Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1910-08-27
ANoIENrs SURPASSED U.
hany Secrets They Possessed Are
Lost to Modern Times.

Lost to Modern Times.
Many secrets the ancients possessed
are lost to modern times and many
things they did cannot be equaled to-
day. Thousands of years ago the
Egyptians used to embalm the bodies
of their dead kings and nobility so
perfectly that the bodies are in won
derful preservation to-day, 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. Bodies embalmed now
adays will not be preserved for more
than a few years at most; very many
Ct the bodies Of Egyptians embalmed
before the birth of Christ are still so
perfect that the lines of the faces are
marked as clearly as when they were
first embalmed.
Sheffield turns out the finest, hard
est and most perfect steel the world
produces. but Sheffield cannot produce
sword blade to compare with those
the Saracens made and used hundreds
of years ago, and the Saracens never
possessed the machinery we have, nor
had the advantage Of knowing so
much about metals as we are supposed
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
would cut In two most of the swords
used in our army to-day.
There are a 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 is lost. So perfect were paste
diamonds that it was difficult for even
a person with expert knowledge Of
diamonds to tell that they were arti'
ficially produced, whereas most of the
modern artificial diamonds can be de-
tected easily and their durability Is
nothing like so great as the old paste
/ diamond.
Probably not one out Of every ten
thousand buildings standing In all
parts of the world and built by modern
masons will be standing 500 years
hence. We do not know how to put
stones and bricks together as the an
clients did, and consequently the build
| ing we raise nowadays will be in ruins
i when the ancient buildings in Greece
and Italy, which we're built thousands
of years ago, are in as good condition
as they are now. The secret is not in
the bricks or stone, but in the cement
and mortar, neither of which essen
tials can we make as the ancients
made them.
Chemistry, one might imagine, IL
the science which has made the great
est strides in the last five or six de
cades. Yet modern chemists cannot
compound such dyes as were common
ly used when the great nations of to
day were still unborn. Now and
again 1t happens that searchers after
i antiquities come across fragments o.
fabrics which were dyed thousands o.
years ago, and they are astonished by
| the wonderful richness of the color'
of the cloths, which, despite their age
are brighter and purer than anything
we can produce.
Modern artists buy their color
ready made and spend large sums o
money on pigments with which t
color their canvasses. The pictures o
modern artists will be colorless wheI
many of the works of ancient master
are as bright as they are to-day. Jus
as the secret of dyeing has been lost
so has the secret of preserving the col
ors of artists paints. Yet the secre
was known to every ancient artist, TO
they all mixed their own colors.