Are cyphers writ by hand divine,
That hand which tuned their harmony,
And bade their varied glories shine;
In them e'en heathen's eye may see
Symbols in one grand Truth combine;
But in the book of books there lies
A key to read their mysteries.
Then let not faithless tongue advance
Its shallow vaunts, nor scoffer dare
Upon the base of ignorance
To raise a structure of despair!
Though fools may give the world to chance
Design and Providence are there:
How blinded, who at death alone
Their deep significancy own!
THE CIRCULAR CYPHER.
To carry on a correspondence without the possibility of the meaning of the
letter being detected, in case it should be opened by any other person,
has employed the ingenuity of many. No method will be found more effectual
for this purpose, or more easy, than the following.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
Provide a piece of square card or pasteboard, and draw a circle on it,
which circle is to be divided into 27 equal parts, in each of which parts
must be written _one_ of the capital letters of the alphabet, and the
&, as in the figure. Let the center of this circle be blank. Then draw
another circle, also divided into 27 equal parts, in each of which write
one of the small letters of the alphabet, and the &. This circle must be
cut round, and made exactly to fit the blank space in the center of the
large circle, and must run round a pivot or pin. The person with whom you
correspond must have a similar dial, and at the beginning of your letter
you must put the capital letter, and at the end the small letter, which
answer to each other when you have fixed your dial.
Suppose what you wish to communicate is as follows:
_I am so watched I cannot see you as I promised; but I will meet you
to-morrow in the park, with the letters, &c._
You begin with the letter _T_, and end with the letter _m_, which shows
how you have fixed the dial, and how your correspondent must fix his, that
he may decipher your letter. Then, for _I am_, you write _b uf_, and so of
the rest, as follows:
_T b uf lh pumwayx b wugghm lyy rhn ul b ikhfblyx vnm b pbee fyym
rhn mh fhkkhp bg may iukd pbma may eymmykl, tw._
_m._
_Another Way._
Take two pieces of card, pasteboard, or stiff paper, through which you
cut long squares at different distances. One of these you keep yourself,
and the other you give to your correspondent. You lay the pasteboard on
a paper, and, in the spaces cut out write what you would have understood
by him only; then fill the intermediate spaces with any words that will
connect the whole together, and make a different sense. When he receives
it, he lays his pasteboard over the whole, and those words which are
between crotchets [ ] form the intelligence you wish to communicate. For
example: suppose you want to express these words,
"_Don't trust Robert: I have found him a villain._"
"[Don't] fail to send my books. I [trust] they will be ready when [Robert]
calls on you. [I have] heard that you have [found] your dog. I call [him
a villain] who stole him." You may place a pasteboard of this kind three
other ways--the bottom at top--the top at bottom, or by turning it over;
but in this case you must previously apprize your correspondent, or he may
not be able to decipher your meaning.
SECRET CORRESPONDENCE BY MUSIC.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
Form a circle like Fig. 2, divided into twenty-six parts, with a letter of
the alphabet written in each. The interior of the circle is movable, like
that in Fig. 1, and the circumference is to be ruled like music paper.
Place in each division a note different in figure or position.
Within the musical lines place the three keys, and on the outer circle the
figures to denote time. Then get a ruled paper, and place one of the keys
(suppose _ge-re-sol_) against the time 2-4ths, at the beginning of the
paper, which will inform your correspondent how to place his circle. You
then copy the notes that answer to the letters of the words you intend to
write, in the manner expressed above.
[Illustration]
THE MAGIC OF STRENGTH.
"Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,
Such men as live in these degenerate days."--POPE'S HOMER.
The mechanical knowledge of the ancients was principally theoretical;
and though they seem to have executed some minor pieces of mechanism
which were sufficient to delude the ignorant, yet there is no reason
for believing that they have executed any machinery that was capable
of exciting much surprise, either by its ingenuity or its magnitude.
