The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-12
WATER THAT PETRIFIES.

How a Cutlery Firm Makes Patented
Razor Homes Out Of an Irish Lake.
Few freaks Of nature are more strange
than one that is constantly occurring in
| Tough Neagh. As a matter Of fact not
one man IN every thou sand knows Of the
peculiar chemical properties of this lake.
| The natives along its borders are aware
| that from the lakes bottom they can col
! lect stones of strange shapes, which bear
! the resemblance of trees and branches.
| But the poor people are too uneducated to
realize that these curious stones are in
reality petrifed branches, and that the
waters of the lake have the strange power
| of petrifying any substance that may be
| put into it in ten to twenty-one days, &C
cording to the material
/ learned of it in curious manner.
happened to be travelling in Connemara,
and met there an English gentleman, who
informed me that he was going to Tough
Neagh ito visit his men and inspect his
petrifying beds" | did not understand
this peculiar announcement, and asked for
an explanation, which he gave me most
willingly.
He told me that he was one of the own
ers of a celebrated cutlery house, not far
from the Mansion house in London. Years
! before they had learned from an employe
that petrified trees had been found in
Tough Neagh, and from old Irish books
they discovered that the waters had the
extraordinary property of petrifying wood
within a month.
Businesslike, they at once sent a man
over. He selected several pieces of hard
wood, and having tied weights to them
plunged them into the lake and marked
their locality by small buoys and strips at
tached to the test pieces.
In two weeks he returned and took up
two pieces, which he found to be partially
petrified. Two weeks afterward the re-
mainder were brought to terra frma, and
each rod OF hardwood was hard as flint,
petrifed through. Then the firm tried ex-
periments with the wood il the different
stages of petrifaction. and discovered that
unusually excellent razor homes could be
manufactured from it, and of different
densities of hardness, according to the
length of suhmersion. These homes are
now famous product of this cutlery firm.
They have patented them and obtain high
prices for them, but the razor sharpening
world little knows that the stone is wood,
petrified in a few weeks in the largest of
the Irish lakes
i accompanied the gentleman to the lake,
and myself witnessed the process Of turn
ing wood to stone, and l must confess that
it gave me cause for reflection. Here was
a valuable natural factory at the very doors
of the people, the natives, who were in a
semi-starving condition all around, and
yet its products were utilized only by an
English firm.
Possibly the petrifed wood in some of its
stages of stone growing could be put to
many uses, and | have no doubt but that
when the fact is more generally known
some enterprising Irishman will utilize
the factory nature has given them for the
material benefit of the country.
When / returned to Dublin made in
Quiries about the curious phenomenon wit
messed at Tough Neagh, and was rewarded
by the courteous librarian of Trinity col
lege, who placed in my hands several vol
umes of translations Of ancient Irish
works, and marked for me the parts re-
ferring TO the lake.
Among them found several references
made to the "hard, woody stone" which
was taken from the bottom of Tough
Neagh for spear and arrow heads by the
early Irish. So that although the Irish
men of today are, ninety-nine in one hun
dred, unaware Of the useful popularity OF
their "big Tough" those Of ten and fifteen
centuries ago knew it well and utilized it.
In the museum of Trinity college can be
seen today several spear and arrow heads,
made centuries ago from wood petrifed in
Tough Neagh. But apparently even then
the natives were unaware that the chemi-
cal properties of the water were so power
full or acted so quickly.-Dublin Letter.