Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-01
FAMOUS LOST SECRETS.
| our FOrfathers Able to Do Things We
| Now Find Almost Impossible.

w
Now Find Almost Impossible.
From Tit Bits
Taking into consideration the marvellous
strides we have made in almost every
branch of knowledge during the last two or
three hundred years. it seems exceedingly
strange that our forefathers should have
been able to do things which we find imnos-
Side, or next door to impossible. and that
we cannot discover secrets which were AL
most common knowledge hundreds upon
nuiiuieds OF years ago. But, despite the
iacl mat the average modern man knows
more imam did the learned men of long ago
ehere are mysteries of knowledge and SCI
ence which our most advanced scientists
cannot solve.
Thousands of years ago, for instance the
Esyptlans used to embalm the bodies OF
thelr aead kings and nobility so perfectly
tndt the bodies are in wonderful preserya-
tloh today, as may be seen at the British
museum. Clever as We are in this age we
Sdnliol 90 the same. The valuable secret is
ioSt ana modern science cannot recover the
lost knowledge. We can, of course and We
DO embalm bodies, but only for Temporary
T., zion. ana comparatively speaking.
III d most unsatisfactory manner Bodies
Which are embalmed nowadays will not be
preserved Tor more than a few years at
most very many Of the bodies the Egyp-
tlanS embalmed before the birth of Christ
are still so perfect that the lines of their
faces are still as clearly marked as when
they were first embalmed
oheHleId turns out the finest, hardest and
itioSt perfect steel the world produces hut
| even Sheffield cannot produce a sword blade
10 compare with those the Saracens made
ana used hundreds Of years ago. and the
aIdcehs never possessed the machinery we
nave, nor had the advantage of knowing
SO much about metals as we are supposed
to know. A huge fortune awaits the man
VINO discovers the secret which enabled the
| to h.
and hard that they could cut in two most
OF the swords used in our army today.
There are a dozen different methods OF
making artificial diamonds, but none Of the
stones produced by these met hods can COM
pare with those made of old French haste
the secret of which is lost. So perfect were
paste diamonds that it was difficult for even
person with expert knowledge of dia-
monds to tell that they were artificialIy pro-
duced, whereas most of the modern arti-
nclal diamonds can easily be detected, and
their dura bility is nothing like so great
as the old paste diamonds; indeed good
paste diamonds are now almost as Valua Bile
as real diamonds
Probably not one out Of every ten thous-
and buildings standing in all parts of the
world and built by modern masons will
still be standing five hundred years hence
We do not know how to put stones and
DrlckS together a the ancients did and
consequently the buildings we raise nova
days are really mere temporary structures
and will be In ruins when the ancient build
ings of Greece and Italy, which We're built
.nousanos OF years ago, are in as good con-
dition as they are now. The secret is not
IN the bricks or the stone, but in the cement
and mortar neither of which essentials
can we make as the ancients made them.
In modern buildings the cement and NOR
tar are the weakest points; N buildings
which the Romans and Greeks raised thous-
ands OF years ago the cement and mortar
are the strongest points, and hold good
while the very stones they bind together
orr 10 = w
our science make such cement and mortar,
and therefore We cannot build such build
ings as the ancients raised.
Chemistry, one might imagine, is the
science which has. perhaps. made the great
est strides during the last five or six
decades. Yet modern chemists cannot COM
pound such dyes were commonly used
when the great nations of today were still
unborn. Now and again it happens that
searchers after antiquities come across
fragments of fabrics which were dyed
thousands Of years ago, and they are
tonished by the wonderful richness of the
colors Of the cloths, which, despite their
age, are brighter and purer than anything
we can produce.
Modern artists buy their colors ready made
and spend large sums of money on pig
ments with which to color their canvases.
The pictures of modern artists will be color
less when many of the works of ancient
masters are as bright as they are today
Just as the secret of dyeing has been lost,
so has the secret of preserving the colors
of artists paints. Yet the secret was known
to every ancient artist, for they all mixed
their own colors.
How to make durable ink is another great
secret We have lost. Look at any letter
five or ten years old, and you will probably
notice that the writing has faded to a brown
color and is very indistinct. Go to any big
museum and You will find ancient MSS. the
writing of which is black and distinct as
II the MSS. were written the day before
yesterday.
The secret of glassblowing and tinting
is not yet entirely lost; there are still a few
men who can produce glass work equal to
the things of this kind which the ancients
turned out hundreds of years ago. But the
average glass manufacturer cannot produce
anything that could at all compare with
some of the commoner articles the Egyp-
tians and, later, the founders of Venice
manufactured; and those who still hold the
ancient secret guard 1t closely that 1t
will probably die with them and be added
to the long list of things in which our an
cestors beat us hollow.