Chapter X: VETERINARY SCIENCE.--Historical Development of the (2)

Owing to the changes of pitch by crooks, it is not easy to define the compass of the French horn. Between C in the bass clef and G above the treble will represent its serviceable notes. It is better that the first horn should not descend below middle C, or the second rise above the higher E of the treble clef. Four are generally used in modern scores. The place of the horn is with the wood wind band. From Handel, every composer has written for it, and what is known as the small orchestra of string and wood wind bands combined is completed by this beautiful instrument.

The most prominent instruments that add to the splendor of the full orchestra are trumpets and trombones. They are really members of one family, as the name trombone--big trumpet--implies, and blend well together. The trumpet is an instrument of court and state functions, and, as the soprano instrument, comes first. It is what is known as an eight foot instrument in pitch, and gives the different harmonics from the third to the twelfth, and even to the sixteenth. It is made of brass, mixed metal, or silver, and is about five feet seven inches in real length, when intended for the key of F without a slide; but is twice turned back upon itself, the first and third lengths lying contiguous, and the second about two inches from them. The diameter is three-eighths of an inch along the cylindrical length; it then widens out for about fifteen inches, to form the bell.

When fitted with a slide for transposition--an invention for the trumpet in the last century--this double tubing, about five inches in length on each side, is connected with the second length. It is worked from the center with the second and third fingers of the right band, and, when pulled back, returns to its original position by a spring. There are five crooks. The mouthpiece is hemispherical and convex, and the exact shape of it is of great importance. It has a rim with slightly rounded surface. The diameter of the mouthpiece varies according to the player and the pitch required. With the first crook, or rather shank, and mouthpiece, the length of the trumpet is increased to six feet, and the instrument is then in the key of F. The second shank transposes it to E, the third to E flat, and the fourth to D. The fifth, and largest--two feet one and a half inches long--extends the instrument to eight feet, and lowers the key to C. The slide is used for transposition by a semitone or a whole tone, thus making new fundamentals, and correcting certain notes of the natural harmonic scale, as the seventh, eleventh, and thirteenth, which do not agree with our musical scale. Mr. W. Wyatt has recently taken out a patent for a double-slide trumpet, which possesses a complete chromatic scale. In the required length of slide the ear has always to assist. It is clear that the very short shifts of a double slide demand great nicety of manipulation. It is, of course, different with the valve trumpet. The natural trumpets are not limited to one or two keys, but those in F, E, E flat, D, B flat, and even A have been employed; but, usually, the valve trumpets are in F, and the higher B flat, with a growing inclination, but an unfortunate one, to be restricted to the latter, it being easier for cornet players. The tone of the high B flat trumpet cannot, however, compare with the F one, and with it the lowest notes are lost. Of course, when there are two or three trumpets, the high B flat one finds a place. However, the valve system applied to the trumpet is not regarded with satisfaction, as it makes the tone dull. For grand heroic effect, valve trumpets cannot replace the natural trumpets with slides, which are now only to be heard in this country.

The simple or field trumpet appears to exist now in one representative only, the E flat cavalry trumpet. Bach wrote for trumpets up to the twentieth harmonic--but for this the trumpet had to be divided into a principal, which ended at the tenth harmonic--and the clarino in two divisions, the first of which went from the eighth harmonic up to as high as the player could reach, and the second clarino, from the sixth to the twelfth. The use of the clarinet by composers about the middle of the last century seems to have abolished these very high trumpets. So completely had they gone, by the time of Mozart, that he had to change Handel's trumpet parts, to accommodate them to performers of his own time, and transfer the high notes to the oboes and clarinets.

Having alluded to the cornet a piston, it may be introduced here, particularly as from being between a trumpet and a bugle, and of four foot tone, it is often made to do duty for the more noble trumpet. But the distinctive feature of this, as of nearly all brass instruments since the invention of valves, tends to a compromise instrument, which owes its origin to the bugle. The cornet a piston is now not very different from the valve bugle in B flat on the one hand and from the small valve trumpet in the same key on the other. It is a hybrid between this high pitch trumpet and the bugle, but compared with the latter it has a much smaller bell. By the use of valves and pistons, with which it was the first to be endowed, the cornet can easily execute passages of consecutive notes that in the natural trumpet can only be got an octave higher. It is a facile instrument, and double tonguing, which is also possible with the horn and trumpet, is one of its popular means for display. It has a harmonic compass from middle C to C above the treble clef, and can go higher, but with difficulty. A few lower notes, however, are easily taken with the valves.

