ing degrees above that; while the mercury mometer can measure a greater difference of might be used up to 600°, if made with a temperature than a spirit one; and this is long enough tube. Hence a mercury ther-expressed by saying it has the greater range.

GREAT INVENTIONS.

(FOR ORAL EXAMINATION AND COMPOSITION EXERCISES.)

POTTERY MANUFACTURE.

THE pottery manufacture-the making of bricks and vessels out of clay-is one of the very oldest in the world. It existed among the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Hebrews, many centuries before the Christian era. The Egyptians not only made the ordinary kinds of pottery or earthenware, they also made a kind of porcelain, by fusing fine sand and covering it with a silicious or flinty glaze of various colours. The Assyrians were the first to mix colouring material with the clay.

Porcelain differs from pottery in being made of finer materials.

500 B.C.-The most remarkable ancient pottery was that of Greece. The Greeks decorated their vases by attaching ornaments to them in separate pieces, and by painting pictures on them.

320.-The most famous early Italian ware was the Etruscan (from Etruria, the modern Tuscany). One of its chief peculiarities was that it had figures moulded or modelled on the vases in bas-relief (low-relief; the figures raised a little above the surface).

185.-Hard porcelain was invented by the Chinese, and has therefore been called China.

Porcelain is of two kinds, hard and soft. The glaze of the former cannot be scratched with a knife, the surface of the latter can.

1 to 300 A.D.-The Roman pottery was an offshoot from the Etruscan. The Romans spread the manufacture over the whole empire.

476.-With the fall of the Western Empire the pottery art became extinct in Europe.

711.-The Moors, who had inherited the art of glazing and colouring tiles from the Egyptians and Assyrians through Alexandria, introduced specimens of it into Spain.

1115.-Enamelled earthenware, of Moorish origin, is said to have been introduced into Italy from Majorca; the ware was therefore called Majolica. 1440.-Enamelled Fayence (so called from Fayence, a town in Provence; or from Faenza, in Italy) was first used by Luca della Robbia, an Italian, in ornamenting terra cotta in relief.

1555.-Bernard Palissy, the famous French potter, discovered the mode of producing white enamel. He ornamented dishes with fruit and animals moulded from nature, and arranged on the surface.

Palissy was born in 1510. Having seen a Fayence cup, he resolved to discover how the enamel was made. He devoted sixteen years to experiment and investigation before he attained success. During that time he and his family endured many hardships, and he was often reproached by his wife for his cruelty, while he was laughed at by his neighbours for his folly. His discovery very soon made him rich and famous. Though a Huguenot, he was specially exempted from the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; but in 1588 he was thrown into the Bastile as a heretic, and he died there in 1590, Palissy was also eminent as an early investigator in physical science.

1698.-Soft porcelain was made at Bow, near London, and at Chelsea. 1700.-A ware called red Japanese was produced at Burslem (Staffordshire) by German settlers from Nürnberg.

1709.-White kaolin (the material of which porcelain is made) having been discovered in Saxony, an alchymist, named Böttcher, made from it white hard porcelain at Meissen, near Dresden. This was the first hard porcelain made in Europe.

Böttcher was a scientific enthusiast. He spent some years, and large sums of money, in endeavouring to discover the philosopher's stone, with the help of which he hoped to be able to make gold. He had received grants of money from the Court of Saxony; and as a penance for the failure of his experiments, he was obliged to apply his skill to the manufacture of porcelain. The Meissen porcelain was the result. The secret of the manufacture was guarded with the utmost jealousy. Oaths were imposed upon the workmen ; and when Saxony was invaded by Charles XII. of Sweden, in 1706, the whole establishment was secretly removed to Königstein. Böttcher died in 1719.

1710.-The German settlers left Burslem, and established the Lambeth factories. They believed that a Staffordshire potter named Astbury had discovered their process.

1720.-The secret of Böttcher's manufacture was carried to Vienna by a workman of Meissen, and a porcelain manufactory was set up there. In the same way, knowledge of the art soon spread over Germany, and even into other countries.

1720.-The use of calcined flint in pottery was first introduced by Astbury. It is said to have been suggested to Astbury by seeing an hostler burn a piece of flint and reduce it to powder, which he applied to a horse's eyes to cure some disease. Astbury was struck with the beautiful whiteness of the powder, and resolved to experiment with it.

1749.-Porcelain was first painted on by Thomas Frye.

1750.-Cornish clay, the finest china clay in Great Britain, was discovered by Cookworthy of Plymouth. It was employed by Josiah Wedgwood, who was the father of British pottery as an art.

Wedgwood was born at Burslem in Staffordshire, in 1730. From his first entry into business, he devoted his energies most zealously to the improvement of the manufacture. He succeeded in two directions: first, in refining the material; second, in improving the form and design of his goods. In connection with the latter, he availed himself of the aid of Flaxman, the great sculptor. The patent Wedgwood ware was first made in 1762. In 1771 he removed to larger works which he had built at Etruria, a few miles from Burslem. There he died in 1795. He had amassed a large fortune, which he dispensed with noble liberality. Like Palissy, he was also an ardent student of natural science.

1751.-Porcelain is said to have been first printed on in a factory at Worcester, founded by Dr. Wall.

1765.-The accidental discovery of kaolin in France led to the establishment of the famous hard porcelain factory at Sèvres, near Versailles.

1850.—Great improvements in the pottery manufacture were introduced by Herbert Minton of Staffordshire (died 1858). He and Copeland introduced statuary made of parian, a fine kind of porcelain resembling marble.

