the one mentioned last above, so far,
takes the palm for smallness. -.