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

1199

Herodot. ii. cap. 86 et 87.

1200

Histor. Ægypti Naturalis iii. 2. See also Forskäl Flora Ægyptiaco-Arabica, p. xlv.

1201

[Duhamel proved soda to be distinct from potash in 1736, Marggraf confirmed it in 1758.]

1202

Lib. xxxi. cap. 10.

1203

De Simplic. Med. Facult. ix. Dioscorides also, v. 131, speaks as if it had been well known that nitrum was commonly burnt.

1204

Phil. Transactions, 1771, vol. lxi. p. 567.

1205

De Igne, p. 435, ed. Heinsii, where he speaks of the heat produced in lime by slaking it. Aristotle also mentions together κονία and νίτρον, on account of similar properties. Problemat. i. 39. ed. Septalii, p. 71.

1206

Hist. Plant. iii. 9, p. 50.

1207

xxvi. 8.

1208

xiv. 20.

1209

De Re Rustica, lib. i. c. 7. Little, however, depended on the wood; the principal thing was the sprinkling with water.

1210

xxxi. 10.

1211

xxxi. 7. Here express mention is made of brine.

1212

Taciti Annal. xiii. 57.

1213

Lib. xxx. 7.

1214

This is particularly the case in regard to Aristot. Auscult. Mirab., as I have remarked in the preface to my edition.

1215

In the island of Dagebull, and also in Faretoft and Galmesbull, Frisio salt is made in the following manner. The inhabitants proceed along the coast in small vessels, and at low water go on shore on the mud, which they dig up till they come to a kind of earth called torricht; it is of a turfy nature, and interwoven with roots. This earth they convey to the islands, where they spread it out in the sun and leave it to dry, after which it is formed into a heap and burnt to ashes. What remains is again spread out, moistened and trod upon with the naked feet; the small stones and other useless parts are picked out, and being again dried and besprinkled with water, the ley is put into salt-pans and boiled into salt.

1216

Mémoires de l’Acad. de Bruxelles, 1777, i. p. 345.

1217

Elementa Chemiæ. Lugd. Bat. 1732, 4to, i. p. 767.

1218

Boyle considered the words of Solomon as a proof that nether must be fixed alkali; and he was the more convinced of it when he saw nitre obtained from Egypt effervesce with acids.

1219

See the History of Soap in vol. i.

1220

Plin. xxxvi. 26, § 65. The use of nitrum in making glass is often mentioned.

1221

Plin. xxxi. 10.

1222

Lib. xxx. 10.

1223

Forskäl Flora, p. xlvi.

1224

Plutarchi Sympos. lib. vi. at the end.

1225

Theophrasti Histor. Plant. ii. 5. – Geopon. ii. 35, 2; and ii. 41. – Palladius, xii. tit. i. 3, p. 996.

1226

Virg. Georg. i. 193. – Plin. xviii. 7. 845. – Geopon. ii. 36, p. 184.

1227

Columella, ii. 10, 11.

1228

Plin. xix. 8, § 41. – Pallad. iii. 24, 6. – Geopon. xii. 17, 1. – Theophrast. de Causa Plant. vi. 14.

1229

Plin. xxxi. 10; and xix. 5, § 26, 10.

1230

Apicius, iii. 1, p. 70. – Martial, lib. xiii. ep. 17. – Plin. xix. 8, § 41, 3; xxx. 10. – Columella, xi. 3, 23. [Carbonate of soda, as is well known, is still frequently used for this purpose in culinary operations.]

1231

Herodot. ii. 87.

1232

Our tanners use unslaked lime for a similar purpose.

1233

Annot. to Dioscorides, v. 89, p. 951.

1234

A catalogue of such waters may be found in Baccii Liber de Thermis. Patavii, 1711, fol. v. 5, 6, 7, p. 160. [Carbonate of soda occurs for instance in the celebrated mineral waters of Seltzer and Carlsbad, and also in the volcanic springs of Iceland, especially the Geyser.]

1235

Plin. xxxi. 6, § 32, p. 556. Vitruv. viii. 3, p. 158.

1236

xxxi. 10.

1237

Plin. xxiv. 1; xxxi. 3, § 22. Geopon. ii. 5, 14, p. 85.

1238

Speculum Naturæ, vii. 87, p. 480.

1239

Hieronym. ad Jerem. ii. 22.

1240

“For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.”

