The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1901-11-08
SOME LOST, SECRETS.
FAMOUS PROCESSES THAT, wsRE
KNOWN TO THE ANcIENTs.

ods strides we have made In almost
every brnEch Of knowledge during the
last 200 or 800 years. 1t seems exceed
ingly strange that our forefathers
should have been able to do things
which we ind impossible. and that we
cannot discover secrets which were al
most common knowledge hundreds of
yeaus ago. But despite the fact that
the average modern man knows more
than did the learned men Of long ago,
there are mysteries OF knowledge and
science which our most advanced SCI
: .entists cannot solve
. 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 won
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 ia lost and
modern science cannot recover the lost
We can, of course and we
, do lembalm bodies, but only for tenn
porary preservation and. comparatively
speaking. In n most unsatisfactory man
;ner. :. Bodies which arc eml,almetl! now
adays will not be preserved for more
,than Q, feW days Mt most, Very nrany
of the bodies the Egyptians embalmed
before the birth of Christ are still so
perfect that the lines of their faces are
q still as. clearly marked as when they
were first embalmed.
Sheffield turns out the finest, hardest.
and most perfect steel tile world pro-
duces, but even Sheffield cannot pro-
duce a sword blade to compare with
those. the Saracens made and used hun
idreds OF years ago., and the Saracens
never possessed the machinery we
have or had the advantage Of knowing
so much about metals MS we are sup
posed to know. a huge fortune awaits
the man who discovers the secret
which enabled the Saracens to make
sword blades 80 keen, and hard that
they could cut In two most of the
swords used today.
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 tfat It was difficult for even a
persof, with expert knowledge Of dia-
monds to tell that they were artificial
" produced, whereas NEST Of the mod.
ern artificial diamonds can easily be
detected, and their durability issnoth-
ias like so great as the old pase dia-
~ Probably not one out tSots every ten =,
thousand buildings >sfahding IN all,
parts of the world. and yt0iflt by mod
ern masons. will still br standing 500
years sr'hence. gWedo not know how to
pntI stones and brlcks. together as the
aricients did, ard 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 were built
thousands Of years ago. are in as good
condlton as they arc now. The secret
is not In the brlcks or the stone, but
In ,tto: i.AmFEt h::tl r!1rtar, neither Of
which essentials can we make as the
apcients made them.
:: In modern buildings the cement and
mortar are the weakest points; in
buildings which the Romans and
Greeks raised thousands Of years ago
the cement and mortar are the stron-
FBsst points and hold good while the
very stones they bind together crumble
away with age. We cannot, with all
!. our 1eience, make such cement and
mortar. and therefore we cannot build
such buildings rs the apcirnts raised:-
Chemistry, one might imagine. Is the
sciencer which has, perhaps. made the
greatest strides. Yet modern chem
lists cannot compound such dyes as
were commonly used when the great
nations of, today <1weye still unborn.
Now and asaIn II happens that search-
ers after antiquities come across frag-
msnts Of fabrics which were dyed
thousands OF years ago. and they are
astpnishedt by the, wonderful richness
Of the colors Of the cloths. which. de-
spite their age. are brighter and purer
than anything We can produce.
Modern artists buy their colors ready
made ahd spend large sums on Dig
ments with which to color their can
vases. The plessireslof modern artists
win be colorlesss when many Of the
works Of ancient masters arr as bright
as theytare today. just ss'the secret Of
hyeing has been lost. so has the secret
of preser@lng 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
SreaNsecref we have lost. Look Mt my
letter, Ave or ten years old and you will
probably notice that the writing has
faded to q brown color and Is very In
dIstincts Co to any big museum and
you win find ancient MSS, the writing
Of which is as black and distinct us II
the MSS. were written the day before
yesterday. = .ssAsn 4 IS raN.,