had all his eyes about him, as the saying is, and, when the chimney was
swept, knew how to make citric acid, and thus a monopoly was ended.
_A Half-Starved Tramp._
Mr. Huntsman, who had devised some important processes in the
manufacture of cast steel, built his factory, to be out of observation,
in the middle of a bleak moor, and "No Admission for Strangers" was
painted on the outer gate.
One terribly snowy night, however, a poor, belated, half-frozen
traveler, who said he had lost his way on the moor, craved shelter, was
charitably admitted, and was placed near the furnace, to be thawed. He
watched what was done, and, being an expert, took it all away in his
mind. Next morning he walked away, and took the secret with him. So
perished Huntsman's El Dorado.
_Fiddling to some Purpose._
Stourbridge, a smoky town in Worcestershire, England, has long been
famous for its iron, glass and fire-brick works, and also for its
_nails_, as long as they were produced by hand-work. For the Crystal
Palace, of 1851, a Stourbridge "hand" received an order to make a
thousand gold and a thousand silver and a thousand iron _tacks_—the
whole three thousand not to weigh more than _three_ grains.
Nailmaking by machinery, which was accomplished in Sweden before it was
perfected in New England, was drawing the trade away from England, and
a Stourbridge man, one Richard Foley, resolved to get into the heart of
the mystery. The case is curious, as showing the danger that has always
beset successful inventors, and has often converted the golden hills
into mere rocks of talc, and reduced many a secret El Dorado into
commonplace little workshops.
Foley, who was a very good violinist, took his fiddle, fiddled his way
to the Swedish splitting mills, and then fiddled his way into them. As
often happens with musicians, he presently conceived the idea that there
was "a great deal of brains _outside_ of his head."
At any rate, he could look and speak foolishly, but his fiddling was
wonderfully good. No one suspected that "soft" fellow, who lounged about
with an idiotic want of expression in his face, but was ready to play
whenever asked to do so.
He ingratiated himself so thoroughly with the workmen that they gave him
a shakedown inside the mill or factory. He quietly exercised his faculty
of observation, saw all the processes of manipulation, and one day was
missing. He carried home their secrets of work, and fame and fortune
became his own.
_German Silver._
German silver derives its name from the fact that its first introduction
in the arts, to any great extent, was made in Germany. It is, however,
nothing more than the white copper long known in China. It does not
contain a particle of real silver, but is an alloy of copper, nickel and
zinc.
_Isabella Color._
The Archduke Albert married the infanta Isabella, daughter of Philip
II., King of Spain, with whom he had the Low Countries in dowry. In the
year 1602 he laid siege to Ostend, then in the possession of the
heretics, and his pious princess, who attended him in that expedition,
made a vow that she would not change her clothes until the city was
taken. Contrary to expectation, it was three years before the place was
reduced, in which time the linen of her highness had acquired a hue
which, from the superstition of the princess and the times, was much
admired, and was adopted by the court fashionables under the name of the
"Isabella color." It is a whitish yellow, or soiled buff—better
imagined than described.
_Parisian Scarlet._
The tincture of cochineal alone yields a purple color, which may be
changed to a most beautiful scarlet by adding a solution of tin in
aqua-regia, or muriatic acid, a discovery which was made by accident.
Cornelius Drebbel, who died in London in 1634, having placed in his
window an extract of cochineal, made with boiling water, for the purpose
of filling a thermometer, some aqua-regia dropped into it from a phial,
broken by accident, which stood above it, and converted the purple dye
into a most beautiful scarlet. After some conjectures and experiments,
he discovered that the tin by which the window frame was divided into
squares had been dissolved by the aqua-regia, and was the cause of the
change. Giles Gobelin, a dyer at Paris, used it for dyeing cloth. It
became known as Parisian scarlet dye, and rose into such great repute
that the populace declared that Gobelin had acquired his art from the
devil.
