Modern Antiques. emptiness of the glass never occurred to them. Again, at page 196, there is the description and view of a pump, revived in modern times, as 'Rangely's Patent Roller-Pump;" only here it is called " a fine fountaine of pleasure, and also "a most soveraigne engine to cast water high and farre off to quench fires." N a curious old work, whose title will be found below, we find the In another place is a description of a steamoriginal of a gun, not noticed, we believe, by any of the novelty which writers on the early history of steam. But it was brought would require more space than we can afford out, some six to enumerate all the remarkable problems in or seven years the book. With a great number of them, the ago, in the rising generation is already acquainted shape of a though probably they are unaware of their glass making antiquity-by means of the Boy's Own appear-Book." Let them no longer fancy that the at va- feat of raising a bottle with a straw, or balancrious shops ing a stick by means of two knives, was inand places of vented, however, for their gratification. To scientific amusement in London. Sometimes, return to the subject of revived inventions. its ance to all outward seeming, it was a tumbler of high-frothed porter (with the cauliflower on), that elicited a scream on its being apparently thrown over you, and then admiration as to how you could have remained dry; at other times, it was a delusive glass of the palest sherry, which "Poor thirsty Tantalus, alas! in vain Essays to drink-his lips the stream eludes." "Of a Glasse very Pleasant. Sometimes there are glasses which are made of a double fashion, as if one glasse were within another, so that they seeme but one; but there is a little space between them. Now poure wine or other liquor betweene the two edges by helpe of a funnell, into a little hole left to this end: so will there appeare two fine delusions or fallacies; for though there be not a droppe of wine within the hollow of the glasse, it will seeme to those which behold it that it is an ordinary glasse full of wine, and that especially to those which are sidewise of it; and if any one remove it, it will much confirme it, because of the motion of the wine. But that which will give most delight, is that if any one shall take the glasse, and putting it to his mouth, shall thinke to drinke the wine, instead of which he shall suppe the aire, and so will cause laughter to those that stand by, who, being deceived, will hold the glasse to the light, and thereby considering that the rayes or beames of the light are not reflected to the eye, as they would be if there were a liquid substance in the glasse, hence they have an assured proofe to conclude that the hollow of the glasse is totally empty." What a comfort would it be to those who have been thus pleasantly deluded, to know that their grandfathers' grandfathers have been in like manner deluded before them; though, at the same time, we are sure they must regret that such a philosophical way of proving the Mathematical Recreations; or, a Collection of Sundrie Problems, &c. Printed at London, by T. Cotes, of Chancery lane; 1633. 66 About two years ago, a new instrument for copying mouldings, &c., attracted some notice, which we were amused to find in all respects the same as the instrument described just twenty years before in the fifth volume of the "Mechanics' Magazine." Every one must have heard of the action for the infringement of a patent right for a peculiar description of weaving, when the defendant gained the day by producing a bandage from an Egyptian mummy woven in the patent manner-thus proving the invention to belong to the time of the Pharaohs. What visitor to the "Industrious Fleas will not be surprised to hear from Stowe, that in the time of good Queen Bess, one Mark Scaliot, a blacksmith, had a flea manacled with a gold chain of forty-three links, with an iron, steel, and brass lock of eleven pieces, and a pipe key; the lock, key, chain, and flea weighing, in all, one grain and a half? That Scaliger gives an account of one chained in a similar manner, and "kept daintily in a box, which for food did suck her mistress's white hand;" and that another was seen at Cairo by Leo Afer in the fifteenth century? Who would have thought that glass hives, false teeth, parasols, wigs, and horn lanterns had been known to the ancients? Yet we read of them in Pliny and Martial. What traveller, when feasting on his pâté de foie gras at Strasburg, would have imagined that luxury to have been known to the Romans? Yet it was not only known but appreciated. Even the usually staid Pliny breaks out into rhapsody when over his geese, and enters into a discussion as to who was the first discoverer of so great a good-for even for the honour of having introduced a liver complaint among the geese there Marcus Sestius. are two competitors, Scipio Metellus and held in veneration! Martial bears witness to May both their names be the size which these artificial livers obtained. Even