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

324

The voyage of Brue is in Labat’s Afrique Occidentale, iv.

325

[A curious exhibition of this kind has been made public for several years in the Strand, viz. the “industrious fleas.” These noxious animals are here seen to draw and drive a coach and four; fire off a small cannon; and various other performances of a similar kind.]

326

Several instances of the like kind may be found also in Monstrorum Historia Memorabilis a J. G. Schenkio a Grafenberg filio, Francof. 1609, 4to, p. 28 et seq. One of the most curious is that of Thomas Schweicker, born at Halle in Prussian Saxony, in the year 1586. Camerarius saw him not only write, but even make a pen with his feet. – Trans.

327

Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1048. ed. Almel. – Dio Cassius, lib. liv. p. 739. Suetonius, Eutropius, Eusebius and Orosius, speak of this embassy, but make no mention of the presents.

328

[In modern times the idle portion of the public has been gratified by the exhibition of the Siamese twins; the diminutive monster Tom Thumb; and quite recently a child with three legs. The birth of such monsters is equivalent to a legacy or fortune to the parents, who by their exhibitions realise large sums: the morbid taste of the public, especially the weaker portion, for such sights is truly deplorable.]

329

Man. Astron. lib. v. 165.

330

Frisch derives this word from morio, a fool or buffoon.

331

This piece of kitchen furniture was known in the middle of the sixteenth century. Montagne saw one at Brixen, in Tyrol, in the year 1580, and wrote a description of it in his Journal, as a new invention. He says it consisted entirely of wheels; that it was kept in motion by a heavy piece of iron, as clocks are by a weight, and that when wound up in the like manner, it turned the meat for a whole hour. He had before seen, in some other place, another driven by smoke. – Reise, i. pp. 155, 249. The latter kind seem to be somewhat older. Scappi, cook to pope Pius V., gave a figure of one in his book Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi, printed at Venice 1570, which is exceedingly scarce. I lately saw a copy, which, instead of eighteen, had twenty-four engravings. It was printed twice afterwards at the same place, viz. in 1571 and 1605, in quarto. The third edition says, “con due aggiunte, cio é il Trinciante et il Maestro di casa.” Bayle seems to confound this book with that of Platina De Honesta Voluptate, or to think that the latter was the real author of it. This however cannot be, as there were more than a hundred years between the periods when Scappi and Platina lived. Platina died in 1481, and not in 1581, as we read in Bayle.

332

De Mundo. cap. vi.

333

Herodot. ii. 48. p. 127. – Lucian. de Syria Dea, 16, ed. Bipont. ix. p. 99.

334

Recueil des Antiquit. iv. p. 259.

335

Doppelmayer, p. 285.

336

Iliad, xviii. 373. It deserves to be remarked, that there were also such τρίποδες αὐτόματοι at the banquet of Iarchas. See Philostrat. Opera, ed. Olearii, pp. 117, 240.

337

Polit. i. 3.

338

In his Menon, p. 426. – Euthyphron, pp. 8, 11.

339

Introd. in Philos. Nat. i. p. 143.

340

Physiologia Kircheriana, fol. p. 69.

341

In Philostrati Opera, ed. Olearii, p. 899.

342

In Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr. xiii. p. 274.

343

Ode xxvii.

344

Aulus Gellius, x. 12.

345

See Naudé’s Apology, Bayle’s Dictionary, &c. Thomas Aquinas is said to have been so frightened when he saw this head, that he broke it to pieces, and Albertus thereupon exclaimed, “Periit opus triginta annorum!”

346

Schol. Mathemat. lib. ii. p. 65.

347

Dissertat. de Regiomontani Aquila et Musca Ferrea. Altorfi, 1709. – See Mémoires de Trevoux, 1710, Juillet, p. 1283. – Doppelmayer, p. 23. – Fabricii Bibl. Med. Ætat. iv. p. 355. – Heilbronner Hist. Math. p. 504.

348

Strada De Bello Belgico. Mogunt. 1651, 4to, p. 8. He calls the artist Jannellus Turrianus Cremonensis.