_Tyrian Purple._
The purple dye of Tyre was discovered about fifteen centuries before the
Christian era, and the art of using it did not become lost until the
eleventh century after Christ. It was obtained from two genera of one
species of shell-fish, the smaller of which was called _buccinum_, the
larger _purpura_, and to both the common name mure was applied. The
dye-stuff was procured by puncturing a vessel in the throat of the
larger genus, and by pounding the smaller entire. The tints capable of
being imparted by this material were various—representing numerous
shades between purple and crimson, but the imperial tint was that
resembling coagulated blood. That it was known to the Egyptians, in the
time of Moses, is sufficiently obvious from the testimony of more than
one Scriptural passage. Ultimately, in later ages, a restrictive policy
of the eastern emperors caused the art to be practised by only a few
individuals, and at last, about the commencement of the twelfth century,
when Byzantium was suffering from attacks without and dissensions
within, the secret of imparting the purple dye of Tyre was lost.
The rediscovery of Tyrian purple, as it occurred in England, was made by
Mr. Cole, of Bristol. About the latter end of the year 1683, this
gentleman heard from two ladies residing at Minehead, that a person
living somewhere on the coast of Ireland supported himself by marking
with a delicate crimson color the fine linen of ladies and gentlemen
sent him for that purpose, which color was the product of a shell-fish.
This recital at once brought to the recollection of Mr. Cole the
tradition of Tyrian purple. He, without delay, went in search of the
shell-fish, and, after trying various kinds without success, his efforts
were at length successful. He found considerable quantities of the
buccinum on the sea-coast of Somersetshire and the opposite coast of
South Wales. The fish being found, the next difficulty was to extract
the dye, which in its natural state is not purple but white, the purple
being the result of exposure to the air. At length our acute
investigator found the dye-stuff in a white vein lying transversely in a
little furrow or cleft next to the head of the fish.
_Odor of Patchouli._
The odor of patchouli was known in Europe before the material itself was
introduced, in consequence of its use in cashmere to scent the shawls
with a view of keeping out moths, which are averse to it; hence the
genuine cashmere shawls were known by their scent, until the French
found out the secret and imported the herb for use in the same way.
_Veneered Diamonds._
Quite a notable industry is carried on in Paris, namely, the manufacture
of what are termed veneered diamonds. The body of the gem is of quartz
or crystal. After being cut into a proper shape, it is put into a
galvanic battery, which coats it with a liquid, the latter being made of
diamonds which are too small to be cut and of the clippings taken from
diamonds during the process of shapening them. In this way all the small
particles of diamonds that heretofore have been regarded as
comparatively worthless, can, by means of this ingenious process, be
made of service to the jeweler.
_Hungary Water._
This is a spirit of wine distilled upon rosemary, and contains a
powerful aroma of the plant. For many years it was mainly manufactured
at Beaucaire and Montpellier, in France, where the plant grows in
abundance. The name seems to signify that this water, so celebrated for
its medicinal virtues, is an Hungarian invention; and we read in various
books that the recipe for preparing it was given to a queen of Hungary
by a hermit, or, as others say, by an angel, who appeared to her in a
garden, all entrance to which was shut, in the form of a hermit or
youth. Others affirm that Elizabeth, wife of Charles Robert, king of
Hungary, who died in 1380, was the inventor. By often washing with this
spirit of rosemary, when in the seventieth year of her age, she was
cured, as we are told, of the gout and an universal lameness; so that
she not only lived to pass eighty, but became so lively and beautiful
that she was courted by the king of Poland, who was then a widower, and
who wished to make her his second wife. Hoyer says that the recipe for
preparing this water, written by Queen Elizabeth's own hand, in golden
characters, is still preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna.
Beckmann says such is not the case.
_Cork Jackets._
The use of cork for making jackets, as an aid to swimming, is very old.
We are informed that the Roman whom Camillus sent to the Capitol, when
besieged by the Gauls, put on a light dress, and took cork with him
under it, because, to avoid being taken by the enemy, it was necessary
for him to swim across the Tiber.
