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

438

Valesius informs us, in his observations on Ammianus Marcellinus, that to denote public sorrow, on occasions of great misfortune, it was customary not to light the streets; and in proof of this assertion he quotes a passage of Libanius, where it is said that the people of Antioch, in order to mitigate the anger of the emperor, bethought themselves of lighting either no lamps or a very small number.

439

Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis. Romæ, 1719, fol. i. p. 281.

440

It was called by the Greeks λυχνοκαία.

441

Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 62.

442

Suet. Vita Calig. c. 18.

443

Euseb. lib. iv. De Vita Constantini, cap. 22. Compare with the above Greg. Naz. Orat. 19, and Orat. 2, where the author alludes to the festival of Easter.

444

Tertuliian. de Idololatria, cap. xv. p. 523. See also his Apologet. cap. 35, p. 178. In both places La Cerda quotes similar passages from other writers. In Concilio Eliberitano, cap. 37, it was decreed “prohibendum etiam ne lucernas publice accendant.” See also Joh. Ciampini Vetera Monumenta, in quibus musiva opera illustrantur. Romæ, 1690, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 90, where, on a piece of mosaic work, said to be of the fifth century, some lamps are represented hanging over a door.

445

J. Lipsii Electa, lib. ii. cap. 3.

446

This order may be seen in that large and elegant work, entitled Histoire de la Ville de Paris, Felibien, revue, augmentée par Lobineau, Paris, 1725, 5 vols. folio. See vol. ii. pp. 951, 977, and vol. iv. pp. 648, 676, 764.

447

Paris, 1770, x. p. 265.

448

Essai sur les Lanternes. A Dole, 1775.

449

History of London. London, 1756, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 186.

450

Noorthouck’s History of London. Lond. 1773, 4to, p. 233. For the safety and peace of the city, all inhabitants were ordered to hang out candles duly at the accustomed hour.

451

See Twiss and Dalrymple’s Travels.

452

Swinburne’s Travels through Spain, 1779, 4to.

453

Nicolai Beschreibung von Berlin und Potsdam, pp. 308, 971.

454

Nicolai Beschreibung einer Reise, iii. pp. 212, 214.

455

Philosophical Magazine for March, 1846.

456

They were called bell-bearers or bellmen, because while going the rounds they gave a signal with their bells, which the sentinels were obliged immediately to answer. See the Scholiasts on the Aves of Aristophanes, ver. 841. Dio Cassius, lib. liv. 4, p. 773, says, “The watchmen in the different quarters of the city have small bells, that they may make signals to each other when they think proper.” The bells therefore did not serve for announcing the hours, as some have imagined.

457

The Persian sentinels sung in this manner when they were surprised in the city by the Romans. – Ammianus Marcell. xxiv. 15.

458

That the servants in many houses were wakened by the ringing of a bell, appears from what Lucian says in his treatise, De iis qui mercede conducti in divitum familiis vivunt, cap. xxiv. p. 245, and cap. xxxi. p. 254, Bipont edition, vol. iii. It does not however follow that there were then striking or alarm-clocks, as some have thence concluded. See Magius De Tintinnabulis, cap. 6, in Sallengre, Thesaurus Antiquit. ii. p. 1177.

459

Vegetius De Re Milit. iii. 8. That Cæsar had such clocks may be concluded from the observation which he makes in his Commentaries, on the length of the day in the islands near Ireland, lib. v. 13. Maternus, in Romische Alterthümer, iii. p. 47, endeavours to prove by what Suetonius relates of Domitian, cap. 16, that this prince had in his palace neither a sun-dial nor a water-clock. But what kind of a proof! Domitian asked what the hour was, and some one answered, the sixth. Such insignificant dicta probantia have been banished from philosophy by the moderns, and ought they not to be banished from antiquities likewise? The often-quoted passage also of Valerius Maximus, viii. 7, 5, proves nothing, unless we first adopt the amendment of Green. Carneades, it is said, was so engaged in the study of philosophy, that he would have forgot his meals had not Melissa put him in mind of them. Green reads monitrix domestica; but Valerius says, “Melissa, quam uxoris loco habebat.” See Sallengre, Thes. Antiq. Rom. i. p. 721. A passage likewise in Pliny’s Epistles, iii. 1, p. 181, “ubi hora balinei nunciata est,” does not properly prove that it alludes to one of those boys who announced the hours. That such servants however were kept, is evident from the undoubted testimony of various authors. Martial, viii. ep. 67. – Juven. Sat. x. 216. – Seneca De Brevit. Vitæ, c. 12. – Alciphron, Epist. lib. iii. p. 282. – Sidon. Apollin. ii. ep. 9, p. 120.