1241

In regard to the two plants usnee, asne, and usnem, assuan, see Avicennæ Canon. Medic. Venet. 1608, fol. pp. 338, 406, 407. Serapio de Temperam. Simplic. p. 164. In Du Cange’s Gloss. Gr. p. 12, addend. ἀλκαλη, and in Gloss. Lat. v. the word alcali is quoted only from modern writers. That kali, however, does not mean the plant, but the concrete ashes, is proved by the explanation in Castelli’s Lexicon.

1242

In the annotations to Scribonius Largus, p. 228.

1243

Commentationes, p. 145. Recueil des Questions, &c., p. 231.

1244

Such things were known to Aristotle. See Mirab. Ausc. c. 146.

1245

Dissertat. de Igne Græco. Upsaliæ, 1752.

1246

De Subtilitate, xiii. 3. p. 71. ed. Francof. 1612, 8vo.

1247

De Mirabilibus Mundi, p. 201; at the end of the book De Secretis Mulierum. Amst. 1702, 12mo.

1248

Liber Ignium ad Comburendos Hostes, auctore Marco Græco; ou, Traité des Feux propres à détruire les Ennemies, composé par Marcus le Grec. Publié d’après deux manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale. Paris, 1804, three sheets in quarto.

1249

Biblioth. Arab. Hisp. Escurial, ii.

1250

See the works quoted in Fabricii Bibliograph. Antiquar. p. 978. In the year 1798, M. Langles proved, in a paper read in the French National Institute, that the Arabians obtained a knowledge of gunpowder from the Indians, who had been acquainted with it in the earliest periods. The use of it in war was forbidden in their sacred books, the Veidam or Vede. It was employed in 690 at the battle of Mecca.

1251

The following may be advantageously consulted: – Archæologia, v. p. 148; Henry’s Hist. of Great Britain, vol. iv.; Muratori Antiq. Italiæ Medii Ævi, ii. p. 514; Watson’s Chemical Essays, i. pp. 284, 327; Histoire de France, par Velly, xvi. p. 330; Dow’s Hist. of Hindostan, vol. ii.; Erdbeschreibung der entferntesten Welttheile, ii. p. 159; Stettler Schweitzer Chronik. p. 109. The inhabitants of Berne purchased the first gunpowder from the people of Nuremberg in 1413.

1252

A fragment from the writings of Synesius was printed, for the first time, in Frabricii Bibliotheca Græca, viii. p. 236, where the words occur.

1253

Raspe on Oil-painting. London, 1781, 4to, p. 145.

1254

Speculum Naturale, vii. cap. 13, p. 432.

1255

Lib. vii. cap. 88, p. 480.

1256

Symbola Aureæ Mensæ. Francof. 1617, 4to, lib. vii. p. 335.

1257

De Asse, 1556, fol. lib. iii. p. 101.

1258

Les Anciens-Minéralogistes de France, par Gobet. Paris, 1779, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. xxxiv. i. p. 51, 284; ii. p. 847.

1259

[The celebrated chemist Baron Berzelius, professor at Stockholm, states in his Manual of Chemistry (edit. 1835, vol. iv. p. 86), that every possessor of land in Sweden is still compelled to deliver a certain quantity of saltpetre yearly to the state, and gives directions for testing its goodness.]

1260

Der Büchernachdruck nach ächten Grundsätzen des Rechts geprüft. 1774, 4to.

1261

Diogenes Laert. lib. ix. 52. – Cicero de Nat. Deor. lib. i. cap. 23. – Lactantius De Ira, ix. 2. – Eusebius De Præparatione Evang. xiv. p. 19. – Minucius Felix, viii. 13.

1262

Livius, lib. xl. c. 29. – Plin. xiii. 13. – Plutarchus in Vita Numæ. – Lactantius de Falsa Relig. i. 25, 5. – Valer. Max. i. cap. 1, 12.

1263

Sueton. lib. ii. cap. 31.

1264

The whole circumstance is related by Seneca the rhetorician, in the introduction to the fifth, or, as others reckon, the tenth book of his Controversiæ.

1265

Taciti Annal. lib. i. c. 72. Bayle, in his Dictionary, has endeavoured to clear up some doubts respecting the history of Cassius and Labienus. See the article Cassius.

1266

Tacit. Annal. lib. iv. cap. 35.

1267

Maccab. ii.

1268

Adversus Gentes, lib. iii.