The properties of the mechanical powers, however, seem to have been
successfully employed in performing feats of strength which were beyond
the reach even of strong men, and which could not fail to excite the
greatest wonder when exhibited by persons of ordinary size.
Firmus, a native of Seleucia, who was executed by the Emperor Aurelian for
espousing the cause of Zenobia, was celebrated for his feats of strength.
In his account of the life of Firmus, who lived in the third century,
Vopiscus informs us that he could suffer iron to be forged upon an anvil
placed upon his breast. In doing this, he lay upon his back, and, resting
his feet and shoulders against some support, his whole body formed an
arch, as we shall afterward more particularly explain. Until the end of
the sixteenth century, the exhibition of such feats does not seem to have
been common. About the year 1703, a native of Kent, of the name of Joyce,
exhibited such feats of strength in London and other parts of England,
that he received the name of the second Samson. His own personal strength
was very great; but he had also discovered, without the aid of theory,
various positions of his body in which men even of common strength could
perform very surprising feats. He drew against horses, and raised enormous
weights; but as he actually exhibited his powers in ways which evinced the
enormous strength of his own muscles, all his feats were ascribed to the
same cause. In the course of eight or ten years, however, his methods were
discovered, and many individuals of ordinary strength exhibited a number
of his principal performances, though in a manner greatly inferior to
Joyce.
Some time afterward, John Charles Van Eckeberg, a native of Harzgerode,
in Anhault, traveled through Europe under the appellation of Samson,
exhibiting very remarkable examples of his strength. This, we believe, is
the same person whose feats are particularly described by Dr. Desaguliers.
He was a man of the middle size, and of ordinary strength; and as Dr.
Desaguliers was convinced that his feats were exhibitions of skill, and
not of strength he was desirous of discovering his methods, and, with this
view, he went to see him, accompanied with the Marquis of Tullibardine,
Dr. Alexander Stuart, Dr. Pringle, and his own mechanical operator. They
placed themselves round the German, so as to be able to observe accurately
all that he did, and their success was so great, that they were able to
perform most of the feats the same evening by themselves, and almost all
the rest when they had provided the proper apparatus. Dr. Desaguliers
exhibited some of the experiments before the Royal Society, and has given
such a distinct explanation of the principles on which they depend, that
we shall endeavor to give a popular account of them.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
1. The performer sat upon an inclined board A B, placed upon a frame C D
E, with his feet abutting against the upright board C. Round his loins was
placed a strong girdle FG, to the iron ring of which at G was fastened a
rope by means of a hook. The rope passed between his legs through a hole
in board C, and several men, or two horses, pulling at the other end of
the rope, were unable to draw the performer out of his place. His hands
at G seemed to pull against the men, but they were of no advantage to him
whatever.
2. Another of the German's feats is shown in Fig. 2. Having fixed the
rope above mentioned to a strong post at A, and made it pass through
a fixed iron eye at B, to the ring in his girdle, he planted his feet
against the post at B, and raised himself from the ground by the rope, as
shown in the figure. He then suddenly stretched out his legs and broke the
rope, falling back on a feather bed at C, spread out to receive him.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
3. In imitation of Firmus, he laid himself down on the ground, as shown
in Fig. 3, and when an anvil A was placed upon his breast, a man hammered
with all his force the piece of iron B, with a sledge hammer, and
sometimes two smiths cut in two with chisels a great cold bar of iron laid
upon the anvil. At other times a stone of huge dimensions, half of which
is shown at C, was laid upon his belly, and broken with a blow of the
great hammer.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
4. The performer then placed his shoulders upon one chair, and his heels
upon another, as in Fig. 4, forming, with his back-bone, thighs, and legs,
an arch springing from its abutments at A and B. One or two men then stood
upon his belly, rising up and down while the performer breathed. A stone,
one and a half feet long, one foot broad, and half a foot thick, was then
laid upon his belly and broken by a sledge hammer, an operation which may
be performed with much less danger than when his back touched the ground,
as in Fig. 3.
