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100 BC (search for this): chapter 16
onflagration occasioned by that edifice being struck by lightning. The Cretans also used bronze records. Among the ancient inscriptions on bronze yet extant are the Scriptum de Bacchanalibus, Imperial Library; Trajan's Tabula Alimentaria ; the helmet found at Cannae with Punic letters, in the museum at Florence, and various others in the Italian museums, containing inscriptions in Etruscan and Latin. A deed for land, engraved on copper in Sanscrit characters and bearing date about 100 B. C., was dug up at Mongheer in Bengal. The grantor was a Bideram Gunt. Pliny informs us that such documents were rolled up like a cylinder. Two letters are still preserved which passed between Pope Leo III. and Luitbrand, king of the Longobards. Montfaucon notices an ancient book composed of eight leaves of lead, the outside two forming the cover, and the whole held together by a leaden rod passing through rings at the back of the plates. The book contained mysterious figures of the Ba
1093 BC (search for this): chapter 16
r bases. The form of the ancient share is indicated by the words of Isaiah and Micah, Beat your swords into plowshares. The change would consist in flattening a portion to enable it to throw the soil laterally, and then attaching the hilt to the stock at the most efficient angle. Had the comparison been made in our times, the change of the sword to a colter might have been suggested. While Saul the son of Kish was yet a young king and was the head of a little band in Gilgal, 1093 B. C., the Israelites, who had no smiths, went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share and his colter, and his axe and his mattock. — 1 Samuel XIII. 20. But little metal was used in ancient plows, and the statement is also true of those of later date made of the old forms. It is even within the memory of some of us that wooden moldboards were used. The beasts of draft of old time were oxen and asses, but it was forbidden by the Hebrew law to plow an ox and an ass together.
120 BC (search for this): chapter 16
son, according to Reaumur. The Chinese, at the time of Kung-fu-tze (about 600 B. C.), wrote with a style upon the liber of trees, as their records state. Paper was used, perhaps invented, in that country in the reign of Wan-te, 179 — 156 B. C. That made previous to the Christian era is supposed to have been of silk. Engrossing on cloth and silken stuffs had been practiced for many centuries previously. The Chinese silk paper is stated by Martini to have been invented in China about 120 B. C., and to have found its way into Persia and Arabia about A. D. 620. The bark-paper of China is made in the following manner : The small branches of a species of tree resembling the mulberry (Broussonesia) are boiled in lye to loosen the bark; this is then macerated in water for several days, the outer part scraped off, and the inner part boiled and agitated in lye until it separates into fibers. It is then washed in a pan or sieve and worked by the hands into a pulp, which is afterward
1235 BC (search for this): chapter 16
the fingers. In process of time, as it was discovered that either thickness, length, or tension would effect the object of a difference of tone, the frame would assume a somewhat triangular shape, the longer strings being the nearest to one side, to which all the strings were parallel. We have then arrived at the harp, which must have been used for ages before it attained the splendid proportions and finished appearance of those found represented in a tomb of the time of Rameses III., 1235 B. C. These figures are called Bruce's harpers, from their discoverer, and are illustrated under the section treating of that instrument. See harp. The Old Testament Scriptures abound in the names of instruments of the harp kind; the lyre, the psaltery, and instruments of 10 strings. The Egyptian harps had from 4 to 14 strings as long ago as Amosis, about 1570 B. C., 900 years before Terpander. The form of the harp-frame, as we have seen, arose from the mode of varying the tone by givin
1240 BC (search for this): chapter 16
is fastened directly to its support by square bolt and nut or bolt and key connection; the bolts uniting the upper and lower halves are also keyed at k l. E shows a plummer-block in perspective. See journal-box. Plum′met. 1. A pencil of solid lead. 2. A plug of lead for sounding. See sounding. 3. A ball of lead for a plumb-line. An ordinary and simple device for uprighting a structure, a post, or what not. The plummet is said by Pliny to have been invented by Daedalus, 1240 B. C. The vast edifices of the plains of Shinar and the Nile, not to mention the monuments of the more eastern civilization, contradict the statement of the Roman. It is, however, interesting to know the received opinion of the literati of 1800 years ago, and to this historian we are indebted for many details which appear to have been omitted as unimportant by contemporary writers. It is mentioned by Amos, 787 B. C., and by another Scripture author, 698 B. C. Plum′met-lev′el. That form o<
