Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-08-01
.r.4moes losr sEoR Frs.


rlnu sAlihost linpobsiDle.
Taking into consideration the mar
yelouu atridea 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 impossible, or
next door to impossible, and that we
cannot discover seurula which were
almost common knowledge hundreds
upon hundreds OF years ago. Butt
despite the fact that the average
modern man knows more than did the
learned mbn OF long ago, there are
mysteries lof knowledge and sciences
which our most advanced scientists
cannot solve.
Thousands Of yeurs ago for instance,
the Egyptians used to enibalm bodies
OF their dead kings 4und nobility So
perfectly that the bodies are in wonder
I'iul preservation today. as may be seen
at the British Museum. Clever as we
are 10 this age we cannot do the same.
The valuable serret{is lost, and modern
science cannot recover the lost know
ledge. We cap, of course, and we do,
embalm bodiea but only tor Temporary
preservation, and, coin haiatiyely speak
ing, in most unsatisfactory manner.
Bodies which ara einbHlrnec nowadays
will not be preserved for more than a
few yeats at most; very many OF the
bodies Of Egyptians embnlmed before
tho birth of Christ arc still SO perfect
that the lines OF their faces are still as
| clearly marked as when thoy wers first
embalmed.
Sheffield turns out the finest, hardest
and most perfect stsel the world gro
| duoes, but even Sheffield cannot Fro
duce a sword h'ade to compare with
these the Saraoena made aud used
hundreds offyeers ago, and the Saracens
never possessed the machinery We have
nor had the. advantage Of Knowing 80
! much about metals as We are supposed
| to know. A huge fortune awaits the
man who diecnscrs the secret which
enabled tho SRracens to make sword
/ blades so keen aud hard that they could
cut IN two most of the swords used in
our army today.
There are dozen different methods
of making artificial diamonds, but none
| of the stones produced by these methods
can compare with those made of old
French paste, the secret of which ia lost.
So perfect were paste diamonds that it
was difficult for even a person With ex-
pert knowledge Of diamonds to tell that
they were artificially produced, whereas
most OF the modern artificial diamonds
can easily be detected. and their dura-
bility is nothing like so great as the
old paste diamonds: indeed, good Eas,e
diamonds are now almost as valuable as
real diamonds.
Probably not one out of every 10, ZOO
buildings standing in all parts of the
world and built by modern mhsons will
still be standing 500 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 OF Greece and
Italy, which we're built thousands Of
years ago, are in as good condition as
they are now. The secret lie not in the
\ bricks or the stone, but In the cement
aud mortar, neither of which essentials
can we inaks as the ancients made them.
In modern buildings the cement and
mortar are the weakest points; in
buildings which the Romans and
Grseks raised thousands OF years ago
the cement and mortar are the strongest
points, and hold good whilo the very
stones they bind together cruinble away
with age. We cannot. with all our
science, make such cement and mortar
and, therefore, we cannot build such
buildings as the ancients raisad.
Chemistry, one might imagine, Is the
science which has, perhaps, made the
greatest strides during the last five or
six decades. Yet modern chemists can
not compound such dyes as were COM
monty used when the great nations
| - att ,,nl,ort, . and
again Ut happens that searchers after
antiquities come across fragments oil
fabrics which were dyed thousands OF
years ago, and they are astonished 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 or
, pigments with which to ou!or thai
canvases. The pictures of modern
artists will be colorless when many o.
the works OF ancient masters are aE
bright as they are today. just as tht
, secret OF dyeing has been lost, so has
the secret of preserving the colors o.
n artists paints. Yet the secret wa'
known to every ancient artist, for they
r all mixed their own colors.
a How to maze durable ink is another
! great secret we have lost. Look at an,
letter, five or ten years old, and yol
i will probably notice that the writing
was faded TO brown color and is yer,
indistinct. Go to any big museum ant
you will find ancient MSS. the writin!
of which is as black and distinct as j
n the MSS. were written the day befor,
/ yesterday.
The secret of giassblowing and tint
ing is not yet entirely lest; there arr
1 still few men who can produce gIas
/. work equal to the things of this kline
I which the ancients turned out hun
4 dreds OF years ago. But the average
q glass manufacturer cannot produc
a anything that could Mt all compare witt
a some of the common articles the Egyp
!. tinns, and, later, the founders 0
Venice manufactured, and those VIII
= still hold the ancient secret guard it 81
4 closely that it will probably die witt
r them aud be added to the long list o
h things in which our ancestors beat u
j hollow.
NEW BATHING CAP.