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

140

Oneirocrit. lib. iii. cap. 30. p. 176.

141

Joh. Sarisberiensis, i. cap. 12.

142

Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 9. Seneca, Quæst. Nat. i. cap. 5.

143

Vita Probi, cap. iv. p. 926: “Patinam argenteam librarum decem specillatam.” Salmasius chooses rather to read specellatam. I am inclined to think that this word ought to be read in Suetonius instead of speculatum, where he speaks of an apartment which Horace seems to have been fond of. That historian, in his Life of Horace, says, “Ad res venereas intemperantior traditur: nam speculato cubiculo scorta dicitur habuisse disposita, ut quocunque respexisset, ibi ei imago coitus referretur.” Lessing, who in his Miscellanies (Vermischten Schriften, Berlin 1784, 12mo, iii. p. 205) endeavours to vindicate the poet from this aspersion, considers the expression speculatum cubiculum, if translated an apartment lined with mirrors, as contrary to the Latin idiom, and thinks therefore that the whole passage is a forgery. Baxter also before said that this anecdote had been inserted by some malicious impostor. This I will not venture to contradict, but I am of opinion that specillatum or specellatum cubiculum is at any rate as much agreeable to the Roman idiom as patina specillata. This expression Salmasius and Casaubon have justified by similar phrases, such as opera filicata, tesselata, hederata, &c. The chamber in which Claudian makes Venus ornament herself, and be overcome by the persuasion of Cupid, was also covered over with mirrors, so that whichever way her eyes turned, she could see her own image. Did Claudian imagine that this goddess knew how to employ such an apartment, not only for dressing, but even after she was undressed, as well as Horace? I have seen at a certain court, a bed entirely covered in the inside with mirrors.

144

Iliad. lib. xiv. ver. 166.

145

Hymnus in Lavacrum Palladis, v. 15, 21. It was however customary to ascribe a mirror to Juno, as Spanheim on this passage proves; and Athanasius, in Orat. contra Gentes, cap. xviii. p. 18, says that she was considered as the inventress of dress and all ornaments. Should not therefore the mirror, the principal instrument of dress, belong to her? May it not have been denied to her by Callimachus, because he did not find it mentioned in the description which Homer has given of her dressing-room?

146

De Natur. Deorum, iii. 22.

147

Licetus de Lucernis Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 92.

148

Lib. xxxiv. cap. 17, p. 669.

149

Quæst. Nat. at the end of the first book.

150

Mostell. act i. sc. 3. v. 101.

151

Arrianus in Epictet. i. cap. 20, p. 79.

152

Among the remaining passages of the ancients with which I am acquainted, in which mention is made of silver mirrors, the following deserves notice. Chrysostom, Serm. xvii. p. 224, who, in drawing a picture of the extravagance of the women, says, “The maid-servants must be continually importuning the silversmith to know whether their lady’s mirror be yet ready.” The best mirrors therefore were made by the silversmiths. It appears that the mirror-makers at Rome formed a particular company; at least Muratori, in Thesaur. Inscript. Clas. vii. p. 529, has made known an inscription in which collegium speculariorum is mentioned. They occur also in Codex Theodos. xiii. tit. 4, 2. p. 57, where Ritter has quoted more passages in which they may be found. But perhaps the same name was given to those who covered walls with polished stones, and in latter times to glaziers.

153

Lib. xxxiii. c. 9. p. 627, and lib. xxxiv. c. 17, p. 669.

154

Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxvii. p. 296.

155

Quomodo Historia sit conscrib. cap. 51, Bipont edition, iv. p. 210, 535. Commentators have found no other way to explain κέντρον (a word which occurs in Lucian’s description of the mirror), than by the word centre, to which, according to their own account, there can be here no allusion. In my opinion κέντρον signifies those faulty places which are not capable of a complete polish, on account of the knots or cracks which are found in them. Lucian therefore speaks of a faultless mirror which represents the image perfect, as he afterwards informs us.