We now come to the trombones, grand, sonorous tubes, which, existing in three or four sizes since the sixteenth century, are among the most potent additions on occasion to the full orchestra. Their treble can be regarded as the English slide trumpet, but it is not exactly so. There appears to have been as late as Bach a soprano trombone, and it is figured by Virdung, A.D. 1511, as no larger than the field trumpet. The trumpet is not on so large a caliber, and in the seventeenth century had its own family of two clarinos and three tubas. The old English name of the trombone is sackbut. The old wooden cornet, or German zinke, an obsolete, cupped mouthpiece instrument, the real bass of which, according to family, is the now obsolete serpent, was used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the treble instrument in combination with alto, tenor, and bass trombones. The leading features of the trumpet are also found, as already inferred, in the trombone; there is the cupped mouthpiece, the cylindrical tubing, and, finally, a gradual increase in diameter to the bell. The slide used for the trumpet appears for four centuries, and probably longer, in the well known construction of the trombone. In this instrument it consists of two cylindrical tubes parallel with each other, upon which two other tubes communicating by a pipe at their lower ends curved in a half circle glide without loss of air. The mouthpiece is fitted to an upper end, and a bell to a lower end of the slide. When the slide is closed, the instrument is at its highest pitch, and as the column of air is lengthened by drawing the slide out, the pitch is lowered. By this contrivance a complete chromatic scale can be obtained, and as the determination of the notes it produces is by ear, we have in it the only wind instrument that can compare in accuracy with stringed instruments. The player holds a cross bar between the two lengths of the instrument, which enables him to lengthen or shorten the slide at pleasure, and in the bass trombone, as the stretch would be too great for the length of a man's arm, a jointed handle is attached to the cross bar. The player has seven positions, each a semitone apart for elongation, and each note has its own system of harmonics, but in practice he only occasionally goes beyond the fifth. The present trombones are the alto in E flat descending to A in the seventh position; the tenor in B flat descending to E; the bass in F descending to B, and a higher bass in G descending to C sharp. Wagner, who has made several important innovations in writing for bass brass instruments, requires an octave bass trombone in B flat; an octave lower than the tenor one, in the "Nibelungen." The fundamental tones of the trombone are called "pedal" notes. They are difficult to get and less valuable than harmonics because, in all wind instruments, notes produced by overblowing are richer than the fundamental notes in tone quality. Valve trombones do not, however, find favor, the defects of intonation being more prominent than in shorter instruments. But playing with wide bore tubas and their kindred is not advantageous to this noble instrument.

The serpent has been already mentioned as the bass of the obsolete zinken or wooden cornets, straight or curved, with cupped mouthpiece. It gained its serpentine form from the facility given thereby to the player to cover the six holes with his fingers. In course of time keys were added to it, and when changed into a bassoon shape its name changed to the Russian bass horn or basson Russe. A Parisian instrument maker, Halary, in 1817, made this a complete instrument, after the manner of the keyed bugle of Halliday, and producing it in brass called it the ophicleide, from two Greek words meaning serpent and keys--keyed serpent--although it was more like a keyed bass bugle. The wooden serpent has gone out of use in military bands within recollection, the ophicleide from orchestras only recently. It has been superseded by the development of the valved tubas. The euphonium and bombardon, the basses of the important family of saxhorns, now completely cover the ground of bass wind instrument music. The keyed bugle, invented by Joseph Halliday, bandmaster of the Cavan militia, in 1810, may be regarded as the prototype of all these instruments, excepting that the keys have been entirely replaced by the valve system, an almost contemporary invention by Stoelzel and Blumel, in Prussia, in 1815. The valve instruments began to prevail as early as 1850. The sound tube of all bugles, saxhorns, and tubas is conical, with a much wider curve than the horn. The quality of tone produced is a general kind of tone, not possessing the individuality of any of the older instruments. All these valve instruments may be comprehended under the French name of saxhorn. There is a division between them of the higher instruments or bugles, which do not sound the fundamental note, and of the lower, or tubas, which sound it readily. Properly military band instruments, the second or bass division, has been taken over to the orchestra; and Wagner has made great use of it in his great scores. The soprano cornets, bugles, or flugelhorns and saxhorns are in E flat; the corresponding alto instruments in B flat, which is also the pitch of the ordinary cornet. The tenor, baryton, and bass instruments follow in similar relation; the bass horns are, as I have said, called tubas; and that with four valves, the euphonium. The bombardon, or E flat tuba, has much richer lower notes.

For military purposes, this and the contrabass--the helicon--are circular. Finally, the contrabass tubas in B flat, and in C, for Wagner, have immense depth and potentiality of tone; all these instruments are capable of pianissimo.

There are many varieties now of these brass instruments, nearer particulars of which may be found in Gevaert, and other eminent musicians' works on instrumentation. One fact I will not pass by, which is that, from the use of brass instruments (which rise in pitch so rapidly under increase of temperature, as Mr. Blaikley has shown, almost to the coefficient of the sharpening under heat in organ pipes) has come about that rise in pitch which, from 1816 to 1846--until repressed by the authority of the late Sir Michael Costa, and, more recently, by the action of the Royal Military College at Kneller Hall--is an extraordinary feature in musical history. All previous variations in pitch--and they have comprised as much as a fourth in the extremes--having been due either to transposition, owing to the requirements of the human voice, or to national or provincial measurements. The manufacture of brass instruments is a distinct craft, although some of the processes are similar to those used by silversmiths, coppersmiths, and braziers.