1485 BC (search for this): chapter 16
chytic lava, in which a porous structure has been induced by the expansion of gas while in a plastic state. Campo Bianco, one of the Lipari Islands, which is entirely composed of this substance, is the principal source of supply. It is frequently employed in its natural condition, but more generally in the state of powder. Pump. 1. (Hydraulics.) A device for lifting water by the motion of a piston in a cylinder. Whether they were invented by Danaus, who dug the wells in Argos, 1485 B. C., or by Ctesibus of Alexandria, about 224 B. C., it is not possible to determine. In either case, the origin is Egyptian, and that is the most likely part of the statement. Danaus is said to have been the brother of the Pharaoh Rameses, and to have carried many useful devices from the Nile to the Peloponnesus. The piston working in a cylinder is the piston-blower, a very ancient form of blast for the native smelting-furnaces of Asia, Africa, and Europe. See page 1717. The water-pum
150 BC (search for this): chapter 16
cylinder is found in some of the ancient blowing-machines of the native metallurgists of Asia and Africa. This was much earlier than the air-pumps of Ctesibus, 150 B. C. See Spiritalia Heronis. It is believed that Papin's pistons were of wood, and that Cartwright was the first to use a metallic piston. One of Cartwright's ve other water. The principle is the same, and the turbine invented by Fourneyron, in 1823, does not differ in its principle of action from the aeolipile of Hero, 150 B. C., or the reaction water-wheel of Barker, say A. D. 1740. We are much indebted to the worthy Otto Guericke, a magistrate of Magdeburg, for re-inventing the air-nt form of blast for the native smelting-furnaces of Asia, Africa, and Europe. See page 1717. The water-pump of Ctesibus of Alexandria was described by Hero, 150 B. C., and the invention may be much older than the time of this distinguished mechanician and physicist, who was also a barber, as it certainly was in quite a com- p
156 BC (search for this): chapter 16
h soon require her care. When, in a few weeks, they are able to go abroad themselves, they help extend the quarters, and a new terrace is constructed, supported by stems from that above. The community of paper-makers may amount to 30,000 in a single season, according to Reaumur. The Chinese, at the time of Kung-fu-tze (about 600 B. C.), wrote with a style upon the liber of trees, as their records state. Paper was used, perhaps invented, in that country in the reign of Wan-te, 179 — 156 B. C. That made previous to the Christian era is supposed to have been of silk. Engrossing on cloth and silken stuffs had been practiced for many centuries previously. The Chinese silk paper is stated by Martini to have been invented in China about 120 B. C., and to have found its way into Persia and Arabia about A. D. 620. The bark-paper of China is made in the following manner : The small branches of a species of tree resembling the mulberry (Broussonesia) are boiled in lye to loosen the
1570 BC (search for this): chapter 16
t attained the splendid proportions and finished appearance of those found represented in a tomb of the time of Rameses III., 1235 B. C. These figures are called Bruce's harpers, from their discoverer, and are illustrated under the section treating of that instrument. See harp. The Old Testament Scriptures abound in the names of instruments of the harp kind; the lyre, the psaltery, and instruments of 10 strings. The Egyptian harps had from 4 to 14 strings as long ago as Amosis, about 1570 B. C., 900 years before Terpander. The form of the harp-frame, as we have seen, arose from the mode of varying the tone by giving different lengths to the strings, which were of catgut or tendons; to this was added another variation by the thickness of strings. At a very early age, still another mode of varying the tone was discovered; this was by pressing on the string, and thus temporarily shortening it, raising the tone. We have thus arrived at the guitar, which was common in Egypt. W
170 BC (search for this): chapter 16
the Carthaginians had the first paved streets, and that their example was soon copied by the Romans. Appius Claudius, the censor, constructed (312 B. C.) the road named after him, the Appian Way, which was, on account of its excellence, called the queen of roads. This was about ten years after the death of Alexander the Great. The time, however, when the streets of Rome were first paved cannot be determined with certainty. We are informed by Livy, that in the year of the city 584 (about 170 B. C.), the censors caused the streets to be paved from the ox-market to the temple of Venus. The extravagant Heliogabalus caused the streets around the palace or on the Palatine Mount to be paved with foreign marble. Streets paved with lava, having deep ruts worn by the wheels of carriages, and raised banks on each side for foot-passengers, are found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Roman country roads were 8 feet wide on the straight lines, 15 feet at angles. Cattle might be driven on each
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