A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

The auricula, Primula auricula, grows wild among the long moss covered with snow, on the Lower Alps of Switzerland and Steyermark1594, whence it was brought to our gardens, where, by art and accident, it has produced more varieties than any other species of flower. I do not know who first transplanted it from its native soil. Pluche1595 says only that some roots were pulled up by Walloon merchants, and carried to Brussels. This much, at any rate, is certain, that it was first cultivated with care by the Flemings, who were very successful in propagating it. Professor Weismantel, who deserves to be ranked amongst the principal writers on flowers1596, says that the auricula was described and celebrated by Ovid, Pliny and Columella; but this I much doubt. The botanists even of the seventeenth century, who searched for plants in the works of the ancients with great diligence, and who took the liberty of making very bold assertions, were not able to find any name that would correspond with the auricula; for the conjecture of Fabius Columna, that it is the alisma of Dioscorides, is highly improbable, as that Grecian author extols his plant, which was fond of water, on account of its medicinal virtues only. In the time of Clusius, most of the varieties of the auricula were scarce.

The common fritillary, or chequered lily, Fritillaria Meleagris, was first observed in some parts of France, Hungary, Italy, and other warm countries1597, and introduced into gardens about the middle of the sixteenth century. At first it was called Lilium variegatum; but Noel Capperon, an apothecary at Orleans, who collected a great many scarce plants, gave it the name of Fritillaria, because the red or reddish-brown spots of the flower form regular squares, much like those of a chess-board. It was called meleagris by Dodonæus, because the feathers of that fowl are variegated almost in the same manner1598.

The roots of the magnificent crown imperial, Fritillaria imperialis, were about the middle of the sixteenth century brought from Persia to Constantinople, and were carried thence to the emperor’s garden at Vienna, from which they were dispersed all over Europe. This flower was first known by the Persian name tusac, until the Italians gave it that of corona imperialis1599, or crown imperial. I have somewhere read that it has been imagined that the figure of it is to be found represented on coins of Herod, and that, on this account, it has been considered as the lily so much celebrated in the Scripture.

The Persian lily, Fritillaria Persica, which is nearly related to it, was made known almost about the same time. The bulbs or roots were brought from Susa to Constantinople, and for that reason it was formerly called Lilium Susianum1600.

African and French marigolds, Tagetes erecta and patula, were, according to the account of Dodonæus and others, brought from Africa to Europe, at the time when the emperor Charles V. carried his arms against Tunis. This however is improbable; for these plants are indigenous in South America, and were known to botanists before that period under the name of Caryophyllus Indicus, from which is derived the French appellation œillet d’Inde. Cordus calls them, from their native country, Tanacetum Peruvianum1601.

Among the most beautiful ornaments of our gardens is the belladonna lily, Amaryllis formosissima, the flower of which, composed of six petals, is of a deep-red colour, and in a strong light, or when the sun shines upon it, has an agreeable yellow lustre like gold. The first roots of it ever seen in Europe were procured in 1593, on board a ship which had returned from South America, by Simon de Tovar, a physician at Seville. In the year following, he sent a description of the flower to Clusius; and as he had at the same time transmitted some roots to Bernard Paludanus and count d’Aremberg, the former sent a dried flower, and the latter an accurate drawing of it to Clusius, who published it in 16011602. One of the Robins gave in 1608 a larger and more correct figure, which was afterwards copied by Bry, Parkinson, and Rudbeck; but a complete description, with a good engraving, was published in 1742, by Linnæus1603, who in 1737 gave to that genus the name by which it is known at present1604. Sweert, Bauhin, and Rudbeck, are evidently mistaken in assigning the East Indies as the original country of this plant; and Broke1605, who was not a botanist, but only a florist, is equally wrong in making it a native of the Levant. Tovar received it from South America, where it was found by Plumier and Barrere, and at a later period by Thiery de Menonville1606. At first it was classed with the narcissus, and it was afterwards called lilio-narcissus, because its flower resembled that of the lily, and its roots those of the narcissus. It was named flos Jacobæus, because some imagined that they discovered in it a likeness to the badge of the knights of the order of St. James in Spain, whose founder, in the fourteenth century, could not indeed have been acquainted with this beautiful amaryllis.