5. His next feat was to lie down on the ground, as in Fig. 5. A man being
then placed on his knees, he draws his heels towards his body, and,
raising his knees, he lifts up the man gradually, till, having brought his
knees perpendicularly under him, as in Fig. 6, he raises his own body up,
and, placing his arms around the man's legs, he rises with him, and sets
him down on some low table or eminence of the same height as his knees.
This feat he sometimes performed with two men in place of one.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
6. The last, and apparently the most wonderful, performance of the German,
is shown in Fig. 7, where he appears to raise a cannon A, placed upon a
scale, the four ropes of the scale being fixed to a rope or chain attached
to his girdle, in the manner already described. Previous to the fixing of
the ropes, the cannon and scale rest upon two rollers B C, but when all is
ready, the two rollers are knocked from beneath the scale, and the cannon
is sustained by the strength of his loins.
The German also exhibited his strength in twisting into a screw a flat
piece of iron like A, Fig. 8. He first bent the iron into a right angle,
as at B, and then wrapping his handkerchief about its broad upper end, he
held that end in his left hand, and with his right applied to the other
end, twisted about the angular point, as shown at C. Lord Tullibardine
succeeded in doing the same thing, and even untwisted one of the irons
which the German had twisted.
It would lead into details by no means popular, were I to give a minute
explanation of the mechanical principles upon which these feats depend. A
few general observations will perhaps be sufficient for ordinary readers.
The feats No. 1, 2, and 7, depend entirely on the natural strength of the
bones of the pelvis, which form a double arch, which it would require an
immense force to break, by any external pressure directed to the center
of the arch; and, as the legs and thighs are capable of sustaining four
or five thousand pounds when they stand quite upright, the performer has
no difficulty in resisting the force of two horses, or of sustaining the
weight of a cannon weighing two or three thousand pounds.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
The feat of the anvil is certainly a very surprising one. The difficulty,
however, really consists in sustaining the anvil; for when this is done,
the effect of the hammering is nothing. If the anvil were a thin piece of
iron, or even two or three times heavier than the hammer, the performer
would be killed by a few blows; but the blows are scarcely felt when the
anvil is very heavy, for the more matter the anvil has, the greater is its
inertia, and it is the less liable to be struck out of its place; for when
it has received by the blow the whole momentum of the hammer, its velocity
will be so much less than that of the hammer, as its quantity of matter
is greater. When the blow, indeed, is struck, the man feels less of the
weight of the anvil than he did before, because, in the reaction of the
stone, all the parts of it round about the hammer rise towards the blow.
This property is illustrated by the well known experiment of laying a
stick with its ends upon two drinking glasses full of water, and striking
the stick downwards in the middle with an iron bar. The stick will in this
case be broken without breaking the glasses, or spilling the water. But if
the stick is struck upwards, as if to throw it up in the air, the glasses
will break if the blow be strong, and if the blow is not very quick, the
water will be spilled without breaking the glasses.
When the performer supports a man upon his belly, as in Fig. 4, he does it
by means of the strong arch formed by his backbone, and the bones of his
legs and thighs. If there were room for them, he could bear three or four,
or, in their stead, a great stone to be broken with one blow.
A number of feats of real and extraordinary strength were exhibited about
a century ago, in London, by Thomas Topham, who was five feet ten inches
high, and about thirty-one years of age. He was entirely ignorant of any
of the methods for making his strength appear more surprising; and he
often performed, by his own natural powers, what he learned had been done
by others by artificial means. A distressing example of this occurred in
his attempt to imitate the feat of the German Samson by pulling against
horses. Ignorant of the method which we have already described, he seated
himself on the ground with his feet against two stirrups, and by the
weight of his body he succeeded in pulling against a single horse; but in
attempting to pull against two horses, he was lifted out of his place, and
one of his knees was shattered against the stirrups, so as to deprive him
of most of the strength of one of his legs. The following are the feats of
real strength which Dr. Desaguliers saw him perform.
1. Having rubbed his fingers with coal-ashes to keep them from slipping,
he rolled up a very strong and large pewter plate.
