Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-07-17
INVENTIONS OF ANTIo UIrY.
Plenty of Them Are Merely Reproduced nj
the Patent Office Now

There Is nothing new under the sun"
said Solomon the Wise The inventions
of modern times were many of them
thought OF and applied by the ancients
ages ago. Telescopes were used BY the
astronomers of Babylon more than 5000
years back. The workmanship of many
Roman coins proves, merely by Its exceed
ing dehcacy that the designs were made bv
powerful magnifying glasses, if not with
the microscope. Gun-pow6er. unknown to
Europe until the twelfth century, had been
familiar substance to the Chinese and
constantly employed by them since before
Christ. You can find at the Smithsonian
institution, In the collection of remote an
hqultles, many devices which are recoroed
at the patentoffiee in Washington rs new
ideas, says the Washington Star. For ex-
ample, there Is a fragment of a soldiers
bronze belt, more than 1000 years old.
bound on the edge with leather attached
by the McCfill patent paper fastener of to.
day-the ingenious little contrivance that
Is thrust through two or more layers of a
substance ard bent down both ways to
hold them together.
The relics eXhibitedsn this collection is
mostly of the bronze age, from 1000 B. c.
to 400 b. {. Among them are rlzorS of
bronze, some Of them which nearly reserS-
BILE IN form the razorS of the nineteenth
century, while others are crescent Shap,
with modern handles. They are not in
| condition now to shave with though
hardly less so than the tools employed by
| the astute barber upon the customer who
never pays a fee. Even more wonderful
Is the safety-pin with which the Roman
women in the time before Christ was born
fastened their garments. 1t was preeicely
like the safety-pin of 1891 A. D., with the
little coiled spring at one end and the
catch at the other. FiSh-hookS in the
bronge age we're in the same shape
| precisely as they are now, with the same
barbs sand the same bends of which
the famous Limerick and ShaughneSsy
types are merely copies. The ends of their
! shauks to hold their lines, were either
| tiattened or looped, Just at present. In
short they were the same article exac ly,
barring the nature of the metal
In the Smithsonian collection referred to
are shown hatpins with big round heads
more than twenty centuries DID, In all re-
| Spects resembling those of today. though
| they may have been employed merely to
| bind the hair together. Also there are or
| binary hairpIns, equally ancient, like those
| sold at dry-goods shops on + street and
| Pennsylvania avenue, and likewise thin
bies OF bronze with the customary lndenta-
| tlons, though such implements are general
| ly supposed to have been invented in the
middle ages under the name of thumb
| bells" Tweezers and strainers after the
| modern fashion are included in the same
aSsemblage of curiosities. Others OF the
| same epoch are woven goods from the
Swiss lake dwellings that were built on
| piles, bronzed heads from Rome actually
plated with gold, bronze buttons made
just like those of today, bronze chains with
| the same mesh precisely as is employed
now by jewellers for watch guards, bronze
| mirrors, bronze bodkins, bronze needles,
! and bronze sickies for cutting grass or
grain, with wooden handles-the originals
of the Mccormick reaper.
One of the funniest things in the cOllec-
| ton is small vase with hinge at the top
| for d cover-just like the modern beer
mug. 1t dates from before Christ. There
are also stone molds of the same epoch for
casting bronze knives, spearheadS,
hatcheis, sickles, and other implements
precisely in the manner followed now. An
| ancient Etruscan vase shows mending wi h
| rivets after the same methods as is employ
ed in this day. Even more extraordinary
are ponlards covered In ivory perhaps hun
dreds of thousands of years ago by men of
the clipped stone or palaoithici age, with
reindeer and mammoths horns for handles
The Romans before the birth of Christ
did everything with respect to printing
except to print. They made stamps and
stamped words and letters on their pot
terry before baking it. These types were
unmovable ard sometimes single, though
not usually so. On their lead pipe they
cast inscriptions in raised letters. Prac-
tically, these would have served for print
ing if their surface been linked aup press
ed upon cloth or papyrus used for their
books and letters. 1t has been said that
necessity is the mother of invention, vet
the necessity for printing existed in as
great degree as among any people. They
had a senate, which kept its journal; they
made speeches and orations; of the MAX
ing of books there was no end. Laws and
DEGREES were published to the people; in
| fact, at the same time newspaper was
circulated All this was done by hand
writing yet they had all the material and
much of the art of printing in every day
use now. But they never caught the final
| idea