The Book Of Curiosities Part 62

The time of these inventions was about the year 1658; as appears, among other evidences, from an inscription on one of the double-balance watches presented to King Charles II. viz. "Rob. Hooke _inven._ 1658. T. Tompion _fecit_, 1675." The invention presently got into reputation, both at home and abroad: and two of them were sent for by the dauphin of France. Soon after this, M. Huygens' watch with a spiral spring got abroad, and made a great noise in England, as if the longitude could be found by it. It is certain, however, that his invention was later than the year 1673, when his book "_De Horol. Oscillat._" was published; wherein he has not one word of this, though he has of several other contrivances in the same way.

One of these the Lord Brouncker sent for out of France, where M. Huygens had got a patent for them. This watch agreed with Dr. Hooke's, in the application of the spring to the balance; only M. Huygens' had a long spiral spring, and the pulses and beats were much slower. The balance, instead of turning quite round, as Dr. Hooke's, turns several rounds every vibration.

Mr. Derham suggests, that he has reason to think M. Huygens' fancy was first set to work by some intelligence he might have of Dr. Hooke's invention from Mr. Oldensworth, or some other of his correspondents in England; and this, notwithstanding Mr. Oldensworth's attempt to vindicate himself in the Philosophical Transactions, appears to be the truth.

Huygens invented divers other kinds of watches, some of them without any string or chain at all; which he called particularly, pendulum watches.

CHAP. LXXIII.

CURIOSITIES RESPECTING THE ARTS.--(_Continued._)

_Telegraph--Spectacle of a Sea Fight at Rome--Wooden Eagle; and Iron Fly--Whitehead's Ship--Scaliot's Lock, &c.--Praxiteles' Venus--Weaving Engine--Hydraulic Birds--Hersch.e.l.l's Grand Telescope--Boverick's Curiosities--Bunzlau Curiosities--Artificial Flying._

TELEGRAPH.--This is a word derived from the Greek, and which is very properly given to an instrument, by means of which information may be almost instantaneously conveyed to a considerable distance. The telegraph, though it has been generally known and used by the moderns only for a few years, is by no means a modern invention. There is reason to believe, that amongst the Greeks there was some sort of telegraph in use. The burning of Troy was certainly known in Greece very soon after it happened, and before any person had returned from thence. Now that was altogether so tedious a piece of business, that conjecture never could have supplied the place of information. A Greek play begins with a scene, in which a watchman descends from the top of a tower in Greece, and gives the information that Troy was taken. "I have been looking out these ten years (says he) to see when that would happen, and this night it is done." Of the antiquity of a mode of conveying intelligence quickly to a great distance, this is certainly a proof. The Chinese, when they send couriers on the great ca.n.a.l, or when any great man travels there, make signals by fire, from one day's journey to another, to have every thing prepared; and most of the barbarous nations used formerly to give the alarm of war by fires lighted on the hills, or rising grounds.

It does not appear that the moderns had thought of such a machine as a telegraph, till the year 1663, when the Marquis of Worcester, in his "Century of Inventions," affirmed, that he had discovered "a method by which, at a window, as far as eye can discover black from white, a man may hold discourse with his correspondent, without noise made, or notice taken, being, according to occasion given, or means afforded, _ex re nata_, and no need of provision beforehand; though much better if foreseen, and course taken by mutual consent of parties." This could be done only by means of a telegraph, which, in the next sentence, is declared to have been rendered so perfect, that by means of it the correspondence could be carried on "by night as well as by day, though as dark as pitch is black."

About forty years afterwards, M. Amontons proposed a new telegraph. His method was this:--Let there be people placed in several stations, at such a distance from one another, that, by the help of a telescope, a man in one station may see a signal made in the next before him; he must immediately make the same signal, that it may be seen by persons in the station next after him, who are to communicate it to those in the following station, and so on. These signals may be as letters of the alphabet, or as a cipher, understood only by the two persons who are in the distant places, and not by those who make the signals. The person in the second station making the signal to the person in the third, the very moment he sees it in the first; the news may be carried to the greatest distance in as little time as is necessary to make the signals in the first station. The distance of the several stations, which must be as few as possible, is measured by the reach of a telescope. Amontons tried this method in a small tract of land, before several persons of the highest rank at the court of France. It was not, however, till the French revolution, that the telegraph was applied to useful purposes.

