Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1898-02-04
MADE IN MINIATURE.
CURIOUS MICROSCOPIC mARyELs
ACHIEVED BY INGENIOUS MEN.

~
ACHIEVED BY INGENIOUS MEN.
Eeter Ramus Tells Some Very Fishy Sto.
ries About John Muller-The Ever Grow.
Wonderful Knife.
Perhaps the most prevalent mania of
men gifted with mechanical ingenuity
takes the shape Of accomplishing or at
tempting to accomplish in miniature
the mishtiest feats of engineering that
human hands have ever set up. The en-
thusiast in miniature regards the Forth
bridge, for example, not as q utilitarian
masterpiece, but as IL model to be fol-
lowed and copied in all the materials
supplied by q threepenny bit, and the
9S5 feet of Eiffel tower neither fills his
breast with awe nor horror, but is re-
garded as q choice subject to be con-
structed in miniature out of bent pen
and the shell of a walnut.
OF the medieval mechanicians John
Muller, better known in the trade as
Regiomontanus, which one must admit
sounds we'll for one of his craft, who
lived in the fifteenth century, was with
out doubt the Maskelyne and Cook of
the period. or at all events he had as a
biographer a writer of greater imagina-
ton than the other less fortunate genii
of that era. Peter Ramus, the writer in
question, not only credits John Muller
with f%ashioning a wooden eagle, which
on tho occasion of the Emperor Max
;,,;1;r~ v.csN;ry N,,u,,,Lo,- d.. z.. -
meet him, saluted him in due form
however that may have been-and then
turned round and accompanied the pro-
cession to the city gates, but further as
serts that the same individual turned
out an iron fly
Which, having flown q perfect roundabout,
With weary wings returned unto her master.
We are inclined to think, all things
considered, that Peter Ramus had the
makings Of "a very fine creator of excit-
ing fiction in him and that it was a sad
pity he allowed his gift to be wasted in
compiling a biography of a 100 years.
deceased automatic artiticer in place of
forestalling the friend Of u youth, NJ.
Jules Verne.
The cherry stone has been a favorite
subject for the worker in miniature
since Hadrianus Junius saw at Mechlin
ga cherry stone cut into the form of a
basket, i'll which We're IA pairs of dice
distinct, the spots and numbers of which
Were easily to be discerned with "a good
eye" \ museum i'll Massachusetts has
among its other possessions a cherry
stone continuing a dozen silver spoons.
AS the stone is of the ordinary size the
spoons arc so small that their shape can
only be admired by the aid of u micro
scope. Other remarkable cherry stones
are the ones carved all over with 1874
heads, mostly of popes and p~otentates,
and the one fashioned by a topmaker at
Nuremberg, which contains a plan of
Sevastopol, a railway station and the
'Messiah'' of Klopstock, isindeed null
tum in parvo.
A tiny vessel has been made of late
years by an Italian jeweler who came
IL possession of q pearl that nature
had caused to take upon itself the shape
and contour of a boat. A sail of beaten
gold studded with diamonds, a pinnacle
light Of ruby and emerald, and a rud-
der of ivory complete the structure,
which weighs less than an ounce all
told. We recently saw it stated that the
smallest steam engine in the world is
ole of an upright pattern. made of sill
Yer and gold and resting on a 25 cent
goldpiece. The diameter of the cylinder
is IL forty-eighth part of an inch;
stroke, one tllirty-second of an inch;
weight, IL eighth Of a grain; bore of
cylinder, .3125 of a square inch. The
engine can be worked either by steam
or compressed air, and-oh, shade of
Peter Ramus-the balance wheel Of
one-third of an inch diameter is said to
make 1, go revolutions per minute.
In 1916 Il knife was made at Messrs.
travis & Sons, Manchester, containing
three blades, b~uttonhool., saw, punch,
s~crewdriyer, box, corkscrew, hook and
silnlet, two phleMens, i; species Of Ian
cet, picl;er AID two more @lancets with "a
ri.is at the head. The knife, we learn,
evas only elevcn-sixteenths of an inch
long I weighed / pelnyNcighu IA
grains. AT this end Of the century
Sheffield can boast Of q dozen pairs of
shears, each so minute that they alto
sctiler weigh less than half u grain, if
report speaks true.
OF examples OF microscope writing
there is 10 end, but che Of the most ia
NOUS is mentioned by Pliny, who said
that Cicero had cilee seen Honler's
'lliad'' i'll IL nutshell. In order to prove
the truth of this 81 French writer named
iiuet experimental i'll the presence of
the dauphin. whose tutor he was in
1910. tie first showed that IL piece of
sheepskin 10 by 8 inches can he folded
up to fit the she'll OF a walnut. and then
proceeded to prove that he could get $50
stahZas OF so verses to a stanz. Oh each
side Of the paper, or 1900 verses on
each side. Oh the paintings il nlinia-
ture Carel Il Mauder, the sixteenth
century painse: and historian, quotes
tie landscape painted by Lucas van
Heere's wife. This work of art repre-
scnted Il mill with sails bent, the mil