156

As the account of these experiments is given only in an expensive work, which may not often fall into the hands of those who are best able to examine it, I insert it here. “The ancient mirror, which I examined, was a metallic mixture, very tender and brittle, and of a whitish colour inclining to grey. When put into the fire, it remained a long time in a state of ignition before it melted. It was neither inflammable nor emitted any smell like garlic, which would have been the case had it contained arsenic. It did not either produce those flowers which are generally produced by all mixtures in which there is zinc. Besides, the basis of this mixture being copper, it would have been of a yellow colour had that semi-metal formed a part of it. I took two drams of it and dissolved them in the nitrous acid. A solution was speedily formed, which assumed the same colour as solutions of copper. It precipitated a white powder, which I carefully edulcorated and dried. Having put it into a crucible with a reductive flux, I obtained lead very soft and malleable.

157

Of such large mirrors Seneca speaks in his Quæst. Nat. lib. i. Of the like kind was the mirror of Demosthenes mentioned by Plutarch, Lucian, and Quintilian. – Institut. Orat. xi. 3, 68, p. 572.

“Having filtered the solution, I took a part of it, upon which I poured an infusion of gall-nuts, but it produced no change. A solution of gold, which I poured upon another part, made it assume a beautiful green colour; but no precipitate was formed: which is sufficient to prove that there was neither iron nor tin in the mixture.

“On the remaining part of the solution I poured a sufficient quantity of the volatile alkali to dissolve all the copper that might be contained in it. The solution became of a beautiful sapphire blue colour, and a white precipitate was formed. Having decanted the liquor, and carefully edulcorated the precipitate, I endeavoured to reduce it; but whether it was owing to the quantity being too small, or to my not giving it sufficient heat, I could not succeed. I had recourse therefore to another method.

“I took the weight of two drams of the mixture, which I brought to a high state of ignition in a cuppel. When it was of a whitish-red colour, I threw upon it gradually four drams of sulphur, and when the flame ceased, I strengthened the fire in order to bring it to complete fusion. By these means I obtained a tender brittle regulus, whiter than the mixture, in which I observed a few small needles. Being apprehensive that some copper might still remain, I sulphurated it a second time, and then obtained a small regulus which was almost pure antimony.

“It results from these experiments, that the metal of which the ancients made their mirrors was a composition of copper, regulus of antimony, and lead. Copper was the predominant, and lead the smallest part of the mixture; but it is very difficult, as is well known, to determine with any certainty the exact proportion of the substances contained in such compositions.”

[In the examination of an Etruscan mirror, which was placed in my hands for analysis by Professor Gerhardt of Berlin, it was found to consist, in 100 parts, of 67·12 copper, 24·93 tin, and 8·13 lead, approximating closely to an alloy of eight parts of copper to three of tin and one of lead. The oxide of tin obtained in the course of analysis was carefully examined, before the blowpipe, for antimony, but I did not succeed in detecting a trace of that metal. A similar mirror had been likewise analysed by Klaproth; he found 62 per cent. copper, 32 tin, and 6 per cent. lead, but no trace of antimony. – W. F.]

158

Lib. xxxvi. c. 26, p. 758.

159

Sueton. in Vita Domit. cap. xiv. p. 334.

160

Lib. xxxvi. 22, p. 752. – “Cappadociæ lapis, duritia marmoris, candidus atque translucidus, ex quo quondam templum constructum est a quodam rege, foribus aureis, quibus clausis claritas diurna erat.” – Isidor. Origin. 16, 4. Our spar is transparent, though clouds and veins occur in it, like the violet and isabella-coloured, for example, of that found at Andreasberg. Compare this explanation with what Salmasius says in Exercitat. Plin. p. 184.

161

Lib. xxxvii. cap. 5, p. 774.

162

Lib. xi. cap. 37, p. 617.

163

This dissertation of Abat may be found translated in Neuen Hamburg. Magazin. i. p. 568.

164

Academia di Cortona, vii. p. 34.

165

Origin. xvi. 7.

166

Goguet, ii. p. 111. Fabricii Biblioth. Græca. vol. i. p. 70.

167

Keyssler, i. pp. 17 and 441.

168

Lib. xxxvii. cap. 7.

169

De Lapid. § 61.