I have only time to add a few words about the percussion instruments which the military band permits to connect with the wind. Drums are, with the exception of kettle drums, indeterminate instruments, hardly, in themselves, to be regarded as musical, and yet important factors of musical and especially rhythmic effect. The kettle drum is a caldron, usually of brass or copper, covered with a vellum head bound at the edge round an iron ring, which fits the circle formed by the upper part of the metal body. Screws working on this ring tune the vellum head, or vibrating membrane as we may call it, by tightening or slackening it, so as to obtain any note of the scale within its compass. The tonic and dominant are generally required, but other notes are, in some compositions, used; even octaves have been employed. The use Beethoven made of kettle drums may be regarded among the particular manifestations of his genius. Two kettle drums may be considered among the regular constituents of the orchestra, but this number has been extended; in one remarkable instance, that of Berlioz in his Requiem, to eight pairs. According to Mr. Victor de Pontigny, whose article I am much indebted to (in Sir George Grove's dictionary) upon the drum, the relative diameters, theoretically, for a pair of kettle drums are in the proportion of 30 to 26, bass and tenor; practically the diameter of the drums at the French opera is 29 and 251/4 inches, and of the Crystal Palace band, 28 and 241/4 inches. In cavalry regiments the drums are slung so as to hang on each side of the drummers horse's neck. The best drum sticks are of whalebone, each terminating in a small wooden button covered with sponge. For the bass drum and side drum I must be content to refer to Mr. Victor de Pontigny's article, and also for the tambourine, but the Provencal tambourines I have met with have long, narrow sound bodies, and are strung with a few very coarse strings which the player sounds with a hammer. This instrument is the rhythmic bass and support to the simple galoubet, a cylindrical pipe with two holes in front and one behind, sounded by the same performer. The English pipe and tabor is a similar combination, also with one player, of such a pipe and a small drum-head tambourine. Lastly, to conclude percussion instruments, cymbals are round metal plates, consisting of an alloy of copper and tin--say 80 parts to 20--with sunk hollow centers, from which the Greek name. They are not exactly clashed together to elicit their sound, but rubbed across each other in a sliding fashion. Like the triangle, a steel rod, bent into the form indicated by the name, but open at one corner so as to make it an elastic rod, free at both ends; the object is to add to the orchestral matter luminous crashes, as it were, and dazzling points of light, when extreme brilliancy is required.

In conclusion, I must be allowed to express my obligations to Dr. W.H. Stone and Mr. Victor Mahillon, to Mr. Ebenezer Prout, Mr. Richard Shepherd Rockstro, Mr. Lavoix fils, and Dr. H. Riemann, whose writings concerning wind instruments have materially helped me; to Messrs. Boosey & Co., and to Messrs. Rudall, Carte & Co., for the loan of the instruments used in the illustrations; and also to Mr. D.J. Blaikley and Mr. Henry Carte, for valuable personal aid on the present occasion. Their kindness in reading through my manuscript--Mr. Blaikley throughout--and in offering friendly and generous criticisms; also their presence and assistance by trial of the various instruments, I cannot adequately thank them for, or sufficiently extol.

(In the course of this lecture, Mr. Henry Carte played upon a concert flute, also a B flat and a G flute, an eight-keyed flute, and a recorder. Mr. D.J. Blaikley continued the illustrations upon the oboe, bassoon, clarinet, French horn, slide trumpet, valve tenor horn, cornet a piston, B flat tenor slide trombone, B flat euphonium, B flat contrabass tuba, and B flat contrabass double slide trombone.)

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HOW GAS CYLINDERS ARE MADE.

The supply of compressed gas in metal cylinders has now assumed the proportions of an important industry, more especially since it was found possible, by the Brin process, to obtain oxygen direct from the atmosphere. The industry is not exactly a new one, for carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide (the latter for the use of dentists) have been supplied in a compressed state for many years. Now, with the creation of the modern amateur photographer, who can make lantern slides, and the more general adoption of the optical lantern for the purposes of demonstration and amusement, there has arisen a demand for the limelight such as was never experienced before, and as the limelight is dependent upon the two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, for its support, these gases are now supplied in large quantities commercially. At first the gas cylinders were made of wrought iron; they were cumbrous and heavy, and the pressure of the inclosed gas was so low that a receptacle to hold only ten feet was a most unwieldy concern. But times have changed, and a cylinder of about the same size, but half the weight, is now made to hold four times the quantity of gas at the enormous initial pressure of 1,800 pounds on every square inch. This means the pressure which an ordinary locomotive boiler has to withstand multiplied by twelve. The change is due to improved methods of manufacture and to the employment of mild steel of special quality in lieu of the wrought iron previously employed. The cylinders are now made without joint or seam, and the process of manufacture is most interesting. A short time ago we had an opportunity of watching the various necessary operations involved in making these cylinders at the Birmingham works of Messrs. Taunton, Delamard & Co., by whose courtesy we were enabled to make notes of the process.