the much-boasted invention of the powerloom is not so modern as generally supposed; as it is related by Lancellotti (before the midthat would weave four or five webs at a time, dle of the seventeenth century) that an engine that moved of itself, and would work night and day, was erected at Dantzic; but the invention was suppressed, and the artificer made away with secretly, because it would prejudice the poor people of the town. Many more such instances of resuscitation might be adduced, but we will only add that these can never be fairly used as arguments against the originality of the second inventions; and have now been brought forward partly as amusing coincidences, and partly to show that we of the nineteenth century are not so infinitely in advance of by-gone ages as we often so fondly imagine; and as instances that verify the saying of the Preacher, "The thing that hath been, is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." Abridged from the Mechanics' Magazine. EDUCATION, SCIENCE, AND ART.-The Miscellaneous Service Estimates (No. 4) contain an account of the sums proposed to be appropriated during the current financial year to the purposes above mentioned. The sum total which the Government will require from the House of Commons amounts to £349,943, against £325,908 in 1846, and £300,218 in 1845. The sum total will be thus distributed— viz., £100,000 for public education in Great Britain, and £100,000 for the same purpose in Ireland; £6,500 for Schools of Design; £2,000 for the University professors; £4,536 for the University of London; £7,480 for the Scotch Universities; £300 for the Royal Irish Academy; £300 for the Royal Hibernian Academy; £6,000 for the Royal Dublin Society; £2,600 for the Belfast Academical Institute; £48,518 for the British Museum establishment; £47,959 for the British Museum buildings; and £3,152 for purchases; £5,537 for the National Gallery; £8,961 for the Museum of Practical Geology and Geological Survey; £4,094 for scientific works and experiments; and £2,000 for the completion of the monument erected to the memory of the late Viscount Nelson. Amongst the items of the estimate for the National Gallery are the following sums-£2,200 required for the purchase of the "Boar's Hunt, by Velasquez; £787 10s. for A. Caracci's "Temptation of St. Anthony; and £1,050 for Raffaelle's "Vision of a Knight" (with a drawing).Times. We learn that the Court of Directors of the East India Company have recently received on the reef near the Cosmoledo rocks, the crew nearly perished from thirst, when, fortunately, they met with an old iron pot and the barrel of an old gun; the former they converted into a boiler, which they filled with salt water; they then formed a steam-pipe of the barrel of the gun, one end of which they introduced into the lid of the boiler, and the other end they fixed in the stump of a hollow tree, filled with cold water for condensation. Thus, in twenty-four hours, they distilled through the nipple of the gun ten gallons of fresh water. Notices to Correspondents. TO OUR READERS.-We intend to devote a portion of the Wrapper of each Number for a List of Artisans, &c., who require situations. We shall only charge the Advertisement Duty for each insertion. Those parties who wish to dispose of their Inventions or Improvements, will find that the DECORATOR'S ASSISTANT will afford an excellent medium for advertising, and the Manufacturer also, as the circulation of the Work will be chiefly among those actively engaged in Engineering and other works. We shall be happy to oblige any Correspondent with any information he may desire to possess. Letters to be prepaid, and addressed to the "Editor of the DECORATOR'S ASSISTANT," 17, Holywell street, Strand. F. R. A-u.-Monthly parts of the DECORATOR'S ASSISTANT will be published. Scroll-work will be commenced immediately. We cannot comply with the first part of your letter. A SUBSCRIBER.-The material called wootz, or Indian steel, is supposed to derive its good qualities from a small amount of silica which exists in the native ore, and which enters into some combination with the metal during the operation of converting it into steel. England, although supplying iron ore in vast abundance, yields none of very fine quality adapted for the manufacture of the finer kinds of steel. M. S.-See "Observations on Limes, Calcareous Cements, Mortars, Stuccoes, and Concrete," published by Neale, 59, High Holborn. A The Reform Clubhouse, by Barry, was erected 1839-41. It extends nearly 300 feet back and front by 105 in depth. It is a tasteful and much improved version of the Palazzo Farnese at Rome. TYRO.-A painting is said to be a fresco, or painted in fresco (sul fresco intonaco, upon the fresh coat), when it is executed in water-colours upon a freshly plastered wall, while the plaster is still wet, or upon wet plaster spread upon a wooden frame or any other object. GLASS.