_Nothing New under the Sun._
The Romans used movable types to mark their pottery and indorse their
books. Mr. Layard found, in Nineveh, a magnificent lens of rock-crystal,
which Sir D. Brewster considers a true optical lens, and the origin of
the microscope. The principle of the stereoscope, invented by Professor
Wheatstone, was known to Euclid, described by Galen fifteen hundred
years ago, and more fully in 1599, A. D., in the works of Baptista
Porta. The Thames tunnel, though such a novelty, was anticipated by that
under the Euphrates at Babylon, and the ancient Egyptians had a Suez
canal. Such examples might be indefinitely multiplied; but we turn to
Photography. M. Jobarb, in his "Neuvelles Inventions aux Expositions
Universelles," 1856, says a translation from German was discovered in
Russia, three hundred years old, which contains a clear explanation of
Photography. The old alchemists understood the properties of chloride of
silver in relation to light, and its photographic action is explained by
Fabricius in "De Rubus Metallicis," 1566. The daguerreotype process was
anticipated by De La Roche, in his "Giphantie," 1760, though it was only
the statement of a dreamer.
_How the Ancients Rewarded Inventors._
A Roman architect discovered the means of so far altering the nature of
glass as to render it malleable; but the Emperor Tiberius caused the
architect to be beheaded. A similar discovery was made in France during
the reign of Louis XIII. The inventor presented a bust, formed of
malleable glass, to Cardinal Richelieu, and was rewarded for his
ingenuity by perpetual imprisonment, lest the French glass manufacturers
should be injured by the discovery of it.
_Deutsche Luft._
A German newspaper tells an amusing story of the famous scientist,
Alexander von Humboldt, who took advantage of the exemption from duty of
the covering of articles free from duty, formerly the rule in France. In
the year 1805 he and Gay-Lussac were in Paris, engaged in their
experiments on the compression of air. The two scientists found
themselves in need of a large number of glass tubes, and since this
article was exceedingly dear in France at that time, and the duty on
imported glass tubes was something alarming, Humboldt sent an order to
Germany for the needed articles, giving directions that the
manufacturer should seal the tubes at both ends, and put a label upon
each with the words "_Deutsche Luft_" (German air). The air of Germany
was an article upon which there was no duty, and the tubes were passed
by the custom officers without any demand, arriving free of duty in the
hands of the two experimenters.
_The Great Hero of the Bretons._
Merlin, the enchanter, is the great hero of the Bretons as he is of the
Welsh, the same legends being common to both people. Among other lays
respecting him is the following, which is of high antiquity:—
"Merlin! Merlin! whither bound
With your black dog by your side?" [1]
"I seek until the prize be found,
Where the red egg loves to hide.
"The red egg of the sea-snake's nest, [2]
Where the ocean caves are seen,
And the cress that grows the best,
In the valley fresh and green.
"I must find the golden herb, [3]
And the oak's high bough must have, [4]
Where no sound the trees disturb
Near the fountain as they wave."
"Merlin! Merlin! turn again—
Leave the oak-branch where it grew;
Seek no more the cress to gain,
Nor the herb of gold pursue.
"Nor the red egg of the snake,
Where amid the foam it lies,
In the cave where billows break:
Leave these fearful mysteries.
"Merlin, turn! to God alone
Are such fatal secrets known!"
[1] At the foot of Mont St. Michel extends a wide marsh. If the
mountaineer sees in the dusk of the evening a tall man, thin and pale,
followed by a black dog, whose steps are directed toward the marsh, he
hurries home, shuts and locks the door of his cottage, and throws
himself on his knees to pray, for he knows that the tempest is
approaching. Soon after, the winds begin to howl, the thunder bursts
forth in tremendous peals, and the mountain trembles to its base. It is
the moment when Merlin, the enchanter, evokes the souls of the dead.
[2] The red egg of the sea-snake was a powerful talisman, whose virtue
nothing could equal; it was to be worn around the neck.
[3] The golden herb is a medicinal plant. The peasants of Bretagne hold
it in great esteem, and say that it shines at a distance like gold. If
any one tread it under foot he falls asleep, and can understand the
language of dogs, wolves and birds. This simple is supposed to be rarely
met with, and only at daybreak. In order to gather it (a privilege only
granted to the devout), it is necessary to be _en chemise_ and with bare
feet. It must be torn up, not cut. Another way is to go with naked feet,
in a white robe, fasting, and, without using a knife, gather the herb by
slipping the right hand under the left arm and letting it fall into a
cloth, which can only be used once.
[4] The high oak bough is probably the mistletoe. The voice which warns
Merlin in the poem may be intended for that of Saint Colombar, who is
said to have converted Merlin.