349

In the year 1738, Le Méchanisme du Fluteur Automate, par Vaucanson, was printed at Paris, in a thin 4to. It contains only a short description of the flute-player, which is copied into the Encyclopédie, i. p. 448, under the article Androide. The duck, as far as I know, has been nowhere described.

350

Vaucanson died at Paris in 1782.

351

[The publisher is in possession of an elegantly formed mechanical bird-cage, in which two artificial bullfinches wheel about on a perch, flutter their wings, and move their beaks, while emitting musical sounds in imitation of their natural note. A fountain constructed of spiral glass plays in the centre. Beneath the cage is a clock which sets the whole in motion hourly, for three or four minutes; but it may be set going independently, like a musical snuff-box. It is presumed to have been made by Vaucanson about a hundred years ago, and was at one time a principal attraction at Weeks’s celebrated Museum, where that singular piece of mechanism the Tarantula spider was first exhibited.]

352

Nicolai, Reise, i. p. 287.

353

Nouveau Voyage aux Iles de l’Amerique. A la Haye 1724, 2 vols. 4to, ii. pp. 298, 384. From his county he was called Count de Gennes.

354

Zodiacus Vitæ, xi. 846.

355

See a small treatise Ueber H. D. Muller’s Redende Maschine, und über redende Maschinen überhaupt. Nurnberg, 1788, 8vo. – Algem. Teutsches Biblioth. vol. lxxxvii. p. 473. The Speaking Figure and the Automaton Chess-player exposed and detected. London, 1784, 8vo. – [This celebrated chess-playing automaton, invented by M. Vankempelin, was repaired and exhibited in London in 1820, by the ingenious mechanician Maelzel, with considerable success. The figure and machinery were always submitted to the inspection of the visitors, and shifted along the floor in various directions before the game commenced, and the deception was so adroitly managed as to escape the detection of the most scrutinizing. The proprietor always took care to secure the best chess-player in the town before he commenced operations, the wonder therefore was greatly increased by the superiority of the automaton’s play. Mr. Lewis directed it in London. It is now generally admitted that a boy was concealed inside.]

356

Van Dale De Oraculis. Amstelod. 1700, 4to, i. 10, p. 222.

357

Réponse à l’Histoire des Oracles de M. de Fontenelle.

358

A few instances are related by Livy, Valerius Maximus, and Plutarch. Among the fables of the Christian church they are more numerous.

359

Vol. v. p. 90. editio Bipont.

360

Theodoreti Hist. Eccles. v. 22.

361

Cassiodori Variar. i. ep. 45.

362

[Speaking Automaton.– There is a piece of mechanism now exhibiting to the public at the Egyptian Hall – the work of Professor Faber, of Vienna, and the result, as he states, of twenty-five years of labour and preparation. The name which he has given to this product of his ingenuity is the Euphonia; and the work, as that name implies, is another of those many combinations which have attempted, by the anatomical and physiological study of the structures that contribute to the human voice, to attain to an imitation of that organ as regards both sound and articulation. As an example of inductive and mechanical skill this exhibition is well deserving of attention. The professor himself, by an arrangement of bellows-pipes, pedal and keys, which he plays somewhat like the keys of a piano, prompts the discourse of his automaton; which certainly does enunciate both sounds and words. When we entered the room we found it singing to a select society. It requires all our sense of the ingenuity and perseverance which have been bestowed on the work to induce our assent to the proposition which calls the voice human; but undoubtedly it is a remarkable result of contriving skill and scientific patience. —Athæneum.]

363

Historia Ægypti Natural. Lugd. Bat. 1735, 4to, p. 60.

364

Proverbs, xxv. ver. 13.

365

Bartholini de Nivis Usu Medico Observationes, Hafn. 1661.

366

Seneca, Quæst. Natur. iv. 13.

367

Athenæus, iii. p. 124.

368

Sympos. vi. quæst. 6. – Augustinus De Civitate Dei, xxi. 4, p. 610.

369

Mémoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur. How the snow repositories at Constantinople are constructed, is related by Bellon in his Observat. iii. 22.