460

Cic. Orat. pro Muræna, cap. 22.

461

Sil. Ital. vii. 155.

462

Traité de la Police, vol. i. in the Index under the word Guet.

463

Bivouac, from the German beiwacht, is an additional night-guard during a siege, or when an army is encamped near the enemy. Lansquenets were German soldiers added by Charles VIII. of France to his infantry, and who were continued in the French army till Francis I. introduced his legions. – Trans.

464

[With respect to the institution of night-watch in this country, Stow says, “For a full remedy of enormities in the night, I read, that in the year 1253 Henry III. commanded watches in the cities and borough towns to be kept, for the better observing of peace and quietness among his people… And further, by the advice of them of Savoy, he ordained, that if any man chanced to be robbed, or by any means damnified by any thief or robber, he to whom the charge of keeping that country, city, or borough, chiefly appertained, where the robbery was done, should competently restore the loss. And this was after the use of Savoy, but yet thought more hard to be observed here than in those parts; and therefore, leaving those laborious watches, I will speak of our pleasures and pastimes in watching by night.” (Survey of London, Thoms’s edition, 1842, p. 39.) He then describes the marching watches which were instituted in the months of June and July, on the vigils and evenings of festival days; with the cresset lights, &c. But he does not state whether these watches were continued in his time; nor does he state the author of the information which he gives us from his reading. The statute of Winchester, 13 Edward I. c. 4, enforces a continuation of the watches as they had previously been made, from Ascension-day to Michaelmas-day; the night-watch from sun-set to sunrise, in every city by six men at each gate, in every borough by twelve men, in every open town by six or four men.]

465

Nicolai Beschreib. von Berlin, i, p. 38.

466

Ib. p. 49.

467

Iter Germanicum. Hamburgi, 1717, 8vo, p. 26.

468

Lipsius De Milit. Rom. iv. 10, p. 198. – Bochart. Hierozoic. i.

469

From the name of this instrument, called in some places of Germany a ratel, arose the appellation of ratelwache, which was established at Hamburg in 1671. In the Dutch language the words ratel, ratelaar, ratelen, ratelmann, ratelwagter (a night-watchman), are quite common.

470

Stanihurst De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis, lib. i. p. 33.

471

Leges Walliæ. Lond. 1730, fol.

472

The person whose turn it was to watch at the gates, was obliged to perform the duty himself, or to cause it to be performed by a fit and proper young citizen. Those who attended to trade and neglected the watch, paid for every omission one mark to the council. The case was the same with the watch on the tower in the market-place.

473

In the Berlin police ordinance of the year 1580, it was ordered that the Raths-thurn oder Hausmann, steeple-watchman or city-musician, should attend at weddings with music for the accustomed pay, but only till the hour of nine at night, in order that he might then blow his horn on the steeple, and place the night-watch.

474

Martini Atlas Sinens. p. 17. Matches or links, to which alarums are sometimes added, are employed in China to point out the hours; and these are announced by watchmen placed on towers who beat a drum. See Kæmpfer’s Japan, where the mention of matches is omitted. Thunberg says, “Time is measured here not by clocks or hour-glasses, but by burning matches, which are plaited like ropes, and have knots on them. When the match burns to a knot, which marks a particular lapse of time, the hour is announced, during the day, by a certain number of strokes on the bells in the temples; and in the night by watchmen who go round and give a like signal with two pieces of board, which they knock against each other.”

