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

1070

Rit. Ant. tom. iv. p. 5. “Facta autem jam hora octava, modicum erit amplius de media nocte quando surrexerit, horologio excitante, qui habet horologium custodire, et accensis lucernis ecclesiæ, quæ poterant propter prolixitatem noctis fuisse obscuratæ, ac pulsatis campanis ad dormientium fratrum excitationem, potuit transire dimidia octavæ horæ antequam surrexerint fratres.”

1071

Cap. 774. “Excitabit aliquis a superiore deputatus, qui horologium excitatorium habeat; ad omnes quoque cellas lumen deferat.”

1072

“Eodem anno, Saladinus Egyptiorum Frederico imperatori dono misit per suos oratores tentorium pretiosum, mirabili arte compositum, cujus pretii æstimatio quinque ducatorum millium procul valorem excessit. Nam ad similitudinem sphærarum cælestium intrinsecus videbatur constructum, in quo imagines solis, lunæ, ac reliquorum planetarum artificiosissime compositæ movebantur ponderibus et rotis incitatæ; ita videlicet, quod, cursum suum certis ac debitis spatiis peragentes, horas tam noctis quam diei infallibili demonstratione designabant; imagines quoque xii signorum zodiaci certis distinctionibus suis motæ cum firmamento cursum in se planetarum continebant.”

1073

De Anima, c. i. p. 7, 72. “Nec te conturbant, inquit, motus horologiorum, qui per aquam fiunt et pondera, quæ quidem ad breve tempus et modicum fiunt, et indigent renovatione frequenti, et aptatione instrumentorum suorum, atque operatione forinsecus, astrologi videlicet qui peritiam habet hujus artificii. In corporibus vero animalium vel etiam vegetabilium totum intus est, intra ea scilicet, quod motus eorum atque partium suarum moderatur, et regit, ac modis omnibus perficit.”

1074

Parad. cant. xxiv. ver. 13.

1075

“Electus in monasterii præsidem – cum jam per amplas licebat fortunas, voluit illustri aliquo opere non modo ingenii, verum etiam eruditionis ac artis excellentis miraculum ostendere. Ergo talem horologii fabricam magno labore, majore sumtu, arte vero maxima compegit, qualem non habet tota, mea opinione, Europa secundam; sive quis cursum solis ac lunæ, seu fixa sidera notet, sive iterum maris incrementa et decrementa, seu lineas una cum figuris ac demonstrationibus ad infinitum pene variis consideret: cumque opus æternitate dignissimum ad umbilicum perduxisset, canones, ut erat in mathesi omnium sui temporis facile primus, edito in hoc libro scripsit, ne tam insignis machina errore monachorum vilesceret, aut incognito structuræ ordine sileret.” – See Tanneri Biblioth. Brit. Hibern. p. 629.

1076

In Vit. Princip. Carrar. ap. Murator. tom. xvi. p. 171. “Horologium, quo per diem et noctem quatuor et viginti horarum spatia sponte sua designarentur, in summa turri constituendum curavit.”

1077

See Scardeonius De Antiq. Urbis Patavii, lib. ii. class. 9, p. 205, ed. Basil, 1560, fol. and the authors which he quotes.

1078

“In quo erat firmamentum, et omnium planetarum sphæræ, ut sic siderum omnium motus, veluti in cœlo, comprehendantur; festa edicta in dies monstrat, plurimaque alia oculis stupenda; tantaque fuit ejus horologii admiranda congeries, ut usque modo post ejus relictam lucem corrigere, et pondera convenientia assignare sciverit astrologus nemo. Verum de Francia nuper astrologus et fabricator magnus, fama horologii tanti ductus, Papiam venit, plurimisque diebus in rotas congregandas elaboravit; tandemque actum est, ut in unum, eo quo decebat ordine, composuerit, motumque ut decet dederit.” – These are the words of Mich. Savanarola in Comm. de Laud. Patav. in Muratori, vol. xxiv. col. 1164.

1079

In Muratori, tom. xviii. p. 444. “A di 8 di Aprile fu tolta via la campana grossa della torre, ch’ era nel palazzo di Messer Giovanni signor di Bologna, il qual palazzo dicevasi della Biada; e fu menata nella Corte del Capitano, e tirata e posta sulla Torre del Capitano nel Mercoledi Santo; e questo fu l’ orologio, il quale fu il primo, che avesse mai il Commune di Bologna, e si commincio a sonare a di 19 di Maggio, il quale lo fece fare Messer Giovanni.”

