Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-08-22
They Can't Do So Now
Wonderful Mechanical and Chemiea.
Secrets that are Lost Arts
TO the M0derns.
Flexible Glass, Luminous Painting,
and Marvellous Machinery Pro-
duced by Old Time Artisans.

duced by Old Time Artisans.
Notwithstanding the great advance in
inventions and manufactures Of the pres.
eut century in most respects, there are
many wonderful arss and sciences in
which the ancients have never been equal
ed and the secrets of which have long
since persisted. The chemistry of the
most ancient period hao reached - point
which modern chemists have never ap-
preached.
In the letters of the Catholic priests
who first visited China, which were pub
lished in France 200 years ago, they re-
LATE that they we're shown q glass, trans
parent and colorless, which was filled with
liquid made by the Chinese, which TO the
observers appeared TO be as clear rs
water This liquid was poured into the
glass; then, looking through it, 1t seemed
TO be filled with fishes.
This was not GIVING TO any popularity
of the fluid, but t. the glass itself. The
Chinese confessed that they did not make
them, but that they were the plumber of
some foreign conquest many centuries
before.
Wendell Phillips, in his lecture on the
Lost Arts" III speaking of NAL leable
glass, tells of a Roman who, in the age of
Iiberus, had been banished, and returned
TO Rome, bringing wonderful cup.
This cup he dashed upon the marble
pavement and it was crushed but not
broken by the TALL. Although somewhat
dented, with a hammer he easily bent
IL into shape again. 1t was brilliant,
trans parent, bat not brittle. He further
states that the Romans obtained their
chemistry from the Arabians, and they
brought IT into Spain eight centuries ago.
In the books of that age there is a kind
of glass spoken of that, Unsupported by
one end, by its own weight in a days
time would dwindle down TO fine line,
80 that it could be curved around ones
wrist like bracelet.
The 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 SD Ngoh many years ago had
picture of an or. Every day the OK left
the picture frame to Craze and returned
to sleep within it at night. This picture
came into the possession of the En-
| peror Tai Tsung of tho Sung dynasty
! "a. ID. 976-99S), who showed il to his
courtiers and asked them for an expla'
nation, which none of them, however,
could give.
At last certain Buddhist priest SAID
that the japanese found some nacreoes
substance within the flesh of certain
kind of oyster they picked up when
the rocks were barred at low tide, and
tnat they ground this into color material
and then painted the pictures with it
which were Invisible by DAY and luminous
by night.
The secret was that during the day the
! figure of the OK vas not visible and it was
therefore said that it left the frame to 90
grazing.
Many instances of remarkable meohan-
| ical ingenuity are related by various
ancient authors. In the year 1873, the
twentieth of Queen Elizabetb's reign, one
| Mark Soaliot, blacksmith, made a lock
consisting of eight pieces of iron, steel
and brass, with hollow key TO il, that
altogether weighed but one grain of gold.
He also made gold chain, composed of
forty-three links, which he fastened TO
the lock and the key. In the presence of
the queen he put the chain about the
neck or flea, which drew it with ease;
after which he put the lock and key, flea
and chain into a pair Of scales, and
they altogether weighed but one grain and
half.
Myrmecides, an ancient carver, was also
so proficient in microscopic mechanism
that he made au ivory chariot with four
wheels, and as many haruessed horses, In
so small a compass that fly might have
hidden them under her wings. The same
artisan made 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 in
genious performance" which was pre-
scented TO Soloman the magnificent by his |
imperial ejesty Ferdinand, is mention |
ed by Paulus Jovius as showing and keep |
ing time with the motions of the celestial
bodies in their various CONGREGATIONS. IL
was carried TO Constantinopie by twelve
men and there put together by the artist
that made it.
An artifcer named Cornelius Van Dreb
BILE once made an instrument like an
organ shat, being set IL the open air
under warm sun, would play airs OF it
self without the keys being touched, but
would noe play in the shade. For this !
air rarided by the sun that caused the |
harmony.
George Whitehead, an Englishman,
made a ship, with all things pertaining |
10 it, to move As if saiied upon a table.
"All hands were aloft, woman made |
good music on lutte, aud little puppy |
cried ia mids1ip, all of which variety" |
quantity says an Old author, was very
pleasant and diverting"
P.ooi7s, whose fame in mathematics |
equaled that Of Archmedes, is said to
have made burning glasses in the reign
OF Anastasius Dicorus OF such wonderful |
efficacy that at great distance he burned
and destroyed the Mysisn and Thracian !
feet Of f!ps that had blockaded B!zan-
tium.
The Damascus blades az marvels of per |
feet steel have long bean famous, and even
those used in the crusades are as perfect
to-day as they we're eight centuries ago. |
One Oh exhibition in London could be