475

A great deal of important information, which is as yet too little known, has been collected on this subject by Reiske, on Constantini Lib. de Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzant. ii. p. 74.

476

This is related in the Oettingisches Geschichts-almanach, p. 7, on the authority of an account in the parish books of Oettingen, said to be extracted from an ancient chronicle of that town. The author of this almanac, which is now little known, was, as I have been told, Schablen, superintendant at Oettingen.

477

Museum Wormianum. Lugd. Bat. 1655, fol. p. 149.

478

The well-known Sir John Hill, an Englishman, has proved, however, in later times, the possibility of injecting a substance into the vessels of plants also. He dissolved sugar of lead in water, suspended in it bits of the finest wood, so that one-half of them was under water and the other above it, and covered the vessel in which they were placed with an inverted glass. At the end of two days he took the bits of wood out, cut off the parts which had been immersed in the water, dipped them in a warm lye made of unslaked lime and orpiment, like what was used formerly for proving wine; and by these means the finest vessels, which had been before filled with sugar of lead, acquired a dark colour, and their apertures became much more distinct. This process he describes himself in his work on the Construction of Timber.

479

Rariora Naturæ et Artis. Breslau and Leipsic, 1737, fol. p. 421.

480

Adversariorum decas iii. in Ruyschii Opera Omnia Anat. Med.

481

A. Vateri Epist. ad Ruyschium de Musculo Orbiculari, 1727. Of employing different kinds of insects, particularly the dermestes, as they are called, for reducing animal and vegetable bodies to skeletons, Hebenstreit has treated in Program. de Vermibus Anatomicorum administris. Lips. 1741. Figures of the insects and of some of their preparations are added.

482

Acta Eruditorum, 1729, Febr. p. 63.

483

Mémoires de l’Acad. des Sciences, ann. 1730, 1731, 1732.

484

Commerc. Litter. Norim. 1732, p. 73.

485

Ib.

486

Phil. Transact. 1730, ccccxvi. p. 441.

487

Ib. ccccxiv. p. 371.

488

Ib. cccclxi. p. 789, and cccclxiii. p. 796. – Commerc. Litter. Norimb. 1735, p. 353.

489

Institutiones Regni Vegetabil. In the part on Leaves.

490

Programma de Plantarum Structura. Lips. 1740, 4to, § 5, 6.

491

Dissertat. Phys. de Vegetabilibus, printed with Linnæi Orat. de Necessitate Peregrinat. intra Patriam. Lugd. B. 1743.

492

Die Nahrungs-Gefässe in den Blättern der Bäume. Nurnb. 1748.

493

Many editions of this book may be found mentioned in Halleri Bibl. Botan. i. p. 484; Böhmeri Bibl. Hist. Nat. iii. p. 679.

494

Haus- und Feld-Schule, i. 26.

495

Georgica Curiosa, i. p. 787.

496

Hausvater, vol. v. p. 662.

497

Versuch der Universal-vermehrung aller Bäume. Regensb. 1716, fol., or the edition by Brauser. Regensb. 1772.

498

Thummigii Meletemata. Brunsw. 1727, 8vo, p. 5.

499

Disp. i. quæst. 4. n. 23.

500

Consil. 348.

501

Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina Commercio, etc. de Barcelona, por D. Ant. de Capmany. Madrid, 1779, 2 vols. 4to. The following important articles will be found in this work: – A custom-house tariff, written in Latin, of the year 1221, in which occur a great number of remarkable names and articles of merchandise not explained. Another of the like kind, of the year 1252. Letters of power to appoint consuls in distant countries, such as Syria, Egypt, &c., dated in the years 1266, 1268, and 1321. An ordinance of the year 1458, respecting insurance, which required that under-writing should be done in the presence of a notary, and declared polices o scriptures privades to be null and void. A privilegium of the emperor Andronicus II. to the merchants of Barcelona, written in Greek and Spanish, in 1290. Account of the oldest Spanish trade with wool, silk, salt, and saffron; and of the oldest guilds or incorporated societies of tradesmen at Barcelona, &c.

502

Vol. ii. p. 382.

