Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-02-04
(Londol Standard.)

possessed but very limited means for
spreading knowledge Of any kind it
seems somewhat strange that so much
Of it should have come down to
modern times. But when it is taken
into consideration that even since the
introduction of printing, which is the
greatest diSsemirator of knowledge
that ever has existed, many secrets of
recipes have been utterly lost, it is
truly wonderful that the number of
trade racipes which the ancients used
and which have been handed down to
us is not infinitely smaller than i. is.
Bu+ then those that are lost seem to
be by far the most important-they
are not merely of interest to the anti
quaTian and the different varieties of
'Ologists," but would be useful to those
who earn their bread in the everyday
walks Of life. To know, for example,
how the ancient Roman made his
mortar would interest both the modern
builder and his pocket. But unfort-
unately for posterity the mo1ern
builder can no more make mortar
feQual to that of dhe Romans than he
can fly. If he could there would be
q chance that the buildings which he
makes would last for some thousands
of years-so long, in fact, as the stone
lasts. This is the case with the NOR
tar used by the Romans. 1t is as firm
now as it was a couple of thousand
years ago, so hard that a file will
hardly touch it, and so lasting thai the
| 1,
begun to crumble away, leaving the
mortar still intact.
Another secret which was known to
the Romans, or at least to one of them,
was one about glass. The story, if
we recollect right, is told bySue-
tonius. An ARTISAN brought to the
Emperor Tfberius a goblet made of
! glGss, a substance then recently dis
covered, which when thrown on the
ground, or squeezed in the hand did
not break, but was as elastic as steel
The only goblets in those times were
made of metal The only ones used
! in Roman society were made of silver
! or gold. Consequently the emperor
Thought that if the secret of making
! glass goblets which were unbreakable
| became generally known the trade of
the gold and silversmithes of Rome
would be ruined, and he therefore
ordered the immediate execution of
the artisan who invented the method
of producing malleable glass. The
! Crder-as were most of the orders of
an imperial despot- was promptly
carried out, and the mans secret died
with him, nor has it since been re-
covered
The Greeks, so history tells us were
in the habit of using in their naval
! battles a substance which when thrown
on the water burned and set fire to the
| ships of the enemy. This substance
went under the name of Greek fire.
but unless it was the metal potassium,
! modern scientists do not know what
| it was-and even that element would
not answer the purpose unless used in
very large quantities. If, therefore,
| the famous Greek fire was potassium,
! the Greeks must have been acquainted
with cheap and easy method of OBJ
tanning it, and if they had that recipe
it is lost. To return to the Romans
!
college of poisoning founded by Nero,
! knew of poisons which would kip to
order, so to speak-that is which
| would kill in a minute, day, a year,
or longer, and leave no trace. Appar-
emily this recipe came down to the
middle ages, for the Borgia family
| could do similar feats. Their victims
would perhaps be presented with pair
| OF .eWeied gloves or a beautiful
/ bouquet of flowers, but after putting
On the first or smelling the second the
| victim would die within The day. Oc-
c66iOnally visitor would be requested
! to open cupboard-he did 50, and was
! poisoned through cntact with the
handle, although there was no visable
punc,ure. Caesar BCrgta again had a
ring with a 0ezel shaped like lions
head. If he Shook hands with one of
his victime while this ring was on his
! finger, rapid death was invariable
| the result; but fortunately these
! Genealogical secrets died with that in
! famous trio-Pope Alexander VI,
Caesar and Luoretia Borgia.
The English of early times did not
know a great deal that we do not
know now. But they certainly knew
of drug or of something which would
| protect the skin from heat Ediha.
the daughter of Goodwin, plunged her
arm into a caldron of boiling oil and
brought out the "holy stone" there
from. She could not have done this
without some such help. But al
though the secret of it is dead to us,
it is most certainly known to some of
! the eastern conjurers of to-day: fo- a
feat similar to the above in every in
stance may be witnessed in almost
every country of the orient The
| Italians, and the ancient Romans, TOO
for that matter, had a method of mix
ing their colors SO as to render them
imperishable. A glance at some of
the old Roman pictures in the British
Museum will show that the colors Of
| pictures painted nearly 1000 years ago
are almost as fresh, especially the reds
AS they must originally have been.
Raphael Vandyke, Ruben-in fact,
all the old nlasters-possessed a SINH
| lar secret. What their recipe was is
not known, hut certainly modern pain
| tiers cahnot mix their colors so as to
make them stand the test of centuries.
Fifty or sixty years, at the most, is
! what they will stand without showing
| q marked dpterinrcfion