-A fine red colour may be given to glass by com J. bining with it in the melting-pot a small portion of a sulphuret of chromium, containing one atom of sulphur to two of the metal. Dr. Kopp, the author of this statement, does not say precisely how this peculiar sulphuret is to be formed; for the common sulphuret contains three atoms of sulphur to two of the metal. It would seem to be a partial decomposition of the sulphate of chromium. Mines," was published in 1845. TAYLOR.-Gutta percha, like caoutchouc, is of a strongly adhesive or agglutinating quality, and perfectly repellent of water; but the former is advantageously distinguished from the latter in being entirely free from stickiness when dry, in being nearly inodorous, in resisting the action of grease and oil, in mixing readily with paints, pigments, and other colouring matters; and, above all, in becoming, by mere immersion in warm water, so soft and ductile that it may without further treatment be kneaded, or moulded, or rolled out, or pressed into any desired shape, or even spun into thread, from India copies in oils of part of the remains. Ure's "Recent Improvements in Arts, Manufactures, of the antique fresco paintings in the Buddhist cave temples excavated in the rocks in the neighbourhood of Adjunta, in Kandesh. The frescoes are probably of different ages; but some of them may have an antiquity of 1,700 or 1,800 years. They contrast very favourably with the Italian frescoes of the middle ages; and some of the countenances in the most ancient are singularly fine and expressive. What is unusual in paintings of a very early period, a knowledge of perspective in architectural buildings is manifested. NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.After the Snake, Levant packet, was wrecked London Published at the Office of the SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE, 17, Holywell-street, Strand (where all communications to the Editor are to be addressed); and to be had of all Booksellers.-Saturday, June 5, 1847. Printed by W. COOLE, Lumley Court, Strand. The cost would be nearly as follows, in each trade employed: Carpenter and joiner, including cost of metal frame to receive plate-glass of Glazier-plate-glass shop window and door and two fanlights" £30 0 0 700 4 0 0 19 O 0 800 £68 0 0 The above design is capable of being extended to any width, by the addition of windows in the shop. On the Use of Papier-Mache in papier-mâché for a long course of time; but, Interior Decoration, &c.* BEFORE entering upon a description of the nature and uses of the improved papier-mâché, it will not be improper to give the reader a brief account of the history of the manufacture, and of its introduction into this country. Whether considered in the light of a mechanical manufacture, or as a humble, though useful branch of the fine arts, such an inquiry cannot be uninteresting. Notwithstanding the name that has been given to the material, which would seem to imply that it is of French extraction, there is yet very good reason to believe that to England is to be attributed the merit of first applying this manufacture to important uses. Light and trivial articles, such as snuff-boxes, cups, &c., had, on the continent, been made of We must observe that for the above remarks we are chiefly indebted to Mr. Bielefeld's beautiful work on the subject. No. 4.-VOL. I. from a passage in an article "sur l'Art de Moulage,' in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, we may safely conjecture that here first it was applied to the builder's purposes. (See Vol. v.; Paris 1788.) The particular circumstances that gave rise to the adoption of papier-mâché by the architectural decorator in England, deserves the especial notice of all who are interested in the welfare of our manufactures. bethan style, or the "rénaissance," of EngIt should be premised, that with the Elizaland, enriched plaster ceilings were very generally brought into use; and in the more classic or Italian styles that followed, the same material was still more extensively and more boldly employed. As the art advanced, plaster became partially substituted for carved or paneled wood wainscoting on walls: both in that situation and upon ceilings, foliage of the highest relief and of the richest character, may tant edifices remaining of the seventeenth and at the present day be found in the more imporbeginning of the eighteenth centuries: these enrichments were generally worked or rather produced in the art of decorative designing by this change in the mode of execution. All the deep undercuttings and bold shadows which marked the style of design in the age of Queen Anne, became impracticable when ornaments were to be cast. A meagre, tame, petite manner ensued, almost of necessity, until by the end of the last century the art of designing architectural ornament had fallen into a deplorable state of imbecility. The subsequent introduction of Greek ornament formed a new era: the limited capabilities of plaster-casting became then less inconvenient, for the broad, flat character of the It was no unnatural consequence that