Chapter VI: Introduction: Of the Potato (3)

A very delicate experiment, yet a very natural one, which Buffon appears to have first noticed, led in all probability to the invention of the monochromatic mode of painting, or painting with a single colour. If, at the moment which precedes sunset, at the close of a cloudless day, a body is placed near a wall, or against another polished body, or on a smooth chalky soil, the shadow carried by this body is blue, instead of being black or colourless. This effect is produced by the light of the sun being so weakened, that the blue rays which are reflected from the sky--which has always this colour on a clear day--fall, and are again driven back or reflected on that part of the wall which the dying light of the sun cannot strike; for even at its last moment, the light which falls straight and direct, is sufficiently strong to destroy that of the heavens, which is only reflected, wherever they meet.

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THE MARINER'S COMPASS.

The time at which the attractive property of the magnet was discovered, is by no means known; certain, however, it is, that mankind were acquainted with it at a very early period. Father Kircher endeavours to prove that the Jews were aware of the magnet's singular property of attracting iron; and from Plutarch, it appears that the Egyptians were not ignorant of it. Pythagoras, Ptolemy, and several other ancient philosophers, knew and admired this wonderful property of the magnet. Thales and Anaxagoras were so struck with it, as to imagine that the magnet had a soul; and Plato said that the cause of its attraction was divine. But the _directive_ property of the magnet was not known to the ancients. To the simple application of this property, which was either discovered or introduced into Europe about 500 years ago, mankind is indebted principally for the discovery of a new continent nearly equal to the old one, for an extensive commerce between the most distant nations, and for an accurate knowledge of the shape and size of the world we inhabit. The use of the magnetic needle was not known in Europe before the thirteenth century. The honour of its discovery has been much contested; but by the consent of most writers, it seems to belong to Flavio Gioja of Amalfi. He lived in the reign of Charles of Anjou, who died in 1309; and it was, it is said, in compliment to this Sovereign that Gioja distinguished the North Pole by the emblem of France, the _fleur-de-lis_. Du Halde, in his book upon China, indeed, intimates that the use of the magnetic needle was known to the ancient Chinese. Speaking of the Emperor Hoang-ti, when he gave battle to Tchi-Yeou, he says: "He, perceiving that thick fogs saved the enemy from his pursuit, and that the soldiers rambled out of the way and lost the course of the wind, made a car which showed them the four cardinal points. By this method he overtook Tchi-Yeou, made him prisoner, and put him to death. Some say that there were engraven on this car, on a plate, the characters of a rat and a horse, and underneath was placed a needle to determine the four parts of the world. This would amount to the use of the compass, or something near it, being of great antiquity and well attested." In another place, speaking of certain ambassadors, Du Halde says: "After they had their audience of leave, in order to return to their own country, Tcheou-Kong gave them an instrument, which on one side pointed towards the north, and on the opposite side towards the south, to direct them better on the way home, than they had been directed in coming to China. The instrument was called _Tchi-ran_, which is the same name as the Chinese now call the sea-compass by; this has given occasion to think that Tcheou-Kong was the inventor of the compass." This happened in the twenty-second cycle, about 1040 years before Christ; but, notwithstanding the assertions of Du Halde, strong reasons have been adduced against the mariner's compass being known among the ancient people of China and of Arabia. The French also have laid claim to the discovery of the compass, and in the Imperial Library at Paris there is a poem, contained in a curious quarto manuscript of the thirteenth century, on vellum, in which the mariner's compass is evidently mentioned; but still it appears that the Neapolitan, Flavio Gioja, if not the original discoverer, was at least the first who used the mariner's compass, or constructed it for the use of vessels in the Mediterranean.

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THE DISCOVERY OF LITHOGRAPHY.

The invention, or more properly the discovery, of lithography, claims a high rank among those of the present age, on account of its extensive usefulness. The honour of the invention belongs to Alois Sennefelder, originally a performer at the Theatre Royal of Munich. He had conceived the idea of etching on stone instead of on copper, and was proceeding to make the experiment, when an accidental discovery gave a more beneficial turn to his speculations. The discovery, which was that of the lithographic art, has been thus narrated by Sennefelder himself:--

"I had just succeeded, in my little laboratory, in polishing a stone plate, which I intended to cover with etching ground, when my mother entered the room, and desired me to write her a bill for the washerwoman, who was waiting for the linen. I happened not to have even the smallest slip of paper at hand, as my little stock of paper had been entirely exhausted by taking proof impressions from the stones; nor was there even a drop of ink in the ink-stand. As the matter would not admit of delay, and we had nobody in the house to send for a supply of the deficient materials, I resolved to write the list with my ink prepared with wax, soap, and lamp-black, on the stone which I had just polished, and from which I could copy it at leisure."

"Some time after this, I was going to wipe this writing from the stone, when the idea, all at once, struck me to try what would be the effect of such a writing with my prepared ink if I were to bite it in the stone with aquafortis; and whether, perhaps, it might not be possible to apply printing ink to it in the same way as to wood engravings, and to take impressions from it." Sennefelder surrounded the stone with a border of wax, and applied aquafortis, by which in a few minutes the writing was raised. Printing ink was then applied with a common printer's ball, impressions were taken off, and the practicability of the important art of lithography thus was fully established.

The first application of the art to purposes of usefulness unconnected with the fine arts, was made by the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War, for the purpose of rapidly multiplying copies of general orders, instructions, etc., and accompanying them with sketches of positions. It has since been introduced into the public offices of almost every state in Europe; and its uses in every department of commercial, social, and artistic activity are innumerable.

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MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.

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