MARVELS OF MECHANICAL SKILL IN METAL WORKING.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1882, 4 August 1874, Page 3

MARVELS OF MECHANICAL SKILL IN METAL WORKING.

The World of Wonder records the following: -In the twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth, a blacksmith, named iMark Scaliot, made a lock consisting of eleven pieces of iron, steel and brass, all of which, together with a key, weighed but one grain of gold. He also made a ohain of gold, consisting of forty-three links, and having fastenedtothis thebeforementioned lock and key, ho put the chain about the neck of a flea, which drew them all with ease. All these together—lock and key, chain and flea—weighed only one grain and a half. Oswaldus Nothingerus, who was more famous than Scaliot for his minute contrivances, is said to have made 1.600 dishes of turned ivory, all perfect and complete in every part, yet so small, thin and slender, that all of them were included at once in a cup turned out of a pepper corn of the common size. Johnnes Shad, of Meiteband, carried this wonderfnl work to Rome, and showed it to Pope Paul V., who saw and counted them all with the help of a pair of spectacles. They were so small as to bo almost invisible to the eye. The smallest steam engine on record was made by a Scotchman named Crawford. It is perfect in every part, and so small that it can be covered by a lady's thimble It can be worked by steam, for which Mr Crawford has a small apparatus prepared, but he usually works it by atmospheric pressure through a flexable tube, with rubber air receiver, Mr Crawford is an engine manufacturer, and made the engines on the Ounard line of steamships. The pet engine was made as an amusement, and to show what could be done. It is undoubtedly the smallest working machine ever made. Mr Crawford keeps it carefully enclosed in a glass case, and has refused several offers for it from persons who wished it as a curiosity. • , . Among tho marvels of ingenious mechanism, the great clock of Strasburg Cathedral stands pre-eminent It is said to have found a rival, however, in the handiwork of a German mechanic, of Cincinnati, who has made a clock which is thus describedWe see in a glass case, a three-story, steeple-shaped cloek, four feet wide at tho first story and three feet high. The movement is placed in the first story,: on four delicate colum'ns, within which swings the pendulum. The second story consists of two tower-like pieces, on the doors of which there are two pictures that represent boyhood and early manhood. A tower crowns, as third story, of structure. A cock, as a symbol of watchfulness, stands upon the top, directly over the portal, When the clock makes tlie first quarter, the door of the lefc piece of the second story opens, and a child issues from the background, comes forward to a little bell, gives it one blow and then disappears. At the second quarter a youth appears, strikes the bell twice, and then disappears; at the third there comes a man in his prime; at the fourth we have a tottering old man, leaning on a staff, who strikes the bell four times. Each time the door closes of itself. When the hours are full, the door of the right piece of the second story opens, and death, as a skeleton, scythe in hand, appears, and marks the hour by striking a bell. But it is at the twelfth" hour that we have the grand spectacle in the representation of the a'ay of judgment, Then, when Death has struck three blows on the little bell, the cock on the top of the tower suddenly flaps his wings, and crows in a sbrill tone; and, after Death has marked the twelfth hour with his hammer, he crows again twico. Immediately three angels, who stand as guardians in a central position, raise their trumpets with their right hands (in the left they hold swords), and blow a blast toward each of the four quarters of the earth.

At the last blast the door of the tower opens,' and the resurrected children of earth appear, while the destroying angel sinks out of sight. Then, suddenly, Christ descends, surrounded by angels. On his left there is an angel who holds the scales of justice, on his right another carries the alpha and omega-the beginning and the end. Christ wares his hand, and instantly the good among the resurrected are seperated from the wicked, the former going to the right, the latter to the left. The archangel Michael salutes the good, while on the other side stands the devil, radiant with fiendish delight—he can hardly wait for the final sentence of those who fall to him, but, in obedience to the command of the central figure, he withdraws. The figure of Christ raises its hand with a threatening mien, and the accursed sink down to the realms of the satanic majesty. Then Christ blesses the chosen few, who draw near him. Finally we hear a cheerful chime of bells, during which Christ rises, surrounded by his angels, until he disappears and the portal closes.