Whether M. Chappe, who is said to have invented the telegraph first used by the French about the end of 1793, knew any thing of Amonton's invention or not, it is impossible to say; but his telegraph was constructed on principles nearly similar. The manner of using this telegraph was as follows:--At the first station, which was on the roof of the palace of Louvre, at Paris, M. Chappe, the inventor, received in writing from the Committee of Public Welfare, the words to be sent to Lisle, near which the French army at that time was. An upright post was erected on the Louvre, at the top of which were two transverse arms, moveable in all directions by a single piece of mechanism, and with inconceivable rapidity. He invented a number of positions for these arms, which stood as signs for the letters of the alphabet; and these, for the greater celerity and simplicity, he reduced in number as much as possible. The grammarian will easily conceive that sixteen signs may amply supply all the letters of the alphabet, since some letters may be omitted, not only without detriment, but with advantage. These signs, as they were arbitrary, could be changed every week; so that the sign of B for one day, might be the sign of M the next; and it was only necessary that the persons at the extremities should know the key. The intermediate operators were only instructed generally in these sixteen signals; which were so distinct, so marked, so different the one from the other, that they were remembered with the greatest ease.

The construction of the machine was such, that each signal was uniformly given in precisely the same manner at all times: it did not depend on the operator's manual skill; and the position of the arm could never, for any one signal, be a degree higher or a degree lower, its movement being regulated mechanically. M. Chappe having received, at the Louvre, the sentence to be conveyed, gave a known signal to the second station (which was Mont Martre) to prepare. At each station there was a watch-tower, where telescopes were fixed, and the person on watch gave the signal of preparation which he had received, and this communicated successively through all the line, which brought them all into a state of readiness.

The person at Mont Martre then received, letter by letter, the sentence from the Louvre, which he repeated with his own machine; and this was again repeated from the next height, with inconceivable rapidity, to the final station at Lisle.

Various experiments were in consequence tried upon telegraphs in this country; and one was soon after set up by government, in a chain of stations from the admiralty-office to the sea-coast. It consists of six octagon boards, each of which is poised upon an axis in a frame, in such a manner that it can be either placed vertically, so as to appear with its full size to the observer at the nearest station, or it becomes invisible to him by being placed horizontally, or with only the narrow edge exposed.

These six boards make thirty-six changes, by the most plain and simple mode of working; and they will make many more, if more were necessary.

We submit to the reader the following account of a SPECTACLE OF A SEA FIGHT AT ROME.--Augustus, to divert his mind from fixing on his domestic misfortunes, exhibited the most magnificent and expensive shows that had ever been seen at Rome. Chariot-races in the circus, representations on the stage, combats by gladiators, &c. were now become common. Augustus, therefore, the better to divert both himself and the people, revived these sports, which had been for a considerable time laid aside, on account of the extraordinary charges that attended them. He caused a ca.n.a.l to be dug, eighteen hundred paces in length, and two hundred in breadth, conveying into it the Flaminian waters, and building scaffolds quite round it, capable of holding a prodigious mult.i.tude of spectators. And indeed the concourse of people was so great, that the emperor was obliged to place guards in all quarters of the city, lest the thieves should lay hold of that opportunity to plunder the empty and abandoned houses. Augustus had frequently entertained the people with fights of lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, &c. but now the new ca.n.a.l appeared all on a sudden covered with crocodiles, of which thirty-six were killed by Egyptians, brought from the banks of the Nile for that purpose. The mult.i.tude were highly delighted by this sight, which was quite new; but the sea-fight which ensued, afforded them still greater diversion: for, at the opposite ends of the lake, or ca.n.a.l, two fleets appeared, the galleys of one being built after the Greek, and those of the other after the Persian manner. Both fleets engaged; and, as they fought in good earnest, most of the combatants being persons sentenced to death, the battle proved very b.l.o.o.d.y.

A WOODEN EAGLE, AND AN IRON FLY.--Petrus Ramus tells us of a Wooden Eagle and an Iron Fly, made by Regiomonta.n.u.s, a famous mathematician at Nuremberg: whereof the first flew forth out of the city, aloft in the air, met the Emperor Maximilian a good way off, coming towards it; and, having saluted him, returned again, waiting on him at the city gates. The second, at a feast, whereto the Emperor had invited his familiar friends, flew forth from his hand, and, taking a round, returned thither again, to the great astonishment of the beholders: both which, the excellent pen of the n.o.ble Du Bartas has expressed in the following lines:

Why should I not that Wooden Eagle mention, A learned German's late admir'd invention, Which, mounting from his fist that fram'd her, Flew far to meet the German Emperor?