Beginning with the raw material, we were shown a disk of metal like that shown in Fig. 1, and measuring thirty inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in thickness. From such a "blank" a cylinder destined to hold 100 feet of compressed gas can be constructed, and the first operation is to heat the "blank" in a furnace, and afterward to stamp it into the cup-like form shown in Fig. 2. To all intents and purposes this represents the end of a finished cylinder, but it is far too bulky to form the end of one of the size indicated; indeed, it in reality contains enough metal to make the entire vessel. By a series of operations it is now heated and drawn out longer and longer, while its thickness diminishes and its diameter grows less. These operations are carried out by means of a number of hydraulic rams, which regularly decrease in size. Fig. 3 roughly represents one of these rams with the plunger ready to descend and force its way into the partially formed red hot gas cylinder, C, and further into the well, W. The plunger may be compared to a finger and the cylinder to a glove, while the well may represent a hole into which both are thrust in order to reduce the thickness of the glove. With huge tongs the cylinder, fresh from the furnace, is placed in position, but just before the plunger presses into the red hot cup, one of the workmen empties into the latter a little water, so as to partially cool the bottom and prevent its being thrust out by the powerful plunger. Oil is also used plentifully, so that as the plunger works slowly down the red hot mass, it is surrounded by smoky flames. It presently forces the cylinder into the well, and when the end of the stroke is reached, a stop piece is inserted through an opening in the upper part of the well, so as to arrest the edge of the cylinder while the reverse action of drawing out the plunger is proceeded with. Directly the finger is drawn out of the glove--in other words, immediately the plunger is raised out of the cylinder--the latter drops down below with a heavy thud, still in a red hot condition.

This operation of hot drawing is repeated again and again in rams of diminishing size until the cylinder assumes the diameter and length required. This hot drawing leaves the surface of the metal marked with longitudinal lines, not unlike the glacier scratches on a rock, albeit they are straighter and more regular. But the next operation not only obliterates these markings, and gives the metal a smooth surface like that of polished silver, but it also confers upon the material a homogeneity which it did not before possess, and without which it would never bear the pressure which it is destined to withstand when finished. This operation consists in a final application of the hydraulic ram while the metal remains perfectly cold, instead of red hot, as in the previous cases.

As the result of these various hydraulic operations, we have a perfectly formed cylinder closed at one end, and we now follow it into another department of the works, when its open end is once more brought in a furnace to a red heat. The object of this is to make the metal soft while the shoulder and neck of the vessel are formed. To accomplish this, the heated open end of the cylinder is laid horizontally upon a kind of semicircular cradle, and is held there by tongs handled by two men. Another workman places over the open end a die of the form shown in Fig. 4, and while the cylinder is slowly turned round in its cradle, two sledge hammers are brought down with frequent blows upon the die, closing in the end of the cylinder, but leaving a central hole as shown in Fig. 5. Further operations reduce the opening still more until it is closed altogether, and a projection is formed as shown at Fig. 6. This projection is now bored through, and the cylinder is ready for testing.

The cylinder is submitted to a water test, the liquid being forced in until the gauge shows a pressure of two tons to the square inch. Cylinders have been known to give way under this ordeal, but without any dangerous consequences. The metal simply rips up, making a report at the moment of fracture as loud as a gun. The wonderful strength of the metal employed may be gauged by the circumstance that the walls of the cylinder designed to hold 100 feet of gas are only five-sixteenths of an inch in thickness.

During the manufacture of the cylinder, as we have already indicated, much oil is used, and, so far as steel can be saturated with that fluid--in the popular sense--the metal is in that state. It is essential that this oil should be completely got rid of, and this is carefully done before the cylinder is charged with gas. Previous to such charging, the vessel has to be fitted with its valve. Of these valves there are three kinds, known respectively as the Brin, the Birmingham, and the Manchester. Each has its admirers, but we cannot here discuss their individual merits.

The charging of the cylinder is brought about by a powerful pump having three cylinders so arranged that the compressed contents of the first cylinder are still further compressed in the second, and still more highly in the third. The filling of a 100 ft. cylinder occupies about half an hour.--_Photographic News_.

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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORSESHOE.

BY DISTRICT VETERINARIAN ZIPPELIUS, OF WURTZBURG.

_Translated by S.E. Weber, V.S.[1]_

[Footnote 1: From _Theirarztliche Mittheilungen_, organ des
Vereins badischer Theirarzte, Karlsruhe, No. IV., April,
1891.--_Veterinary Archives._]

Kind, gentle steed, nobly standing,
Four shoes will I put on your feet,
Firm and good, that you'll be fleet,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

To the woods and homeward go,
Always on the straight road thro',
Far from what is bad, still fleeing,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

Should wounds and pain become distressing,
Blood to blood shall flow,
Bone to bone shall grow,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

Carry the rider, true little steed,
Onward to all good luck bringing;
Carry him thence and back with speed,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

--_Old Meresburger Song_.

The horse appeared comparatively late in the group of domestic animals. In searching the monuments of the ancients, which have furnished the foundation for our present culture, that is, of the littoral inhabitants of the Mediterranean, and of the people of Mesopotamia, we find in Egypt the first traces of the horse. But even here it appears late, on the monuments of the first ruling patricians of human origin.[2] Especially during the period of Memphis (I-X Dynasty), then under the rules of Thebes (XI-XVI Dynasty), there is no trace of the horse.

[Footnote 2: Until the time Menes, with whom historical times
begin, ruled in Egypt among visionary heroes or mythological
gods.]

It is first in the transition period, from the late rule of Thebes (XVII-XX Dynasty) to the so-called period of Sut (XXI-XXX Dynasty) that there appears, in the wall pictures of the Pharaohs' tombs, representations of the horse. The oldest, now known, picture of the horse is found on the walls of the tombs of Seti I. (1458-1507 B.C.) under whose reign the Israelite wandered from Egypt. The horses of the mortuary pictures are very well drawn, and have an unmistakable oriental type. There has therefore undoubtedly existed in Egypt high culture, for over 4,000 years, without representation of the horse, which was the next animal domesticated after the cat.

