The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-10-17
ANCIENT INVENTIONS.
THEY GO TO PROVE THERE is MOTH
ING NEW UNDER THE SUN.

' nv w uCICnG 10 nv n.
ING NEW UNDER THE SUN.
Have Not Been Able to Improve on
Euclid or to Devise a More Scien-
tific Game Than Chess.
Something very similar to the tele-
phone was used in China 1000 years
ago. Natural gas conveyed in bamboo
tubes was utilized in China ages ago,
and n Of their writer's mentions
boxes which repeated the sounds of
peoples voices that were dead, a ma
chine similar to Edison's photograph.
Ancient Egypt boosted "a nickel in
the slot" machine, while Layard found
in ruins of Nineveh what Sir David
Brewster pronounced to be !. a magni-
flying glass;" and nearly 1000 years
ago the Egyptians and Assyrians OBJ
served the stars through a sort of
primitive telescope.
Thimbles have been found in prehis-
toric mounds with every evidence Of
having been made by machinery sim
liar to u own. Hatpins with glass
heads and safety pins with a little
coiled spring at M end and q catch
at the other were in use in Pompeii
1000 years ago. Combs and hairpins
have been in existence for 20 centuries,
and housewives 5000 years ago patch
ed their husbands garments with nee
dies and thread.
Very fine razors are made at the
present day. but are. of 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 ex-
perts in dyeing that Tyrian purple re-
mains unexcelled to this day. The
Egyptians were also wonderful dyers
and could produce colors so durable
that they may be called imperishable.
They were also wonderful glass work.
ers and could make glass malleable in
a 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, electron, be-
cause Thales, about 600 B. c., discov-
cred that amber, when rubbed, attracts
light and dry bodies, and in the twelfth
century the scientific priests Of Etruna
drew lightning from the clouds with
iron rods. All mechanical powers, the
screw, lever, pulley, inclined plane,
wedge. wheel and axle were known to
the ancients and used in everyday life.
They We're expert builders.
Twenty centuries before the birth Of
| Watt Nero of Alexandria described ma
chimes whose motive power was steam.
He also invented a double force pump,
used as a fire engine, and anticipated
the modern turbine wheel by a ma
chine he called "neolpile."
While the learned Of Europe were
forbidding, 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 determined the obliquity of
lAC CAlpllSs SdAuSCA SOAoII uSlCu IAC
first table of sines, another explained
the nature of twilight and. showed the
Importance Of allowing for atmos-
pheric %refraction in astronomical OBJ
servations.
In the schools of the present day
Euclid's elements of geometry, written
over 1000 years ago, is used as a text
book. Euclid also wrote on music and
optics antedating much we think we
have discovered. Both algebra and
chemistry were invented and brought
into Europe by the Mohammedans, and
chemistry and algebra are Arabic
words. T,
Locks like those in use today, which
could only be opened by the knowledge
of a certain combination of numbers,
were known to the Chinese centuries
ago, while Hobbs gave his name to a
lock found in an Egyptian tomb.
Our clocks and sun dials were in
vented in the orient. The finest linen
in the world has come out of East In
dian looms. The coffee we SO much
desire for breakfast was first grown
by the Arabians, and the natives of
upper India prepared the sugar with
which to sweeten it, while every
schoolboy in the land can tell the
meaning Of the Sanskrit words "sac.
chara canda."
The virtues Of tea were first pointed
out by the industrious Chinese, who
also showed us how to make the cup
and saucer in which to serve 1t. Break
fast trays were first lacquered in ia
pan. Leavened bread was first made
of the waters of the ~Ganges river
Eggs as an article of diet were first
used by the Malaccans, and when we
speak of Shanghai chickens we but
mention an Asiatic name. Persia first
grew the cherry, the peach and the
plum. Alcohol was first distilled by
the Arabians, and when we talk about
coffee and alcohol we are using Arabic
words.
We crafty our taste in the way OF
personal adornment in the way taught
us by orientals-viz, with pearls, I'll.
bies, sapphires, diamonds. The most
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