And, having met him, with her nimble train And pliant wings turning about again, Follow'd him close unto the castle gate Of Nuremberg; whom all their shows of state, Streets hung with arras, arches curious built, Grey-headed senate, and youth's gallantries, Grac'd not so much as only this device.

He goes on, and thus describes the Fly:

Once, as this artist, more with mirth than meat; Feasted some friends whom he esteemed great, Forth from his hand an Iron Fly flew out; Which having flown a perfect round about, With weary wings returned to his master, And as judicious on his arm he plac'd her.

Oh! wit divine, that in the narrow womb Of a small Fly could find sufficient room For all those springs, wheels, counterpoise, and chains, Which stood instead of life, and blood, and veins.

WHITEHEAD'S SHIP.--George Whitehead, an Englishman, made a ship, with all her tackling, to move itself on a table, with rowers plying the oars, a woman playing on the lute, and a little whelp crying on the deck,--says Scottus, in his Itinerary.

SCALIOT'S LOCK, &c.--In the twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth, Mark Scaliot, a blacksmith, made a lock, consisting of eleven pieces of iron, steel, and bra.s.s, all which, together with a pipe-key to it, weighed but one grain of gold: he made also a chain of gold, consisting of forty-three links, whereunto having fastened the lock and key before mentioned, he put the chain about a flea's neck, which drew them all with ease. All these together, lock and key, chain and flea, being weighed, the weight of them was but one grain and a half.

PRAXITELES' VENUS.--Praxiteles, who was an ingenious worker in imagery, made a statue of Venus for the Cnidians, so much resembling life, that a certain young man became enamoured of it to such a degree, that the excess of his love deprived him of his senses. This piece of art was so eagerly coveted by king Nicomedes, that, though the Cnidians owed him an immense sum of money, he offered to take the statue in full satisfaction for his debt; but was refused.

The next subject is a curious WEAVING ENGINE.--At Dantzic in Poland, there was set up a rare invention for weaving four or five webs at a time, without any human help. It was an engine that moved of itself, and would work night and day. This invention was suppressed, because it would have ruined the poor people of the town; and the artificer was secretly destroyed, as Lancelotti, the Italian abbot, relates from the mouth of M.

Muller, a Pole, who had seen the device.

HYDRAULIC BIRDS.--At Tibur, in Tivoli, near Rome, in the gardens of Hippolitus d'Este, Cardinal of Ferrara, there are the representations of sundry birds sitting on the tops of trees, which, by hydraulic art, and secret conveyances of water through the trunks and branches of the trees, are made to sing and clap their wings; but at the sudden appearance of an owl out of a bush of the same artifice, they immediately become all mute and silent. It was the work of Claudius Gallus, as Possivenus informs us.

HERSCh.e.l.l'S GRAND TELESCOPE.--The tube of this telescope is thirty-nine feet four inches in length, and four feet ten inches in diameter, every part being made of iron. It stands in the open air, appears to be considerably elevated, and is encircled with a complicated scaffolding, by which its steadiness is secured. The concave face of its speculum is _forty-eight inches_ of polished surface in diameter, and it weighs nearly _two thousand one hundred and eighteen pounds_! With proper eye-gla.s.ses it magnifies above _six thousand times_: it is the largest instrument, and has the greatest magnifying power, of any that has been made. By its aid, Dr. Hersch.e.l.l has been able to observe the lightning in the atmosphere of the moon, and has found out several celestial bodies, unknown to preceding astronomers. The whole was finished on August the 28th, 1789, on which day the _sixth_ satellite of Saturn was discovered. The observer, suspended at the end of the instrument, with his back towards the object he views, looks down the tube, and sees the image reflected from the mirror; whilst a man below turns gently round the instrument, to accord with the apparent rotatory motion of the heavens, thus preserving the image of the object on the mirror with stability.