Another species of this genus is the Guernsey lily, Amaryllis Sarniensis, which in the magnificence of its flower is not inferior to the former. This plant was brought from Japan, where it was found by Kæmpfer, and also by Thunberg1607, during his travels some years ago in that country. It was first cultivated in the beginning of the seventeenth century in the garden of John Morin, at Paris, where it blowed, for the first time, on the 7th of October 1634. It was then made known by Jacob Cornutus, under the name of narcissus Japonicus flore rutilo1608. After this it was again noticed by John Ray1609, in 1665, who called it the Guernsey lily, which name it still very properly bears. A ship returning from Japan was wrecked on the coast of Guernsey, and a number of the bulbs of this plant, which were on board, being cast on shore, took root in that sandy soil. As they soon increased and produced beautiful flowers, they were observed by the inhabitants, and engaged the attention of Mr. Hatton, the governor’s son, whose botanical knowledge is highly spoken of by Ray, and who sent roots of them to several of his friends who were fond of cultivating curious plants1610. Of this elegant flower Dr. Douglass gave a description and figure in a small treatise published in 1725, which is quoted by Linnæus in his Bibliotheca, but not by Haller.

Of the comprehensive genus Ranunculus, florists, to speak in a botanical sense, have obtained a thousand different kinds1611; for, according to the manner in which they are distinguished by gardeners, the varieties are infinite and increase almost every summer, as those with half-full flowers bear seed which produce plants that from time to time yield new kinds that exhibit greater or uncommon beauties. The principal part of them, however, and those most esteemed, were brought to us from the Levant. Some were carried from that part of the world so early as in the time of the crusades; but most of them have been introduced into Europe from Constantinople since the end of the sixteenth century, particularly the Persian ranunculus (R. asiaticus, Linn.), the varieties of which, if I am not mistaken, hold at present the first rank. Clusius describes both the single and the full flowers as new rarities. This flower was in the highest repute during the time of Mahomet IV. His Grand Vizir, Cara Mustapha, well-known by his hatred against the Christians and the siege of Vienna in 1683, wishing to turn the sultan’s thoughts to some milder amusement than that of the chase, for which he had a strong passion, diverted his attention to flowers; and, as he remarked that the emperor preferred the ranunculus to all others, he wrote to the different pachas throughout the whole kingdom to send him seeds or roots of the most beautiful kinds. The pachas of Candia, Cyprus, Aleppo, and Rhodes paid most regard to this request; and the elegant flowers which they transmitted to court were shut up in the seraglio as unfortunate offerings to the voluptuousness of the sultan, till some of them, by the force of money, were at length freed from their imprisonment. The ambassadors from the European courts in particular, made it their business to procure roots of as many kinds as they could, which they sent to their different sovereigns. Marseilles, which at that period carried on the greatest trade to the Levant, received on this account these flowers very early; and a person there, of the name of Malaval, is said to have contributed very much to disperse them all over Europe1612.

[Among the favourites of the present day may be instanced, —

The varied and social Pelargoniums (commonly called geraniums), which from their capability of living in the confined air of rooms almost form a part of the household furniture in this country. They are nearly all members of the Cape of Good Hope. A large number however of those with which we are familiar are not distinct species, but mere varieties. Geraniums were first introduced into this country at the end of the seventeenth century. Pelargoniums differ from geraniums principally in the irregularity of their flowers, their shrubby stems and tubular nectaries. They were first separated by L’Heritier.

The Dahlia, an universal favourite; its exquisite symmetry, when perfect, and the size of its flowers rendering it one of the most beautiful of our garden-plants. It is generally stated to have been introduced by Lady Holland in 1804; but it was introduced many years before that period, and was only brought from Madrid by Lady Holland, who apparently did not know that it was already in the country. The first species of Dahlia known to Europeans was D. superflua (variabilis, De C.); it was discovered in Mexico by Humboldt in 1789, and sent to Professor Cavanilles, of the Botanic Garden at Madrid, who named the genus in honour of the Swedish Professor Dahl. Cavanilles sent a plant of it to the marchioness of Bute. From this species, nearly all the varieties known in our gardens have been raised. There are now in England ten or twelve species. including innumerable varieties.

