The herald., 1897-01-27
FINEST WRITING KNOWN.
Remarkable Possibilities in Writing on
Glass With Diamond.


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
vclously 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
twenty copies of the entire Bible can be
written in the narrow space of one
square inch Particular attention was
called to this strange fact by stephen
Helm, member of the New York Mi
croscopical society and a fellow of the
Royal society of London.
THE amount of the wonderfully fine
writing produced by Mr. Charles S. Mon
nier on postal card is very interesting ~
said Mr.. Helm, as he sat by his micro
scope, with a. bit of glass in his hand
that showed black ring in its center
about the size of silver Scent piece
His accomplishment is quite wonder
full, but it is nothing compared with
what is on this glass.
THAT is the Lords prayer" said Mr.
Helm. 1T contains 277 letters, and is
of square inch. In other words, the
space it covers is one-twentieth by one
twenty-fifth of an inch, and five hun
dred 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 L
read the lines single speck of dust that
fioated unobserved before our eyes set
tied on the glass slide and obscured 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"
The glass slide referred to was similar
to the other, and within the little black
circle marked on it there was no mark
to be seen with the naked eye or with the
strongest hand magnifying glass
You can see nothing there" contin-
ued Mr.. Helm; neither can you under
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 COM
pared with Duchess county farm Look
at 1t under the strongest power my mi.
croscope is capable Of
There it was, the Lords prayer, in
the same handwriting as the other
both being done by Prof. Webb of the
Royal Microscopical society-but ever so
much smaller.
The larger writing, as I have told
you,' said Mr.. Helm, covers a space
measured by one-twentieth of an inch
one way and one-twenty- fifth the other
This one covers space measured by
one-five- -hundredth part of an inch in
one direction and one-six- -hundred-end-
flfty-third part of an inch in the other di-
rection. In other words, it means that,
with writing of that size, IA 115, 500 let
ters can be placed in a single SQUARE
inch. The force of this is easier compre
hended when we remember that the BIZ
bic contains 3.566,4S0 letters, which
means that the entire Christian Scripture
can be written legibly, twenty times re-
peated, within the space of a single
square inch, and have considerable va
cant space"
This wonderfully minute writing.
which requires a microscope magnify
ing 500 diameters to make it readable, Is
produced by moving the hand and form
ing the letters as in ordinary very fine
writing. The pen that is used is con-
nected with series of levers that reach
distance of six feet. where is placed
the glass slide to be written in These
levers are so adjusted that the amount of
motion is lessened as it travels along
the successive levers, until, when It
reaches the delicate end, armed with n
minute diamond, that rests on the glass
surface, it is reduced to the required
HneneSS.-NeW York Herald