BOVERICK'S CURIOSITIES.--Mr. Baker, in his Treatise on the Microscope, says, "I myself have seen, near Durham Yard, in the Strand, and have examined with my microscope, a chaise, (made by one Mr. Boverick, a watch-maker,) having four wheels, with all the proper apparatus belonging to them, turning readily on their axles, together with a man sitting in the chaise, all formed of ivory, and drawn along by a flea, without any seeming difficulty. I weighed it with the greatest care I was able; and found the chaise, man, and flea, were barely equal to a single grain. I weighed also, at the same time and place, a bra.s.s chain made by the same hand, about two inches long, containing two hundred links, with a hook at one end, and a padlock and key at the other; and found it less than the third part of a grain. I have seen (made by the same artist) a quadrille table with a drawer in it, an eating-table, a sideboard table, a looking-gla.s.s, twelve chairs, with skeleton backs, two dozen of plates, six dishes, a dozen knives, and as many forks, twelve spoons, two salts, a frame and castors, together with a gentleman, lady, and footman, all contained in a cherry-stone, and not filling much more than half of it."

BUNZLAU CURIOSITIES.--Mr. Adams, in his Letters on Silesia, gives the following account of two ingenious mechanics he met with at Bunzlau. Their names were Jacob, and Huttig; the one was a carpenter, the other a weaver, and they were next-door neighbours to each other. "The first (says Mr.

Adams) has made a machine, in which, by the means of certain clock-work, a number of puppets, about six inches high, are made to move upon a kind of stage, so as to represent in several successive scenes the pa.s.sion of Jesus Christ. The first exhibits him in the garden at prayer, while the three apostles are sleeping at a distance. In the last, he is shewn dead in the sepulchre, guarded by two Roman soldiers. The intervening scenes represent the treachery of Judas, the examination of Jesus before Caiaphas, the dialogue between Pilate and the Jews concerning him, the denial of Peter, the scourging, and the crucifixion. It is all accompanied by a mournful dirge of music; and the maker, by way of explanation, repeats the pa.s.sages of Scripture which relate the events he has undertaken to shew. I never saw a stronger proof of the strength of the impression of objects, which are brought immediately home to the senses. I have heard and read more than one eloquent sermon upon the pa.s.sion; but I confess, none of their most laboured efforts at the pathetic ever touched my heart with one-half the force of this puppet-show. The traitor's kiss, the blow struck by the high-priest's servant, the scourging, the nailing to the cross, the sponge of vinegar, every indignity offered, and every pain inflicted, occasioned a sensation, when thus made perceptible to the eye, which I had never felt at mere description.

"Hultig, the weaver, with an equal, or superior mechanical genius, has applied it in a different manner, and devoted it to geographical, astronomical, and historical pursuits. In the intervals of his leisure from the common weaver's work, which affords him subsistence, he has become a very learned man. The walls of his rooms are covered with maps and drawings of his own, representing, here the course of the Oder, with all the towns and villages through which it runs; there, the mountains of Switzerland, and those of Silesia, over both of which he has travelled in person. In one room he has two very large tables, one raised above the other: on one of them he has ranged all the towns and remarkable places of Germany; and on the other, of all Europe: they are placed according to their respective geographical bearings. The names of the towns are written on a small square piece of paper, and fixed in a slit on the top of a peg, which is stuck into the table. The remarkable mountains are shewn by some pyramidical black stones; and little white pyramids are stationed at all the spots which have been distinguished by any great battle, or other remarkable incident. The man himself, in explaining his work, shews abundance of learning, relative to the ancient names of places, and the former inhabitants of the countries to which he points; and amused us with anecdotes of various kinds, connected with the lands he has marked out.

"Thus, in shewing us the Alps, he pointed to the very spot over which the French army of reserve so lately pa.s.sed, and where Buonaparte so fortunately escaped being taken by an Austrian officer; and then he gave us a short comment of his own, upon the character and extraordinary good fortune of the First Consul. In a second room he has a large machine, representing the Copernican system of the universe: it is made in such a manner, that the whole firmament of fixed stars moves round our solar system once in every twenty-four hours, and thus always exhibits the stars, in the exact position, relative to our earth, in which they really stand. Internally, he has stationed all the planets which belong to our system, with their several satellites, and all the comets that have been observed during the last three centuries. In a third room he has another machine, exhibiting in different parts the various phases of the moon, and those of Jupiter's satellites, the apparent motion of the sun round the earth, and the real motion of the earth round the sun.