170

[This stone acquired its name from its being much used in ornaments by the Incas or Princes of Peru.]

171

De la Vega, ii. 28.

172

Montamy in Abhandlung von den Farben zum Porzellan, Leipzig, 1767, 8vo, p. 222, asserts that he saw, in a collection of antiquities, glass mirrors which were covered behind only with a black foil.

173

Lib. xxxvi. cap. 26, p. 758.

174

Lib. xxxiii. cap. 9, p. 627.

175

Trebell. Pollio, Vita Gallien. cap. 12.

176

Chemical Essays, vol. iv. p. 246.

177

Plin. lib. xxxiii.: Æs inaurari argento vivo, aut certe hydrargyro, legitimum erat. The first name here seems to signify native quicksilver, and the second that separated from the ore by an artificial process.

178

Hist. Nat. Supplem. i. p. 451.

179

Stob. Eclog. Antv. 1575, fol. p. 56.

180

De Placitis Philos. ii. cap. 20.

181

In Aratum, cap. 19.

182

Lib. i. cap. 8.

183

It is undoubtedly certain, that ὕαλος, which is translated vitreous or glassy, means any smooth polished body capable of reflecting rays of light. Originally it signified a watery body; and because watery bodies have a lustre, it was at length used for glass. See Salmas. ad Solin. p. 771.

184

More observations respecting the opinion of Philolaus may be found in the edition of Plutarch’s work De Placitis Philosophorum by Ed. Corsinus, Flor. 1750, 4to, p. 61, and p. 23.

185

Professor Heeren having given me his opinion on this passage of Stobæus, I shall here insert it for the satisfaction of the learned reader. The critics, says he, will hardly be persuaded that the words καὶ τὸ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ πυροειδὲς κατὰ τὸ ἐσοπτροειδὲς are correct, as they can be translated different ways. With regard to the explanation of the matter, I build only on the plain meaning of the words. The author tells us, that Philolaus thought the sun to be a mirror; but we must conclude that he speaks of a mirror such as were then in use; a smooth plate of metal, and not a globe. In this case the first explanation of a glass globe falls to the ground. This is confirmed by Eusebius, who calls it ὑαλοειδὴς δίσκος, though it is possible that the latter word may be a gloss added by some grammarian, or by Eusebius himself. If we enter further into the explanation, we must adopt the plain idea, that the rays of the sun fall upon this plate, and are reflected to us. I am however of opinion, that ὕαλος ought to be translated glass, ὑαλοειδὴς glassy or vitreous; for the intention of Philolaus evidently was to define the substance of the sun’s body. The result of the whole is, Philolaus considered the sun as a plain plate of glass which reflected the rays or brightness of the æthereal fire. But that he was acquainted with a proper glass mirror does not thence follow with certainty.

186

Pourquoy reluient les fenestres de verre si fort? Pourtant que la nature de l’estain, duquel elles sont basties par dedans, fort clere, meslée avec le verre cler aussi de lui mesme reluyst d’avantage; et le quel estain outrepassant ses raïons par les petits pores du verre, et augmentant doublement la face extérieure du dit verre, la rend grandement clere. – Problemes d’Alexandre Aphrod., traduit par M. Herret. Paris 1555, 8vo, p. 50.

187

Origin. lib. xvi. 15, p. 394.

188

Origin. lib. xvi. 18, p. 396.

189

Lib. xxxvi. cap. 26, p. 759.

190

Bayle, Diction. Histor. vol. iv. p. 462.

191

Printed at Leipzig, 1504, in small folio. There is an edition also printed at Cologne in 1624, and Fabricius quotes a Venetian edition. Pisanus seems to have been a by-name given by some one to Peckham.

192

Specul. Natur. ii. 78, p. 129.

193

Ars Magna, cap. lxvii. p. 517, in Lullii Opera. Argent. 1607, 8vo.

194

Opus Majus, ed. Jebb. Lond. 1733, fol. p. 346.

195

Franc. Assisiatis et Ant. Paduani Opera. Lugd. 1653, fol.

196

Nicephori Schol. in Synesium, in Synesii Op. Par. 1612, fol. p. 419.

