The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-08-30

sequently the brine refused to be
scraped off the clay, but stuck to the
outside of the vessel in a shiny water
proof coat.
The story of that accident came to
the ears of a Burslem potter. To him
it signified something more than the
wicked waste of brine" of the kitchen
maid. He pirated the unconscious dis
covery, invented the system of glaz-
ing by common salt and simultaneous
ly gave the Staffordshire potteries one
of the greatest boons they have ever
experienced.
In the latter half of the eighteenth
century one of the members of a little
scientific society in Liverpool laid
curious wager. He bet brother scien-
fist that he would read a newspaper
by the light Of a farthing dip at dis
lance of thirty feet The brother scien-
fist finding the feat difficult at even
sixth of the distance cheerfully ac-
cepted the wager. The layer merely
coated the inside of shallow wooden
box with sloping pieces of looking
glass, so as to form a concave lens,
placed behind his farthing dip and
readily deciphered the small print at
the stipulated distance.
The experiment was witnessed by a
Liverpool dockmaster. He was think
ing man and saw great possibilities in
this learned jest. He straightway
adapted the principle to lighthouse re-
quirements, and forthwith the modern
reflected light, with it's miles of effect
i've range and untold life-saving pow
ers, sprang into being. a Staffordshire
potter named Astbury once stopped at
! DunStable on his way to London in or
der to obtain advice as to his horse S
weak vision. The hostler at his inn
| burned some f1ints and pulverized them
into fine powder, which he blew into
! the animals eyes. Astbury was as
! tounded-not at the nature of the OPP
GRAFTON, but at the fact that the erst-
| while black flint became white with the
! heat. Surely, thought he, if this pow
dered flint were added to the ordinary
pipe clay it would on being fired pro-
duce far harder and more serviceable
white ware than ordinary clay. He
tried the experiment, and flint ware
was added to the list of British manu-
features.
Lundyfoot, the well known snuff
maker of our GRANDPA Tiers days was
once drying some snuff preparatory to
presenting it for sale. BY accident it
was baked too long and burned beyond
repair, but Lundyfoot was not cast
down. Most men would have thrown
away the entire stock. He decided upon
a holder course. Making a virtue OF
necessity, he advertised his charred
stock as the new high dried" snuff
and started to push it for all he was
worth. It had pungent flavor all its
own, and, greatly to his surprise, ii
caught on He made a large fortune
out of his invention
Many present-day inventions have
had equally unlikely beginnings. Sac
charine is the most valuable substitute
for sugar we know. 1t can be take-
with impunity by diabetic patients, tc
whom ordinary sugar is death, and II
is many times sweeter than that COM
modify. Nevertheless, it has only beer
known to science since 1887. In that
year DR.. Fahlberg was employed upor
the all-important subject of coal tai
derivatives at the Johns Hopkins uni
versity, United States of America. Sit
ting one evening at tea, he was sur
prised to find how sweet his bread anc
butter tasted. He traced the sweetness:
to his fingers, thence to his coat sleeves
and finally to one of the bowls of de-
rivatives in his laboratory. Expert
ments upon himself and animals proved
alike the harmlessness of the com
pound and its extreme sweetness. HI
had discovered" saccharine.
I
seacoast, when he came across a patel
of black sand. Curious to know wha
it contained, he filled his pockets will
it, and subsequently turned it out on
bench in his laboratory. Just then
passing workman stumbled against tn,
table and dropped the big magnet h
was carrying across the sand. Whel
he picked it up again it was covered
with tiny black grains, proving tn
sand to consist largely of metallic par
ticles. Most men would have sworl
and passed on. To Edison, however
this action suggested the modern proc
ess of metal extraction from low-grad
ores. In this the ore is first crushed
to powder and then passed between
powerful magnets, while the dros
passes on.
, The end, alasi is not always so salts
factory. Sixty years ago, when Da
guerre, Talbot and their brother sci
| entists were working night and day t
fix" the f1eeting photographs whic
Daguerre had just introduced, an un
known lad humbled the entire Frenc
academy A roor, pinched little fellow
whose shabby clothes and half starve
appearance accorded but i'll with tn
brain that must have been his wake
one evening into the shop of Chevaliel
| the optician, of the Quai de rHorloge
Before he left he had shown plat
to M. Chevalier which proved beyond
. doubt that he had mastered the much
+ pondered problem. He would not di
! vulge his seeret-at least mot unit
, tomorrow But that tomorrow did nc
come, for the poor lad was never see
again. Whether the long toll had un
seated his reason, whether he had pei
, ished miserably in the dark-runnin
Seine or the casualty ward of Pari
, hospital must remain matter of cor
lecture So, too. must the name of til
original fixer of the modern photo
: graph.