From this time on we find the horse frequently represented both by the vainglorious despots of Mesopotamia and on the so-called Etruscan vases, which appeared after the influence of Greek art, when, on almost every urn, horses in lively action and in various forms of bodily development, almost always of an oriental type, are to be recognized. But neither here, nor in Homer, nor in the many later representations of the horse on the Roman triumphal arches, etc., are to be found horses whose hoofs have any trace of protection. Records, which describe to us the misfortunes of armies, whose horses had run their feet sore, we find on the contrary at a very early time, as in Diodorus, regarding the cavalry of Alexander the Great, in Xenophon, regarding the retreat of the ten thousand, in Polybius, regarding the cavalry of Hannibal in Etruria, etc. It is also known that the cavalry of the linguist King of Pontus, Mithridates the Great, at times and specially at the siege of Cyzicus were delayed, in order to let the hoofs of the horses grow.

On the contrary it seems strange that of the Huns alone, whose horsemen swept over whole continents from the Asiatic highlands like a thunderstorm, such trouble had not become known either through the numerous authors of the eastern and western Roman empire or from Gallia.

Horseshoeing, very likely, was invented by different nations at about the same period during the migration of the nations, and the various kinds of new inventions were brought together in Germany only, after each had acquired a national stamp according to climate and usefulness.

In this way come from the south the thin, plate-like horseshoes, with staved rim, covering the whole hoof; from the Mongolian tribes of middle Asia the "Stolleneisen" (calk shoe); while to our northern ancestors, and indeed the Normans, must be ascribed with great probability the invention of the "Griffeneisen" (gripe shoe), especially for the protection of the toes.

All varieties of the horseshoe of southern Europe are easily distinguished from the Roman so-called "Kureisen" (cure shoe), of which several have been unearthed at various excavations and are preserved at the Romo-Germanic Museum in Mentz (Mainz), Germany. The shoes, Figs. 1 and 2, each represent thin iron plates, covering the whole hoof, which in some cases have an opening in the middle, of several centimeters in diameter.

These plates, apparently set forth to suit oriental and occidental body conformation, are either directly provided with loops or have around the outer margin a brim several centimeters high, in which rings are fastened. Through the loops or rings small ropes were drawn, and in this way the shoe was fastened to the crown of the hoof and to the pastern. Sufficient securing of the toe was wanting in all these shoes, and, on account of this, the movement of the animal with the same must have been very clumsy, and we can see from this that the ropes must have made the crown of the hoof and pastern sore in a short time. One of these shoes[3] evidently was the object of improvement, to prevent the animal from slipping as well as from friction, and we therefore find on it three iron cubes 11/2 centimeters high, which were fastened corresponding to our toes and calks of to-day, and offer a very early ready proof, from our climatic and mountainous conditions, which later occur, principally in southern Germany, that this style of horseshoeing was not caused by error, but by a well founded local and national interest or want.

[Footnote 3: Not illustrated.]

Aside from the so-called "Kureisen" (cure shoe) for diseased hoofs, we find very little from the Romans on horseshoeing or hoof protection, and therefore we must observe special precautions with all their literature on the subject. It is because of this that I excuse Prof. Sittl's communication in the preface of Winckelmann's "Geschichte der Kunst in Alterthum" (History of Ancient Art), which contains a notice that Fabretti, in some raised work in Plazzo Matti, of a representation of a hunt by the Emperor Gallienus (Bartoli Admirand Ant. Tab. 24), showed that at that time horseshoes fastened by nails, the same as to-day, were used (Fabretti de Column. Traj. C. 7 pag. 225; Conf. Montlanc. Antiq. Explic. T. 4, pag. 79). This statement proves itself erroneous, because he was not aware that the foot of the horse was repaired by an inexperienced sculptor.

How then did out of this Roman cure shoe develop the horseshoeing of southern Europe?

It was to be expected, with the Roman horseshoe, that the mode of fastening became unsatisfactory and necessitated a remedy or change. An attempt of this kind has been preserved in the so-called "Asiatischen Koppeneisensole" (Asiatic cap-iron-sole) (Fig. 3), which the Hon. Mr. Lydtin at Karlsruhe had made according to a model of the Circassian Horse Tribe Shaloks, and also according to the reverse of Lycian coins (called Triguetra).

This horseshoe plate, likely originating in the twelfth century, covers the whole surface of the sole, like the Roman shoes, with the exception of the wall region, which contains a rim 1 centimeter high, and above this rises at one side toward the heel three beak-like projections, about 4 centimeters high and 1 centimeter wide at the base, being pointed above and turned down, which were fastened in the wall of the hoof, in the form of a hook.

This mode of fastening evidently was also insufficient, and so the fastening of the shoe by nails was adopted. These iron plates used for shoes were too thin to allow nails with sunken heads to be used, so only nails with blades and cubical shaped heads were applicable. These nail heads, 6 to 8 in number, which left the toe and the back part of the heel free, served at the same time to secure the horse from slipping, which the smooth plates, covering the whole hoof surface, without doubt facilitated.