1269

Hist. Eccles. 1. viii. cap. 2. Suidas says the same.

1270

Socrates, lib. i. cap. 6.

1271

Digestor, lib. x. tit. 2, 4, 1.

1272

Baillet, Jugemens des Sçavans, 4to, i. p. 26.

1273

Paris, 1738–40, 4to, vol. viii.

1274

Argentinæ 1749, fol.

1275

Codex Diplomaticus. Franc. 1758, 4to, iv. p. 460. An account of the establishment of a book-censor at Mentz may be found also in G. C. Johannis Rerum Mogunt. i. p. 798.

1276

The whole bull may be seen in Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici tom. xix. Colon. 1691, p. 514.

1277

Baillet, Jugemens des Sçavans, i. p. 19.

1278

Der Büchernachdruck nach ächten Grundsätzen des Rechts geprüft.

1279

Von denen altesten kayserlichen und landesherrlichen Bücherdruck-oder Verlag-privilegien, 1777, 8vo.

1280

Vol. xvi. p. 96.

1281

[Exclusive privileges for printing the English Bible and Prayer have been granted by the Crown at different periods up to the present time, with the exception of the period of the Commonwealth, during which they were abolished. In the 27th year of Charles II. a Royal patent was granted to Thomas Newcomb and Henry Hills. In the 12th of Anne to Benjamin Tooke and John Barber; in the 22nd of George I. to John Basket. Then came John Reeves, who received his patent from George III. in the 39th year of his reign, and in association with George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, printed the many editions of the Bible and Prayer described as Reeves’ editions. The present patent was conferred by George IV. upon Andrew Strahan, George Eyre, and Andrew Spottiswoode, for a term of thirty years, which commenced January 21, 1830, and consequently ceases in 1860. By this last patent every one but the patentees is prohibited from printing in England any Bible or New Testament in the English tongue, of any translation, with or without notes; or any Prayers, Rites, or Ceremonies of the United Church of England and Ireland; or any books commanded to be used by the Crown; nor can either of the above be imported from abroad, if printed in English, or in English mixed with any other tongue. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge also enjoy the right of printing Bibles, &c., in common with the patentees; but in their case it is a simple affair of permission, they having no power to prohibit or prosecute. The present patentees, it may be here observed, have not of late years attempted to enforce their rights, and Bibles are now printed almost ad libitum.

In Scotland, prior to 1700, various persons held concurrent licenses, consequently it is very difficult to say who were king’s printers and who were not. On July 6, 1716, George I. granted a patent to John Basket, the English patentee, and Agnes Campbell, jointly for forty-one years. To them succeeded Alexander Kincaird, whose patent dates from June 21, 1749; and then James Hunter Blair and John Bruce, whose patent commenced in 1798 and expired in the hands of their heirs, Sir D. H. Blair and Miss Bruce. In 1833 the patent ceased, and has never been renewed. Unlike either England or Ireland, the four Scotch Universities have never participated in this monopoly.

In Ireland, George III. in 1766 granted a Bible patent to Boulter Grierson for forty years. He was succeeded by his son George Grierson, who, in 1811, obtained a renewal, and is still with Mr. Keene, the Irish patentee. Trinity College, Dublin, has also a concurrent right, but both Oxford and Cambridge are, by the Irish printers’ own patent, permitted to import their Bibles into Ireland. – Dr. Campbell’s Letters on the Bible Monopoly.]

1282

Several of them were editors, printers, and proprietors of the books which they sold.

1283

Their lamentable petition of the year 1472 has been inserted by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Latina. Hamburghi, 1772, 8vo, iii. p. 898. See also Pütter von Büchernachdruck, p. 29.

1284

Von Stetten, Kunst-geschichte von Augsburg, p. 43.

1285

Le Mire, a Catholic clergyman, who was born in 1598, and died in 1640, wrote a work De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis Sæculi xvi., which is printed in Fabricii Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, Hamburgi 1718, fol. The passage to which I allude may be found p. 232; but perhaps 1564 has been given in Fabricius instead of 1554 by an error of the press.

1286

Labbe Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum, Lips. 1682, 12mo, p. 112.

1287

Hist. Lit. i. p. 203.

1288

Conspectus Reip. Litter, c. vi. § 2, p. 316.

1289

[The earliest known catalogue of English printed books on sale by a London bookseller, was published in 1595, by Andrew Maunsell, in folio. It was classed and consisted of two parts; the first containing Divinity, the second the Arts and Sciences; a third, containing History and Polite Literature, was intended but never published.]