The Rose, which is one of our oldest favourites, and has been known from time immemorial among the civilized nations of Europe and Asia. It occurs in almost every country of the northern hemisphere, both in the Old and New World. It is not found in South America nor in Australia. The name is derived from rhos, which signifies red in Armorican, whence ῥόδον, Greek, and rosa, Latin. More than one hundred species have been described, and more than two thousand varieties may be procured in the nurseries.

And lastly, the Calceolarias, which are natives of South America. Their great variety has rendered them especial favourites. They abound in Chili and Peru. The name is derived from calceolus, from the resemblance of the corolla (coloured part of the flower) to a slipper. In 1820, half-a-dozen species only were known in this country. During the next ten or twelve years, five or six more species were introduced from Chili. Innumerable hybrids are now raised every year, varying in colour through every possible shade of crimson, brown, orange, purple, pink, and yellow: there are one or two of a pure white colour.]

END OF VOL. I

1

Montfaucon, notwithstanding all his researches in France and Italy, was not able to discover any charter or diploma written on common paper, older than the year 1270. Paper, however, made of cotton, is said to be much older, and to have been introduced into Europe by the Arabs. If we can believe an Arabian author, who wrote in the thirteenth century, quoted by Casiri, in Biblioth. Arabico-Hispana, vol. ii. p. 9, paper (doubtless of cotton) was invented at Mecca by one Joseph Amru, about the year of the Hegira 88, or of the Christian æra 706. According to other Arabian authors, quoted by Casiri and Abulfeda, the Arabs found a manufactory of paper at Samarcand in Bucharia, when they conquered that country in the year of the Hegira 85, or of our æra 704. The art of making paper from silk was, as some pretend, known to the Chinese 180 years before Jesus Christ. See a letter from Father de Mailla to Father Etienne Souciet, in Mémoires des Inscript. et des Belles Lettres, vol. xv. 520.

2

The oldest picture, known at present, painted in oil-colours on wood is preserved in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna. It was painted in the year 1297, by a painter named Thomas de Mutina, or de Muttersdorf, in Bohemia. Two other paintings in the same gallery are of the year 1357; one of them is by Nicholas Wurmser of Strasburg, and the other by Thierry of Prague. It appears therefore that painting in oil was known long before the epoch at which that invention is generally fixed; and that it is erroneously ascribed to Hubert van Eyck and his brother and pupil, John van Eyck, otherwise called John of Bruges, who lived about the end of the fourteenth century, and not the beginning of the fifteenth, as is commonly supposed. [There is evidence in the books of the Painters’ Company, under the date of the 11th of Edward I. (1283), that oil painting was in use at that time. See a communication from Sir Francis Palgrave given in the new edition of Carter’s Ancient Sculpture and Paintings in England, page 80.]

3

The person who first speaks of the magnetic needle and its use in navigation, is a Provençal poet, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and who wrote a poem entitled Bible Guyot. This work is a satire, in which the author lashes with great freedom the vices of that age. Comparing the Pope to the polar star, he introduces a description of the compass, such as it appears to have been in its infancy. This invention however is claimed by the Italians, who maintain that we are indebted for it to a citizen of Amalphi, named Flavius Gioja, and in support of this assertion quote commonly the following line of Panormitanus:

Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalfis.

4

Of the use of gunpowder in Europe no certain traces occur till towards the middle of the fourteenth century. It seems pretty well proved, that artillery was known in France after the year 1345. In 1356, the city of Nuremberg purchased the first gunpowder and cannon. The same year the city of Louvain employed thirty cannon at the battle of Santfliet against the Flemings. In 1361, a fire broke out at Lubec, occasioned by the negligence of those employed in making gunpowder. In 1363, the Hans-towns used cannon for the first time, in a naval combat which they fought against the Danes. After 1367, the use of fire-arms became general throughout Italy, into which they had been introduced from Germany.