Shoes of this kind, after the old Roman style, with a very strong rim bent upward, likely proved very comfortable for the purpose of protection, in the Sierras of the Pyrenean peninsula, where they seem to have been in use for a long time; for in the twelfth century we find in Spain the whole form of the Roman shoe, only fastened by nails (Figs. 4 and 5). At first the shoe seems to have been cut off at the heel end, but as apparently after being on for some time, bruises were noticed, the shoe was made longer at the heel, and this part was turned up so as to prevent them from becoming loose too soon, as both the Spanish horseshoes of this period show, and the acquisition was even later transferred to England (Fig. 7).

The shoe containing a groove (Fig. 6), which we shall see later, made its appearance in Germany in the fifteenth century. From this time, according to our present knowledge, ceases the period of the Roman horseshoe. Its influence, however, lasted a great deal longer, and has even remained until our present day.

Its successor became partly the Arabo-Turkomanic and partly the Southwest European horseshoe.

For the descendants of the Numidian light cavalry, the Roman and old Spanish horseshoe was evidently too heavy for their sandy, roadless deserts, so they made it thinner and omitted the bent-up rim, because it prevented the quick movement of the horse. For the protection of the nail heads the outer margin of the shoe was staved, so as to form a small rim on the outer surface of the shoe, thus preventing the nail heads from being worn and the shoe lost too soon.

A horseshoe of that kind is shown by Fig. 8, which was used in North Africa in the twelfth century, and became the model for all forms of horseshoes of the Mahometan tribes. Even now quite similar shoes (Fig. 9) are made south and east from the Caspian Sea, at the Amu-Darja, in Samarkand, etc., which were probably introduced under Tamerlane, the conqueror of nearly the whole of Asia Minor in the fourteenth century.

The so-called "Sarmatische" (Sarmatian) horseshoe (Figs. 10 and 11), of South Russia, shows in its form, at the same time, traces of the last named shoe, however, greatly influenced by the Mongolian shoe, the "Goldenen Horde," which at the turn of the sixteenth to the seventeenth century played havoc at the Volga and the Aral. The unusual width of the toe, and especially the lightness of the iron, reminds us of the Turkomanic horseshoe, whereas, on the contrary, the large bean-shaped holes, as well as the calks, were furnished through Mongolian influence.

The Sarmatian tribes were principally horsemen, and it is not surprising, therefore, that the coat of arms of the former kingdom of Poland in the second and third quadrate shows a silver rider in armor on a silver running horse shod with golden shoes, and that at present about 1,000 families in 25 lineages of the Polish Counts Jastrzembiec Bolesezy, the so-called "Polnische Hufeisen Adel" (Polish Horseshoe Nobility), at the same time also carried the horseshoe on their coats of arms. The silver horseshoe in a blue field appears here as a symbol of the "Herbestpfardes" (autumnal horse), to which, after the christianization of Poland, was added the golden cross. The noblemen participating in the murder of the holy Stanislaus in 1084 had to carry the horseshoe reversed on their escutcheon.

From the African and Turkomanic horseshoe, through the turning up of the toes and heels, originated later the Turkish, Grecian and Montenegrin horseshoe of the present as shown by Fig. 12.

By the Moorish invasion in Spain, the Spanish-Gothic horseshoeing was also modified, through which the shoe became smooth, staved at the margin, very broad in the toe, and turned up at toe and heel, and at a later period the old open Spanish national horseshoe (Fig. 13) was developed. As we thus see, we can in no way deny the Arabian-Turkish origin of this shoe.

As France had received her whole culture from the south, and as the crusades especially brought the Roman nation in close contact with them for centuries, so it cannot appear strange that the old French horseshoe, a form of which has been preserved by Bourgelat and is represented by Fig. 14, still remained in the smooth, turned up in front and behind, like the shoe of the southern climates, with Asiatic traces, which hold on the ground, the same as all southern shoeing, by the nail heads.

The transit of the German empire, in order to keep up the historical course, once more brings us back to the middle of the fifth century. At this time Attila, the "Godegisel" (gods' scourge), left his wooden capitol in the lowlands near the river Theis, to go to the Roman empire and to the German and Gallican provinces, there to spread indescribable misery to the horrors of judgment day.

The following is a prayer in those days of horror:

"Kleiner Huf, kleines Ross,
Krummer Sabel, spitz Geschoss--
Blitzesschnell und sattlefest:
Schrim uns Herr von Hunnenpest."

We are at present reminded of those times of fright, when during the clearing and tilling of the soil, a small roughly made horseshoe is found in Southern Germany, about as far as the water boundary of the Thuringian forest, and occasionally on, but principally around Augsburg, and in France as far as the Loire.

These shoes, covering the margin or wall of the foot, show slight traces of having been beveled on the lower surface, and contain two bent calks very superficially placed. Occasionally they are sharpened and turned in two directions. The characteristic wide bean-shaped nail holes are conical on the inside, and are frequently placed so near the outer margin of the shoe that from the pressure the hoofs were likely to split open. The nail heads were shaped like a sleigh runner, and almost entirely sunk into the shoe. It evidently was not bent up at the toe, like the old form of these kinds of shoes.

These shoes, according to our conception of to-day, were so carelessly finished that in the scientific circles of historical researches they were, until very recently, looked upon as saddle mountings or something similar, and not as horseshoes.

