The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1914-12-05
BURNING CLASSES.
Powerful Lenses With a Few Of
Their Fiery FeatS.
PENN'S MARVELLOUS MACHINE.
The Heat Rays From This Mirror Lens
Were So Intense That They Melted
Garnets, Flint, Steel and Iron and
Did Other Wonderful Things.

oarnets, rHnt, steel ana iron and
1 Did Other Wonderful Things
IL is written that when the Roman
ships besieged Syracuse Archimcdes
burned them 10 ashes by means OF mir
rors, and Proclus Is also said 10 have
destroyed the navy OF Vitalian when
those galleys besieged Byzantium. by
means OF burning glasses. And there
Is the wonderful story OF Ptolemys
mirror. which. placed on the tower of
the Pharos at Alexandria. represented
accurately everything that transpircd
in all Egypt, on both land and water
with which an enemy's fleet could la
seen 100 leagues away.
Descartes branded the story OF Archt
modes mirrors as fabulous. But Kir-
cher believed IL TO be true and made
many experiments TO prove his con.
tention. lie tried the effect OF asnum.
Der Of plane mirrors and with five OF
the same size, placed in "A frame. con.
triyed 10 throw the rays reflected from
them 10 the same spot al a distance of
more than 100 feet. and the degree of
heat obtained led him TO conclude that
by increasing the number of mirrors lie
could increase the heat TO any desired
degree. He made voyage 10 SYRIA
cuse TO inform himself exactly OF local
conditions. From his observations he
was convinced that the Roman galleyS
could not have been more than thirty
PAGES. or less than 100 feet. from the
place where Archimedes mounted his
unique engine of destruction.
Button constructed machine con.
sisting OF n number OF mirrors. and
in his first experiment, using twenty.
four mirrors. he set fire to pitch and
tow Mt n distance OF seventy feet
Then, with kind OF polyhedron, con
sisting OF 16S pieces OF plain looking
glass. each piece six inches square.
boards OF beechwood were set on fire
at a distance OF 165 feet Next there
were employed 800 plain mirrors, each
eight inches long and six broad. and
with all the mirrors I'm use wood
could be ignited at n distance OF DO
feet. The last machine OF this nature
constructed by Button contained 400
mirrors. each six inches square, and
with the rays from this he could melt
lead and tin at distance OF 80 feet.
The most powerful burning mirror OF
modern times was constructed by one
Penn, an English artisan. He succeeded
I'm producing burning lens no less
than three feet i'm diameter. and this
cost the man who was financing the
ttpuor.1 ~ co rnn mean
er was astonishing. and the hardest
and most solid substances such as
iron. flint and steel, melted like wax
when exposed To its immense focus.
only a few seconds being required A
diamond weighing ten grains was ok
posed TO the rays for thirty minutes
and was reduced 20 six grains by the
process. During the operation the
stone opened and foliated like the
leaves OF flower and emitted whitish
fumes; but when it had closed again
II still bore polish and was identical
IN shape, though four grains lighter
and proportionately smaller Ten cut
garnets melted and ran together In
few seconds. In fact, nothing was
heat generated. This remarkable ma
chine was afterward taken to China
by an officer connected with the Brit
ish embassy and finally lost sight Of
With these modern experiments 10
consider. the tale or the burning OF
Marcelus' ships seems more probable
La Brocquiere. traveller Of the fif
haN nj No
they made mirrors OF steel that mag
nifled objects like burning glasses"
The telescope was not invented till
early In the seventeenth century.
This would seem corroborative evi.
denee concerning Ptolemy Euergetes'
mirror. which La Brocquiere does not
mention and OF which he perhaps new.
er heard. Abulfeda. in his description
OF Egypt. says that the wonderful mir.
ror was made Of Chinese iron and that
soon after Mohammedanism prevailed
the Christians destroyed 1t by strata.
gem.
In work published at Marseilles In
1868 Father Abbat argues ingeniously
I'm favor OF the probable existence OF
er was far less than recorded In the
legend.
"If this mirror existed" he says, Iii
Is probable that II was the only one OF
IT'S kind and that no other means had
then been found OF viewing distant
objects distinctly. II must therefore
have been considered as n great won
der In those times and must have filed
with establishment all who saw It's CT
fccts. Even though its effects had not
been greater than those OF n small tel.
escope II is natural to think
that those effects were exaggerated be
yond all probability and even possibili
~. MS commonly happens 70 rare and
admirable machines and inventions =
Emmett Campbell Hall In Cleveland
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