A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER VII.

GLASS, MIR­RORS, EARTH­EN­WARE, PORCE­LAIN, NEE­DLES, PINS, PA­PER, PRINT­ING, PARCH­MENT, AND VEL­LUM.

What is Glass?

A trans­par­ent, sol­id, brit­tle, fac­ti­tious body, pro­duced by fus­ing sand with an al­ka­li. The es­sen­tial in­gre­di­ents of glass are silex and potash, or so­da; a few oth­er sub­stances are some­times added. Silex is found near­ly pure in rock crys­tal, flint, and oth­er va­ri­eties of quartz; for the man­ufac­ture of the bet­ter kinds of glass in this coun­try, it is gen­er­al­ly ob­tained from sand, es­pe­cial­ly the white sand of New Jer­sey.

_Fac­ti­tious_, made by art, not found in a state of na­ture.

What is Potash?

The saline mat­ter ob­tained from the ash­es of wood, by caus­ing wa­ter to pass through them; the wa­ter im­bibes the salt, which is then ob­tained from it by evap­ora­tion. When pu­ri­fied by cal­ci­na­tion, it is termed pearlash. In coun­tries where there are vast forests, as in Amer­ica and Rus­sia, it is man­ufac­tured on a very large scale.

What can you say of the ori­gin of Glass?

The pe­ri­od of its in­ven­tion is quite un­known. Pliny re­lates that some mer­chants, driv­en by a storm to the coast of Pheni­cia, near the riv­er Belus, made a large fire on the sand to dress some food, us­ing as fu­el some of the plant Kali, which grew there in great abun­dance; an im­per­fect glass was thus formed by the melt­ing of the sand and ash­es to­geth­er. This pro­duc­tion was picked up by a Syr­ian mer­chant, who, at­tract­ed by its great beau­ty, ex­am­ined the cause of its ori­gin, and, af­ter many at­tempts, suc­ceed­ed in its man­ufac­ture.

Who was Pliny?

A cel­ebrat­ed Ro­man nat­ural­ist and his­to­ri­an.

At what place was Glass first made?

Some au­thors men­tion Sidon in Syr­ia, which be­came fa­mous for glass and glass-​hous­es; but oth­ers main­tain that the first glass-​hous­es no­ticed in his­to­ry were built at Tyre; which, they add, was the on­ly place where glass was made for many ages. It is cer­tain that the art was known to the Egyp­tians.

What is Pheni­cia?

A sub-​di­vi­sion of Syr­ia in Asia.

What is an au­thor?

A per­son who writes a book.

What is sig­ni­fied by a glass-​house?

A build­ing erect­ed for the mak­ing and work­ing of glass.

What coun­tries had glass win­dows first?

Italy, then France and Eng­land; they be­gan to be com­mon about the year 1180.

In what year, and where, was the mak­ing of glass bot­tles be­gun?

In 1557, in Lon­don. The first glass plates for mir­rors and coach-​win­dows were made at Lam­beth, in 1673.

What is a Mir­ror?

A body which ex­hibits the im­ages of ob­jects pre­sent­ed to it by re­flec­tion. The word mir­ror is more pe­cu­liar­ly used to sig­ni­fy a smooth sur­face of glass, tinned and quick­sil­vered at the back,[3] which re­flects the im­ages of ob­jects placed be­fore it.

[Foot­note 3: See Chap­ter XII., ar­ti­cle Mer­cury.]

Are they a mod­ern in­ven­tion?

The use of mir­rors is very an­cient; men­tion is made of brazen mir­rors or look­ing-​glass­es in Ex­odus, the 38th chap­ter and 8th verse. Some mod­ern com­men­ta­tors will not ad­mit the mir­rors them­selves to have been of brass, but of glass set or framed in brass; but the most learned among the Jew­ish rab­bins say that in those times the mir­rors made use of by the He­brew wom­en in dress­ing their heads were of met­al, and that the de­vout wom­en men­tioned in this pas­sage made presents to Moses of all their mir­rors to make the brazen laver for the Taber­na­cle. It might like­wise be proved that the an­cient Greeks made use of brazen mir­rors, from many pas­sages in the an­cient po­ets.

