Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-21
ACCIDENTAL INVENTIONS.
Origin of the BaYonet the lamf
Chimney, the Telescope and the Ar
of TYPOGRAPHY.

The bayonet is said TO have derived
its name from the fact that il was first
made at Bayonne. and it's origin illus
trates the proverb Necessity is the
mother of invention. =
A Basque regiment was hard pressed
by the enemy on a mountain ridge near
Bayonne. One of the soldiers sug-
gested that, as their ammunition was
exhausted. they should fix their long
knives into the barrels of their mus
kets. This suggestion was acted upon.
The first bayonet charge was made and
the victory of the Basques led TO the
manufacture of the weapon at Bayonne
and its adoption into the armies of
Europe.
Not infrequently an invention has
been suggested by some trivial event
which would have passed unnotieed
had not man with eyes and brains
seen it.
Argand, poor Swiss, invented a
lamp with a wick fitted into a hollow
cylinder up which a current of air was
allowed TO pass. thus giving supply
of oxygen TO the interior as we'll as To
the exterior of the circular frame
At first Argand used the lamp with
out the chimney. One day he was busy
in his workroom and sitting before the
burning lamp. His little brother was
amusing himself by placing a bottom
less old flask over different articles.
Presently he placed it upon the flame
of the lamp, which instantly shot up
the long, circular neck of the flask with
increasing brillancy. 1t did more, for
= flo nj idea
of the lamp chimney. by which his in
vention was perfected.
One day the children of Dutch
spectacle maker were playing with
some of their fathers glasses before
the door of his shop. Setting two of
the largest glasses together they peeped
through them and We're surprised to
see the weather cock of the opposite
church brought close TO their eyes.
They called their father to see the
strange sight. He looked through the
glasses and what he saw suggested to
him the possibility of constructing a
curious toy.
Calico. hearing of the toy which
made distant things appear close at
hand, saw at once what a valuable help
it would be in studying the heavens.
He set 10 work, and soon made the tele-
scope.
An accident helped Senefelder to in
vent TYPOGRAPHY. He was sort of
jack -of-al-trades, writer of verses
and comedies, an actor. fiddler, a
painter, an engraver and a printer
He worked at etching on copper, but
the copporsmith refused to let him
have any more plates unless he paid
cash for them lie then tried TO util-
ize the old plates by rubbing off the
etchings with a soft limestone
At last the copper became useless
through many rubbings, and he tried
etching on the stone, a plan that did
not work very well. One day. while
he was polishing off a stone which he
to etch, his mother asked him
TO write out list of the linen which
the laundress was waiting to carry off
Not finding a slip of paper or a drop
of ink, Senefelder wrote on the stone
with printing ink prepared from wax,
it at his leisure.
few days later, when he was about
to wipe the writing from the stone, he
thought he would learn what would be
the effect of writing with the prepared
ink on the stone, if it should be bitten
in with aquaforits. He bit away TO
about the hundredth part of an inch. |
charged the lines with the Ink, took |
several Impressions of the writing, and
discovered that he had invented the art |
of thography.-Harpers Weekly,