Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-07-21

Bloncourt, in his Great Inventions
and How They Were Achieved" says
that the making of plate glass was sug-
gested by a workman's Happening to
break a crucible filled with melted glass.
The fluid ran under one of the large flag
stones with which the floor was paved,
and on raising the stone to recover the
glass they found it in the form of plate,
such as could not be produced by the or
binary process of blowing.
Glass pearls, though among the most
beautiful. inexpensive and common orna-
ments worn by ladies, are produced by a
very singular process. In 1856 Vene-
tan named Joaquin discovered that the
scales of the bleak fish possess the prop
erty Of communicating a pearly hue TO
water. He found by experimenting that
beads dipped into this water assumed,
when dried, however, that the pearly'
coat when placed outside was easily rub
bed off; and the next Improvement was
TO make the beads hollow.
FISH SCALE PEARLS.
The making of these beads is carried
on to this day in Venice. The beads are
all blown separately. BY means OF a
small tube the inside is delicately coated
with the pearly liquid, and wax coating
is placed over that II requires the
scales of 1900 fishes to produce half a
pint of the liquid, to which a small guam
thy OF sal-ammonia and mica are after
ward added.
The most trivial causes have produced
momentous effects upon mems lives and
upon the history of the world. The
chance perusal of Defoe's Essay on Pro
iects" determined, 1t is said, the course
of Benjamin Frankl!n's whole life. Ben
iamin West said: "A kiss from my
mother made me painter" The sight
of Virgil's tomb at Naples determined
Giovanni's literary vocation for life. So
Gi5bon was struck with the idea of writ
ing his Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire" as he sat dreaming amid the
ruins Of the Forum.
Jean Jacques ROusseau's eccentric
genius was first aroused by an advertise
ment offering prize for the best essay
on a certain theme, which he tried for
and won. Charles Lamb the essayist,
was a government clerk for many years,
and perhaps would never have been
known in the world of letters but for the
encOUra cement of Coleridge.
COOPERIS INSPIRATION.
One evening. somewhere about 1920,
young man just in the thirties, who
had spent most of his life on the sea, laid
d0cun novel that he had been reading
with the declaration that he could write
a better one.
why don't you try?" asked his wife.
THAT is just what am going TO do, )"
he answered. and he at once set about
the experiment.
This was the beginning of that re-
markable literary career that endured
which was the famous "Leatherstock-
ing Tales" and the sea tales of J. Feni-
more Cooper.
The 'Pickwick Papers" owe thei,
origin to the request of the publisher of
q magazine upon which Dickens was
doing jOb-work, that he would write a
SERIAL story to ftS0me comic pictures
that were in the publishers possession.
The first great novel of the eighteenth
century. Pamela or, Virtue Rewarded, -
was the OutgrOwth'Oi a suggeStiOn by two
publishers RNington and Osbourne, to
their friend, Samuel Richardson, to
write a book of familiar letters on the
useful concerns of life. A happy thought
struck the writer when he began his
work and that was TO give connection
to the letters 10y running the thread of
a loye-soory through them.T This gave an