1080

Moreri, Diction. art. Horloge du Palais.

1081

In the account of the astronomical clock at Strasburg, to be found in lac. von Königshovens Elsass und Strasb. Chronik. p. 574.

1082

“Le duc de Bourgogne fit oster un horloge (qui sonnoit les heures), l’un des plus beaux qu’on seust trouver deçà ne delà la mer: et celui horloge fit tout mettre, par membres et pieces, sur chars, et la cloche aussi. Lequel horloge fut amené et charroyé en la ville de Digeon en Bourgogne, et fut là remis et assis: et y sonne les heures vingt-quatre, entre jour et nui.” – Vol. ii. c. 128, p. 229.

1083

Lib. vii. c. 69, towards the end.

1084

Thes. Ital. iii. p. 3, p. 308.

1085

Politiani Op. 1533, 8vo, p. 121.

1086

“Horologium tuum mox, ut tuas accepi literas, paravi, misissemque, si fuisset præsto qui afferret. Ipsam mundari feci, nam erat pulvere obsitum, atque ideo, ne libere posset incedere. retardabatur. Et quia ne sic quidem recte currebat, Angelo illi illustri adolescenti harum rerum peritissimo dedi.”

1087

This sonnet I shall here transcribe from A. Saxii Hist. Litterario-typographica Mediolan.: —

Hò certa occulta forza in la secretaParte del cor, qual sempre si lavoraDe sera a sera, e d’una a l’altra aurora,Che non spero la mente aver mai quieta.Legger ben mi potria ogni discretaVista nel fronte, ove amor coloraD’affanno e di dolore il punto e l’ora,E la cagion, che riposar mi vieta.L’umil squilletta sona il pio lamento,Che spesso mando al cielo, e la fortuna,Per disfogar cridando il fier tormento.De le feste annual non ne mostro una,Ma pianeti iracondi, e di spavento,Eclipsati col sole, e con la luna.

Dominico Maria Manni, in his book De Florentinis Inventis, chap. 29, calls the artist Lorenzo a Vulparia, and says that he was a native of Florence.

1088

Added to his Comm. in Pomp. Melam, cap. de Noriberga. “Eum juvenem adhuc admodum, opera efficere, quæ vel doctissimi admirentur mathematici. Nam ex ferro parva fabricat horologia plurimis digesta rotulis, quæ, quocunque vertantur, absque ullo pondere, et monstrant et pulsant xl horas, etiam si in sinu marsupiove contineantur.”

1089

This article was written by the Hon. Daines Barrington. It is here given with the addition of Professor Beckmann’s notes, which are distinguished by the initials of his name.

1090

Dante, Paradiso, c. x.

1091

Selden, in his preface to Hengham.

1092

Mic. 2 Ric. III.

1093

We find that this clock was considered, during the reign of Henry VI., to be of such consequence, that the king gave the keeping of it, with the appurtenances, to William Warby, dean of St. Stephens, together with the pay of sixpence per diem, to be received at the Exchequer. See Stow’s London, vol. ii. p. 55. The clock at St. Mary’s, Oxford, was also furnished in 1523, out of fines imposed on the students of the university.

1094

III. Inst. p. 72.

1095

IV. Inst. p. 255.

1096

p. 55, in his Additions to Stow. This clock-house continued in a ruined state till the year 1715. – Grose’s Antiquarian Repertory, p. 280.

1097

Dart’s Canterbury, Appendix, p. 3.

1098

Chaucer was born in 1328, and died in 1400.

1099

To the time of queen Elizabeth clocks were often called orologes:

He’ll watch the horologe a double set,

If drink rock not his cradle. – Othello, act ii. sc. 3.

by which the double set of twelve hours on a clock is plainly alluded to, as not many more than twelve can be observed on a dial; and in the same tragedy this last time-measurer is called by its proper name:

More tedious than the dial eight score times. – Ibid. act iii. sc. 4.

The clock of Wells cathedral is also, to this day, called the horologe.

1100

See Dugdale’s Origines Jurid. Lydgate, therefore, who wrote before the time of Henry VIII., says,

I will myself be your orologere

To-morrow early. – Prologue to the Storye of Thebes.

