The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-02-12
NOTHING NEW.
All Things Repeat Themselves Only In New
Forms.

All Things Repeat Themselves Only In New
Forms.
We pride ourselves on living in an
age of discovery and invention and
pity our ancestors for being born too
soon. Yet much of this is misplaced.
The real truth seems to be that the
ancients knew about everything that
we know, only the knowledge was not
generally diffused.
The learned man two or three thou
sand years ago was so far superior to
the majority that ne was regarded as
wizard and prudently kept his learn
ing to himself.
In our schools at the present day we
use '.Euclid's Elements Of Geometry"
written by Euclid 1900 years ago.
Euclid also wrote on music and optics,
antedating much which we think we
discovered.
Layard found in the ruins of Nineveh
what Sir David Brewster pronounced
10 be a ''magnifying glass;" and near
ly 1000 years ago the Egyptians and
Assyrians observed the stars through
a sliding tude," which we have rea-
son to believe was telescope.
We have some very fine razors at
the present day, but we cannot make
any finer steel than that contained in
the Damascus swords and knives
which the ancients used several thou
sand years ago.
At the same time the people of Tyre
were such exports in dyeing that the
Tyrian purple remains unexcelled to
this day. The Egyptians were also
wonderful dyers, and could produce
colors so durable that they may be
called imperishable.
The ancients were wonderful glass
workers and discovered a method OF
making it malleable, which we have
not been able to do. They could spin
glass into garments. dye it in every
shade of the rainbow and etch it with
marvellous skill.
Twenty centuries before the birth of
Watt, Hero of Alexandria described
machines whose motive power was
steam. He also invented a double
force pump, used as fire engine, and
anticipated the modern turbine wheel
by a machine he named "Neolpile."
Electricity derives it's name from
the Greek word for amber, electron,
because Thales, about 600 B. c., dis
covered that amber, when rubbed,
attracts light and dry bodies, and in
the twelfth century the scientific
priests of Etruria drew lightning from
the clouds with iron rods.
All the mechanical powers, the
screw, lever, pulley, incline plane,
wedge, wheel and axle. were known
to the ancients and used in everyday
life. They we're expert builders, as
existing relics testify.
The ancient Gauls used reaping
machine. Hobbs gave his name to a
lock found in the tombs of Egypt.
Natural gas conveyed in bamboo
tubes was utilized in China centuries
ago, and one of the Monaghan authors
writes OF boxes which repeated the
sound of voices of men long since
dead-an approximation to the phono-
graph of Edison.
We may say with truth that much
of our boasted light and mechanical
wisdom is but the match put once
again to the old candle of our ancest-
ors. The old times were days of war
and oppression, and the inventor hid
his invention for fear of being robbed.
The vast majority had no money to
buy a laboring device, even if they
had brains to use it.
1t was not practical age, and the
knowledge, AS we'll as wealth, was
confined to the few: Nowadays an in
vention of value spreads over this
world like flash of gunpowder, and
in the light of modern common sense,
the invention of the common friction
match has doubtless done more for
the good of mankind than all the dis
coveries of antiquity. William Alva.