The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-25
MINUTE MARVELS.
Some Microscopic Works OF Ar
to Be Found Abroad.
Remarka bio Feats OF Dainty Penmanship
Ivory Dishes Scarcely Visible to the
Naked Eye-A jewelers. Won
derful Little Eont.

0erxu1 AlCLlO GOnts
DR.. Heylin, In his Life OF King
Charles records that during the reign
of Queen Elizabeth there was one
| who wrote the ten commandments, the
creed, the Pater Noster. the queens
name and the prayer of our Lord with
in the compass of a penny, and gave
her majesty a pair of spectacles Of such
an artificial making that by the help
thereof she did plainly and distinctly
discern every letter." says the London
Bookworm. A somewhat similar feat
was that rare piece of work brought
to pass by Peter Bales, an Englishman,
who also exhibited before her majesty
the entire Bible written in a book con-
tanning as many leaves as full-sized
edition, bat fitting into walnut"
In st. Johns college, Oxford, is pre-
served portrait of Charles l., in which
the engraver's lines, as they seem to
be, are really microscopic writing, the
face alone containing all the book of
Psalms, with the creeds and several
forms of prayers
The learned Person is known to have
INDUCED in this species of ''curious
idleness" occasionally, and perhaps the
Greek verses from the Medea of Euri-
pides, with Johnson's translation of
the same, for Burney's History of
Music, were executed by him. Though
consisting of two hundred and twenty
six words, they are comprised in cir
II IN
small space in the center left blank.
About forty years ago a specimen Of
microscopic penmanship was exhibited
in America. It consisted of the follow
ing inscription written upon glass in q
circle much smaller than the head of
an ordinary pin Zone six hundred and
twenty-ffth part of an inch in di-
ameter): Lowell and Scuter. watch
makers, e. Exchange street, Portland.
Written by Fermat at Paris, 1852"
At the Dusseldorf exhibition few
years ago gentleman showed a postal
card upon which the whole of the first
three books of the Odyssey were
written, the remaining space being
filed with the transcript of long de-
bate which had taken place in the
German parliament short time be-
fore. The whole card contained thirty
three thousand words.
Layard, in his History of Nineveh,"
mentions that the national records of
the Assyrian empire were written on
bricks in characters so minute as to be
scarcely legible without the aid of
microscope, and that, in fact,
variety of this instrument was found
among the excavations.
So much for dainty penmanship.
That minute mechanical construction
can lay claim to con siderable antiquity
is evidenced by the works of Pliny and
Adrian, who relate that Myrmicides
constructed out of ivory ship with all
her appurtenances and chariot with
four wheels and four horses, both SO
small that bee could hide either of
them with it's wings.
A still more wonderful work is that
of Mark Scaliot, a London locksmith,
who, in 1870, manufactured lock con-
sisting of eleven different pieces of
steel, iron and brass, which, together
with the key belongingzt it, weighed
only one grain. The same artist con-
structed a chain of gold containing
forty-three links, which he fastened to
the lock and key, and upon these being
attached to the neck of dea the insect
was able to draw them with ease.
Hadianus Junius saw at Mechlin, in
Brabant, a cherry stone carved in the
form of basket, in which were four
teen pairs of dice, the spots on the lat
ter visible to the naked eye. A cherry
stone carved by the sculptor, Rossi,
and containing glory of sixty saints,
was shown at Florence for many years.
A still more marvellous curiosity was
set of one thousand six hundred
ivory dishes, which were said to have
been purchased by one Shad from the
maker, Oswald Northingerns. and ex-
hibited before Pope VI. These dainty
turnings, though perfect in every re-
spect, were scarcely visible to the
naked eye, and could be easily inclosed
in casket the size of peppercorn.
A Jesuit. Father Farrarius. made TWEEN
ty-fve wooden cannon capable Of being
packed away in the same space.
In 1864, on the birthday of King
George Ill, matchmaker of London
named Arnold presented himself be-
fore the king to exhibit curious re-
peating watch of his manufacture.
This watch was in diameter somewhat
less than silver two-pence. contained
one hundred and twenty distinct parts
and weighed altogether less than six
pennyweights.
Not very long a go London news
paper announced that a jeweler of
Turin had made tugboat formed of a
single pearl. The sail of beaten gold
studded with diamonds and the bin
nacle light at the prov is a perfect
ruby. An emerald serves as its rudder
and the stand on which it is mounted
is slab OF whitest ivory. The entire
weight of this marvellous specimen of
the jewelers. craft is less than half an
ounce, but the maker values it at one
thousand pounds
japanese Railroads.
The government of Japan has in
hand plans for TIE construction of
fourteen new railway lines At pres