Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1892-12-31
NOTHING NEW.

NOTHING NEW.
1he Ancients Know Almost Everything
That the Moderns Knew.
We pride ourselves on living in an
age Of discovery and invention, and
pity our ancestors for being born too
soon. But much of this is misplaced
says William Alva The real truth
seems to be that the ancients knew
about everything we know. only the
knowledge was not generally diffused.
The learned man 1000 or 5000
years ago was so far superior to the
majority that he was regarded as
wizard, and prudently kept his learn
ing to himself.
In our schools Of the present day,
we use "Euclid's Elements of Geome-
try" written by Euclid 1900 years
ago. Euclid also wrote on music and
optics, antedating much which we
think we discovered.
The science Of optics must have
been pretty far advanced in his day,
because we know that Alexander the
Great had copy Of the '.Iliad" in
closed in nutshell, and it is quite
certain that it could not have been
written without the aid of micro
scope.
Layard found in the ruins of Nine.
veh what Sir David Brewster pro-
nounced to be a t'magnifying- glass"
and nearly 1000 years ago the Egyp-
tians and Assyrians observed the stars
through 'sliding tube" which we
have reason to believe was teles-
cope.
We make some very fine razors at
the present day, but we can not 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 experts 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 everv
shade of the rainbow, and etch it
with marvellous skill.
Twenty centuries before the birth
of Watt, Hero of Alexandria de-
scribed machines whose motive power
was steam. He also invented a
double force pump, used as flre-en-
CINE, 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. B.. dis
covered that amber, when rubbed, at
tracts 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, we're known
to the ancients and used in everyday
life. They were expert builders, as
| existing relics testify.
The ancient Gauls used reaping-
machine. Hobbs gave his name to a
lock found in the tomb of Egypt.
Natural gas conveyed in bamboo
tubes was utilized in China centur-
les ago, and one of the Monaghan au-
thors writes of boxes which repeated
the sound of voices of men long since
dead-.-an approximation to the phon-
ograph of Edison.
In medical skill the oriental physi-
clans of India practiced vaccination
| 1000 years old. Anasthetics were
know in the days of Homer, and the
Chinese 1000 years ago had prep
aration Of hemp known as ''una 20, "
| to deaden pain-something similar to
the modern cocaine.
| Coins were stamped with engraved
dies So far back that we have lost the
record, and movable types are said to
have been known to the Romans.
| In ali that pertains to sculpture
and painting the ancients knew 80
much that their superiority has never
been questioned, and their work re-
mains as unsurpassed models
| 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 ances-
| tors The old times were days Of
war and oppression, and the inven :
tor hid bis invention for fear of be-
ing robbed. The vast majority had
no money to buy laboring device,
even if they had brains to use it.
1t was not a practical age, and the
knowledge, as we'll as wealth, was
confined to the few. Nowadays an
invention of value spreads over this
worli 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 discoveries Of antiquity.
| why Grouchy Failed to Come.
Had Marshal Grouchy come to the
assistance of Napoleon at Waterloo
|