1101

Leland de Script. Brit. [The translation of this passage will be found at p. 350.]

1102

Froissart, vol. ii. ch. 127.

1103

Falconet, Mémoires de Litt. vol. xx.

1104

See Carpentier, art. Horologiator.

1105

Mr. Peckett, an ingenious apothecary of Compton Street, Soho, hath shown me an astronomical clock which belonged to the late Mr. Ferguson, and which still continues to go. The workmanship on the outside is elegant, and it appears to have been made by a German in 1525, by the subjoined inscription in the Bohemian of the time:

Iar. da. macht. mich. Iacob. ZechZu. Prag. ist. bar. da. man. zalt. 1525

The above Englished:

Year. when. made. me. Jacob. ZechAt. Prague. is. true. when. counted. 1525

The diameter of the clock is nine inches three-fourths, and the height five inches.

[I have transposed the words, as I find them in the original; but war seems to have stood in the place of bar, at least Barrington has translated it by is true, and we must read,

Da man zält 1525 jar

Da macht mich Iacob Zech zu Prag ist wahr. – I. B.]

1106

I am also referred by the Rev. Mr. Bowle, F.S.A., to the following passage in the Abridged History of Spain, vol. i. p. 568: “The first clock seen in Spain was set up in the cathedral of Seville, 1400.”

1107

The oldest clock we have in England that is supposed to go tolerably, is of the preceding year, viz. 1540, the initial letters of the maker’s name being N. O. It is in the palace at Hampton Court. – Derham’s Artificial Clock-maker.

1108

A German translation of this book is added to Welper’s Gnomick. – I. B.

1109

That distinguished antiquary Horace Walpole has in his possession a clock, which appears by the inscription to have been a present from Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn. Poynet, bishop of Winchester, likewise gave an astronomical clock to the same king. – Godwyn de Præsul.

1110

Mémoires de Litt. vol. xx. See also Hardwicke’s Collection of State Papers, vol. i. p. 53.

1111

Vol. xx.

1112

A clockmaker of this city (Göttingen) assured me that several watches which had catgut instead of a chain, were brought to him to be repaired. I. B. [Sir Richard Burton, of Sackets Hill, Isle of Thanet, has now in his possession an early silver watch, presumed to be of the time of queen Elizabeth, in which catgut is a substitute for chain.

A similar watch is also in the possession of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart., which formerly belonged to the unfortunate queen Mary, and descended to him from the Seton family. It is made of silver in the form of a death’s head, with open work for the escape of sound, the other parts covered with emblematical engraving. It appears originally to have been constructed with catgut, but now has a chain. It goes extremely well, but requires winding-up every twenty-six hours to keep it accurately to time. Queen Mary bequeathed it to Mary Seton, February 7, 1587. An engraving with a very full description of this curious watch, will be found in Smith’s Historical and Literary Curiosities, Lond. 1845, 4to, plate 96. – H. G. B.]

1113

Barrington says here, in a note, “Pancirollus informs us, that about the end of the fifteenth century watches were made no larger than an almond, by a man whose name was Mermecide. – Encyclop.” The first part of this assertion is to be found, indeed, in Pancirollus, edition of Frankfort, 1646, 4to, ii. p. 168; but Myrmecides was an ancient Greek artist, whose παραναλώματα, or uncommonly small pieces of mechanism, are spoken of by Cicero and Pliny. He is not mentioned by Pancirollus, but by Salmuth, p. 231. It is probable that this error may be in the Encyclopédie; at least Barrington refers to it as his authority. – I. B.

1114

Somner’s Canterbury, Supplement, No. xiv. p. 36. See also, in an extract from archbishop Parker’s will, made April 5th, 1575: “Do et lego fratri meo Ricardo episcopo Eliensi baculum meum de canna Indica, qui horologium habet in summitate.” As likewise in the brief of his goods, &c., No. xiv. p. 39, a clock valued at 54l. 4s.

1115

Stow’s Chron. p. 878; and Introduct. to Mr. Reuben Burrow’s Almanac for 1778.

1116

More particularly Dr. Hook, Tompion, &c.

1117

The ninth and tenth of William III. ch. 28, s. 2.

1118

This letter, signed John Jamieson, and dated Forfar, August 20th, 1785, is taken from the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. ii. p. 688.

