Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-04-03
OLD AS THE HILLS.

they Knew It An Two Centuries Ago, and
Here's Proof OF It.
A curious little book has just been dug
out from the dust Of two centuries and
has been partially republished by the
German newspapers for the purpose of
proving that there Is nothing new under
the sun. The little book is entitled
s'Foolish Wisdom and Wise Foolish
ness" and was written by an old
fashioned German political economist
named Becher. At the time of its pub
LEGATION the book was regarded as some
thing of Munchausen narrative of the
authors travels through Europe. Dur
ing his wanderings Becher became ac-
quainted with most Of the learned men
on the Continent, and learned a vast
deal concerning the scientific work of
his day. The first genius he met was
Franz Grundler. a Nurnberg optician-
He says of him: ''Grundler is a most re-
markable man. He has an idea that he
can cork up in a bottle, by means Of .
spiral, the ordinary spoken words of =
mans voice, carry them around with
him thus for an hour or more, and then
open the bottle and letthem out How
far Grundler has got with the execution
OF his idea since / saw him do not
know. The whole conception appears
to be quite impossible of execution and
silly"
After thus limiting that even in the
days of the thirty years war some men
had learned a thing or two concerning
the principle of the phonograph, Becher
has word to say of IAN instrument by
means of which persons more than a
German mile apart could talk to each
other in low tone of voice" Becher
calls the instrument stentrophonicon,
and describes how in using it he was
obliged to press his lips very close to
the bell of curiously shaped trumpet
81 have SEEM" he continues, lone of
these instruments at Grundler's in
Nurnberg, and talked with him through
it. Although we were a good distance
apart at the time and talked very loudly,
no one between us could hear a word we
said"
During his tour of inquiry Becher also
discovered that in several regions out
side of Germany men had learned ''to
write down what others said, with
wonderful rapidity by means of strange
characters. " "Englishmen have dis
covered a kind of photography" he ex-
plains, ''or rather an art which enables
them to write as rapidly as the fastest
speakers can talk. They have brought
this wonderful art to such degree of
perfection that young persons often
write out full sermons without mis-
take. Orations in Parliament can be
written out by this means as rapidly as
they are delivered, which 1 regard as a
very useful invention So much for
stenography two centuries ago.
To save himself the trouble of learn
ing various languages of the countries
| through which he passed, Becher com
piled universal language, not unlike
| our Volapuk. This language, he says
was derived directly from the nature OF
things, slipped easily over the tongue
| and could be learned in four weeks Il
had but twelve letters, and five hun
dred words, was clear of Vaccinations and
conjugations, and subject to but si1
rules of syntax.
Among the many other wonderful
things which Becher saw on the Con
tinent and wrote about in his little bool
were an air gun (which shot lead with
out powder or noise," another guI
(which delivered three balls in rapid
succession after one loading" ship il
which Cornelius Trebbel had ridde1
under the water of the Thames, and al
air ship ''held high above the earth b!
balls much lighter than the atmosphere.
IN. Y. Sun.