197

In the collection of antiquities at St. Denis, an ancient mirror was shown, which was said to have belonged to Virgil. It was oval, and before Mabillon let it fall, was fourteen inches in length and twelve in breadth, and weighed thirty pounds. It is transparent, and of a brownish-yellow colour. According to experiments made on purpose, it was found to consist of artificial glass, mixed with a considerable portion of lead; and as it had been preserved in the above collection from the earliest periods, the practice of adding lead to glass must be very old. But whether this mirror was covered at the back, and how it was covered, though these are the most important points, I find nowhere mentioned. In the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany there is a piece of the same kind, said also to have been the mirror of Virgil. See Le Veil, Kunst auf Glas zu malen, Nurnb. 1779, 4to, p. 23, and Hist. de l’Acad. des Sciences, 1737, p. 412.

198

Villaret, Hist. de France. Par. 1763, xi. p. 142.

199

In Miscellanea Berolinensia, i. p. 263; but nothing further is said respecting the art, than that it was daily used in the glass-houses. Had I an opportunity, I should make experiments of every kind in order to discover a method of forming plane mirrors also in the like manner.

200

Wecker, in his book De Secretis, lib. x. p. 572, seems to say, that one must lay the saturated tin leaf so carefully on the glass plate, that no air can settle between them. According to Garzoni, the tin leaf is spread out on a smooth stone table, and after it has been rubbed over with quicksilver, the glass is placed above it.

201

Tome iii. p. 87, art. Glace.

202

Dict. Géog. de la France. Amst. 1762, fol. v. pp. 415, 672.

203

A furnace for casting large glass plates, before it is fit to be set at work, cost, it is said, 3500l. It seldom lasts above three years, and even in that time it must be repaired every six months. It takes six months to rebuild it, and three months to repair it. The melting-pots are as big as large hogsheads, and contain above 200 cwt. of metal. If one of them burst in the furnace, the loss of the matter and time amounts to 250l.– Trans.

204

Mariette, Traité des Pierres gravées. Par. 1750, fol.

205

The two ancient glasses found at Nismes, and described in Caylus’ Recueil d’Antiquités, ii. p. 363, were probably of this sort.

206

Natter, Traité de la Méthode antique de graver en Pierres fines, comparé avec la Méthode moderne. Lond. 1754, fol.

207

Of this kind were the calices audaces of Martial, xiv. 94, and those cups which often broke when the artist wished to give them the finishing touch.

208

See Sandrart’s Teutsche Akademie, vol. i. part 2, p. 345, where there is much valuable information respecting the German artists. Compare also Doppelmayer’s Nachricht von Nürnberg. Künstlern.

209

Oculus Artificial. iii. p. 79.

210

Lib. xxxvii.

211

Cap. 52, p. 59.

212

Origin. xvi. 8.

213

De Miner. lib. ii. 2.

214

Traité des Pierres gravées, i. pp. 90, 156.

215

Ibid. p. 156.

216

In the preface, p. 15.

217

Ueber den Nutzen d. geschnitt. Steine. Altenb. 1768, p. 42.

218

Le Veil, iii. p. 19. This anecdote however is not mentioned by Mezeray, Castelnau, or Laboureur; and Bayle must have been unacquainted with it, or he would have introduced it into his long article on the Duchesse d’Estampes.

219

Doppelmayer, p. 232.

220

Abhandlungen der Schwed. Akad. xxxiii. p. 122.

221

Halle, Fortgesetzte Magie. Berlin, 1788, 8vo, i. p. 516. This author says that the invention came from England, where it was kept very secret; but the honour of the second invention belongs to H. Klaproth.

222

Schwanhard, by the acuteness of his genius, proved what was before considered as impossible, and found out a corrosive so powerful that the hardest crystal glass, which had hitherto withstood the force of the strongest spirits, was obliged to yield to it, as well as metals and stones. By these means he delineated and etched on glass, figures of men, some naked and some dressed, and all kinds of animals, flowers, and plants, in a manner perfectly natural; and brought them into the highest estimation. – Sandrart, Teutsche Akademie, i. 2, p. 346. – Doppelmayer, p. 250, says, “After 1670 he accidentally found out by the glass of his spectacles, upon which some aquafortis had fallen, becoming quite soft, the art of etching on glass.”