2. Having laid seven or eight short and strong pieces of tobacco-pipe on
the first and third fingers, he broke them by the force of his middle
finger.
3. He broke the bowl of a strong tobacco-pipe placed between his first and
third fingers, by pressing his fingers together sideways.
4. Having thrust such another bowl under his garter, his legs being bent
he broke it to pieces by the tendons of his hams, without altering the
bending of his leg.
5. He lifted with his teeth, and held in a horizontal position for a
considerable time, a table six feet long, with half a hundred weight
hanging at the end of it. The feet of the table rested against his knees.
6. Holding in his right hand an iron kitchen poker three feet long and
three inches round, he struck upon his bare left arm, between the elbow
and the wrist, till he bent the poker nearly to a right angle.
7. Taking a similar poker, and holding the ends of it in his hands, and
the middle against the back of his neck, he brought both ends of it
together before him, and he then pulled it almost straight again. This
last feat was the most difficult, because the muscles which separate the
arms horizontally from each other are not so strong as those which bring
them together.
8. He broke a rope about two inches in circumference, which was partly
wound about a cylinder four inches in diameter, having fastened the other
end of it to straps that went over his shoulder.
9. Dr. Desaguliers saw him lift a rolling stone of about 800 pounds'
weight with his hands only, standing in a frame above it, and taking hold
of a frame fastened to it. Hence Dr. Desaguliers gives the following
relative view of the strengths of individuals:
Strength of the weakest men, 125 pounds.
Strength of very strong men, 400
Strength of Topham, 800
The weight of Topham was about 200.
One of the most remarkable and inexplicable experiments relative to the
strength of the human frame, which we have ourselves seen and admired, is
that in which a heavy man is raised with the greatest facility, when he
is lifted up the instant that his own lungs, and those of the persons who
raise him, are inflated with air. This experiment was, I believe, first
shown in England a few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed in a
large party at Venice under the direction of an officer of the American
navy. As Major H. performed it more than once in my presence, I shall
describe, as nearly as possible, the method which he prescribed. The
heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being
supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at
each leg and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and they find
his dead weight to be very great, from the difficulty they experience
in supporting him. When he is replaced in the chairs, each of the four
persons takes hold of the body as before, and the person to be lifted
gives two signals by clapping his hands. At the first signal he himself
and the four lifters begin to draw a long and full breath, and when the
inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is given,
for raising the person from the chairs. To his own surprise and that of
his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier
than a feather. On several occasions I have observed that when one of the
bearers performs his part ill, by making the inhalation out of time, the
part of the body which he tries to raise is left, as it were, behind. As
we have repeatedly seen this experiment, and have performed the part both
of the load and of the bearer, we can testify how remarkable the effects
appear to all parties, and how complete is the conviction, either that
the load has been lightened, or the bearer strengthened by the prescribed
process.
At Venice, the experiment was performed in a much more imposing manner.
The heaviest man in the party was raised and sustained upon the points of
the fore fingers of six persons. Major H. declared that the experiment
would not succeed if the person lifted were placed upon a board, and
the strength of the individuals applied to the board. He conceived it
necessary that the bearers should communicate directly with the body to be
raised. I have not had an opportunity of making any experiments relative
to these curious facts; but whether the general effect is an illusion, or
the result of known or of new principles, the subject merits a careful
investigation.
Among the remarkable exhibitions of mechanical strength and dexterity,
we may enumerate that of supporting pyramids of men. This exhibition is
a very ancient one. The simplest form of this feat consists in placing a
number of men upon each other's shoulders, so that each row consists of a
man fewer till they form a pyramid terminating in a single person, upon
whose head a boy is sometimes placed with his feet upwards.
MISCELLANEOUS
CURIOUS TRICKS AND FANCIES.
"Youth loves and lives on change,
Till the soul sighs for sameness, which at last
Becomes variety, and takes its place."
AN ARTIFICIAL MEMORY.