One of my literary friends in London, to whom I am indebted for much learned information, says in a letter which I received from him, “I had never believed the story of Robert Bruce’s watch, mentioned in your translation of Barrington’s History of Clocks, the more as Mr. Barrington is famous for being in the wrong; but in the Gentleman’s Magazine there is a full account of the origin of this imposition.” As this error occurs in a paper which I have endeavoured to render more public by a translation, I consider myself bound to give a translation of this letter also. – B.

1119

The passage may be found, vol. i. p. 95, of the edition in quarto. Edinburgh, 1774: “Pocket-watches were brought there from Germany, an. 1577.” Home, or Lord Kaimes, however, was too celebrated or too artful a writer to produce proofs of his historical assertions. – B.

1120

This was first used early in the sixteenth century.

1121

A very detailed and learned pamphlet has just been written on this beautiful escapement by Benjamin L. Vulliamy, F.R.A.S., clock-maker to the Queen, entitled, ‘On the Construction and Theory of the Dead-Beat Escapement of Clocks.’

1122

“I know not what such an undertaking would be even to the devil himself, but to man it would, undoubtedly, be the height of folly.”

1123

The details of this dispute may be found in the “Applications of the Electric Fluid to the Useful Arts,” by Mr. Alexander Bain. Lond. 1843. Professor Wheatstone’s clock, &c. is described in the Phil. Trans. for 1841.

1124

[This opinion is not generally admitted by the most experienced medical men in this country. It is a disputed point whether the plague is even contagious; and the mass of evidence is in favour of its being so occasionally, but that the plague is usually not propagated in this manner. The disappearance of this pest from our own and most other countries of Europe is undoubtedly owing to the much greater attention paid to drainage, ventilation, and the prevention of the accumulation of filth in the streets, &c. When the peculiar atmospheric conditions upon which its diffusion depends are present, quarantine has proved insufficient to prevent its propagation.]

1125

The oldest plague of which we find any account in history, that so fully described by Thucydides, book ii., was expressly said to have come from Egypt. Evagrius in his Histor. Ecclesiast. iv. 29, and Procopius De Bello Persico, ii. 22, affirm also that the dreadful plague in the time of the emperor Justinian was likewise brought from Egypt. It is worthy of remark, that on both these occasions, the plague was traced even still further than Egypt; for Thucydides and the writers above-quoted say that the infection first broke out in Ethiopia, and spread thence into Egypt and other countries.

1126

They may be found in Muratori Scriptores Rerum Italic. tom. xvi. p. 560, and xviii. p. 82, thence copied into Chenot, p. 147. See also Boccacio, Decamer. Amst. 1679, p. 2.

1127

[“The Venetians seem to have been the first who established quarantine in their dominions about the year 1484, soon after the Turks became their neighbours in Europe; the constant intercourse which they maintained with those powerful neighbours, either in war or by commerce, rendering it necessary for them to take this and other precautions against the introduction of this contagion into their country.”]

1128

De Peste, in Mead’s Opera Medica.

1129

Everything said by Le Bret on this subject may be found equally full in D. C. Tentori, Saggio sulla Storia Civile, &c., della Republica di Venezia. Ven. 1786, 8vo, t. vi. p. 391. As Sandi in his Principi di Storia Civile della Republica di Venezia, 9 vols. 4to, 1755–1769, gives the same account, lib. viii. cap. 8. art. 4, they must have both got their information from the same source.

1130

Historia Vinitiana. Vinegia, 1552, 4to, lib. i. p. 10.

1131

L’Hoggidi, overo il mondo non peggiore, ne più calamitoso del passato. Ven. 1627, 8vo, p. 610.

1132

De Republica Venetorum, lib. iv.

1133

Thesaurus Antiquitatum Italiæ, v. 2, p. 241.

1134

Topografia Veneta, overo Descrizione della Stato Veneto. Venezia, 1786, 8vo, iv. p. 263.

1135

Lib. i. cap. 11, p. 65.

1136

Account of the principal Lazarettos, Lond. 1789, 4to, p. 12.

1137

Cronica di Verona, in Verona, 1747, 4to, iii. p. 93.