1290

Frankf. 1765, 4to, p. 500.

1291

[Bücher Lexicon; a Catalogue of books printed in Europe, to 1750; with supplements to 1758, 8 parts in 4 vols. folio. A very elaborate compilation, in which the title, place of publication, name of publisher, date, size, number of sheets, and publication price, of all the books known at the time, are given, including even those printed as early as 1462. It mentions however a great many books which never existed.]

1292

Francofurti, ex offic. Joannis Saurii, impensis Petri Kopffii, 1602, 4to. The first part contains 563 pages, and the second 292.

1293

Looms of the first kind are seldom capable of weaving above sixteen pieces at one time: and very rarely eighteen, because the breadth necessary for that purpose would render them highly inconvenient. At a ribbon manufactory in the Milanese, there were some years ago, thirty looms of an excellent construction, each of which could weave twenty-four pieces together, so that sixty dozen of pieces were wove by the whole at the same time. See Voyage d’un François par Italie, i. p. 387. M. Escher, at Zurich, is said to have had a large ribbon-loom which was driven by water; but the traveller who saw the work, assured me that it was a machine for winding silk; and this seems to be probable, from the short account given of it by M. Andreæ, in his Briefen aus der Schweitz, pp. 49, 50.

1294

L’Hoggidi overo gl’ingegni non inferiori a’ passati.

1295

Page 7.

1296

Page 1191.

1297

Ibid. p. 2762.

1298

Von Lersner, Chronica der Stadt Frankfurt, ii. p. 566.

1299

Relatio Historica semestralis vernalis 1776, Art. 10.

1300

Hist. of Commerce.

1301

See this rescript in the Leipsiger Intelligenz-Blattern, 1765, p. 119.

1302

Penny Cyclopædia.

1303

A figure and description of the Hakenbüchse, the bock, the wheels and key, may be found in Daniel Histoire de la Milice Francaise. Amst. 1724, 2 vols. 4to, i. p. 334. At Dresden there is still preserved an old Büchse, on which, instead of a lock, there is a cock with a flint-stone placed opposite to the touch-hole, and this flint was rubbed with a file till it emitted a spark.

1304

[The musquet or musket is said to be a Spanish invention, and to have been first used at the battle of Pavia. They were so long and heavy as to require the support of a rest. In the time of Elizabeth and long after, the English musqueteer was very different from one at the present day. In addition to the musquet itself, he had to carry a flask of coarse powder for loading, and a touch-box of fine powder for priming; the bullets were contained in a leathern bag, the strings of which he had to draw to get at them; while in his hand was his burning match and musquet-rest.]

1305

De Civitate Noribergensi Commentat. 1697, 4to, p. 150: In chronico quodam MS. legitur: the fire-locks belonging to the shooting tubes were first found out at Nuremberg in 1517.

1306

Raetia das ist Beschreibung, &c. Zurich, 1616, fol. p. 152.

1307

Appenzeller Chronik. St. Gall, 1740, 8vo, p. 194.

1308

This kind of stone is not everywhere used for this purpose. In the Tyrol, for example, the hardest ferruginous granite, which consists of corneous, partly irregular and partly polyedral, pieces, is employed as flints, which therefore are called Tyrol flints. In other places, jasper, such as that found in great abundance in Turkey, is formed by grinding, and used in the same manner.

1309

Of this deity an account may be found in Schedii Syntagma de Diis Germanis. Halæ, 1728, 8vo, p. 726.

1310

Esper Nachricht von neu entdeckten Zoolithen, Nurnberg, 1774, fol. Mr. Esper says, those fire-stones only which contain fossils or petrifactions are called flins, flint; and it is possible that the singular formation may be the cause why they have retained longest the name of the pagan deity.

1311

Figures of such instruments may be found in the fifth volume of the Archæologia Britannica.

1312

Philosophical Transactions, No. 474.

1313

A polished plate a foot square is sold at the Vienna porcelain manufactory for five hundred florins.

1314

Chemnitz regrets that the largest and most beautiful pieces are broken in many thousand fragments, and afterwards sold for a trifle as gun-flints. – Berliner Beschäftigungen, p. 213.

1315

Hippolytus Angelerius, in a work entitled De Antiquitate Atestinæ, p. 14, in vol. vii. of Thes. Antiquit. Italiæ.