Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1901-09-20
LOST SECRETS.

SOME LOST SECRETS.
FAMOUS PROCESSES THAT WERE
KNOWN TO The ANciENTs.
Things That Our Forefnthers Were
Able to DO That We Now Find wen
Nigh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF tho
Greeks and Romans.
Taking into consideration the marvel
Gus strides we have made In almost
every branch Of knowledge during the
last 200 or 800 years, It seems exceed
ingly strange that our f%orefathers
should have been able to do things
which we find impossible and that we
cannot discover secrets which were al.
most common knowledge hundreds OF
years ago. But despite the fact that
the average modern q knows more
than did the learned men Of long ago,
there are mysteries Of knowledge and
science which our most advanced sci
etists cannot solve S8
Thousands Of years ago, for instance,
the Egyptians used to embalm the
bodies of their dead kings and nobility
so perfectly that the bodies are in Wen-'
derful preservation today, as may be
seen at the British museum. Clever as
we are in this age, we cannot do the
same. The valuable secret Is lost and
modern science cannot recover the lost
knowledge. We can, Of course, and we
do embalm bodies, but only for tenn
porary preservation and, comparatively
speaking, In O most unsatisfactory man
ner. Bodies which are embnlmed now
adays will not be preserved for more
than a few days at most. Very many
of the bodies the Egyptians embalmed
before the birth of Christ are still SO
perfect that the lines of their faces r
still as clearly marked as when they
were irstembalmed.
Sheffield turns out the finest, hardest
and most perfect steel the world pro-
duces. but even Sheffield cannot pro
duce a sword blade to compare with
those the Saracens made and used hum
dreds Of years ago, and the Saracens
never possessed the machinery we
have or had the advantage of knowing
50 much about metals as we are sup
posed to know. A huge fortune awaits
the man who discovers the secret
which enabled the Saracens to make
sword blades so keen and hard that
they could cut in two most Of the
swords used today. M Ne
There are a dozen different methods
Of making artificial diamonds, but none
|of the stones produced BY these meth
DDS can compare with those made Of
old French paste, the secret Of which
is lost. So perfect were paste dia-
monds that 1T was difficult for even a
person with expert knowledge OF dia-
monds to tell that they were artificial
" produced, whereas most of; the mod.
ern artificial diamonds q easily be
detected, and their durability Is moth
ing like 50 great as the old paste dia-
4@monds. E#M 5& S%s5%
Probably not one out OF every ten
thousand buildings standing in all
parts Of the world, and built by mod.
sern masons, will still be standing 900
years hence. We do not know how to
put stones and bricks together as the
ancients did, and consequently the
buildings we raise nowadays are really
mere temporary structures and will be
in ruins when the ancient buildings oil
Greece and Italy, which were built
thousands of years ago, are in as good
condition lis they are now. The secret
is not in the bricks or the stone, bu1
In the cement and mortar, neither o
which essentials can we make as thu
ancients made them
In modern buildings the cement and
mortar are the weakest points; II
buildings which the Romans ant
Greeks raised thousands Of years agt
the cement and mortar are the stron
gest points and hold good while til,
very stones they bind together crumbl
away with age. We cannot, with al
our science, make such cement an.
mortar, and therefore we cannot bull
such buildings as theancients raised
Chemistry, q mightimagine ii th
science which has, perhaps. made fh
greatest strides. Yet modern chen
lists cannot compound such dyes q
were commonly used when the grea
nations OF today were still unborI
Eowand again IT happens thatgsearel
ers after antiquities come i fral
ments at fabrics which were dye
thousands OF years ago and they 81
astonished by the wonderful richnes
OF the eolors Of the cloths, which, de
spite their g are brighter and pure
than anything we can produce.
Modern artists bny their colors read
made and spend large sums on pis
ments with which to color their ear
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