The St. Johns herald., 1889-06-27
Lost Arts.

Wendell Philips, l:I hIs lecture
 on the Lost Arts" in speaking o
 malleable glass, tells of a Roman
 who, in the age Tiberius, had beer
 banished, and returned to Rome
 bringing wonderful cup. This cup
 he dashed upon the marble pave ment, and it was crushed but not
 broken by the fall. Although some what dented, with a hammer he easily bent it into shape again. It was brilliant, transparent, but. not brittle. He further states that the Romans obtained their chemistry from the Arabians, and that they brought it into Spain eight centuries ago. In the books of that age there is kind of glass spoken of that, if supported by one end, by its own weight in a days time would dwin- dle down to a fine line, so that it could be curved around one's wrist like a bracelet.
 The art of luminous painting was known to the Japanese nine hun dred years ago, and an extract from one of their old writers has been translated as follows: "One Su Ngoh, many years ago, had pie ture of an OK. Every day the OK left the picture frame to graze and returned to sleep within it at night This picture came into the posses sion of the Emperor Tai Tsung, of the Sung dynasty CA D. 976-998), who showed it to his courtiers, and asked them for an explanation, which none ofthem, however, could give. At last a certain Buddhist priest said that the Japanese found some nacreous substance within the flesh of 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 the OK was not visible, and it was therefore said that it left the frame to go grazing,
 Many instances of remarkable ; mechanical ingenuity.are related by various ancient authors. In the year 157S, the twentieth of Queen Elizabetb's reign one Mark Scaliot, a blacksmith, made a lock consist ing of eleven pieces of iron, steel, and brass, with hollow key to it that altogether weighed but one grain of gold. He also made a ] gold chain, composed of forty-three links, which he fastened to the lock l and key. In the presence of the Queen he put the chain about the neck of flea, which drew it with ease, after which he put the lock and key, flea and chain, into a pair of scales, and they together weighed but one grain and a half. This al- most incredible story is vouched for by an old writer.
 Myrmecides, an ancient carver, was also so proficient in microscopy ic mechanism that he made an ivory | chariot with four wheels, and as many harnessed horses, in so small | a compass that fly might have hidden them all under its wings. The same artisan made a 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 dingenious performance" which was presented to Sultan Solyman the Magnificent by his Imperial Majesty Ferdinand, is mentioned by Paulus Jovius as showing and keeping time with the motions of the celestial bodies in their various configuratiops. It was carried to Constantlnopie by twelve men, and there put together by the artist that made it.