5

The invention of printing has given rise to many researches. Meermann in his Origines Typographicæ, published in 1768, endeavours to prove that Laurence Coster of Haarlem was the inventor, about the year 1430. Most authors however agree that John Gutenberg was the inventor of moveable types, but they differ respecting the place of the invention. Some make it to be Strasburg, others Mentz, and some fix the epoch of the invention at 1440, and others at 1450.

6

Vasari, in Vite de’ Pittori, vol. iv. p. 264, ascribes the invention of engraving on copper to a goldsmith of Florence, named Maso Finiguerra, about 1460. The oldest engravers whose names and marks are known, were Israel de Mecheln, of Bokholt, in the bishopric of Munster; Martin Schœn, who worked at Colmar in Alsace, where he died in 1486; and Michael Wolgemuth of Nuremberg, who was preceptor to the famous Albert Durer, and engraved the plates in the well-known Nuremberg Chronicle. It may be proper here to observe, that the art of engraving on wood seems to be older than the invention of printing, to which perhaps it gave rise. The names of the first engravers on wood are however not known. [In the Athenæum Journal for 1845, page 965, is given a fac-simile of a large wood-engraving, bearing the date of 1418, which was discovered at Malines in 1844, and is now preserved in the public library at Brussels.]

7

Heyne, in his funeral oration, says Beckmann was so struck with admiration at the vast knowledge of Linnæus, that he became ensnared, like the companions of Ulysses in the island of Circe, and was disheartened from proceeding any further in his own botanical studies. To this circumstance is attributed the coolness with which he afterwards cultivated this department of science.

8

La science des négocians et teneurs de livres. Paris 1754.

9

Vol. i. p. 408.

10

Those who are desirous of further information respecting Lucas de Borgo, may consult Scriptores ordinis Minorum, recensuit Fr. Lucas Waddingus, Romæ 1650; – Heilbronneri Historia Matheseos universæ, Lipsiæ 1742; – Histoire des Mathématiques, par Montucla, Paris 1758.

11

Vol. i. p. 409.

12

The title runs thus: Ein Teutsch verstendig Buchhalten für Herren oder Gesellschafter inhalt wellischem Process.

13

Bayle says, that the Latin translation of Stevin’s works was executed principally by Willebrord Snellius.

14

Lib. ii. cap. 7.

15

C. 14. Nicolai, in the first part of his Travels, has translated this description of an odometer, and illustrated it with a figure by H. Catel.

16

This palace, with its ornaments, is described in the Memorie concernenti la citta di Urbino. Roma, 1724. fol. The figure to which I allude is in plate 53. Bernardino Baldi, the author of the descriptive part, considers it as an odometer.

17

In Joannis Fernelii Ambianatis Cosmotheoria, Parisiis 1528, we find only the following passage respecting this invention: – “Nec vulgi supputatione satiatus, vehiculum, quod Parisios recta via petebat, conscendi, in eoque residens tota via 17024 fere rotæ circumvolutiones collegi, vallibus et montibus ad equalitatem, quoad facultas nostra ferebat, redactis. Erat autem rotæ diameter.” In Almagesti novi parte posteriori, tomi primi, Bononiæ 1651. fol. the author, Riccioli, says that Fernel contrived his carriage in such a manner, that the revolutions of the wheels were shown by a hammer striking on a bell. Where that jesuit discovered this I cannot learn.

18

Doppelmayer, Nachricht von Nurnberg Künstlern, p. 82. Will, Nurnbergisches Gelehrten-Lexicon, iii. p. 156.

19

Cimelium Geographicum Tripartitum. Dresden, 1680.

20

Kunstgeschichte von Augsburg, p. 167.

21

Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia. Lugd. Bat. 1647, 8vo, p. 468.

22

Magnes, sive De arte magnetica. Coloniæ, 1643, 4to, p. 221.

23

Boot. Hist. Gemmarum, p. 473.

24

This machine was used by Sulzer during his tour. See his Journal, published at Leipsic, 1780, 8vo, p. 3. It has been since improved by Schumacher, a clergyman at Elbing, by Klindworth, Catel at Berlin, and by an anonymous clergyman in the Schwabisches Magazin, 1777, p. 306.

25

This model is preserved in the collection of the Academy.

26

There is a figure of it in the Penny Cyclopædia, vol. xvii. p. 367.