"In his garret he has another work, upon which he is yet occupied, and which, being his last labour, seems to be that in which he takes the most delight. Upon a very large table, similar to that in the first room, he has inlaid a number of thin plates of wood, formed so as to represent a projection of the earth under Mercator's plan. All the intervals between the plates of wood designate that portion of the world which is covered with water. He has used a number of very small ropes of two colours, drawn over the surface in such a manner as to describe the tracks of all the celebrated circ.u.mnavigators of the globe. The colours of the ropes distinguish the several voyages which claim especial pre-eminence above the rest. To Columbus, Anson, and Cook, he has shewn a special honour by three little models of ships bearing their names, which are placed upon the surface of his ocean, in some spot of their respective courses. The names of all the other voyagers, and the times at which their voyages were performed, are marked by papers fixed at the points of their departure.

Such is the imperfect description I can give you, from a short view of the labours of this really curious man. He must be nearly, or quite seventy years old, and has all his lifetime been of an infirm const.i.tution. But this taste for the sciences, he told us, was hereditary in his family, and had been common to them all, from his great-grandfather down to himself. His dress and appearance were those of a common weaver: but his expressive countenance, at once full of enthusiastic fire and of amiable good-nature, was a model, upon which Lavater might expatiate with exultation. The honest and ingenious weaver, on our taking leave, made us smile by exclaiming, that now, if he could but have a traveller from Africa come to see his works, he could boast of having had visitors from all the four quarters of the globe."

ARTIFICIAL FLYING.--The art of flying has been attempted by several persons in all ages. The Leucadians, out of superst.i.tion, are reported to have had a custom of precipitating a man from a high cliff into the sea, first fixing feathers, variously expanded, round his body, in order to break his fall. Friar Bacon, who lived near five hundred years ago, not only affirms the art of flying possible, but a.s.sures us, that he himself knew how to make an engine, wherein a man, sitting, might be able to cenvey himself through the air, like a bird; and further adds, that there was one who had then tried it with success: but this method, which consisted of a couple of large thin hollow copper globes, exhausted of the air, and sustaining a person who sat thereon, Dr. Hooke shews to be impracticable. The philosophers of King Charles the Second's reign were mightily busied about this art. Bishop Wilkins was so confident of success in it, that he says, he does not question but, in future ages, it will be as usual to hear a man call for his wings, when he is going a journey, as it is now to call for his boots.

The art of flying has in some measure been brought to bear in the construction and use of balloons.

CHAP. LXXIV.

CURIOSITIES RESPECTING THE ARTS.--(_Concluded._)

_Burning Gla.s.ses--Ductility of Gla.s.s--Remarkable Ductility and Extensibility of Gold--Pin Making--Needles--Shoes--The Great Bell of Moscow._

BURNING GLa.s.sES.--We have some extraordinary instances and surprising accounts of prodigious effects of burning-gla.s.ses. Those made of reflecting mirrors are more powerful than those made with lenses, because the rays from a mirror are reflected all to one point nearly; whereas by a lens, they are refracted to different points, and are therefore not so dense or ardent. The whiter also the metal or substance is, of which the mirror is made, the stronger will be the effect.

The most remarkable burning-gla.s.ses, or rather mirrors, among the ancients, were those of Archimedes and Proclus; by the first of which the Roman ships, besieging Syracuse, (according to the testimony of several writers,) and by the other, the navy of Vitalian besieging Byzantium, were reduced to ashes. Among the moderns, the burning mirrors of greatest eminence, are those of Vilette, and Tschirnhausen, and the new complex one of M. de Buffon.

That of M. de Vilette was three feet eleven inches in diameter, and its focal distance was three feet two inches. Its substance is a composition of tin, copper, and tin gla.s.s. Some of its effects, as found by Dr. Harris and Dr. Desaguliers, are, that a silver sixpence melted in seven seconds and a half; a king George's halfpenny melted in sixteen seconds, and ran in thirty-four seconds; tin melted in three seconds; and a diamond weighing four grains, lost seven-eighths of its weight. That of M. de Buffon is a polyhedron, six feet broad, and as many high, consisting of one hundred and sixty-eight small mirrors, or flat pieces of looking-gla.s.s, each six inches square; by means of which, with the faint rays of the sun in the month of March, he set on fire boards of beechwood at one hundred and fifty feet distance. Besides, his machine has the conveniency of burning downwards, or horizontally, at pleasure; each speculum being moveable, so as, by the means of three screws, to be set to a proper inclination for directing the rays towards any given point; and it turns either in its greater focus, or in any nearer interval, which our common burning-gla.s.ses cannot do, their focus being fixed and determined.

M. de Buffon, at another time, burnt wood at the distance of two hundred feet. He also melted tin and lead at the distance of above one hundred and twenty feet, and silver at fifty.