503

[Tin-stone however occurs in Spain and Portugal; and Watson, in his Chemical Essays, states that Spain furnished the ancients with considerable quantities of tin.]

504

Native tin never, or at any rate, very rarely occurs. In the year 1765 a piece was supposed to be found, of which an account may be seen in the Phil. Trans. vol. lvi. p. 35, and vol. lix. p. 47. But the truth of this was denied by most mineralogists, such for example as Jars in Mémoires de l’Acad. à Paris, année 1770, p. 540. Soon after the above-mentioned piece of tin was found in Cornwall, some dealers in minerals sold similar pieces to amateurs at a very dear rate; but all these had been taken from roasting-places, where the tin exudes; and very often what is supposed to be tin is only exuded bismuth, as is proved by some specimens in my collection.

I shall here observe, that it may not be improper, in the history of tin, to show that it was believed more than two hundred years ago that this metal was found in a native state.

505

Having requested Professor Tychsen, to whose profound knowledge of Oriental history, languages, and literature I have been already indebted for much assistance, to point out the grounds on which bedil is considered to be our tin, I received the following answer, with permission to insert it in this place.

“Bedil, בדיל, according to the most probable derivation, means the separated. It may therefore, consistent with etymology, be what Pliny calls stannum, not tin, but lead from which the silver has not been sufficiently separated. The passage in Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 25, appears to afford a confirmation, because the word there is put in the plural, equivalent to scoriæ, as something separated by fusion.

“Others derive bedil from the meaning of the Arabic word بدل badal, that is, substitutum, succedaneum. In this case indeed it might mean tin, which may be readily confounded with silver.

“The questions, why bedil has been translated tin, and how old this explanation may be, are answered by another: Is κασσίτερος tin? If this be admitted, the explanation is as old as the Greek version of the seventy interpreters, who in most passages, Ezekiel, chap. xxii. ver. 18 and 20, and chap. xxvii. ver. 12, express it by the word κασσίτερος. In the last-mentioned passage, tin and iron have exchanged places. The Targumists also call it tin; and some, with the Samaritan translation, use the Greek word, but corrupted into kasteron, kastira. It is also the usual Jewish explanation, that bedil means tin, as oferet does lead.

“In the oldest passage, however, where bedil occurs, that is in Numbers, chap. xxxi. ver. 22, the Seventy translate it by μόλιβος, lead, and the Vulgate by plumbum, and vice versâ, the Seventy for oferet put κασσίτερος, and the Vulgate stannum. This, as the oldest explanation which the Latin translator found already in the Septuagint, is particularly worthy of notice. According to it, one might take בדיל, μόλιβος, stannum, for the stannum of Pliny, lead with silver; the gradation of the metals still remains; the κασσίτερος of the Seventy may be tin or real lead. It may have denoted tin and lead together, and perhaps the Seventy placed here κασσίτερος, in order that they might have one metal more for the Hebrew oferet. But from this explanation it would follow that Moses was not acquainted with tin.

“The East has still another name for lead and tin, אנך, anac, which occurs only in Amos, chap. vii. ver. 7 and 8, but is abundant in the Syriac, Chaldaic, and Armenian, and comprehends plumbum, nigrum, and candidum.

“In the Persian tin is named kalai, resâs, arziz, which are all of Arabic, or, like kalai, of Turkish extraction. None of these have any affinity to κασσίτερος and bedil.

“As tin is brought from India, it occurred to me whether the oldest name, like tombak, might not be Malayan. But in the Malayan, tima is the name for tin and lead. Relandi Dissertat. Miscell. iii. p. 65. It would indeed be in vain to look for Asiatic etymologies in regard to κασσίτερος, since, according to the express assertion of Herodotus, the Greeks did not procure tin from Asia, but from the Cassiterides islands. The name may be Phœnician; and though Bochart has not ventured to give any etymology of it, one, in case of necessity, might have been found equally probable as that which he has given of Britannia. But it appears to me more probable that the word is of Celtic extraction, because similar names are found in Britain, such as Cassi, an old British family; Cassivelaunus, a British leader opposed to Cæsar; Cassibelanus, in all probability, the same name in the time of Claudius. Cassi-ter, with the Greek termination ος, seems to be a Celtic compound, the meaning of which might perhaps be found in Pelletier, Bullet, &c.”

