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

133

In one year a ton of sand, at least, which is baked with the flour, is rubbed off from a pair of mill-stones. If a mill grinds only 4385 bushels annually, and one allows no more than twelve bushels to one man, a person swallows in a year above six pounds, and in a month half a pound of pulverized sandstone, which, in the course of a long life, will amount to upwards of three hundred weight. Is not this sufficient to make governments more attentive to this circumstance?

[Although not very agreeable to the reader to learn that he swallows above six pounds of mill-stone powder in the course of the year, it may perhaps ease his mind to know that the learned author is entirely mistaken in regarding it as a poison. The inhabitants of the northern countries of Europe frequently mix quartz powder with their heavy food to assist in its digestion; and we are informed by Professor Ehrenberg, that in times of scarcity, the inhabitants of Lapland mix the siliceous shells of some species of fossil Infusoria with the ground bark of trees for food. It is probably from this circumstance that the infusorial deposit derives its name of Berg-mehl, or Mountain-meal.]

134

For the following important information I am indebted to Professor Baldinger: – “There is no doubt that the slow poison of the French and Italians, commonly called succession powder (poudre de la succession), owes its origin to sugar of lead. I know a chemist who superintends the laboratory of a certain prince on the confines of Bohemia, and who by the orders (perhaps not very laudable) of his patron, has spent much time and labour in strengthening and moderating poisons. He has often declared, that of sugar of lead, with the addition of some more volatile corrosive, a very slow poison could be prepared; which, if swallowed by a dog or other animal, would insensibly destroy it, without any violent symptoms, in the course of some weeks or months.”

135

Garelli, the emperor’s principal physician, lately wrote to me something remarkable in the following words: – “Your elegant dissertation on the errors respecting poisons brought to my recollection a certain slow poison, which that infamous poisoner, still alive in prison at Naples, employed to the destruction of upwards of six hundred persons. It was nothing else than crystallised arsenic, dissolved in a large quantity of water by decoction, with the addition, but for what purpose I know not, of the herb cymbalaria. This was communicated to me by his imperial majesty himself, to whom the judicial procedure, confirmed by the confession of the criminal, was transmitted. This water, in the Neapolitan dialect, is called aqua del Toffnina. It is certain death, and many have fallen a sacrifice to it.” – Hoffmanni Med. Rationalis System., p. ii. c. 2. § 19.

136

Ueber die Arsenikvergiftung. Leips. 1786, 8vo, p. 35.

137

On the 20th of December, 1765, died the dauphin, father of Louis XVI., and in 1767 died the dauphiness. It was a public report that they were both despatched by secret poison: and the gradual decline of their health, the other circumstances which accompanied their illness, and the cabals which then existed at court, make this at least not improbable. Many private anecdotes respecting these events may be found in a book entitled L’Espion Dévalisé. Feliciter audax. London, 1782. In page 61 it is said, that on account of the suspicions then entertained, it was wished that information might be procured respecting secret poison, and the methods of preparing it; and that the abbé Gagliani, well known as a writer, has given the following: – “It is certain that in Europe the preparation of these drugs renders them pernicious and mortal. For example, at Naples the mixture of opium and cantharides, in known doses, is a slow poison; the surest of all, and the more infallible as one cannot mistrust it. At first it is given in small doses, that its effects may be insensible. In Italy we call it aqua di Tufania, Tufania water. No one can avoid its attacks, because the liquor obtained from that composition is as limpid as rock water, and without taste. Its effects are slow and almost imperceptible: a few drops of it only are poured into tea, chocolate, or soup, &c. There is not a lady at Naples who has not some of it lying carelessly on her toilette with her smelling-bottles. She alone knows the phial, and can distinguish it. Even the waiting-woman, who is her confidant, is not in the secret, and takes this phial for distilled water, or water obtained by precipitation, which is the purest, and which is used to moderate perfumes when they are too strong.

