Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-07-20

a plain, round, flat disc. and upon its
outer run mark down the letters of the
alphabet, A. p. c. &c. and. traversing
upon the middle of your else have "a
needle (Which has touched loadstone)
so arranged that il may be made to
toneh upon any particular letter ad
hbitam. Make a similar disc the ex-
act duplicate of the first one, with cor
responding letters on it's margin and
with revolving magnetized needle.
Let the friend YOU propose correspond
ing with take, at his departure. one
disc along with him. and LEI him agree
with you at what particular hours he
will take observations on his needle,
to see If il be vibrating and to learn
what 1t marks on the index.
With this arrangement understood
between you both. if you wish to hold
private conversation with your
friend, whom the shores of some dis
tart land have separated from you
turn your finger to the disc and touch
the easy moving needle. Before you
lie, marked on the outer edge. all the
various letters. Direct the needle To
such letters as are necessary to form
the words YOU want, touching a little
letter here and there with the needless
point, as ii goes traversing round and
round the board, until you throw to-
gether, one by one, your various ideas
Lo! the wonderful fidelity of CORES
pondencei Your distant friend notes
the revolving needle Vibrate without
apparent impulse and fly hither and
thither round the rim. He notes it's
movements. and, reading, as he fol-
lows its motion, the various letters
which make up the words he perceives
all that is necessary, and learns your
meaning from the interpreting needle
When he sees the needle pause he, in
like turn, touches the various letters
and sends back the answer
"Oh, that this style of writing were
brought into use, What friendly mes
sages might dy hither and thither,
quicker aud safer defying snares of
robbers or delaying rivers! Would
that the prince himself would finish
the great work with his own handsl
Then We race of seribblers, emerging
from one sea of ink, would lay the
quill an offering on the altar of the
loadstone."
This idea of Strada, ia based upon
tlht DttoSlOll entertained
generally at the time when he wrote,
that magnetic power, when impaired
by the maidstone to metallic articles
like needles, communicated to them !.
kind of homogeneous impulse, which
caused between them a sympathetic
correspondence of motion.
James Watt took out patent on his
steam engine in 1863, but as tar back
as 1543 there was a Captain in Spain
who constructed a vessel of 200 tons
and propelled il at Barcelona in the
presence of the Emperor Charles v
and his court by an engine, the con-
struction of which he kept a secret
But an old document says that in ii
was monster caldron of water, and
that there We're two movable wheels
on the outside of the vessel The En-
peror was satisfied with its operation.
but the treasurer of the kingdom OBJ
jected to it. and SO, no encouragement
was given to the enterprise The poor
inventor whose name was Blasco de
Guerrero, weafied and Disguised at the
want of patronage, took the engine
out of the vessel and the secret of the
machine was buried in his grave.
This incident was almost duplicated
in France a century later The ia
nous Marian de FOrme, a celebrated
F'rench-wOman. who lived to be 1874
years old told in a letter to an admirer
dated 1914. of man confined in a
madhouse of Paris for urging that
anything could be done by the force of
steam. The mans name was Solomon
de Coste, a native of Normandy. and
followed Cardinal Richelieu, imploring
him to lake an interest in his inven
ton, that he was put behind the bars.
The use OF ether for producing an
aesthesiG was first practically adopted
by Mr. Martin, of Boston, in 1886 and
that by ch1oroform by DIR. Simpson. of
Edinburgh in 1s47. But rude expedi
ents 10 deaden the nerves te pain We're
practiced centuries ago.
Pliny. the Roman naturalist, who
lived in the first century of the Chris
tian era in writing of the plant known
as the mandragors. says;
1T has soporific power on the fac
ulties of those who drink it. The or
binary potion is half cup. 1t is
drunk against serpents, and before
cuttings and uncturing, lest they
should be felt
The Chinese, too-who anticipated
the Europeans in so many important
inventions, as in gunpowder. the ma
riners compass, printing, photography,
paper money. the use of coai-made
use, centuries ago. of anaesthetics. The
following passage is found in the bio
graphy of Hoathe. a Chinese physician,
who lived in the third century:
IF the disease resided in a part.
where the needle or liquid medieaments
could not operate-for example, in the
bones, or the marrow of the bones, in
the stomach or the Viscera-he gave
the patient a preparation of hemp, and
after a few moments he was as insen-
sible as if he had been drunk or dead
Then, as the case required. he per
formed the operations. After certain
number of days the patient recovered.
without having experienced the slight
est pain during the operation
Both Dante and Shakespeare proceed
ed Newton in knowledge of the princi-
Pile II not the law, of gravitation.
Shake speare says in "Troilus and.
Cressida
put ha sstrnn.r ca and A,.IIltr.x =