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Turones (France) (search for this): chapter 7
om the winter's cold, and in the construction of beehives, as Pliny expressly informs us, for the purpose of enabling the curious to observe the proceedings of these interesting insects. The temple of Fortune at Praeneste was built of slabs of gypsum, through which the light came and fell on the statue of the goddess, which was placed in the center of the edifice. The specular stone of the ancients often signifies mica. Glass panes for windows are mentioned in the writings of Gregory of Tours, who flourished in the last quarter of the sixth century. He stated that churches were furnished with windows of colored glass in the fourth century of our era. Jerome, A. D. 422, states that glass was melted and cast into plates for windows. In the sixth century Paulus Silentarius notices that the windows of the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople were glazed. The oldest glass windows now in existence are of the twelfth century, and are in the church of St. Denis, France. In t
Lake Erie (United States) (search for this): chapter 7
In China, these exudations, either natural or resulting from deep boring, have been utilized from time immemorial for lighting towns in the neighborhood of these jets. In boring for salt water, imprisoned reservoirs of carbureted hydrogen have been reached, and the gas thus obtained has been utilized in China, and in the valley of the Kanawha, West Virginia, in evaporating the brine. Gas flowing naturally is or has been used in the neigh borhood of Fredonia, New York; Portland, on Lake Erie; Wigan, Great Britain (in 1667); and in many other places. The uses made of it by the Magi, or fire-worshippers of Persia, have not been properly examined or determined; but the holy fires of Baku, on the shore of the Caspian, have attained some celebrity, and are maintained by a natural stream of carbureted hydrogen. Paracelsus remarked the disengagement of gas when iron was dissolved in sulphuric acid. Van Helmont, a Belgian chemist, gave it the name of gas, and distinguished gase
Cluses (France) (search for this): chapter 7
urch windows were generally glazed in the sixteenth century, though there were but few glass windows in private dwellings. Talc, isinglass, horn, oiled paper, and thinly shaved leather were generally used instead of glass throughout the civilized world. Blue glass, colored by the addition of cobalt to the frit, was discovered about 1550 by Christopher Schurer of Platten, Bohemia. Glass was imported into England, A. D. 1177; the manufacture was established in that country, 1557. In Savoy, the same year. Plate-glass was made at Lambeth by Venetian artists, 1673. The British Plate-Glass Company was established 1773. An active manufactory of glass exists at Hebron, in the land of Palestine,—the same Hebron where is the cave of Machpelah, bought by Abraham for a sum of money of Ephron, one of the sons of Heth. The tombs are preserved in rigid seclusion from Jew and Christian; of the latter, not one lives in the town of 5,000 people. Dr. Thomson gives an account of it
Murano (Italy) (search for this): chapter 7
ass-blowing is also used in connection with molds, which give the exterior form to the article, and in the ingenious operations of making glass articles and toys under the blow-pipe (which see). The art of glass-blowing long reigned supreme at Murano, one of the islands of the maritime city Venice. After some preliminary matters, an observer states:— Glass-blowing At the present moment you may set before Antonio Seguso or Antonio and Giovanni Barovier, of Murano, any specimen of old VeMurano, any specimen of old Venetian glass, and they will copy it with all its perfections, and, if you choose, its imperfections, and hand you a fac-simile in color, form, and weight, made under your own eye. On my first visit, the head workman was requested by Salviati to make me any article I might fancy. I chose a wineglass with deep bowl, initial stem, and broad, ruby-tinted foot. The man dipped his hollow iron rod into a pot of molten white glass, caught up a lump, rolled it on an iron slab, popped it into the furnac
Ticonderoga (New York, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
for the purpose. Bavaria is well represented by the Messrs. Faber, whose pencils of all qualities are so well known. But recently the fine graphite found at Ticonderoga, in the State of New York, has been utilized for this purpose by the Dixon Crucible Company of Jersey City, and a fine quality of pencils produced, —the companythe scales; but while this process, with care in the manipulation, produces the purest graphite for use in the arts, it has not so far been successful except at Ticonderoga, by the American Graphite Company. A large deposit of the granulated graphite was supposed to have been found in California, and a favorable report was made ups and Canada it occurs in irregular veins and in nests, patches, and pockets, the only reliable veins known being those of the American Graphite Company at Ticonderoga, New York. Graphite is the purest carbon next to the diamond, but requiring a higher heat to burn it, and leaving a reddish ash if the specimen contains a trace o
