The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-11-26
THE FINEST WI. Ting
CONTENTS OF TWENTY BIBLES ON A
THUMBS BREADTH.

The Lords Prayer Obscured by a Small
mute Writing Is Done without Any Kind
of Magnifying Power.
The widest dream of fine postal card
writing fails to be of interest when
compared with what has been written
on glass with a diamond point. So mar
velously fine are the marks that have
been traced on glass that when, by
means of a powerful microscope, we
clearly read the words covered by a
speck when seen with the naked eye it
is difficult to realize the fullness of the
fact presented.
Think of legible writing so fine that
90 copies of the entire Bible can be writ
ten in the narrow space of one square
inch! Yet such there is in existence and
can be produced without any great diff
Guilty.
Particular attention was called to this
strange fact by Mr.. Stephen Helm Of
628 Columbus avenue, member of the
New York Microscopical society and a
fellow of the Royal society of london.
1.-THE Herald account of the wonder
fully fine writing produced by Mr..
Charles S. Monnier on postal card is
very Interesting, said Mr. Helm as he
sat by his microscope with a bit of glass
in his hand that showed a black ring in
it's center about the size Of a silver 3
cent piece. ellis accomplishment is
quite wonderful, but it is nothing COM
pared with what is on this glass. F."
I took the glass, but could see moth
ing within the little black ring, but
with the use of a small hand lens a
speck became apparent.
''That is the Lords Prayer" said
Mr.. Helm. cit contains 227 letters and
is written within the five-hundredth
part of a square inch. In other words,
the space it covers is one-twentieth by
one-twenty fifth of an inch, and 500 of
such spaces are contained within the
bounds of a single square inch, which
at the same rate would contain 113, 500
letters. Look at it and read the words. :"
The bit Of glass was adjusted under
the microscope, and there, in good,
plain writing, was the Lords Prayer,
as easily read as the words in this para
graph AS I read the lines a single
speck Of dust that floated unobserved
before our eyes settled on the glass slide
and obsoured the entire prayer.
"This writing is not regarded by mi
croscopists familiar with minute forms
as anything wonderful" said Mr..
Helm, "but the postal card story makes
it Of general public interest. Now, look
at this slide. F"
The glass slide referred to was SINH
lar to the other, and within the little
black circle marked OH it there was no
mark to be seen with the naked eye Or
with the strongest hand magnifying
glass.
'You can see nothing there, P" con-
tinued Mr.. Helm; neither can you un
der an ordinary microscope, but the
same prayer is written there as on the
other glass, only, as compared with the
other, the space is as New York city
lot compared with a Duchess county
farm. Look at it under the strongest
power my microscope is capable of. -
There it was, the Lords Prayer, in
the same handwriting as the other, both
being done by Professor Webb of the
Royal Microscopical society, but ever
SO much smaller.
"The larger writing, as told you, =
said Mr. Helm, ''covers space measur-
ed by one-twentieth of an inch one way
and one-twenty fifth the other. This
one covers a space measured by one-five-
hundredth part of an inch in one direc-
ton and one-six-hundred and fifty
third part of an inch in the other direc-
tion. In other words, it means that
with writing of that size "a, 115, 500
letters can be placed in single square
inch. The force of this is easier Compre
hended when we remember that the BIZ
BILE contains 1868, 40 letters, which
means that the entire Christian Scrip
lures can be written legibly, 20 times
repeated, within the space Of single
square inch and have considerable va
cant space left. -
This wonderfully minute writing,
which requires a microscope magnify
ing 600 diameters t. make it readable,
is not produced by the use Of any mag
nifying power, but by moving the
hand and forming the letters as in or
binary very fine writing. The pen that
is used is connected with series of
levers that reach distance of six feet,
where is placed the glass slide to be
written on. These levers are so adjusted
that the motion of the end nearest the
glass slide is much less than that of the
other end, SO that the amount of motion
is lessened as it travels along the sue
cessive levers, until, when it reaches
the delicate end armed with minute
diamond that rests on the glass surface,
it is reduced to the required fineness.
Thus, while the hand of the operator
is covering with writing sheet of pa
per six by nine inches in size, the let
tiers he forms are duplicated on the glass
by the cutting diamond within the space
of one-five-hundredth part of square
inch. New York Herald.