This shoe was for some time, while it was plentifully found in France, regarded as of Celtic make; but this is certainly not the case, as it is of Hunish and Hungarian "nationalitat" (nationality). An exactly scientific proof, it is true, according to our present knowledge, cannot be furnished; however, it will stand well enough until the error is proved.

This peculiar kind of horseshoe has been found in South Germany and Northeast France, as far as the region of Orleans, where, as it has been proved, the Huns appeared. This, therefore, speaks for their descendants: 1st, the far extended and yet sharply limited places of finding the shoe; 2d, the small size corresponds to the historically proved smallness of the Hunish horse; 3d, the hasty and careless make, which does not indicate that it was made by settled workmen; 4th, the horseshoe (Fig. 15) bespeaks the Hunish workmanship of the present Chinese shoe, which, in making of the nail holes, shows to-day related touches of the productions of the Mongolian ancestors.

Aside from the peculiar shaped nail holes, the characteristic of the Hunish shoe consists in the changes of the calks for summer and winter shoeing, as well as in the sinking of the nail heads. The Huns, therefore, aside from the indistinctly marked attempts of the Romans in this direction, which are the only ones known to me, must be regarded as the inventors not only of the calks, but partly, next to the Normans, also of the sharpened winter shoeing, and of the not unimportant invention of sinking the nail heads observed in Fig. 15.

The Hunish shoeing was therefore an important invention for the Germans. After centuries later, wherever horseshoeing was practiced, it was done solely according to Hunish methods; whereby the shoe was very possibly made heavier, was more carefully finished and in course of time showed an attempt to bend the toe (Fig. 16a).

In the Bomberg Dom we find an equestrian statue, not unknown in the history of art, which was formerly held to be that of Emperor Conrad III. At present however the opinion prevails generally that it represents "Stephen I., den Heiligen" (Stephen I., the Saint).

Stephen I., the first king of Hungary, formerly was a heathen, and was named "Najk." He reigned from 997 to 1038. His important events were the many victorious wars led against rebellious chieftains of his country, and he was canonized in 1087. His equestrian monument in Bomberg Dom was, in consequence, hardly made before the year 1087. Notwithstanding that the Huns had been defeated 500 years before on the plains of Catalania, the horse of the above mentioned monument carries, as I have convinced myself personally, Hunish horseshoes, modified, however, by blade-shaped calks just then coming into use. This is proof that, at least in Hungary, the Hunish method of shoeing was preserved an extraordinary long time. By this it has not become improbable that at least the many shoes of this kind which were found on the Lechfield come, not directly from the Huns, but from their successors, the Hungarians, whose invasions took place in the first half of the tenth century.

About the same time of the Hungarian invasions, the Normans began to disturb the southwestern part of Europe with their Viking expeditions. Their sea kings seem to have been equestrians at very early times, and to have had their horses shod, although perhaps only in winter; at least the excavation of the Viking ship in 1881 disclosed the remains of a horse which was shod. The shoeing consisted only of a toe protection--"Brodder" (Bruder, Brother)--provided with a small sharp calk, and fastened by two nails.

When later, in the year 1130, the Norwegian king Sigard Yorsalafar, during his journey to Jerusalem, entered Constantinople, his horse is said to have carried only the small toe-protecting shoes.

The art of horseshoeing, immediately after the migration of the nations, came near our improvement of the same to-day; especially near the reputed discoveries met with, which consist simply of iron protection for the margin of the hoof, fastened by nails. The heads were sunk into the shoe so as to increase its firmness. Special consideration was given to local and climatic conditions through the introduction of toes and heels.

The mechanism of the hoof also found remarkable consideration, inasmuch as they apparently avoided driving nails too close to the heel end of the shoe. Notwithstanding this early improvement in the art of horseshoeing, the Huns (as stated before) took a prominent part. It appears to have taken a long time after the migration of the nations for shoeing to become general, as is shown by various descriptions of tournaments, pictures of horses, etc.

We will mention in the first place the "Percival des Wolfram von Eschenbach," as well as "Christ von Troies," where there is a great deal said about horses, horse grooms, and tournaments, but nowhere in those works is any mention made of horseshoeing. Likewise is found the horse on the coat of arms of Wolfram von Eschenbach, in the Manessi collection in Paris, which was begun in Switzerland in the fourteenth century; but, although we find this horse most beautifully finished, it was not shod.

During the time of the crusades, 1096-1291, however, there appeared suddenly in Germany a plate-like horseshoe of southern character (Figs. 18 and 19), which was occasionally bent upward at the heel end, and was very heavy. The toe was very broad sometimes, and was also bent upward. In this form we have seen the shoes of the Balkan and Pyrean peninsula. The shoe was remarkably narrow at the heel, and was supplied with calks, which accounts for the highness of the back part of the shoe. Frequently we find one calk set diagonally, but the other drawn out wedge shaped, and sharp; so that there existed a great similarity between this iron shank and that used by Count Einsiedel for winter shoeing. Sometimes both shanks were sharpened in this way, or were provided with blade-shaped calks well set forward. The form of nail holes used was very characteristic of that of the Huns, but they were decidedly smaller and square, as were seen in the African shoe of the twelfth century. The nail heads were slightly sunk, which was according to southern customs.