370

The dissipated Heliogabalus caused whole mounts of snow to be heaped up in summer in order to cool the air. See Lampridius, Vita Heliogab. cap. 23.

371

Plin. xix. 4. – Latinus Pacatus in Panegyr. Theodos.

372

De la Valle, iii. p. 60, where the Persian ice-pits are described, as well as in Chardin, iv. p. 195.

373

Hist. Nat. xxxi. 3, 23, p. 552.

374

Vita Neronis, cap. 48: Hæc est Neronis decocta.

375

In lib. vi. Hippocrat. de Morbis Vulgar. comment. 4, 10.

376

Meteorol. i. cap. 12.

377

In the place before quoted.

378

Deipnos. iii. p. 124.

379

Ibid. p. 123.

380

See Pitisci Lex. Antiq. Rom. under the word Decocta.

381

Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxv. part i. p. 126.

382

Traité du Mouvement des Eaux.

383

Du Hamel, Hist. de l’Academ. l. i. c. 3, p. 99.

384

Tentamina Experimentorum Acad. del Cim. p. 183.

385

Dissertation sur la Glace. Paris, 1749, 12mo, p. 187.

386

Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxv. part i. p. 124.

387

[In India, one mode of cooling wines, is to suspend the bottle in a thick flannel bag, or folds of blotting-paper, kept constantly wetted, and placed in the sun’s rays, or a current of air, or both; by which means the evaporation, and therewith intense coldness, is produced.]

388

Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxxi. part ii. p. 511. [M. Boutigny’s beautiful experiment of making ice in a red-hot crucible is a striking phænomenon of this kind. It is thus performed: – A deep crucible of platinum is heated to a glowing red heat; liquid sulphurous acid, which has been preserved in the fluid state by a freezing mixture, and some water are then at the same instant poured into the crucible. The rapid evaporation of the volatile sulphurous acid, which boils below the freezing-point of water, produces such an intense degree of cold as to freeze the water, which is then thrown out of the crucible as a solid lump.]

389

Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxxi. part ii. p. 252: the process of making ice in the East Indies; by Robert Barker.

390

[There is no question that this refrigeration is caused by the evaporation of a portion of the water, whereby a very large quantity of heat becomes latent in the vapour. A clear serene sky being necessary for the success of the production of the ice, would tend to show that the further loss of heat by radiation, which always ensues to a great extent at nights, when the sky is clear, is necessary.]

391

… a number of small, shallow, earthen pans. These are unglazed, scarce a quarter of an inch thick, about an inch and a quarter in depth, and made of an earth so porous, that it was visible from the exterior part of the pans, the water had penetrated the whole substance. [Our ordinary wine-coolers, which consist of extremely porous vessels, act from evaporation. A portion of the water, which is placed in the interior of the cooler, evaporates through its pores, and produces cold by rendering a considerable amount of heat latent.]

392

See the account of Lloyd Williams, in the Universal Magazine, June 1793, p. 410. Thin unglazed vessels are employed at present in Egypt also for cooling water, as we are told in several books of travels.

393

Sympos. vi. 5, p. 690.

394

The word however may be found in Dictionnaire par Richelet, Genève 1680, 4to.

395

J. B. Campegii Libri xxii. de re cibaria, xvi. 9, p. 669.

396

Most vessels of this kind in Portugal are made at Estremos, in the province of Alentejo. The description given of them by Brantome is as follows: – “Cette terre étoit tannée, si subtile et si fine qu’on diroit proprement que c’est une terre sigillée; et porte telle vertu, que quelque eau froide que vous y mettiez dedans, vous la verrez bouillis et faire de petits bouillons, comme si elle estoit sur le feu; et si pourtant elle n’en perd sa froideur, mais l’entretient, et jamais l’eau ne fait mal à qui la boit, quelque chaud qu’il fasse, ou quelque exercice violent qu’il fasse.” This clay seems to be the same as that which the ladies in Spain and Portugal chew for the sake of its pleasant taste, though to the prejudice of their health. They are so fond of it that their confessors make them abstain from the use of it some days by way of penance for their transgressions. See Madame D’Aunoi, Voy. en Espagne, ii. pp. 92, 109. Mémoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur. A vessel of the above kind is called bucaro and barro. See Diccion. de la Lengua Castellana, Madrid, 1783, fol.