“The effects of this poison are very simple. A general indisposition is at first felt in the whole frame. The physician examines you, and perceiving no symptoms of disease, either external or internal, no obstructions, no collection of humours, no inflammations, orders detergents, regimen, and evacuation. The dose of poison is then doubled, and the same indisposition continues without being more characterized. The physician, who can see in this nothing extraordinary, ascribes the state of the patient to viscous and peccant humours, which have not been sufficiently carried off by the first evacuation. He orders a second – a third dose – a third evacuation – a fourth dose. The physician then sees that the disease has escaped him; that he has mistaken it, and that the cause of it cannot be discovered but by changing the regimen. He orders the waters, &c. In a word, the noble parts lose their tone, become relaxed and affected, and the lungs particularly, as the most delicate of all, and one of those most employed in the functions of the animal œconomy. The first illness then carries you off; because the critical accumulation settles always on the weak part, and consequently on the lobes of the lungs; the pus there fixes itself, and the disease becomes incurable. By this method they follow one as long as they choose for months, and for years. Robust constitutions resist a long time. In short, it is not the liquor alone that kills, it is rather the different remedies, which alter and then destroy the temperament, exhaust the strength, extenuate and render one incapable of supporting the first indisposition that comes.”

138

England und Italien, ii. p. 354.

139

Universal History, xxiii. p. 299–323. – The information contained there is taken from Fraser’s History of Nadir Shah. Aurengzebe also caused one of his sons to be put to death by this poison.

140

Georg. iv. 171.

141

Lib. vii.

142

Epist. 90.

143

Lib. i. 8.

144

A complete description and a figure of these bellows may be found in Schluter’s Unterricht von Hütten-werken. Brunswick, 1738. – Traité de la fonte des mines par le feu du charbon de terre; par M. de Genssane. Paris, 1770, 2 vols. 4to. [Ure’s Dictionary, p. 1128, also contains an excellent figure of these wooden bellows.]

145

“Germany is the country of machines. In general the Germans lessen manual labour considerably by machines adapted to every kind of movement; not that we are destitute of able mechanics; we have the talent of bringing to perfection the machines invented by our neighbours.” – P. 200. [This remark of Grignon will sound rather odd to English ears.]

146

Becher’s Narrische Weisheit und weise Narrheit. Frankfort, 1683, 12mo, p. 113.

147

In this dissertation, the time of the invention is stated to be about forty years before, which would be the year 1629 or 1630; but in an improved edition, printed with additions at Hamburg, in 1725, a different period is given. “About eighty years ago,” says the author, “a new kind of bellows, which ought rather to be called the pneumatic chests, was invented in the village of Schmalebuche, in the principality of Coburg, in Franconia. Two brothers, millers in that village, Martin and Nicholas Schelhorn, by means of some box made by them, the lid of which fitted very exactly, found out these chests, as I was told by one of their friends, a man worthy of credit. These chests are not of leather, but entirely of wood joined together with iron nails. In blacksmiths’ shops they are preferred to those constructed with leather, because they emit a stronger blast, as leather suffers the more subtile part of the air to escape through its pores.”

148

In many places these bellows were at first put in a wooden case, to prevent their construction from being known.

149

In J. P. Ludewig, Scriptores Rerum Episcopatus Bambergensis. Francof. 1718, fol. Where any bishop of latter times is praised, I find no mention of this useful and ingenious invention.

150

See Leges XII. tab. illustratæ a J. N. Funccio, p. 72. Gellius, xx. 1.

151

Scheffer de Re Vehiculari, Spanhem. de Præstant. Numismatum. Amst. 1671, 4to, p. 613. Propertius, iv. 8. 23, mentions serica carpenta.

152

In my opinion the height here alluded to is to be understood as that of the body, rather than that of the wheels, as some think.

153

Codex Theodos. lib. xiv. tit. 12. and Cod. Justin. lib. xi. tit. 19.

154

Lersner, Chronica der Stadt Frankfurt, i. p. 23.

155

Sacrarum Cæremoniarum Romanæ Ecclesiæ Libri tres, auctore J. Catalano. Romæ, 1750, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 131.

156

See Cæremoniæ Episcoporum, lib. i. c. 11.

157

Ludewig’s Erläuter. der Güldenen Bulle. Franc. 1719, vol. i. p. 569.

158

Ludolf, Electa Juris Publici, v. p. 417.

159

Ludolf, l. c.

160

Sattler, Historische Beschreibung des Herzogthums Würtemberg.