27

Phil. Trans. vol. xliv. p. ii. No. 483, p. 446.

28

[Among the improvements of recent date there are perhaps none of greater importance than those of electro-gilding and gilding by immersion, which have almost entirely superseded the process of gilding by an amalgam of mercury and gold, so fatal to the workmen exposed to the deleterious effects of the mercurial vapours. It is not our intention to enter at present into a history of the invention of these processes; they will more properly be reserved for a future volume, in which the discoveries of the present century will be treated of. The following short outline may however not prove uninteresting to the reader: – It had long been known to experimentalists on the chemical action of voltaic electricity, that solutions of several metallic salts were decomposed by its agency, and the metal produced in its free state. The precipitation of copper by the voltaic current was noticed by Mr. Nicholson1613 in a paper entitled ‘Account of the new Electrical Apparatus of Sig. Alex. Volta, and experiments performed with the same;’ but the earliest recorded process in electro-gilding is probably that contained in a letter from Brugnatelli to Van Mons1614, in which he states that he had deposited a film of gold on ten silver medals by bringing them into communication by means of a steel wire with the negative pole of a voltaic pile, and keeping them one after the other immersed in ammoniuret of gold newly made and well-saturated. This announcement of a process identical with those now extensively used, attracted no attention at the time it was made, and no further experiments on the application of electricity to the deposition of metals for the purposes of the arts were published until the year 1830, when Mr. E. Davy read a paper before the Royal Society, in which he distinctly states that he had gilded, silvered, coppered and tinned various metals by the voltaic battery1615. The experiments of Brugnatelli and Davy were however completely lost sight of, and the art may be said to date its origin from the period when the late Professor Daniell described his constant battery. Since that time the art has continued to advance most rapidly, either in the perfecting of the apparatus or in the pointing out of more suitable salts of gold and silver, from which the metals might be precipitated. Among those who have contributed to its advancement we may particularly instance the names of our countrymen, Woolrich, Spencer, Jordan, Mason, Murray, Smee, Elkington, Fox Talbot, and Tuck. Nearly all the gilt articles manufactured at Birmingham are now gilded by the process patented by Mr. Elkington, in which, after the articles have been cleansed by a weak acid, they are placed in a hot solution of nitro-muriate of gold, to which a considerable excess of bicarbonate of potash has been added; in the course of a few seconds they thus receive a beautiful and permanent coating of gold.]

29

Lib. xxxiii. cap. 6.

30

Vit. lib. vii. c. 8.

31

In Origin. lib. xvi. c. 18.

32

De Aurilegio, præcipue in Rheno. Argent. 1776.

33

Historia naturale e morale delle Indie. Venetia, 1596.

34

The same account as that given by Acosta may be seen in Garcilasso de la Vega, Commentarios reales; Lisboa 1609, p. 225; in Rycaut’s English translation, London 1688, fol. i. p. 347; and in De Laet, Novus Orbis, Lugd. Bat. 1633, fol. p. 447.

35

Vol. i. p. 414.

36

Hakluyt’s Collection of Voyages. London, 1600, fol. vol. iii. p. 466.

37

See La France littéraire. Paris, 1769, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. ii. p. 410.

38

One may see in Homer’s Odyssey, book iii. v. 432, the process employed for gilding in this manner, the horns of the cow brought by Nestor as an offering to Minerva.

39

Epist. 115.

40

La Sicilia inventrice. Palermo, 1704, 4to.

41

“As we passed, we saw everywhere abundance of flowers, such as the narcissus, hyacinth, and those called by the Turks tulipan, not without great astonishment, on account of the time of the year, as it was then the middle of winter, a season unfriendly to flowers. Greece abounds with narcissuses and hyacinths, which have a remarkably fragrant smell: it is, indeed, so strong as to hurt those who are not accustomed to it. The tulipan, however, have little or no smell, but are admired for their beauty and variety of their colour. The Turks pay great attention to the cultivation of flowers; nor do they hesitate, though by no means extravagant, to expend several aspers for one that is beautiful. I received several presents of these flowers, which cost me not a little.” —Busbequii Ep., Basiliæ, 1740, 8vo, p. 36.