_Com­men­ta­tors_, ex­plain­ers of pas­sages in the Bible, &c.

_Rab­bins_, doc­tors among the Jews, their learned men or teach­ers.

What na­tion in­vent­ed the large look­ing-​glass plates now in use?

The French.

What city of Italy ex­celled all Eu­rope for many years in the mak­ing of fine glass?

Venice. The man­ufac­ture of fine glass was first in­tro­duced in­to Eng­land by Vene­tian artists in 1078.

Of what is Earth­en­ware com­posed?

Of clay, and those earths which are ca­pa­ble of be­ing knead­ed in­to a paste eas­ily re­ceiv­ing any form, and ac­quir­ing so­lid­ity by ex­po­sure to fire: sand, chalk, and flint are like­wise mixed with clay.

In what man­ner is it formed in­to such a va­ri­ety of shapes?

The flint or sand, and soft clay, are mixed to­geth­er in var­ious pro­por­tions for the dif­fer­ent kinds of ware; this paste is af­ter­wards beat­en till it be­comes fit for be­ing formed at the wheel in­to plates, dish­es, basins, &c. These are then put in­to a fur­nace and baked; af­ter which they are glazed.

What na­tion so great­ly ex­celled in the man­ufac­ture of a beau­ti­ful species of Earth­en­ware?

The Chi­nese,--who, as far as can be as­cer­tained, were its in­ven­tors. Porce­lain is a fine sort of earth­en­ware, chiefly made in Chi­na, whence it was called Chi­na or Chi­na-​ware; it is al­so brought from many parts of the East, es­pe­cial­ly from Japan, Siam, Surat, and Per­sia. The art of mak­ing porce­lain was one of those in which Eu­rope had been ex­celled by ori­en­tal na­tions; but for many years past earth­en­wares have been made in dif­fer­ent parts of Eu­rope, so like the ori­en­tal, that they have ac­quired the name of porce­lain. The first Eu­ro­pean porce­lains were made in Sax­ony and France, and af­ter­wards in Eng­land, Ger­many, and Italy, all of which dif­fered from those of Japan and Chi­na, but each pos­sess­ing its pe­cu­liar char­ac­ter. They are now brought to great per­fec­tion in Eu­rope, par­tic­ular­ly in Eng­land, France and Prus­sia.

Be­fore the in­ven­tion of Earth­en­ware, what sup­plied its place to the ear­ly in­hab­itants of the world?

The more civ­ilized the in­hab­itants of any coun­try be­came, the more they would per­ceive the con­ve­nience of pos­sess­ing ves­sels of var­ious de­scrip­tions for hold­ing or prepar­ing their food; some of the ob­jects which first pre­sent­ed them­selves would be the larg­er kinds of shells; and, in hot cli­mates, the hard cov­er­ings of the co­coa-​nut or gourd. In some cas­es the skins of beasts were used, as they still are in the East, where they are sewed to­geth­er, and formed in­to a kind of bot­tle to hold milk, wine, &c.; but the peo­ple of cold­er cli­mates would not be able to avail them­selves of these nat­ural pro­duc­tions, and would be obliged to make use of oth­er sub­stances.

What, then, would they em­ploy?

Clay, which in many coun­tries is found in great abun­dance, from its ad­he­sive prop­er­ty, and its re­tain­ing its form when dry, and be­com­ing in­sol­uble in wa­ter af­ter hav­ing been baked in the fire, would nat­ural­ly at­tract the at­ten­tion of an im­prov­ing peo­ple: from this it aris­es that the ear­ly re­mains of culi­nary and oth­er ves­sels which have been dis­cov­ered have been formed of this ma­te­ri­al. Among the re­mains of an­cient Egypt, nu­mer­ous ves­sels have been found formed of com­mon clay baked in the fire; and, though of rude work­man­ship, ex­treme­ly el­egant in form.

_Ad­he­sive_, sticky; apt or tend­ing to ad­here.

_In­sol­uble_, not ca­pa­ble of be­ing dis­solved.

_Culi­nary_, be­long­ing to cook­ing or do­mes­tic pur­pos­es.

Of what are Nee­dles made?

