The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-12

at Washington Thus the history OF the
| ceramic art Is shown by the products at
| their different stages of development, and
| the implements and appliances used in
| their manufacture. The former begin with
the rudest kind OF earthenware, ending
with handsome piece OF porcelain. The
series of implements includes the archaic
modelling tools, as well as the modern
| wheel and mold. Next comes repre-
sentation of the various processes for
applying a glaze to the earthenware sur
| face, enameling, etc Five successive
stages in the cloisonne process are SHOWN.
| as well as highly decorated and enameled
vases Of Japanese and Chinese manu-
| facture
The evolution of the principal classes of
| musical instruments is we'll illustrated,
viz, wind, percussion and string. The
first includes ancient horns flutes. flage-
Diets and reeds, starting with a Chinese
shawn, made OF a section Of bamboo with
a thumb hole and seven finger holes The
| instruments of percussion include Indian
rattles made of gourds, bones or clappers,
drums, gongs and cymbals. The string
! instruments are in two series, open and
stopped, each being subdivided according
as they are picked. struck or rubbed
| The most simple form of the open string
| instruments is musical bow, which is
| both picked and struck, while among the
| most complex forms are the harp and
piano. In the stopped string Instruments
| the tone is raised or softened according
| as the length of the vibrating string is
| shortened or heightened A very simple
| form is the African "zeze." which has
only two parts and often only one string.
while among the more complex kinds are
the lutes, guitars and viollns.
The BInded weapons.
4.
three heads: Those held in the hand.
those thrown from sling, throwing stick
or ballista and those attached to the end
of a shaft. Leaf-shaped blades of Clipped
stone and metal, African curved knives,
Malay krises and saber-daggers from
Singapore and the Straits OF Malacca are
| included In this group. The development of
the bow is well shown, from the plain
Zuni bow, made of a common sapling, to
the English cross-bow of steel. Gun and
| pistols. too, have their places in this
murderous exhibit from the ancient flint
lock to the Krag-Jorgensen, and from the
old bell-mouthed horse pistol to the Smith
& Wesson revolver
With our marvellous nineteenth century
strides in things electrical perhaps none
of these exhibits is of more popular in
terest than the one portraying the his
tory OF electrical apparatus Electricity
is the latest of the natural forces which
man has harnessed, and the United States
has led the world in bringing II under
| control. Less than $50 years ago Franklin
commenced his experiments. No great
practical results were achieved however
| till 1898 when Joseph Henry. the first
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
invented the modern form of electro
| magnet. This may be considered the pio-
neer experiment which led to the actual
construction of the telegraph. 1t must
be remembered, however, that the under
lying principle of electromagnetic had
| been discovered nine years before by
Professor Oersted of Copenhagen. The
'mutipier" was added In the following
year by Schweigger. Other inventions in
| this direction before Henry's were made
| by Arago, Ampere and Sturgeon, but the
| final stroke In the application of the
electro-magnet to telegraphy was the
| Morse register and alphabetical code.
Development OF Locomotive.
The development of the art of propel-
| ling vehicles over land and Of steamboats,
| through the water is shown chiefly by
models and drawings When the steam
engine was first invented, says Mr.
| Holmes, the curator of these collections.
many attempts were made to adapt It
| to use on land as well as by water, but
it was not till about 1904 that a steam
| traction machine, driven by a high pres
| sure engine, was devised that could move
| other vehicles than itself along a tram
| road, and Il was another quarter OF a
century before efficient steam locomo-
| tives were run in England and America.
| 1t is interesting to note that while the
| early railways were planned to be oper-
ated by horses, the first steam carriages
| were constructed to run upon common
| roads, and that no steam locomotive at
| tanned even a small measure of success
| until 1t was put to work upon an iron
| tramroad. II was this adoption of the
| wheel to the track that made II possible
| to construct the first successful steam
| traction machine, and this has since been
| developed into the modern high-speed
! locomotive.
To the bibliophiIe no exhibit will be
| found more absorbing than the one which
| illustrates the technical development OF
| the book. In prehistoric times the bones
| and skins of animals were employed for
recording thoughts, while clay, inscribed
when soft and then baked. was the mate
rial used among the Babyloniahs and AS
syrians and other people of Western
Asia. Even to this day clay, stone, wood
| and metal, in the form of tablets and
| plates, are used for perpetuating certain
| kinds of writings. Parchment-the pre-
pared skins OF animals-came into use
about the second century before Christ.
Paper and Binding.
Paper followed the papyrus and parch-
ment 1t was manufactured in Turkestan
| about $50 A. d.. although In the West II
| did not come into use until the twelfth
century The bookbinder's art is exhib-
tied by a few beautiful examples, but
this is more deliberately set forth in a
separate case.
The invention of the snapshot camera
has attracted the interest of many thou
sands to the history of photography. The
camera obscura" is said to have been in
vented by Bacon in the thirteenth century
and proved by Porta 300 years later. The
label accompanying this exhibit narrates
the fact that the blaczening OF chloride
of silver upon exposure to light was dis
covered little later but not put TO any
use in photography till 1777, when Scheele
photographed the solar spectrum by pro-
iecting 1t on a sheet of paper that had
been busted over with pulverized tuna
| cornea. A quarter of a century later pho
| tographs OF man were made by placing
him in a sunlight so strong that his
profile was projected on the wall. sheet
| of paper immersed in a solution Of nitrate
| of silver was then pinned on the wall
10 receive the image. After long ex-
posure this produced a profile portrait in
white upon black ground. Joseph
| Nicephore Niepce, about 1927, was the
a-.4 % UaAru the image which was done