QUESTIONS.-What is said of the antiq- | did the Egyptians make besides ordinary uity of the pottery manufacture? Among pottery? Who were the first to colour the what ancient nations did it exist? What clay of their bricks? Which was the most

porcelain first made in Europe? Where? What led to this? To what had Böttcher devoted his early life? Why was he employed in pottery work? What means were taken to prevent the secret from spreading? Why did the German settlers leave Burslem? Where did they go? How was Böttcher's secret carried to Vienna? Who first introduced calcined flint in pottery? What suggested its use? What discovery led to the rise of the British pottery manufacture? Who was chiefly instrumental in raising it? What were his two great improvements? When was Wedgwood ware first made? When did Wedgwood die? Where is the celebrated French porcelain factory? What led to its

remarkable ancient pottery? How did the Greeks decorate their vases? What was the most famous early Italian pottery? What was one of its chief peculiarities? By whom was hard porcelain invented? From what was the Roman pottery an offshoot? When did the art become extinct in Europe? By whom was it reïntroduced? Through what country? What is Majolica? Why was it so called? What is Fayence? Whence was the name derived? Who first used it? Who discovered the mode of producing white enamel? What use did he make of it? How long did he experiment before he succeeded? What mark of royal favour was shown to him, though a Huguenot? What was his fate? Where was soft porce-establishment? By whom was porcelain lain first made in England? When? Where was the red Japanese ware produced? By whom? By whom was hard

first painted on? When and where was it first printed on? Who introduced statuary made of porcelain? What is it called?

SILK MANUFACTURE.

551 A.D.-The secret of making silk thread was first made known in Europe by two monks, who brought some silk-worm eggs from China, concealed in a hollow cane.

1146.-The manufacture of silk was fostered in Palermo by Roger, King of Sicily. The Sicilians bred the caterpillars, and spun and wove the silk. 1510.-The manufacture spread about this time into Italy, Spain, and the south of France.

1585.-The manufacture was introduced into England by refugees from the Low Countries during the government of the Duke of Parma.

1589.-A frame for weaving silk stockings was invented by the Rev. William Lee, of Cambridge. This gave a great impulse to the manufacture in England.

Lee is said to have caught the idea of his stocking-frame while watching his wife's nimble fingers busily occupied with her knitting wires. Lee reaped little profit from his invention. Neglected in England, he went to France, and died in great distress at Paris.

1604.-James I. of England encouraged the cultivation of mulberry trees, and the breeding of silk-worms.

1629.-The silk-throwsters, dyers, and weavers of London were incorporated.

A throwster is literally a woman (-ster) who throws-that is, twists-the silk yarn. In 1660, this corporation employed 40,000 hands.

1685. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. of France, thousands of Protestant workmen left that country. Those who took refuge in England established the silk manufacture at Spitalfields (East London).

1718.-A silk-throwing mill on the Italian model was set up at Derby by John Lombe.

Lombe went to Piedmont in 1715, and secretly obtained access to the mills there. He carefully examined the machinery, and made drawings and models of its parts. He, and two Italians who were in his pay, had to fly for their lives. The result was the erection of the "Old Silk Mill" at Derby, at a cost of £30,000. Lombe is said to have been slowly poisoned by emissaries of the Italian silk manufacturers (1739).

1806.-Joseph Marie Jacquard, a native of Lyons (France), invented an apparatus attached to the silk loom by which the most complicated designs may be woven by ordinary workers.

The pattern is registered on bands of punched cards acting on needles with loops and eyes. These cards regulate the elevation of certain of the warp threads and the depression of others at each movement of the loom. Jacquard met with the usual reward of great inventors. The weavers of Lyons combined to mar the successful working of his apparatus, and at last his machine was publicly broken up in one of the squares of the city. But before his death in 1835, the Jacquard Loom had not only been introduced into every silk factory in France, but had made its way into England and other manufacturing countries of Europe, into America, and even into China. The same contrivance has since been applied to the manufacture of carpets and other fabrics. QUESTIONS.-How was the secret of silk- | their expatriation? When was the "Old making first brought into Europe? When? Silk Mill" at Derby erected? What was Where was the manufacture fostered in peculiar in it? By whom was the secret the twelfth century? When did it spread found out? How did he obtain it? How into Italy and Spain? What led to its in- is he said to have died? What is the troduction into England? Who invented peculiarity of Jacquard's loom? How is the stocking-frame? When? What sug- the pattern regulated? How was Jacgested the idea? Where did Lee die? What quard's invention treated at Lyons? What English king encouraged the native pro- progress had it made before his death? duction of silk? Who established the silk To what other manufactures has the conmanufacture at Spitalfields? What led to trivance been applied?

PAPER MANUFACTURE.

190 B.C.-Parchment, made from the skins of animals, chiefly goats, was invented by Eu'menes, King of Per'gamus (in Asia Minor), founder of the famous library there.

Before that time, the pith of the reed papy rus (from which paper received its name) was used in Egypt and India to make the thin film on which writings were preserved. 170.-Paper is said to have been invented in China.

There is no doubt that the Chinese made paper from pulp artificially prepared as early as the beginning of the Christian era. From that time till the twelfth century very little is known of the progress of the manufacture. The knowledge of the art seems, however, to have gradually travelled westward, through Tartary, Arabia, Egypt, and Mauritania. The Moors are said to have introduced the manufacture into Spain about 1100 A.D.

1242 A.D.-The earliest existing specimen of linen paper made in Europe belongs to this year.

It has written on it a mandate of Frederic II., Emperor of the Romans, which bears this date. It was found in an Austrian monastery.

1590.-The first paper-mill in England was erected at Dartford (Kent); and there coarse white paper was made.

The Dartford mill was built by Sir John Spielmann, a German, who died there in 1607.