Of steel; and though ex­ceed­ing­ly cheap, they go through a great num­ber of op­er­ations be­fore they are brought to per­fec­tion. It was in the reign of Queen Eliz­abeth that the En­glish learnt the art of mak­ing nee­dles.

Of what are Pins made?

Of brass wire, blanched with tin. They are man­ufac­tured in Eng­land, France, the Unit­ed States, and oth­er coun­tries. Though there is scarce­ly any com­mod­ity cheap­er than pins, there is no oth­er which pass­es through the hands of a greater num­ber of work­men; more than twen­ty per­sons be­ing suc­ces­sive­ly em­ployed in the man­ufac­ture of each, from the draw­ing of the brass wire to the stick­ing of the pin in the pa­per. Pins are sup­posed to have been made in Eng­land about 1543, or even ear­li­er. Be­fore this art was in­vent­ed, the ladies made use of wood­en skew­ers.

_Blanched_, whitened.

Of what is Pa­per made?

Of linen and cot­ton rags beat­en to a pulp in wa­ter; al­so from straw, wood, and many plants.

What ma­te­ri­als were used for writ­ing, be­fore the in­ven­tion of Pa­per?

Var­ious were the ma­te­ri­als on which mankind in dif­fer­ent ages and coun­tries con­trived to write: stones, bricks, the leaves of herbs and trees, and their rinds or barks; tablets of wood, wax, and ivory; plates of lead, silk, linen rolls, &c. At length the Egyp­tian pa­per made of the pa­pyrus, was in­vent­ed; then parch­ment; and last­ly, pa­per man­ufac­tured of cot­ton or linen rags. There are few sorts of plants which have not at some time been used for pa­per and books. In Cey­lon, for in­stance, the leaves of the tal­ipot; in In­dia, the leaves of the palm (with which they com­mon­ly cov­ered their hous­es,) were used for books. In the East In­dies, the leaves of the plan­tain tree, dried in the sun, were used for the same pur­pose. In Chi­na, pa­per is made of the in­ner bark of the mul­ber­ry, the bam­boo, the elm, the cot­ton, and oth­er trees.

What is Pa­pyrus?

A large rush, chiefly grow­ing in Egypt, on the banks of the Nile. The an­cient Egyp­tians made sails, ropes, mats, blan­kets, and can­vas, of the stalks and fi­bres of the pa­pyrus. Their priests al­so wore shoes made of it; and even sug­ar was ex­tract­ed from this plant. Moses, the de­liv­er­er raised by God to res­cue the Is­raelites from the bondage of Egypt, was ex­posed to the Nile in a bas­ket of pa­pyrus. The plant is now, how­ev­er, ex­ceed­ing­ly scarce.

Where was the first Pa­per Mill erect­ed in Eng­land?

At Dart­ford, by a Ger­man named Spilman, in 1588. The on­ly sort made, how­ev­er, was the coarse brown; and it was not till 1690, when the French protes­tant refugees set­tled in Eng­land, that their own pa­per-​mak­ers be­gan to make white writ­ing and print­ing pa­per. The man­ufac­ture has been brought to great per­fec­tion, both for beau­ty and sub­stance, in Eng­land and the Unit­ed States.

_Protes­tant_, a name giv­en in Ger­many to those who ad­hered to the doc­trines of the apos­tate monk, Mar­tin Luther, be­cause they protest­ed against a de­cree of Charles V. and ap­plied to a gen­er­al coun­cil.

_Refugee_, from refuge, a place of safe­ty from dan­ger; an asy­lum. Here it more par­tic­ular­ly means those French Protes­tants who quit their homes and sought oth­er coun­tries, af­ter the re­vo­ca­tion of the Edict of Nantes, which de­prived them of their re­li­gious lib­er­ty.

[Il­lus­tra­tion: THE DOME OF PISA, ITALY; WITH THE FA­MOUS LEAN­ING TOW­ER, IN THE DIS­TANCE.]

Is it known to whom we are in­debt­ed for the in­ven­tion of Linen Pa­per?

