, 1889-09-27
MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL Sc
caETS OF THE kNclENTS.

ocCupatlSlS lney Were moTe Skllilul IMAM
we are.
In the letters of the Catholic priests
who first visited China. which were
published in France 200 years ago, they
relate that they were shown a glass,
and ~colorless, which was
filled with n liquid made by the Chinese,
which to the observers appeared to be
as clear as water. This liquid was
poured into the glass; then, looking
Through it, IL seemed to be filed with
ishe.
This was not owing to any popularity
of the fluid, but to the glass itself. The
Chinese confessed that they did not
4 spake them, but that they were the
Murder Of some foreign conquest many
cepturies before.
MYSTERY OF THE OK.
Thu art of luminous painting was
known to the Japanese 900 years ago, and
an extract from one of their old writers
has been translated as follows;
One Su Ngoh many years ngo had a
picture of an OF. Every day the OK left
tAs picture frame to Craze and returned
20 sleep WIKI z at night. This picture
no into tho bssession of the Emperor
.Tsung OF the Sung dynasty ruling
$40 to 99S, who showed it to his
iers and asked them for an expla-
N, which none OF them, however,
give.
Va last IA certain Buddhist priest said
anie japanese found some nacreous
salnce within the flesh of a certain
kind Of oyster they picked up when the
rocks were barred at low tide, and that
they ground this into color material and
then painted pictures with it which were
invisible by day and luminous by night.
The secret simply was that during the
day the figure of an * was not visible
and it was therefore said that it left the
frame to go grazing.
Many instances of remarkable me-
chanical ingenuity are related by vari-
Gus ancient authors. In the year 1878,
the twentieth of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
one Mark Scaliot, n blacksmith, made n
lock consisting of eleven pieces of iron,
steel and brass, with a hollow key in it,
that altogether weighed but one grain of
gold. He also made n gold chain, COM
posed of fo~rty-three links, which he fast
med 10 the lock and key. In the pres
ence of the queen he put the chain about
the neck of a flea, which drew it with
ttSt, dlltT Which, nt pun lut LUCK u1u
key, flea and chain into a pair of scales,
and they altogether weighed but. one
grain and n half.
Myrmecides, an ancient carver, wa
also so proficient In microscopic mechan-
ism that he made an ivory chariot with
four wheels, and as many harnessed
horses, in so small a compass that n fly
might have hidden them all under its
wings. The same artisan made n ship
With all her decks, masts, yards, rigging
and sails, which took up scarcely more
room than the chariot,
The silver sphere. "a most noble and
ingenious performance" which was pre-
sented to Sultan Solyman the Magnif-
cent by his imperial majesty Ferdinand,
ismentionedb by Paulus Jovius as showing
and keeping time with the motions of
\ the celestial bodies in their various con-
Nfgurations. 1t was carried to Constanti-
nople by twelve men and there put to-
eether by the artist that made it.
DMfSUTIvE MECHANISM.
An a~rtificer named Cornelius Van
rebble once made an instrument like
Iorgan that, being set in the open air
ider a warm sun, would play airs of
elf without the keys being touched,
it would not play in the shade. For
is reason 1t is supposed that it was in
4 losed air rarified by the sun that caused
IA g harmony.
NGeorge Whitehead, an Englishman,
uo0de a ship, with all things pertaining
tdit, to move as if it sailed upon a table.
~"All hands were aloft, a woman made
good music on the lutte, and a little puppy
cried in the midship. all of which va
riety." quantity says an old author. "was
very pleasant and diverting."
The Damascus blades as marvels Of
perfect steel have long been famous, and
even those used in the crusades are as
perfect today as they were eight centu-
ries ago. One on exhibition in London
could be put into a scabbard almost as
crooked as a corkscrew and bent every
way without breaking. The point of this
sword could be made to touch the hilt.
The poets have celebrated the perfec-
lion of the oriental steel, and many Ia
lous writer's have sung its praises.
TT, lin his ''Talisman," describes a
an~.oetween Richard Cour de Lion
Anlin- Saladin asks Richard to
,enoi the wonderful strength for
Jr. is noted, and the Norman mon
Jose,nds by severing a bar of iron
mer m the floor of the tent. Sala-
there / .6spnot do that" but he
two peoSy&n pillow from a couch,
set. At Is keen blade across it, it
son, apfpieces- At this Richard
-rnls is the black art-it is magic;
cannot cut that which has no resist
fdin, to show him that such is not
Use, takes a scarf from his shoulders
b is SO light that it almost floats in
Fir, and, tossing it up. sewers it be-
lit can descend. That SCOTS story
no means an exaggeration is proved
y a traveller who relates that he once
saw a man in Calcutta throw a handful
If floss silk into the air and a Hindoo
sever it to pieces with his saber.-New
York News. &
A hale old man. Mr.. Jas. Wilson, of