161

Suite des Mémoires pour servir à l’Hist. de Brandenburg, p. 63, where the royal author adds, “The common use of carriages is not older than the time of John Sigismund.”

162

Annal. Ferdin. V. p. 2199; and vii. p. 375.

163

In Suite des Mém. pour serv. à l’Hist. de Brandenburg, p. 63, it is remarked that they were coarse coaches, composed of four boards put together in a clumsy manner.

164

Rink, Leben K. Leopold, p. 607.

165

Lünig’s Theatr. Cer. i. p. 289.

166

Ludolf, v. p. 416. Von Moser’s Hofrecht, ii. p. 337.

167

Lunig. Corp. Jur. Feud. Germ. ii. p. 1447.

168

An attempt was made also to prevent the use of coaches by a law in Hungary in 1523.

169

Histoire des Antiquités de Paris, par Sauval, i. p. 187.

170

Sauval; also Mezeray, Abregé Chron. de l’Histoire de France. Amsterdam, 1696, iii. p. 167.

171

This ordinance is to be found also in Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, i. p. 418.

172

Valesiana. Paris, 1695, 12mo, p. 35.

173

Variétés Historiques, p. 96.

174

Sauval says, “I shall here remark, that this was the first time coaches were used for that ceremony (the entrance of ambassadors), and that it was only at this period they were invented, and began to be used.”

175

L’Art du Menuisier-carossier, p. 457, planche 171.

176

Stow’s Survey of London, 1633, fol. p. 70.

177

Anderson’s Hist. of Commerce, iv. p. 180.

178

Arnot’s Hist. of Edinburgh, p. 596.

179

Twiss’s Travels through Spain and Portugal.

180

Dalin, Geschichte des Reichs Schweden, iii. 1, p. 390 and 402.

181

Bacmeister, Essai sur la Bibliothèque de l’Académie de S. Pétersburg, 1776, 8vo, p. 38.

182

Joh. Ihre, Glossarium Sueogothic. i. col. 1178. Kusk, a coachman. It seems properly to denote the carriage itself. Gall. cocher. Hisp. id. Ital. cocchio. Ang. coach. Hung. cotczy. Belg. goetse. Germ. kutsche. The person who drives such carriages is by the English called coachman, which in other languages is made shorter, as the French say cocher, and the Germans kusk. It is difficult, however, to determine whence it is derived, as we do not know by whom these close carriages were invented. Menage makes it Latin, and by a far-fetched derivation from vehiculum; Junius derives it somewhat shorter from ὀχέω to carry. Wachter thinks it comes from the German word kutten, to cover; and Lye from the Belgic koetsen, to lie along, as it properly signifies a couch or chair.

183

Ungrisches Magaz. Pressburg, 1781, vol. i. p. 15.

184

Stephanus Broderithus says, speaking of the year 1526, “When the archbishop received certain intelligence that the Turks had entered Hungary, not contented with informing the king by letter of this event, he speedily got into one of those light carriages, which, from the name of the place, we call Kotcze, and hastened to his majesty.” Siegmund baron Herberstein, ambassador from Louis II. to the king of Hungary, says, in Commentario de Rebus Moscoviticis, Basil 1571, fol. p. 145, where he occasionally mentions some stages in Hungary, “The fourth stage for stopping to give the horses breath is six miles below Jaurinum, in the village of Cotzi, from which both drivers and carriages take their name, and are still generally called cotzi.” That the word coach is of Hungarian extraction is confirmed also by John Cuspinianus (Spiesshammer), physician to the emperor Maximilian I., in Bell’s Appar. ad Histor. Hungariæ, dec. 1, monum. 6, p. 292. “Many of the Hungarians rode in those light carriages called in their native tongue Kottschi.” In Czvittinger’s Specimen Hungariæ Litteratæ, Franc. et Lips. 1711, 4to, we find an account of the service rendered to the arts and sciences by the Hungarians; but the author nowhere makes mention of coaches.

185

In his Account of the German War, p. 612.

186

Examples may be seen in Frisch’s German Dictionary, where it appears that the beds which are used for raising tobacco plants are at present called Tabacks kutschen, tobacco beds. This expression is old, for I find it in Pet. Laurembergii Horticultura, Franc. 1631, p. 43.

