Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-17
A FEW LITTLE WONDERS.
THE MECHANICS ART DISPLAYED
IN INFINiTESIMALS.
Some of the Wonders of the World Which
Seem Almost Impossible-A City In q
Cherry stone-A Coach Drawn by Fleas
Other Diminutives.

Cherry Stone-A Coach Drawn by F1eas.
Other Diminutives.
The Nurembergers have always been ia
mom for their many ingenious mechanical
contrivances, but perhaps the most wonder
full Is a cherry stone story.
At the time of the French Crystal Palace
exposition Nuremberg toymaker exhibited
a cherry stone within the hollow of which he
had built a perfect plan of the city of Sevas-
tapol, showing plainly a railway station and
the famous Messiah" of Klopstock.
A powerful microscope was used by the ex-
hibitor of this wonder, and it was estimated
by the exhibition authorities that not less
than 10000 people took a peep at the results
of the toymaker's toll each of whom deposited
a franc In the hands of the ingenious me
chanic, making him a snug little fortune
Machines for weights and measures have
also been brought up almost to perfection.
CHAIN AND COACH FOR FLEAs.
Sir w. Armstrong, the great gun maker,
had on exhibition in 1878 machine for tax
ing measurements that did its work so nicely
that the millionth part of an inch could be
ascertained with as much precision rs an
inch or foot. At the same exhibition one
A. M. Oberlong showed n balance 50 nicely
adjusted as to weigh accurately the one-thou-
sandth part of grain. Talk about little won
ders not being wonderful; the person surely has
but little conception of the really marvellous
that would not inspect Mr.. Oberlong's deli
cate balances rather than Howe platform
scale the size of the state of Missouri
Oswaldus Northingenus, an artist who lived
during the reign of Pope Paul V, about
1910, is said TO have made six hundred
plates or dishes of pewter, which were of
such diminutive proportions ms to admit of
the whole lot being hidden upon the inside of
the stone of a common peach.
Mark Scarlost, blacksmith who lived I'M
der the reign of Queen Elizabeth, made a
chain OF forty-five links, TO which he attached
paddock made of steel and brass, consisting
OF eleven pieces besides the key The chain
was so small as TO freely admit of being fast
ened about the neck of a common every day
hea, and the apparatus, flea, chain, paddock,
key and all weighed but grain and a half
when exhibited before the wondering ROYALTY
on plate of polished silver
The reader viii, 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 of rye olden times" but what viii he
say when informed that within the last five
years San Francisco professor has equaled
Mark Scarlost's ingenuity in every particular
This Golden Gate grasper after the infini-
tesimal exhibited a perfectly trained team Of
heas, drawing a miniature tally-ho coach
made of gold, with all four wheels perfect,
each turning on its axle. All the elite of San
Francisco witnessed the professors wonderful
exhibition of his control over these frisky
little pets, and all were unsparing in their
praises of the queer little team, the professor
and the golden coach
SMALL WATCHES.
The first watch was made in Nuremberg in
the cherry stone about the year 1477. Soon
after its invention curious gold and silver
smiths began to experiment on what they
could do in the way of diminutive time pieces.
One of these now over 200 years old, is kept
as wonder in one of the Swiss museums It
Is only three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.
but, small as it is, it not only indicates hours
and minutes, but seconds and tenths of sec
onds, days of the week. days of the month
and the number of the year
Another of the old Nuremberg wonders
was in the form of an acorn ffve-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
necklace.
One of exactly the same pattern, but pro-
vided with tiny pistol, which was used as
an alarm, is now to be seen in the South
Kensington museum London. King George
III, of England, had watch not larger
than an old fashioned silver five cent piece
which had 100 different parts, the whole
not weighing much as a silver dime. 1t
would take a column of The Republic to
enumerate all the dainty little time pieces
that have been invented during the past 400
hata IL
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 UNI
brella handles Finished workmanship and
plenty of money will provide almost anything
that can be conjured up by myriad minded
people
INFINITEsIMAL ENGINES.
The enGinemakers, like the watchmakers
have also tried to attain distinction in the
matter of the diminutive. In 1870 John
Penn, the eminent maker of great steam en-
gines who resided at Greenwich, England,
came in possession of what was then the
smallest steam engine in the world 1t stood
on three penny piece. II really covered less
space, for its base plate measured only three
eighths of an inch by about three-tenths.
From the extreme smallness of the model
some of the details were omitted but not
enough TO interfere in any way with its
going The screws were only the one-eigh-
tieth of an inch in diameter, and these we're
duly furnished with hexagonal nuts, which
could only he loosened by aid of tiny wrench
made for that purpose The weight of the
whole model, without the three penny base,
was less than the weight of the coin itself.
Six years later, time of our centennial ex-
hibition, Penn would have felt ashamed of
his three penny piece engine" had ne had it on
exhibition at Philadelphia. During the prog
gress OF that great exposition Levi TAYLOR
of Indianola, Ia, placed on exhibition, ''sde by
side" with the great Corliss engine, an engine
perfect in all its parts, built ON a twenty-five
cent gold piece, and with some of its parts SO
small as to only be seen by aid of n powerful
microscope. The entire engine weighed but
three grains. In other words, it would have
taken LAG such engines to balance an ounce
avoirdupois. Three of the Penn engines
would have weighed more than lag like that
made by Taylor.
The engine made by d. A. Buck, of Water
bury, Conn, is usually given In lists of small
things as the smallest engine in the world ;
but this Is a mistake The one mentioned
last above so far takes the palm for smallness
The writer cheerfully admits that the Buck
engine is more perfect in its details than the
Iowa wonder; but the fact that its base plate
is gold dollar forever kills its claim to being
the smallest, as the Iowa engine, as mem
toned above, uses twenty-five cent gold
piece for the purpose. Bucks engine has 14s
distinct pieces Of machinery, held together
by fifty-two screws. Three drops of water
I'LL the boiler to overlooking. The diameter
Of Its cylinder is one-twenty eighth of an
inch; the length of stroke, three-thirty-
onds of an inch; its entire weight, four and q
half grains-John W. Wright in st. Louis
Republic