That this shoe really belongs to the period of the crusades is proved by the numerous horse pictures which have been preserved from that time; of which we will mention the manuscript of Heinrich von Veldecka ("Eneidt")[4] in the year 1180, which belongs to the most valuable parts of German history of art.

[Footnote 4: "Wanderungen des Aeneas" (Travels of Aeneas).]

This south European Hunish horseshoe had remained the standard form during the middle ages and until the thirty years war, at least in South Germany. The shoe was continually improved, and reached its highest point of perfection about the time of the "Bauern-krieg" (Revolution of the Peasants), at a time when, under the leadership of the Renaissance, the whole art of mechanics, and especially that of blacksmithing, had taken an extraordinarily great stride (Figs. 20 and 21).

The shoe (Figs. 22 and 23) is found in Franconia, in all places where, in the sixteenth century, battles had been fought with the rebellious peasants. We may, therefore, be justified in fixing its origin mainly from that period, for which also speaks its high perfection of form. We find here still the bent-up heel and toe (the latter broad and thin) of the south European form.

The staved rim of the Spanish Arabic Turkomanic shoe is observed to be undergoing a change to that of a groove. The broad surface of the shoe evidently led to the beveling of the same, so as to lessen sole pressure. The size of the nail holes remains still like that of the Huns; but the unsunk southern nail heads yet serve to improve the hold on the ground. The calks were next placed forward, perhaps from an uncultivated sense of beauty, or from the high bending up of the hind part of the shoe, which would necessitate a high and heavy unsightly calk.

From this time on horseshoeing in south Germany fell back very quickly, and loses all scientific holds of support after the thirty years war. In the mean time toe protection in the form of a calk had spread from the colder north over southern Germany; whereas this north German invention did not find favor in England in consequence of her mild oceanic climate.

Also, the calks in England, as well as in the southern countries, on the same ground, therefore, with good reason, could at no time be adopted. This did, however, not interfere with the use of the calk in the colder south Germany, where after a use of nearly 1,500 years it has maintained its local and climatic adaptation. Notwithstanding the occasional aping by foreigners, it has remained victorious in its original form, and has been chosen in many countries.

The historical development of the horseshoe in general, from about the time of Emperor Maximilian until the seven years war, furnishes a true picture of the confused condition of things at that period of time, which, to make intelligible, would require a separate and complete treatise. Interesting as it is to the scientist to follow up this development and mode of present German horseshoeing, which, aside from the national toe and calk, is the English form and has become influential, and with full right, for a periodical of this kind further, more comprehensive, statement would under all circumstances take up too much room; therefore I must drop the pen, although reluctantly.

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SHEET GLASS FROM MOLTEN METAL.

The present practice in making metal sheets is to cast ingots or slabs and then reduce these by repeated rollings and reheating. Attempts have been previously made to produce sheets directly from molten metal by pouring the metal: (1) between two revolving rollers; or (2) between a revolving wheel and the surface of an inclosing fixed semicircular segment. By these means none but very thin plates could be satisfactorily produced. In this invention by C.M. Pielsticker, London, the machinery consists of a large receiving roller of 5 ft. diameter more or less, and of a length equal to that of the plate to be produced. With this are combined small forming rollers arranged in succession part way round the periphery of the large roller, and revolving at the same rate as the large roller. The rollers can be cooled by a current of water circulating through them. The molten metal flows on to the surface of the large roller and is prevented from escaping sideways by flanges with which the large roller is provided. These flanges embrace the small rollers and are of a depth greater than that of the thickest plate which it is proposed to roll. The distance between the large roller and the small rollers can be adjusted according to the desired thickness of the plate. When dealing with metals of high melting point, such as steel, the first small roller is made of refractory material and is heated from inside by the flame of a blow pipe. The rollers are coated with plumbago or other material to prevent adhesion to the molten metal. In the case of metals of high melting point the machine is fed direct from a furnace divided into two compartments by a wall or bridge in which is a stopper which can be operated so as to regulate the flow of metal. When applied to forming sheets of glass, the rollers should be warmed by a blow pipe flame as above described, and the sheet of glass stretched and annealed as it leaves the last roller.

* * * * *

WELDLESS STEEL CHAINS.

At the Royal Naval Exhibition, London, Messrs. William Reid & Co. are exhibiting their weldless steel chains, which we now illustrate.

Of the many advantages claimed for steel chains, it may be prominently noted that a very important saving of weight is effected on account of their possessing such a high breaking strain, compared with the ordinary welded iron chains. To illustrate this, it may be stated that a given length of the weldless steel chain is 35 to 40 per cent. less in weight than an equivalent length of iron chain, will stand the same breaking strain as the latter, and indeed, where steel of special quality is used in making the weldless chains, this difference can be increased as much as 70 to 80 per cent. Whereas superior iron chains break at a strain at 17 tons per square inch, these weldless steel chains will stand a strain of 28 to 30 tons, with 20 to 26 per cent. elongation.

Again, there is greater security in their use from the fact that there are no welds, and they give warning of the limit of strain to which they can bear being approached, by elongation, which can be carried to a considerable extent before the chain breaks. Moreover, over, in chains made by this process, the links are all exactly alike. Though the life of a weldless steel chain is said to be twice that of an ordinary one, the price per length is little more than that of best iron chains.