Bologna (Italy) (search for this): chapter 7
ut all we have; rather look for the charlatans among those who pretend to have penetrated the arcana. Among the galvanic appliances may be cited bands, belts, chains, combs, rings, soles, spectacles, etc. Gal-van′ic Bat′ter-y. Galvani, of Bologna, first observed the motion of the muscles of a frog under dissection, when the latter, lying upon a copper plate, were touched by a steel scalpel, exciting an electric current. He pursued the subject by specific experiments. Volta, of Como, reervation made at Marseilles by Pytheas in the time of Alexander the Great showed that the gnomon at that place was as the meridian shadow at the summer solstice, as 213 1/2 to 600. Cassini's celebrated gnomon in the Church of St. Petronius at Bologna was eighty-three French feet in hight. Goaf. （Mining.) An excavated space from which the ore has been removed. It is sometimes made the receptacle for the deads and attle of the mine to avoid sending them up to the surface, and to suppo<
Loudon, Tenn. (Tennessee, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
th of a grain-scythe so as to catch the cut grain and allow it to be laid evenly in a swath. Our four-fingered grain-cradle, whose post is braced by rods, and whose swath has a single nib for the right hand, seems to have originated in France; Loudon (1844) speaks of it as an ordinary tool in Normandy. Grain-damp′er. A device for applying steam to grain to scald the bran and facilitate the process of decortication. A jet of steam entering a tube where the grain descends a series of incng husbandry in 1731. His special object in drilling was to put the plants in rows, which would allow them to be hoed by machinery. He brought brains and money to the scheme, and impoverished himself, being rather too far ahead of his time. As Loudon observes, he had very few followers in England for more than thirty years. He died soon after the publication of his book, and his son died in a debtors' prison, when such things were. Not so very long ago. Jethro Tull's first invention was
Egypt (Egypt) (search for this): chapter 7
e stamped with the name of Menes, the first Pharaoh of Egypt (over 2000 B. C.). A cylindrical ring of blue glass. Glass bottles from Sakkarah, Gizeh, etc. Glass beads,—white, blue, red, green, and black. Variegated glass ornaments. Semi-translucent glass imitations of alabaster. Opaque red and blue glasses. Tazzas and images of green, blue, and other colors. Beads of colored glasses in layers. Ornaments of mosaic glass. A glass model of the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Grotersque faces and portraits in glass. Glass imitations of precious stones. Glass rings of various colors. Glass artificial eyes. Glass spoons, shaped and colored in imitation of shells. Layard, in his interesting work on Nineveh, says: I was rewarded by the discovery of two small vases, one in alabaster and the other in glass, both in the most perfect preservation, of elegant shape and admirable workmanship, Each bore the name and title of the Khorsabad king, w
Castile, N. Y. (New York, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
our indebtedness to the East; and the extreme East seems to have been the primary fountain of our industrial civilization. The use of an explosive compound, pulvis nitratus, is mentioned in an Arabic writing in the Escurial collection, datiing about 1249. The Moors used it in Spain in 1312, and in 1331 the king of Granada battered Alicant with iron bullets, discharged by fire from machines. In 1342 – 43, the Moorish garrison of Algesiras defended themselves against Alonzo XI., king of Castile, by projectiles fired from cannon by powder. The Venetians used gunpowder in their wars with the Genoese in 1380. Gunpowder is mentioned in the French national accounts, 1338, and is said to have been used at Cressy, 1346, and to have contributed much to the success of the English. The two Europeans whose names have been prominently brought forward as inventors of gunpowder are Roger Bacon and Michael Schwartz. Roger Bacon, in 1216, wrote a work entitled The secrets of art and nat
Waltham (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
ather stretched over a wooden frame, and revolved from four to eight hours. The ingredients are incorporated by placing the charcoal and sulphur together in a rolling barrel, similar to that in which the sulphur is pulverized, and rolling them for one hour. The saltpeter is then added and rolled for three hours longer, after which the mixture is transferred to the cylinder or rolling mill, which consists of two cast-iron cylinders rolling in a circular trough with a cast-iron bottom. At Waltham, the saltpeter, brimstone, and charcoal are ground separately in mills, each consisting of a pair of heavy circular stones slowly revolving on a stone bed. Next the ingredients are conveyed to the mixing-house. Here, in bins, are the saltpeter, brimstone, and charcoal, weighed in the exact proportions: saltpeter, 75; brimstone, 10; and charcoal, 15; in every 100 parts. Of the three ingredients, forty-two pounds are placed in a hollow drum, which revolves rapidly, and contains a flypan, whi
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