187

Roubo, p. 457. The historian, however, gives it no name.

188

“Berlin. A kind of carriage which takes its name from the city of Berlin, in Germany; though some persons ascribe the invention of it to the Italians, and pretend to find the etymology of it in berlina, a name which the latter give to a kind of stage on which criminals are exposed to public ignominy.” – Encyclopédie, ii. p. 209.

189

Nicolai Beschreibung von Berlin, Anhang, p. 67.

190

At Rome, however, at a very early period, there appears to have been carriages to be let out for hire: Suetonius calls them (i. chap. 57) rheda meritoria, and (iv. c. 39) meritoria vehicula.

191

Charles Villerme paid in 1650, into the king’s treasury, for the exclusive privilege of keeping coaches for hire within the city of Paris, 15,000 livres.

192

A full history of the Parisian fiacres, and the orders issued respecting them, may be seen in Continuation du Traité de la Police. Paris, 1738, fol. p. 435. See also Histoire de la Ville de Paris, par Sauval, i. p. 192.

193

An account of the manner in which these brouettes were suspended may be seen in Roubo, p. 588. He places the invention of post-chaises in the year 1664.

194

Anderson’s Hist. of Commerce.

195

Haubers Beschr. von Copenhagen, p. 173.

196

Twiss’s Travels through Spain and Portugal.

197

[Sextus Empiricus (Adv. Math. cap. 21) says that the Chaldæans divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts, as they supposed, by allowing water to run out of a small orifice during the whole revolution of a star, and dividing the fluid into 12 equal parts, the time answering to each part being taken for that of the passage of a sign over the horizon.]

198

Lib. ix. c. 9.

199

[Some mode of measuring time by the reflux of water, however rude it might be, was used at Athens before the time of Ctesibius, as we see by various passages in Demosthenes.]

200

Auctor Dialog. de Caus. Cor. Eloq. 38. – The orators were confined to a certain time; and hence Cicero says, latrare ad clepsydram.

201

Some account of the writers who have spoken of the water-clocks of the ancients may be found in Fabricii Bibliograph. Antiquaria, p. 1011. They were formerly used for astronomical observations. The authors who treat of them in this respect are mentioned in Riccioli Almagest. Novo, i. p. 117.

202

In that year Kircher’s Ars Umbræ et Lucis was published for the first time. In the edition of 1671, several kinds of water-clocks are described, p. 698.

203

A particular account of these water-clocks is to be found in Ozanam, Recréations Math. et Physiques [republished in Hutton’s Mathematical Recreations, ii. 40]. Bion on Mathematical Instruments.

204

Muschenbroek, Philos. Natur. i. p. 143.

205

Journal des Sçavans, 1691.

206

This monk may be considered as the restorer of the clepsydra, or clock which measures time by the fall of a certain quantity of water confined in a cylindric vessel. These clocks were in use among ancient nations. They are said to have been invented at the time when the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt. Dom Vailly, who applied himself particularly to practical mathematics, having remarked the faults of these clocks, bestowed much labour in order to bring them to perfection; and by a number of experiments, combinations, and calculations, he was at length able to carry them to that which they have attained at present. At the time of their arrival they were very much in vogue in France. – Hist. Littéraire de la Congr. de St. Maur, ordre de S. Bénoit. Bruxelles, 1770, 4to, p. 478.

207

Ozanam, ii. p. 475.

208

Alexander will not admit this to be the case. “It is possible,” says he, “that two persons of penetrating genius may have discovered the same thing.”

209

Art du potier d’étain, par Salmon. Paris, 1788, fol. p. 131.

210

Theophrast. De Lapidibus, edit. Heinsii, fol. p. 395, and Plin. lib. xxxvii. c. 3, and lib. viii. c. 38.

211

Epiphanius De XII Gemmis.

212

J. de Laet De Gemmis. 1647, 8vo, p. 155.

213

Phil. Trans. vol. li. 1. p. 394.

214

Recueil de Mem. sur la Tourmaline, par Æpinus. Petersb. 1762, 8vo, p. 122.

