The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-09

ten more than 300 years 3. c. and in
these books illusions are made TO glass.
Pere Duhalde. in his description Of
China. I35. says the kind Of glass called
lieOu-n was made at Yen-tching. that il
was more brittle than that Of Europe,
and broke when exposed TO the inclemen-
cies Of the weather.
In PurchOs' Pilgrimmes another writer
gives a curious account OF the manu-
facture Of lieOu-H in his time; IL was so
thin as to be elastic, and all sorts OF
trumpets and grapes. these last so nat
ural as TO deceive the eye; all these
objects were very cheap. This writer
seems to have been perfectly acquainted
with the nature OF glass. so we must
conclude that the Chinese had then
knowledge OF some process by which the
elasticity Of glass or its toughness could
be much increased.
A missionary mentions a glass vase
presented a. D., 6I, TO the Emperor Tai
Ison, which was so large that a mule
could have been put inside it. and It was
brought to the palace in a net suspended
between four carriages.
That vision OF flexible or mallea bic
glass haunted the dreams of the ancients
Is obvious from the many references to
II found in their writings, and their con-
slant illusions to such an article would
seem to indicate. says Dunlop that there
must at one time have been some tan
gible reason for the dream. In classical
times the first account of flexible glass
is found in the satire of Nero's court,
written by PetrOnius, The Supper Of
Trtmalchi0." 1t 10 to the effect that
certain artist. having discovered a way
to make glass vessels as strong as gold
or silver, made one so fine as to be
worthy the acceptance of Caesar, to whom
he presented IL. The cup was received
with great admiration; but then, the ar
list, TO increase the Importance of his
gift, dashed it to the ground with great
force, only making thereby an indentation
on the glass, which he beat out again
with hammer as If it had been metal.
Then Caesar instead of reWarding him
according to his expectation, demanded
II any one knew this secret excepting
himself, and, being answered in the neg.
alive Immediately ordered the artist to
be beheaded. lest silver and gold should
lose their value if such an art became
once known. Pliny relates almost the
same story, but gives Tiberius as the en-
peror concerned.
The art Of rendering glass more fiex-
lble by means Of litharge was well known
10 Eraclius, who wrote between the sew
enth and tenth centuries.
The art of making flexible glass was
said to have been reinvented by an Ital-
ian at the court Of Casimir, King of Po-
land, The process OF annealing in oil. to
which a great deal of attention has late
~ been directed, is said to decrease tho
brlttleness of glass in a great degree
The invention Of lamps is ascribed to
the Egyptians. In the British Museum
are two cOlOred glazed tiles which were
fixed in the center of the ceiling: each
has large knob pierced through the
Dase TO receive a cord for suspending
lamp round the base of each Is an in
scripuon stating that 1t formed part OF
the decoration of the temple of KAN
muri at Kalah Nimrond in the time of
Assuru-Abla, SS5 b. c. What the lamps
were made OF cannot now be ascertained
but there is plenty of contemporaneous
glass which has been discovered in the
neighborhood.
whose undying flames were perpetually
watched by vestals, We're probably of
metal, and the wick formed of asbestos.
In the public baths at Pompei two
lamps were used, each to light two
rooms. These lamps were protected by
circular convex glasses. fragments OF
which were found on the spot
The marvellous accounts by medieval
authors or perpetually burning lamps
found in ancient tombs seem too numer-
Gus and too well attested to be alto
gether fabulous. When the tomb OF
Pallas, son Of Evander, who is men
toned by Virgil, was discovered about
the twelfth century by a countryman dig
ging near Rome, ii is said a lighted lamp
was still burning over his head, which
must have been lighted more than 1000
years, and might be called eternal
Baptista Porta, in his treatise on nag
ural magic. relates that about 1850 a
marble sepulchre of the Roman period
was discovered in an island near Naples,
phial containing a burning lamp This
light became extinct on breaking the
phial and exposing the fame to the open
air. 1t was supposed that this lamp had
been concealed before the Christian era,
and those who saw it reported that the
lamp emitted splendid flame
In 1850 a remarkable lamp was found
near Atestes, Padua, by rustic digging,
who unearthed a terra Gotta urn contain
ing another urn, in which was lamp
placed between two cylindrical vessels
one gold and the other silver, each of
which was full of a very pure LIQUID nv
whose virtue the lamp had been kent
shining upward of $500 years. This Curl
GUS lamp was not meant to scare away
evil spirits from a tomb, but was an at
tempt TO perpetuate the profound know
ledge of Maximus Olybius, who effected
this wonder by his extraordinary skill in
chemical art.
St, Augustine says a lamp was found
in the temple of Venus, exposed always
to the open weather, and which could
never be eXtinguished. Ludovicus Wives
mentions another lamp which was found
a little before his time that had con-
tinued burning for 1850 years.
Licetus is of opinion that the perpetuity
OF these lamps was owing to the con-
summate tenacity of the unctuous matter
with which the flame was united being
so proportional to the strength of the
fire that, like the radical heat and nat
ural moisture in animals, neither of them
could conquer or destroy the other. In
portion, these lamps were hid in caverns
or closed monuments. On opening these
tombs, the admission of fresh air has
produced so great an inequality between
the flame and the oil that they have be-
come eXtinguished. In Henry Wits time
a lamp was found in a monastic tomb
that had been burning for 1900 years.
The greatest glass treasure in the Brit
ish museum is the Portland vase, en-
shrined in the gem room, and jealousy
guarded. This vase was discovered in
the sixteenth century in the tomb of the
Emperor 6everus. near Rome. 1t was sup
posed, on rather insufficient evidence, to
have contained the ashes of Mamrnea.
the mother of Severus. This emperor was
killed A d. 222, but the vase is prob
ably of earlier date. When first discov-
cred it was supposed to be a splendid
sordonyx, but closer inspection proved it
to be made of a deep pellucid blue glass,
adorned with beautiful carved cameo fig
ures, in semi-opaque white glass. Learn
ed authors have exhausted themselves in
trying to interpret exactly the meaning
of the scenes depicted on this vase, but
have arrived at no positive conclusion,
except that they are triumph of antique
art, and undoubtedly belong to the best
Greek or Roman period. Winckelmann
asserts that the figures are designed to
portray the nuptials of Thetis and Pei
Gus, sort Of mystic marriage, which
was a favorite subject with ancient ar
ftIrf Mt AZ