506

Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 16, § 47, p. 669.

507

The last meaning is found in Pliny, xxxiii. 6, § 31, and xxxiv. 18, § 53: – “Est et molybdæna, quam alio loco galenam vocavimus, vena argenti plumbique communis. Adhærescit et auri et argenti fornacibus; et hanc metallicam vocant.” Here then there are both the significations, first bleyglanz, secondly ofenbruch. The name galena seems to have been borrowed from foreign metallurgic works, perhaps from the Spanish, as was conjectured by Agricola in Bermannus, p. 434. This, at any rate, is more probable than the derivation of Vossius from γέλειν, splendere, especially as the Greeks have not the word galena.

508

I explain the passage in this manner, but I acknowledge that difficulties still remain. I have however thought that it might perhaps be thus understood; that in the process of fusion, as then used, the galena formed the third part of the weight of the ore or paste, and lead a third part of the galena; though I doubt whether the products of metallic works were then so accurately weighed. I shall leave the reader to determine whether the two explanations of Savot are better. He supposes either that Pliny gives three ways of obtaining lead, namely, from lead ore, argentiferous ore, and galena; or that he says that silver forms a third, lead a third, and slag the remaining third. But if the first opinion be correct, why did Pliny say “Plumbi origo duplex?”

509

Bermannus, pp. 450, 485.

510

De Re Metallica, lib. iii. Franc. (1551), 8vo.

511

De Metallis, cap. 22. Franc. 1606, fol. i. p. 322.

512

Discours sur les médailles antiques par Louis Savot. Paris, 1627, 4to, ii. 2, p. 48. This work contains valuable information in regard to the mineralogy of the ancients.

513

In Aldrovandi Musæum Metallicum. Bonon. 1648, fol. p. 181.

514

J. Jungii Doxoscopia, Hamb. 1662, cap. 5, de metalli speciebus.

515

I shall here point out a few passages where such vessels are mentioned. Dioscorides, ii. 84, p. 109. – Plin. xxix. 2, § 20; xxx. 5, § 12, and xxx. 7, § 19. – Columella, xii. 41. – Vegetius, i. 16. – Scribonius Largus Composit. Med. Patavii, 1655, 4to, § 230.

516

Sueton. Vitell. 6, p. 192; where it is said tin, which was of a white colour, was to serve instead of silver.

517

In the work already quoted, i. cap. 32, p. 64: “Vides stannum Plinio esse quiddam de plumbo nigro, nempe primum fluorem plumbi nigri;” so that when our lead ore is fused, the first part that flows would be the stannum of Pliny. “Et hoc docet Plinius adulterari plumbo candido;” with our tin, and properly considered the stannum of Pliny is merely our halbwerk, of which those cans called halbwerk are made.

Entzel deserves that I should here revive the remembrance of him. He was a native of Salfeld; preacher, pastor Osterhusensis, and a friend of Melancthon, who recommended the book for publication to Egenholf, a bookseller of Frankfort, in a letter dated 1551, in which year it was first printed. It was reprinted at the same place in 1557, and at Basle in 1555, 8vo.

518

The French letter-founders take four-fifths of lead and one-fifth regulus of antimony; those of Berlin use eleven pounds of antimony, twenty-five of lead, and five of iron. Many add also tin, copper, and brass. [Those of England use three parts of lead and one of antimony.]

519

Von Hutten-werken, p. 376.

520

A good account of this manufactory may be found in the Journal für Fabrik, Manufact. Handlung und Mode, 1793. We are told there that the buttons were made of a composition which had a white silver-like colour, and was susceptible of a fine polish. [This was probably some alloy of nickel, one of the principal constituents of German silver.]

521

Lib. iii. p. 254.

522

That the merchants, in the oldest periods, endeavoured by false information to conceal the sources of their trade, might be proved by various instances.