215

Gemm. et Lapidum Historia. 1647, 8vo, p. 441, 450.

216

Plin. lib. xxxvii. c. 7.

217

India produces also the lychnites, the splendour of which is heightened when seen by the light of lamps; and on this account it has been so called by the Greeks. It is of two colours; either a bright purple, or a clear red, and if pure is thoroughly transparent. When heated by the rays of the sun, or by friction, it attracts chaff and shavings of paper. It obstinately resists the art of the engraver. – Solinus, c. lii. p. 59. Traj. 1689, fol.

218

“Hager albuzedi is a red stone, but less so than the hyacinth, the redness of which is more agreeable to the eye, as there is no obscurity in it. The mines where this stone is found are in the East. When taken from the mine it is opake; but when divested of its outer coat by a lapidary, its goodness is discovered, and it becomes transparent. When this stone has been strongly rubbed against the hair of the head it attracts chaff, as the magnet does iron.” – Serapionis Lib. de simplicibus medicinis. Argent. 1531, fol. p. 263.

219

Curiöse Speculationes bey Schlaf-losen Nächten, 8vo, Chemnitz, 1707. The author’s name appears to be expressed by the initials I. G. S. This work consists of forty-eight dialogues, each twelve of which have a distinct title.

220

Frankf. 1713, 8vo.

221

I shall here lay before the reader the whole passage, taken from Histoire de l’Académie for 1717, p. 7: – “Here we have a small magnet. It is a stone found in a river of the island of Ceylon. It is of the size of a denier, flat, orbicular, about the tenth part of an inch in thickness, of a brown colour, smooth and shining, without smell and without taste, which attracts and afterwards repels small light bodies, such as ashes, filings of iron, and bits of paper. It was shown by M. Lemery. It is not common, and that which he had cost twenty-five livres (about twenty shillings sterling). When a needle has been touched with a loadstone, the south pole of the loadstone attracts the north pole of the needle, and repels its south pole: thus it attracts or repels different parts of the same body, according as they are presented to it, and it always attracts or repels the same. But the stone of Ceylon attracts, and then repels in the like manner, the same small body presented to it: in this it is very different from the loadstone. It would seem that it has a vortex…”

222

“I must not omit to mention that the rivers contain the electric stone, which is of the size of a halfpenny, flat, orbicular, shining, smooth, of a brown colour, one-tenth of an inch in thickness, without smell and without taste, and which attracts light bodies, such as ashes, filings of iron, shavings of paper, &c., and afterwards repels them. A wonderful and singular property, discovered and observed in this stone alone, when neither heated by motion nor by friction.”

223

[Light is called polarized, which, having been once reflected or refracted, is incapable of being again reflected or refracted in certain positions of the second medium. Ordinarily, light which has been reflected from a pane of glass or any other substance, may be a second time reflected from another surface, and will also freely pass through transparent bodies. But if a ray of light be reflected from a pane of glass at an angle of 57°, it is rendered totally incapable of reflexion from the surface of another pane in some positions, whilst it will be completely reflected by it in others. If a plate of tourmaline, cut in the manner described above, or a Nichol’s prism be held between the eye and a candle, and turned slowly round in its own plane, no change will take place in the image of the candle; but if the plate or prism be fixed in a vertical position, on interposing another of the same kind between the former and the eye, parallel to the first, and turning it round slowly in its own plane, the image of the candle will be found to vanish and re-appear alternately at each quarter turn of the plate, varying through all degrees of brightness down to total or almost total evanescence, and then increasing again by the same degrees as it had before decreased. These changes depend upon the relative positions of the plates; when the longitudinal sections of the two plates are parallel, the brightness of the image is at its maximum; and when the axes of the sections cross at right angles, the image of the candle vanishes. Thus the light, in passing through the first plate of tourmaline, has acquired a property totally different from the ordinary light of the candle; the latter would penetrate the second plate equally well in all directions, whereas the altered light will only pass through it in particular positions, and is altogether incapable of penetrating it in others. The light is polarized by passing through the first plate or prism. Thus, one of the properties of polarized light is proved to be the incapability of passing through a plate of tourmaline perpendicular to it in certain positions, and its ready transmission in other positions at right angles to the former.]