_The Wandering Jew._
Brought to Europe from the East, after the first crusade under Peter the
Hermit, late in the eleventh century, was the legend of the Wandering
Jew. This appellation was given by the popular voice to almost every
mendicant with a long white beard and scanty clothing, who, supported by
a long staff, trudged along the roads with eyes downcast, and without
opening his lips.
In the year 1228 this legend was told for the first time by an Armenian
bishop, then lately arrived from the Holy Land, to the monks of St.
Alban, in England. According to his narrative, Joseph Cartaphilus was
door-keeper at the prætorium of Pontius Pilate when Jesus was led away
to be crucified. As Jesus halted upon the threshold of the prætorium,
Cartaphilus struck him in the loins and said: "Move faster! Why do you
stop here?" Jesus, the legend continues, turned round to him and said,
with a severe look: "I go, but you will await my coming."
Cartaphilus, who was then thirty years old, and who since then has
always returned to that age when he had completed a hundred years, has
ever since been awaiting the coming of our Lord and the end of the
world. He was said to suffer under the peculiar doom of ceaselessly
traversing the earth on foot. The general belief was that he was a man
of great piety, of sad and gentle manners, of few words, often weeping,
seldom smiling, and content with the scantiest and simplest food and the
most poverty-stricken garments. Such was the tradition which poets and
romancists in various lands and many languages have introduced into song
and story.
As the ages rolled on new circumstances were added to this tale. Paul of
Eitzen, a German bishop, wrote in a letter to a friend that he had met
the Wandering Jew at Hamburg, in 1564, and had a long conversation with
him. He appeared to be fifty years of age. His hair was long, and he
went barefoot. His dress consisted of very full breeches, a short
petticoat or kilt reaching to the knees, and a cloak so long that it
descended to his heels. Instead of Joseph Cartaphilus, he then was
called Ahasuerus. He attended Christian worship, prostrating himself
with sighs, tears and beating of the breast whenever the name of Jesus
was spoken. The bishop further stated that this man's speech was very
edifying. He could not hear an oath without bursting into tears, and
when offered money would accept only a few sous.
According to the bishop's version of the affair, Cartaphilus was
standing in front of his house, in Jerusalem, with his wife and
children, when he roughly accosted Jesus, who had halted to take breath
while carrying his cross to Calvary. "I shall stop and be at rest," was
all that the Lord said; "but you will ever be on foot." After this
sentence Cartaphilus quitted home and family to do perpetual penance by
wandering on foot over the whole world. He did not know, the bishop
said, what God intended to do with him, in compelling him so long to
lead such a miserable life, but had hope and faith in His mercy. There
was scarcely a town or village in Europe, in the sixteenth century, but
what claimed to have given hospitality to this unfortunate witness of
the Passion of our Lord.
_The Pyed Piper._
Verstegan, in his "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," 1634, relates
the following strange story: "Hulberstadt, in Germany, was extremely
infested with rats, which a certain musician, called, from his habit,
the Pyed Piper, agreed for a large sum of money to destroy. He tuned his
pipes, and the rats immediately followed him to the next river, where
they were all drowned. But when the piper demanded his pay he was
refused with scorn and contempt, upon which he began another tune, and
was followed by all the children of the town to a neighboring hill
called Hamelen, which opened and swallowed them up, then closed again.
One boy, being lame, came after the rest, but seeing what had happened,
he returned and related the strange circumstance. The story was
believed, for the parents never after heard of their lost children. This
incident is stated to have happened on the 22d of July, in the year
1376, and since that time the people of Hulberstadt permit not any drum,
pipe or other instrument to be sounded in that street which leads to the
gate through which the children passed. They also established a decree
that in all writings of contract or bargain, after the date of our
Saviour's nativity, the date also of the year of the children's going
forth should be added, in perpetual remembrance of this surprising
event."
