Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-07-20
INVENTION OF CHANCE
sAYoNET DEVISED BY TROOPS
WHO HAD NO AMMUNITION.
How Argand invented His Lamp and
SaIlleo the Telescope Wish Acct
dental Assistance-Discove
of TYPOGRAPHY.

The ba. onet is said to have derived
It's name from the fact that It was
first made at Bayonne, and its origin
illustrates the proverb, Necessity is
the mother of invention"
A Basque regiment was hard
pressed by the enemy on mountain
ridge near Bayonne. One of the
soldiers suggested that as their am
munition was exhausted, they should
fix their long knives into the barrels
OF their muskets. The suggestion was
acted upon. The first bayonet charge
was made, anu the victory of the
Basques led to the manufacture OF
the weapon at Bayonne, and its adop-
ton into the armies of Europe.
Not infrequently en- invention has
been suggested by some trivial event
which would have passed unnoticed
had not q man with eyes and brains
seen it.
Argand, a poor Swiss, invented a
lamp with a wick fitted into a hollow
cylinder up which current of air
was allowed to pass, thus giving a
supply of oxygen to the interior as
well as to the exterior OF the circular
frame.
At first Argand used the lamp with
out any chimney. One day he was
busy in his workroom sad sitting be-
fore the burning lamp. His little
brother was amusing himself by plac-
ing a bottomless oil flask over diff
ferent articles Presently he placed
it upon the flame of the lamp, which
instantly shot up the long, circular
neck of the flask with increased brill
nancy. 1t did more, for it flashed
into Argand's mind the idea OF the
lamp chimney, by which his inven-
ton was perfected.
One day the children OF a 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 were sur
prised 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 curious toy.
Calico, hearing Of the toy which
made distant things appear close at
hand, saw at once what valuable
help it would be in studying the
heavens. He set to work, and soon
made the telescope
An accident helped Senefelder to
invent TYPOGRAPHY. He was a sort
of Jack-of-ali trades, a writer of
verses and comedies, an actor, a tid-
dIer, painter, an engraVer and a
printer.
He worked at etching on copper, but
the coppersmith refused to let him
have any more plates unless he paid
cash for them. He then tried to
utilize the old plates by rubbing of
the etchings with a soft limestone.
At last the copper became useless
through many rubbings, and he tried
etching on the stone, plan that did
not work very well. One day, while
he was polishing off a stone which
him to write out a list of the linen
which the Iaundress was waiting to
carry Off Not finding slip of paper
or drop of ink, Senefelder wrote the
list on the stone with printing ink
prepared from wax, soap and lamp
black, intending to copy it at his
leisure.
A 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 aquafortis
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 lithogr Apply.
-Harper's Weekly.