397

This curious work contains so much valuable information respecting the French manners in the sixteenth century, that some account of it may not prove unacceptable to my readers. The title is, Déscription de L’Isle des Hermaphrodites, nouvellement découverte … pour servir de Supplement au Journal de Henri III. The preface, to which there is no signature, says that the book was printed for the first time in 1605. In the first editions neither date nor place is mentioned; but one edition is dated 1612. It appears to have been written in the reign of Henry IV., after the peace of Vervins, concluded in 1598, which the author mentions in the beginning. Henry IV. would not suffer any inquiry to be made respecting the author that he might be punished, because, he said, though he had taken great liberty in his writing, he had written truth. He is not therefore known. Some have conjectured that it was the production of cardinal Perron, and others of sieur d’Emery, Thomas Artus. But the former would not have chosen to lash vices such as those mentioned in this satire, with so much wit and severity; and the latter could not have done it. The one was too vicious, and the other too vehement. The cardinal must have delineated his own picture; and Artus have exceeded what he was capable of. The same opinion respecting Artus is entertained by Marchand, in his Dict. Historique. The frontispiece, which in many editions is wanting, represents an effeminate voluptuary with a womanish face, dressed half in men’s and half in women’s clothing. Marchand says the inscription is Les Hermaphrodites. In some editions however it is much more cutting: “Pars est una patris; cætera matris habet.” This pentameter is taken from Martial, lib. xiv. ep. 174. The whole work is inserted also in Journal de Henri III., par Pierre de l’Estoiles, à la Haye 1744, 8vo, iv. p. 1. For further information on this subject see Le Long, Bibliothèque Historique de la France, ii. p. 326, n. 19128.

398

In the Contes de Gaillard, printed in 1620, it is said, “Il alla un jour d’esté souper chez un voluptueux, qui lui fit mettre de la glace en son vin.”

399

Problema 102. These Problemata are often printed with the Problemata Aristotelis, Alexandri Aphrodis. and others. The collection which I have was printed at Amsterdam, 1685, 12mo.

400

De Miraculis, libri iv. Colon. 1581, 8vo, p. 288.

401

Centuriæ ix Memorabilium. Francof. 1599, 12mo, p. 67.

402

De Nive, p. 38.

403

J. B. Du Hamel, Opera Philosophica, Norimb. 1681, 4to.

404

L. Tancredi de Fame et Siti libri tres. Ven. 1607, 4to, lib. iii.

405

When snow or ice is mixed with salt, both begin to be liquid. This process is employed in Russia to clean windows covered with frost. They are rubbed with a sponge dipped in salt, and by these means they become immediately transparent. [The rationale of this appears to consist in the salt absorbing water and deliquescing, and in this fluid the snow subsequently dissolves, the mixture requiring a much lower temperature for its assuming the solid state.]

406

Historia Vitæ et Mortis, § 44. – De Augmentis Scient. v. 2. – Silva Silvarum, cent. i.

407

History of Cold, title i. 17; title v. 3; title xv. 7. [The method of making one or two freezing or cooling mixtures will not perhaps be without interest here. Where snow is not at hand, a mixture of 5 parts of powdered nitre and 5 of powdered sal-ammoniac may be mixed with 16 parts of water. This reduces the thermometer from +50° to about +10° F., or, 9 parts of phosphate of soda, 6 of nitrate of ammonia, and 4 of dilute nitric acid, reduce the thermometer from +50° to -21°; 5 parts of common salt, 5 of nitrate of ammonia and 12 of snow, reduce it from the ordinary temperature to -28°. The most intense degree of cold, probably known, has been produced by Dr. Faraday in his experiments upon the liquefaction of gases. This was effected by placing solid carbonic acid mixed with æther, under the air-pump, and exhausting.]

408

Des Cartes Specimina Philosophiæ. Amst. 1650, 4to, p. 216.