Not ex­act­ly. It has long been dis­put­ed among the learned when, and by whom, it was in­vent­ed; some au­thors say it was dis­cov­ered by the Ger­mans, oth­ers by the Ital­ians; oth­ers as­cribe it to some refugee Greeks at Basil, who took the idea from the mak­ing of cot­ton pa­per in their own coun­try; some, that the Arabs first in­tro­duced it in­to Eu­rope. Per­haps the Chi­nese have the best ti­tle to the in­ven­tion, inas­much as they have for many ages made pa­per, and in some provinces of the same ma­te­ri­als as are now used by us in its man­ufac­ture.

In what place was the art of Print­ing first prac­tised?

Who were the in­ven­tors of Print­ing, in what city, and in what year it was be­gun, has long been a sub­ject of great dis­pute. Mentz, Harlem, and Stras­burg, cities of Ger­many, all lay claim to the in­ven­tion, but Mentz seems to have the best ti­tle to it.

What was the first Book that was print­ed from met­al types?

A copy of the Holy Scrip­tures, which made its ap­pear­ance be­tween the years 1450 and 1452.

Who in­tro­duced Print­ing in­to Eng­land?

William Cax­ton, a mer­chant of Lon­don, who had ac­quired a knowl­edge of it in his trav­els abroad.

Of what does Print­ing con­sist?

Of the art of tak­ing im­pres­sions with ink, from mov­able char­ac­ters and fig­ures made of met­al, &c., up­on pa­per or parch­ment.

What is Parch­ment?

Sheep or goat's skin, pre­pared af­ter a pe­cu­liar man­ner, which ren­ders it prop­er for sev­er­al us­es, es­pe­cial­ly for writ­ing on, and for the cov­er­ing of books. The an­cients seem to have used the skins of an­imals as a writ­ing ma­te­ri­al, from a re­mote pe­ri­od.

From what is the word Parch­ment tak­en?

From Perga­me­na, the an­cient name of this man­ufac­ture, which it is said to have tak­en from the coun­try of Perga­mus; and to Eumenes, king of that coun­try, its in­ven­tion is usu­al­ly as­cribed, though in re­al­ity, that prince ap­pears to have been the im­prover, rather than the in­ven­tor of parch­ment; since some ac­counts re­fer its in­ven­tion to a still ear­li­er pe­ri­od of time. Herodotus, an an­cient Greek his­to­ri­an, who lived about 450 years be­fore Christ, re­lates that the an­cient Io­ni­ans made use of sheep and goat-​skins in writ­ing, many ages be­fore the time of Eumenes; the Per­sians of old, too, wrote all their records on skins, and prob­ably such skins were pre­pared and dressed for that pur­pose, af­ter a man­ner not un­like our parch­ments, though not so ar­ti­fi­cial­ly.

Who were the Io­ni­ans?

The in­hab­itants of Io­nia, an an­cient coun­try in the west­ern part of Asia Mi­nor.

In what man­ner is Parch­ment now pre­pared?

The sheep-​skins are smeared over with lime[4] on the fleshy side, fold­ed, laid in heaps, and thus left for some days; they are next stretched very tight on wood­en frames, af­ter hav­ing been washed, drained, and half dried. The flesh is then care­ful­ly tak­en off with iron in­stru­ments con­struct­ed on pur­pose, and the skin cleansed from the re­main­ing hairs that ad­here to it. Af­ter hav­ing gone through sev­er­al op­er­ations till it is per­fect­ly clean and smooth, it is fit for writ­ing up­on.

[Foot­note 4: See Chap­ter XVI., ar­ti­cle Lime.]

What are the us­es of Parch­ment?

Parch­ment is of great use for writ­ings which are to be pre­served, on ac­count of its great dura­bil­ity; the writ­ing on it re­main­ing per­fect for a great num­ber of years. It is al­so used for the bind­ing of books, and var­ious oth­er pur­pos­es.

What is Vel­lum?

A fin­er sort of parch­ment than the for­mer, but pre­pared in the same man­ner, ex­cept that it is not passed through the lime-​pit. It is made of the skins of very young calves: there is al­so a still fin­er sort made of the skins of suck­ing lambs, or kids; this is called _vir­gin_ parch­ment, and is very thin, fine, and white, and is used for fan­cy-​work, such as ladies' fans, &c.