The reader must have observed, that to perform several of the recreations
in this book, it is necessary to have a good memory; but as that is a gift
every one has not from nature, many methods have been contrived to supply
that defect by art--the most material of which we shall here describe.
An artificial memory respects either figures or words; for the former,
let the five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, represent the first five digits; the
diphthongs that begin with the first four vowels, as au, ea, ie, ou,
representing the remaining four digits, let y stand for an 0, or cypher.
Let the ten first consonants also stand for the nine digits and the
cypher, as in the following table:
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| a | e | i | o | u | au | ea | ie | ou | y |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| b | c | d | f | g | h | k | l | m | n |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Then to represent any number, let the first letter be a vowel or
diphthong, the second a consonant, the third a vowel, the fourth a
consonant, &c. Thus for the number 1763, you write or remember the word
_akaud_; if there are several sums to be retained, you place the words in
form of verses--which will make them more pleasing to repeat and more
easy to remember; for example, if you would remember the dates of the
discovery of America by Columbus, the settlement of Virginia by Captain
Smith, the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the Battle of Bunker Hill,
the Declaration of Independence, and the Battle of New Orleans, which
were in 1492, 1605, 1620, 1775, 1776, and 1815, you write as follows--for
you are to observe that in this, as well as similar cases, when the first
figure is always the same, it is unnecessary to write it after the first
time:
Afouc hyh hen keag keah lag.
When several cyphers come together, instead of repeating y or _n_, you may
write y or _n_ 2, 3, &c.; thus, for 3400, write _ify_2, and for 256,000,
write _ehun_3.
To remember any number of words, select the initial letters of those
words, and to the first add a, if it begins with a consonant, or b, if it
begins with a vowel. In like manner e or c to the second initial letter;
to the third add i or d; to the fourth o or f; to the fifth u or g, so
that of the five initials you make five syllables, which are joined
together in one word--then of the next five initials you make, in the
same manner, another word, and of every two words you make a verse; for
example, suppose you would remember the names of all the kings of England
since the Norman conquest in the order in which they reigned, you then
write as follows:
W_a_ w_e_ h_i_ s_o_ h_u_ R_a_ j_e_ h_i_ e_f_ e_g_
E_b_ r_e_ h_i_ h_o_ h_u_ E_b_ e_c_ r_i_ h_o_ h_u_
E_b_ m_e_ e_d_ j_o_ c_u_ C_a_ j_e_ w_i_ a_f_ g_u_ G_a_ g_e_
g_i_ g_o_ w_u_ V_a_.
Or, if you would remember the letters that begin any number of verses,
suppose the twenty first lines of Pope's Essay on Man, you write as
follows:
A_b_t_e_l_i_t_o_e_g_ A_b_a_c_o_d_t_o_t_u_
T_a_o_c_e_d_a_f_l_u_ B_a_s_e_w_i_o_f_f_u_.
THE MAGICIAN'S MIRROR.
Construct a box of wood, of a cubical shape, A B C D, of about fifteen
inches every way. Let it be fixed to the pedestal P, at the usual height
of a man's head. In each side of this box let there be an opening, of an
oval form, ten inches high, and seven wide. In this box place two mirrors,
A D, with their backs against each other. Let them cross the box in a
diagonal line, and in a vertical position. Decorate the openings in the
side of this box with four oval frames and transparent glasses, and cover
each with a curtain so contrived as all to draw up together.
[Illustration]
Place four persons in front of the four sides, and at equal distances
from the box, and then draw them up that they may see themselves in the
mirrors, when each of them, instead of his own figure, will see that of
the person next to him, but who will appear to him to be placed on the
opposite side. Their confusion will be the greater, as it will be very
difficult, if not impossible, for them to discover the mirrors concealed
in the box. The reason of this phenomenon is evident; for though the rays
of light may be turned aside by a mirror, yet they always _appear_ to
proceed in right lines.
THE PERSPECTIVE MIRROR.
[Illustration]