The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-10-29
INVENTIONS OF ANTIQUITY.
Plenty OF Them Are Merely Reproduced
at the Parent Office Now.

There is nothing new under the
sun. said Solomon the Wise. The in
ventious of modern times were many
of them thou lit 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 exceeding deli
cacy that the designs were made by
powerful magnifying glasses, if not
with the microscope. Gun-powder,
unknown to Europe until the twelfth
century, had been a familiar substance
to the Chinese and constantly en-
ployed by them since before Christ.
You can find at the Smithsonian in
stituton, in the collection of remote
antiquities, many devices which are re-
corded at the patent Office as new
ideas. says the Washington Star. For
example, there is fragment of q
soldiers bronze belt, more than 1000
wears old, bound on the edge with
leather attached by the McGill patent
paper fastener of to-day-th the ingenious
little contrivance that is thrust through
two or more layers of a substance and
bent down both ways to hold them to-
gether.
The relics exhibited in this collection
are mostly Of the bronze age, from 1000
B. G.. to 400 B. c. Among them are
razors Of bronze, some of which resem-
Bile in form the razors of the nineteenth
century, while others were crescent
shaped with modern handles. They
are not in condition now to shave with
though hardly less SO than the tools
employed bv the astute barber upon
the customer who never pays 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 like the
safety-pin Of the year 1891 A, D., with
the little coil3d spring at one end and
the catch at the other. Fish-hooks in
the bronze age were in shape precise
" what they are now, with the same
barbs and the same bends of which the
famous Limerick and Shaughnessy
types are merely copies. The ends of
their shanks, to hold the lines, were
either Hattened or looped, just as at
present. In short, they were the same
articles, exactly, barring the nature OF
the metal.
In the Smithsonian collection re-
ferred to are shown hat pins with big
round heads more than twenty cen
turtles Old in all respects resem bling
those of to-day. though they may have
been employed merely to bind the hair
together. Also there are ordinary
hairpins, equally ancient, like those sold
II oh OF nH
Pennsylvania avenue, and likewise
thimbles of bronze with the customary
indentations, though such implements
are generally 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 assem- blage
of culiosities. Others of the same
epoch are woven goods from the Swiss
lake dwellings that were built on piles,
bronze buttons made just like those of
to-day, bronze chains with the same
mesh precisely as is employed now by
jewellers for watch guards. bronze mir
rors, bronze bodkins. bronze needles,
and bronze sickles for cutting grass or
grain, with wooden handles-the
originals Of the Mccormick reaper
One of the funniest things in the col
lection is small vase with a hinge at
the toI for a coVer-just like the
modern beer mug. 1t dates from be-
fore Christ. There are also stone
moulds of the same epoch for casting
bronze knives, spearheads, hatchets,
sickles and other implements precise
ly in the manner followed now. An
ancient Etruscan vase shows mending
with rivets after the same method as is
employed in this day. Even more ex-
traordinary are poniards covered in
ivory perhaps hundreds of thousands
of years ago by men of the chip
ped stone or palBolithic ages, with
reindt e and mammoths 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 pottery before baking it.
These types were movable, and some
times single, though not usually so.
On their lead pipe they cast inscriptions
in raised letters, Practically, these
would have served for printing if their
surface had been linked and pressed
upon the cloth or papyrus used for
their books and letters. It has been
said that necessity is the mother Of in
vention, yet 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 oratlons; of the making
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 wa done by
handwriting, yet they had all the ma
terials and much of the art of printing
in EVERYDAY use now. But they never