223

Breslauer Sammlung zur Natur- und Medicin-Geschichte. 1725, January, p. 107. “Invention of a powerful acid by which figures of every kind, according to fancy, can be etched upon glass. – When spiritus nitri per distillationem has passed into the recipient, ply it with a strong fire, and when well dephlegmated, pour it, as it corrodes ordinary glass, into a Waldenburg flask; then throw into it a pulverised green Bohemian emerald, otherwise called hesphorus (which, when reduced to powder and heated, emits in the dark a green light), and place it in warm sand for twenty-four hours. Take a piece of glass well cleaned and freed from all grease by means of a lye; put a border of wax round it, about an inch in height, and cover it all equally over with the above acid. The longer you let it stand the better, and at the end of some time the glass will be corroded, and the figures, which have been traced out with sulphur and varnish, will appear as if raised above the plane of the glass.” This receipt has been inserted by H. Krunitz in his Œkonomische Encyclopedie, xi. p. 678.

224

Klindworth covers the glass with the etching ground of the engravers; but in the Annals of Chemistry for 1790, ii. p. 141, a solution of isinglass in water, or a turpentine oil varnish, mixed with a little white lead, is recommended. Complete instructions for acquiring this art may be found there also.

225

De Lapidibus, sect. 19.

226

See Ephemerid. ac Nat. Cur. 1676, Dec. 1, obs. 13, p. 32; and Elsholtii De Phosphoris Observationes, Berol. 1681, 4to.

227

G. C. Kirchmaieri De Phosphoris et Natura Lucis, necnon de Igne, Commentatio Epistolica. Wittebergæ, 1680, 4to.

228

Miscellanea Berolin. 1710, vol. i. p. 97. The fluor-spar earth, or phosphoric earth, as it is called, which in later times has been found in marble quarries, and which some at present consider as an earth saturated with phosphoric acid, is mentioned by the Swede Hierne, in Prodromus Hist. Nat. Sueciæ. Henkel had never seen it.

229

Watson’s Chemical Essays, ii. p. 277.

230

Descriptive Catalogue of Tassie’s Engraved Gems, Lond. 1791, 2 vols. 4to, i. p. 51.

231

Plin. xviii. 12, sect. 51, p. 475.

232

It is beyond all doubt that the words sapo and σάπων were derived from the German sepe, which has been retained in the Low German, the oldest and original dialect of our language. In the High German this derivation has been rendered a little more undistinguishable by the p being changed into the harder f. Such changes are common, as schap, schaf; schip, schiff, &c.

233

De Simplicibus Medicaminibus, p. 90, G.

234

According to Aretæus De Diuturnis Morbis, ii. 13, p. 98, soap appears to have been formed into balls.

235

Mart. xiv. 27. This soap acquired the epithet of Mattiacum from the name of a place which was in Hesse.

236

Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos,

Captivis poteris cultior esse comis. – Mart. xiv. 26.

These lines are generally explained in this manner: – “Dye thy hair with soap, and it will become more beautiful than that of the Germans.” But in this case all the wit of the advice is lost; and the expression, “eris cultior quam comæ captivæ,” seems to me to be very improper. I should rather translate them as follows: – “Let the Germans dye their hair with pomade; as they are now subdued, thou mayst ornament thyself better with a peruke made of the hair of these captives.” This was a piece of delicate flattery to Domitian and the Roman pride. That prince thought he had conquered the Germans; and the most beautiful German hair, that which was not dyed, could be procured, therefore, at Rome, much easier than before. If the title of this epigram was written by Martial himself, it contains the first mention of the word sapo.

237

Fortior et tortos servat vesica capillos,

Et mutat Latias spuma Batava comas. – Mart. viii. 23, 19.

The first line of the above proves that people then covered their heads, in the night-time, with a bladder to keep their hair, after it was dressed, from being deranged; and a bladder was undoubtedly as fit for that use as the nets and cauls employed for the like purpose at present.