The times., 1899-10-01
ANCIENT INVENTIONS.
The Telephone Is Thought to Have
Been Used in Old China.
(From the Los Angeles Times.)


Something very similar to the telephone
was used in China 1000 years ago. Nat
ural gas conveyed in bamboo tubes was
utilized in China ages ago. and one of their
writers mentions boxes which repeated the
sounds of peoples voices that were dead
a machine similar to Edisons phonograph
Ancient Egypt boasted "a nickel-in-the-
slot machine, while Layard found in ruins
of Nineveh what Sir David Brewster pro-
nounced to be "a magnifying glass, and
nearly 4,C00 years ago the Egyptians and
Assyrians observed the stars through a sort
of primitive telescope
Thimbles have been found in prehistoric
mounds with every evidence of having been
made by machinery similar TO our own.
Hat pins with glass heads and safety pins
with a little coiled spring at one end and
a catch at the other were in use in Pompeii
1000 years ago. Combs and. hairpins have
been in existence for twenty5centuries and
housewives 5000 years ago Apatched their
husbands garments with needles and
thread
Very fine raZors are made at the present
day, but no finer steel than that contained
in the Damascus swords and knives which
the ancients used several thousand years
ago.
The people of Tyre were such experts
in dyeing that Tyrian purple remains un-
I SACtlltQ 10 lulS udy. i NE EEyplId0S were
also wonderful dyers snd ;douid produce
eolors so durable that they may be called
| imperishable. They were Wonderful glass
workers and could make. glass malleable
| in way which is unknown to US. They
| could make glass garments dyed in every
! shade of color and etched with rare skill
Electricity derives its name. from the
| Greek word for amber, 1telectron, because
| Thales about 900 b. c. discovered that
amber, when rubbed, attracts light and
| dry bodies; and in the twelfth century the
scientific priests of Etruna drew light
ming from the clouds with iron rods All
mechanical powers, the screw, lever pull
| ley, inclined plane. wedge, wheel and ak e
| were known TO the ancients and used in
everyday life. They were expert builders.
Twenty centuries before the birth of
| Watt, Nero of Alexandria described ma
| chimes whose motive power was steam. He
also invented double force pump, usd
as a fire engine, and anticipated the mod
ern turbine wheel by a machine he called
| "neolpile.''
While the learned of Europe were for
bidding as a heresy, the doctrine of the
globular figure of the earth, the caliph Al
Maimon was measuring the length of a
| degree along the shores of the Red Sea
| He and his successors repeatedly deter
mined the obliquity of the elliptic. A Sara
cen constructed the first table Of sines
another explained the nature of twilight
and showed the Importance of allowing foI
atmosphere refraction in astronomical OBJ
servations.
In the schools of the present day Euclid's
elements of geometry written over 22O(
years ago, is used as textbook. Euclid
also wrote on music and optics antedatine
much we think we have discovered. Bott
algebra and chemistry were invented ant
brought into Europe by the Mohammedan!
and chemistry and algebra are Arabic
words.
Locks like those in use today, which
could only be opened by the knowledge o
certain combination of numbers, wer,
known to the Chinese centuries ago, whil
Hobbs gave his name to lock found in al
Egyptian tomb.
, Our clocks and sun dials We're invented
in the Orient The finest linen in tn
world has come out OF East India looms
| The coffee we so much desire for breakfas
was first grown by the Arabians, and tn
natives of upper India prepared the suga
with which to sweeten 1t, while ever
[ schoolboy in the land can tell the meanin
2 of the Sanskrit words ''sacchara canda.
; The virtues of tea were first pointed on
l nv the industrious Chinese, who also show
5 ed US how TO make the cup and saucer i
which to serve it. Breakfast trays wer
first lacquered in Japan. Leayened brea
was first made of the waters of the Gange
River. Eggs as an article OF diet were frs
Y used by the Malaccans, and when We spea
: OF Shanghai chickens we but mention a
Asiatic name Persia first grew the cherr.
the peach. and the plum. Alcohol was frs
e distilled by the Arabians and when We tai
) about coffee and alcohol we are usui
q Arabic words. qs9
: We crafty our taste In the way of pei
: sonal adornment in the taught us
: Overwhelmingly, with pearls, Tubies saI
| phires. diamonds The most magnificeI
fireworks are still to be seen in India an
= y China, and Europe has invented nothin
u that can rival the game OF chess. We hay
i u no hydraulic constructions as great as IL
Chinese canal, no fortifcation as extensi'
as the Chinese wall; we have no artesie
!, wells that can approach in depth some
theirs nor have We ever tried TO obtain CO
;. gas from the interior OF the earth, whi
they have borings for that purpose mo
, than 5000 feet deep.
20 Oriental physicians practiced vaccinatic
' over 1000 years ago. Anaesthetics we
known in the days of Homer, and the Oh
"a nese 1000 years ago had preparation
e hemp known as "una yo" TO deaden pain
r. something similar to our modern cocaine.