409

Von Hohberg says, in his Adliches Landleben, “The following, which serves more for amusement than use, is well-known to children. If one put snow and saltpetre into a jug, and place it on a table, over which water has been poured, and stir the snow and salt well round in the jug with a stick, the jug will be soon frozen to the table.” This baron, therefore, who, after he had sold his property in Austria on account of the persecution against the Protestants, wrote at Regensburg (Ratisbon), where he died in 1688, at the age of seventy-six, was not acquainted with iced delicacies. Had they been known to him, he would have certainly mentioned them where, in his Book of Cookery, he gives ample directions for laying out a table of the first rank.

410

[The application of ice to the purposes of confectionary, has, within the last few years, become much more extensive; encouraged, no doubt, by the facility with which it is now procurable at all seasons of the year, and in any quantity. Imitations of peaches, nectarines, apricots, and other fruits, are now produced in ice paste in such perfection, as at first sight to deceive the most practised eye; and such elegances are no longer confined to the tables of the wealthy.]

411

Instruction pour les Jardins. Paris, 1730, 4to, i. p. 263. The author says that ice in summer is indeed useful; but, as a gardener, he wishes that frost could be prevented; and that ice might be imported from the North, as olives and oranges are from the South. Some years ago, as no ice could be procured on account of the great mildness of the preceding winter, the merchants at Hamburg sent a ship to Greenland for a load of it, by which they acquired considerable profit.

412

For the above account of the mode of collecting the ice at Wenham Lake, we are indebted to the ‘Illustrated London News’ for May 17, 1845.

413

A fuller account of Hypatia may be found in Menagii Histor. Mulier. Philosoph. Lugd. 1690; Bruckeri Hist. Crit. Philos. ii. p. 351; and Wolfii Fragmenta Mulierum Græc. Gott. 1739, 4to.

414

Varia Opera Mathematica D. Petri de Fermat, Tolosæ, 1679, folio.

415

Cogitata Physico-Mathem. Par., 1644, and in Phænomena Hydraulica.

416

On Georg. i. 109. These words are quoted by Emmenessius, the editor of the Variorum edition of Virgil, but in the edition of Servius, Venetiis, 1562, fol., they are not to be found. The Commentary of Servius may at present be no longer indispensable for explaining Virgil; but it deserves to be printed once more as completely and accurately as possible. It contains much useful information, as well as many fragments of works now lost; and on this account cannot well be entirely dispensed with.

417

Quæst. Nat. iii. 25, p. 726.

418

Hist. Nat. xxxi. 3, sect. 23, p. 552. – Athen. ii. p. 46. – Plutarchi Quæst. Nat. 7.

419

De Simplic. Med. Facultatibus, iv. 20.

420

De Natura eorum quæ effluunt ex Terra, lib. ii. p. 124.

421

Philosophia Experimentalis, sive Commentaria in Aristotelis Meteorolog. lib. ii. textus 26, quæst. 2, tom. ii. p. 158, b.

422

Mundus Subterraneus, vol. i. p. 254.

423

Cursus Mathemat. p. 455, icon. 20.

424

Collegii Experiment. pars ii. Norimb. 1715, 4to.

425

Nuovi Ritrovamenti. Roma, 1696, fol.

426

Philosoph. Transact. 1675: where an engraving is given of all the parts.

427

Journal des Observations Physiques et Math. Par. 1714, 4to.

428

Philosoph. Transact. No. 384, p. 140; and No. 413, p. 277.

429

Comment. Acad. Petrop. v. p. 274.

430

In his Versuchen. Halle, 1737, 8vo, i. p. 556.

431

Theatrum Hydrostaticum.

432

Athen. Deipn. vi. 8. p. 236.

433

Joh. Meursii Opera, ex recensione Joannis Lami. Florent. 1745, fol. v. p. 635.

434

Pet. cap. lxxix. That the author here speaks of Naples, I conclude from cap. lxxxi., where the city is called Græca urbs. Others, however, with less probability, are of opinion that Capua is meant.

435

Libanii Opera, Lutet. 1627, fol. ii. p. 387.

436

Ib. 526.

437

See vol. ii. p. 170.