1138

See G. W. Wedelii exercitatio de quadragesima medica, in his Centuria Exercitationum Medico-philologicarum. Jenæ, 1701, 4to, decas iv. p. 16. Wedel mentions various diseases in which Hippocrates determines the fortieth day to be critical. Compare Rieger in Hippocratis Aphoris. Hag. Com. 1767, 8vo, i. p. 221.

1139

Martini Lange Rudimenta Doctrinæ de Peste. Offenbachii 1791, 8vo. See Gottingische Anzeigen von gelehrt. Sachen, 1791, p. 1799.

1140

The simplest or worst articles are not always the oldest or the first. The deterioration of a commodity is often the continuation of an invention, which, when once begun, is by industry practised in every form, in order that new gain may be acquired from each variation. The earliest printers, for example, had not the art of printing with such slight ink and on such bad paper as ours commonly employ; and Aldus, perhaps, were he now alive, would be astonished at the cheap mode of printing some of our most useful and popular books.

1141

Origny, in Dictionnaire des Origines, v. p. 332. Journal Œconomique, 1755, Mars, p. 86. Savary, Dictionnaire de Commerce, iv. p. 903.

1142

I shall here insert the words of the patent: “To all those to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas our trusty and well-beloved subject and servant Jerome Lanyard hath informed us, that he by his endeavours hath found out an art and mystery by affixing of wool, silk and other materials of divers colours upon linen cloth, silk, cotton, leather and other substances, with oil, size and other cements, to make them useful and serviceable for hangings and other occasions, which he calleth Londrindiana, and that the said art is of his own invention, not formerly used by any other within this realm, &c.” – Rymeri Fœdera, tom. xix. London, 1732, fol. p. 554. The following observations may serve to illustrate all works of this nature in general. Painting, according to the most common technical meaning, may be divided into three kinds. In the first the colours or pigments are mixed with a viscous or glutinous fluid to bind them, and make them adhere to the body which is to be painted. Gums, glue, varnish, &c. may be used for this purpose. Vegetable colours will not admit of such additions, because they contain gum in their natural composition. Another kind consists in previously washing over the parts that are to be painted with some viscous substance, and then laying on the colours as the figures may require. Size or cement (I use the word in the most extensive sense) is of such a nature that either in drying or glazing it becomes hard, and binds the colours. To this method belongs not only gilding, imitating bronze and making velvet-paper-hangings, but also painting on glass and in enamel. By the third method the colours are applied to the ground without any binding substance: they are therefore more liable to decay, as is the case in painting with crayons; but they will however adhere better when the pigments consist of very fine particles like ceruse, or black-lead. It would be a great acquisition if a substance could be found out to bind the colours used in this art without injuring them, or to fix the crayons. The third kind of painting is not with colours, but with different bodies ready coloured, which are joined together in pieces according to a copy, either by cement or plaster, as in mosaic, or by working them into each other, as in weaving and sewing, which is painting with the needle… Are not the works of art almost like those of nature, each connected together as a chain? Do not the boundaries of one art approach those of another? Do they not even touch each other? Those who do not perceive this approximation are like people unacquainted with botany, who cannot remark the natural order of plants. But if a connoisseur observe a gap in the chain of artificial works, we are to suppose that some links are still wanting, the discovery of which may become a merit to more ingenious ages.

1143

Journal Œconomique, 1756, Fevrier, p. 92.

1144

Both his brothers, John and Benedict Audran, were celebrated engravers.

1145

Nachrichten von Künstlern und Künstsachen. Leipzig, 1768, 8vo, ii. p. 56. The author, giving an account of his travels through the Netherlands, says, “Before I leave the Hague I must not omit to mention M. Eccard’s particular invention for making paper-hangings. He prints some which appear as if worked through with gold and silver. They are fabricated with much taste, and are not dear.”

1146

Haus- und Land-bibliothek, iii. p. 90.

1147

The author says, “I shall give an account of a beautiful art, by which one may cover chairs, screens and other articles of the like kind, with a substance of various colours made of wool, cut or chopped very fine, and cleaned by being made to pass through a hair-sieve… I remember that two Swabian women travelled about through some countries, and taught people this art, by which means they gained a good deal of money.” Of the author I have been able to procure no information. His book is a compilation selected without any taste, and according to the ideas of the seventeenth century, from different writers, almost always without mentioning the sources from which the articles are taken; but it deserves a place in public libraries, because it contains here and there some things which may help to illustrate the history of agriculture and the arts.