arti- Greek style was favourable to the process o sans thus circumstanced assumed a conse-casting, and had that manner of designing conquence that belonged not to their rank in life; tinued to prevail generally up to the present it is said that they might have been seen day, it is probable that no material change coming to their work girt with swords, and would have taken place in the manufacture of having their wrists adorned with lace ruffles. ornament. But great fluctuations have ocSuch a state of things was, as may be con- curred in the public taste: the pure and eleceived, attended with many inconveniences to gant simplicity of Greek ornament is in its their employers; it was scarcely possible to nature appreciable only by the more highly preserve that subordination so essentially cultivated tastes; the generality of persons do necessary in carrying on the business of a not understand its merits; therefore, after the builder; and ultimately the workers in stucco, stimulus of novelty had ceased to operate, laying aside all restraint, combined together to fashion soon led the public favour into other extort from their employers a most inordinate channels. The bold originality of the Gothic rate of wages. It would be superfluous here to school, the gorgeous and meretricious richness detail all the circumstances that followed; it of the Flemish and French schools, the picturis sufficient to state that, as might have been esque and fantastic forms of the Elizabethan anticipated, the total ruin of their art was the style, soon found many admirers, and it is this final result of these delusive efforts to promote great change in the manner of designing ornatheir individual interests. ment that has given rise to the important Contrivances were resorted to by the mas- improvements in the manufacture of the highly ters, which soon supplanted the old mode of plastic substance called papier-mâché. Plaster working in stucco. The art of moulding and is totally inapplicable to the exact imitation of casting in plaster, as previously practised in the bold florid carvings in the above-named France, was generally introduced, and the art styles, whilst to carve in wood all these of preparing the pulp of paper became im- fanciful forms would occasion a cost far beproved and extended, so as ultimately to ren-yond the means of all ordinary purses. As to der practicable the adoption of papier-mâché the putty-composition, a material introduced in the formation of architectural decorations. at the latter end of the last century as a subThus at last was extinguished the original mode of producing stucco ornaments; and there probably has not been for many years a single individual in England accustomed to that business. The superior cheapness of the process of casting in plaster brought it into almost universal use; for, although in the course of the last century an immense trade was carried on in the manufacture of architectural and other ornaments in papier-mâché, yet the poverty of taste they generally displayed, and the imperfection of machinery at that time, which prevented this material from coping with plaster in respect to price, ultimately caused its disuse. The manufacturers of papier-mâché at that period do not seem to have been aware of the great improvements of which every process of their art proves now to have been susceptible. A most mischievous effect, however, was The chief manufactory was established, and for many years carried on, by Wilton, the father of the eminent sculptor and Royal Academician of that name; his showrooms occupied the site of Hancock and Shepherd's glass warehouse, of late years demolished by the Charing-cross improvements, and his manufactory was carried on in Edward-street, Cavendish-square, at that time almost in the fields. Some curious particulars on this subject are recorded in Smith's Life of Nollekens, vol. ii. stitute for wood-carving in picture-frames, &c., its monstrous weight, its brittle, impracticable nature, and the difficulties and heavy expenses necessarily incurred in its manufacture, as well as in fixing it up, render it properly applicable to a very limited range of purposes. Having made these preliminary remarks upon the origin of papier-mâché, and the causes of its improvement and re-introduction, we will, in our next number, proceed to describe, for the information of practical men, the mode of applying the material to the various uses for which it is so admirably adapted. THE GUN COTTON.-A course of experiments, to test the relative strength of this explosive material with that of the best ordnance gunpowder, has just taken place at the Holyhead Mountain, Anglesea; the Holland Slate Quarries, in Merionethshire; and at the Hon. Colonel Pennant's Slate Quarries, Penrhyn, and the results show that the saving by the use of gun cotton is at least thirty per cent.; added to which the greater advantage, that the miners, by its means, are enabled to obtain the most enormous blocks, and this with little or no waste. |