Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-05-14
VALUABLE TRADE SECRETS
LOST.
Some That Were Handed Down from
Generation to Generation.

Numerous are the trade secrets
handed down generation by generation
from father to son, and vast is the
capital made out of some of them in
the commercial world of today.
Particularly, perhaps. is this the
case among the numerous manufae'
turers of piquant sauces and the
countless vendors of patent medicines.
But there is also, it must be re-
membered, another side to the case.
Many. alas, are the priceless traae
secrets buried far down below the
moldering dust of the misty past ana
lost to the world, perchance never
again to be recovered.
To cite the first example that occurs
to the mind of the writer. for in
stance, what would a Royal Acade-
mician of the present day give to be
possessed of the secret held by the
old Masters-RaphaeL Rubens, Cor
regio, van Dyck and their compeers-
for mixing their eolors so as TO rem
der them imperishable and impervious
to the ravage of time?
The red colors, especially, OF these
artists of a bygone epoch are every
whit as bright now as they were three
long centuries ago. On the con-
trary, the eolors of pictures painted
only 100 years ago have lost their
luster, and are faded and decayed to
a deplorable extent.
Again, in the world of music, the
manufacturers of violins-Old Mas
ters, as one may justifiably tern,
them. in another branch of art
treasured recipe for a varnish that
sank into the woodfof their incom-
parable instruments, and melloWed II
as we'll as preserved it.
With such extreme, relentless jeal-
ousy however, did they guard their
great secret that it, too, is lost to all
appearances, irretrievably.
Rather more than 100 years ago
there lived in a quaint, old-worid WI
lage in Wales a working blacksmith,
who had managed, by some means or
other, to bring the welding of steel to
such a pitch of perfection that the
joint was absolutely invisible, and the
temper of the steel as fine as on the
day it left the testers hands. by his
process he was able to join the very
finest of sword blades, and after he
had finished with them they were ao-
solutely as good and as sound as when
they had left the factory.
The blaeksmiths fame spread far
and wide, and, naturally enough, he
attained a great reputation; but he
made point of invariably working Ill
solitude. He was offered large and
tempting sums to diyulge his secret:
but kept it obstinately to himself, and
when his span of life had run its
course he took it with him to another
world
The ancient Greeks had substance
which we call Greek fire, and which
they used in naval warfare.
Their method of employing it was
simply this-to throw the substance
upon the surface of the water, where
il famed up and set fire to the ships
of the enemy. What was it? The
only known substance of the present
day that would do this is the metal
potassium, but to set fire to a ship in
the manner described would neeessi-
tate the use of at least half a ton of
the metal. Where did the Greeks
obtain the substance they used with
such effect? Or how did they make it?
If Greek fire was potassium, the Sc
cret of the process is another that
must be numbered with the lost.
The man who could disinter the
buried recipe for Roman mortar would
be bowed down to and worshipped by
the builders of the present day. How
they made it is profound secret, and
bids fair to remain SO.
The mortar IS as firm now as II was
1000 years ago; it has calmly sceffed
at the ravages of time and weather.
The above are but a few-a very
few-of the lost and buried secrets or
antiquity which modern scientists and
mechanicians would give much to
learn.-Answers.