_Thomas, the Rhymer._
This character was one of the earliest poets of Scotland. His life and
writings are involved in much obscurity, though he is supposed to have
been Thomas Learmount, of Ercildonne. The time of his birth is unknown,
but he appears to have reached the height of his reputation in 1283,
when he is said to have predicted the death of Alexander III., king of
Scotland. One day the Rhymer, when visiting at the Castle of Dunbar, was
interrogated by the Earl of March in a jocular manner as to what the
morrow would bring forth. "Alas for to-morrow! a day of calamity and
misery!" replied the Rhymer. "Before the twelfth hour shall be heard a
blast so vehement that it shall exceed all those which have yet been
heard in Scotland—a blast which shall strike the nations with
amazement; shall confound those who hear it; shall humble what is lofty,
and what is unbending shall level with the ground." On the following day
the earl, who had been unable to discover any unusual appearance in the
weather, when seating himself at table, observed the hand of the dial to
point to the hour of noon, while, at the same moment, a messenger
appeared, bringing the mournful tidings of the accidental death of the
king. The legend says that the Rhymer was carried off at an early age to
Fairyland, where he acquired all the knowledge which made him so famous.
After seven years' residence there, he was permitted to return to the
earth to enlighten and astonish his countrymen by his prophetic powers,
but bound to return to the Fairy Queen, his royal mistress, whenever she
should intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, while the Rhymer was making
merry with his friends at his tower at Ercildonne, a person came running
in and told, with marks of alarm and astonishment, that a hart and hind
had left the neighboring forest, and were slowly and composedly parading
the street of the village. The Rhymer instantly rose, left his
habitation, and followed the animals to the forest, whence he was never
seen to return.
_Pontius Pilate at Vienne._
There is a tradition at Vienne, in Provence, that in the reign of the
Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was exiled to that city, where he died
not long after of grief and despair for not having prevented the
crucifixion of the Saviour, and his body was thrown into the Rhone.
There it remained, neither carried away by the force of the current nor
consumed by decay, for five hundred years, until the town, being
afflicted with the plague, it was revealed to the then archbishop, in a
vision, that the calamity was occasioned by Pilate's body, which,
unknown to the good people of Vienne, was lying at the foot of a certain
tower. The place was accordingly searched, and the body drawn up entire,
but nothing could equal its intolerable odor. It was carried to a marsh
two leagues from the town and there interred, but for many years after
strange noises were reported to issue continually from the place. The
sounds were believed to be the groans of Pontius Pilate, and the cries
of the devils tormenting him. It was imagined that it was the presence
of his body which caused the violent thunder-storms which are so
frequent at Vienne; and as the tower where the body was found has been
several times struck by lightning, it is called the tower of
_Mauconseil_.
_The Sea-woman of Haarlem._
In the "History of the Netherlands" there is the following strange
account of the Sea-woman of Haarlem:—
"At that time there was a great tempest at sea, with exceeding high
tides, the which did drowne many villages in Friseland and Holland; by
which tempest there came a sea-woman swimming in the Zuyderzee betwixt
the towns of Campen and Edam, the which passing by the Purmerie, entered
into the straight of a broken dyke in the Purmermer, where she remained
a long time, and could not find the hole by which she entered, for that
the breach had been stopped after that the tempest had ceased. Some
country women and their servants who did dayly pass the Pourmery to milk
their kine in the next pastures, did often see this woman swimming on
the water, whereof at first they were much afraid; but in the end, being
accustomed to see it very often, they viewed it neerer, and at last they
resolved to take it if they could. Having discovered it, they rowed
towards it, and drew it out of the water by force, carrying it into the
town of Edam.
"When she had been well washed and cleansed from the sea-moss which was
grown about her, she was like unto another woman. She was appareled, and
began to accustome herself to ordinary meats like unto any other, yet
she sought still means to escape and to get into the water, but she was
straightly guarded. They came from farre to see her. Those of Haarlem
made great sute to them of Edam to have this woman, by reason of the
strangenesse thereof. In the end they obtained her, where she did learn
to spin, and lived many years (some say fifteen), and for the reverance
which she bore unto the signe of the crosse whereunto she had been
accustomed, she was buried in the church-yarde. Many persons worthy of
credit have justified in their writings that they had seene her in the
said towne of Haarlem."
_Legends of Judas Iscariot._
It was believed in Pier della Valle's time that the descendants of Judas
Iscariot still existed at Corfu, though the persons who suffered under
the imputation stoutly denied it.