VALUABLE SECRETS LOST TO MEN.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 47, 13 July 1908, Page 2

VALUABLE SECRETS LOST TO MEN.

The recent attempt of a French sa- gjk vant, Professor Bordas, to convert i the mineral known as corundum into VP rubies and sapphires by means ol radium, recalls the fact that, although there aro at the present time a dozen different methods of making artificial diamonds, . none of tho stones produced by these methods can compare with those made of old French paste, the secret of which is - lost. So perfect were paste diamonds, that it was difficult for even a person with expert knowledge ol diamonds to tell that they were artifically produced, whereas most of the modern artificial diamonds can easily be detected, and their durability is nothing like so great as the old pasto diamonds ; indeed, good paste diamonds are now almost as valuable as real diamonds.

Probably not one out of ever* 10,000 buildings standing in all parts of the w’orld and built bv mod ern masons will still be standing f)OC* years hence. We do not know how to put stones and bricks together a* tho ancients did, and consequentlj tho buildings we raise nowadays arfi really mere temporary structures, and will be in ruins when the ancient buildings of Greece and Italy which wore built thousands of years ago, are in as good condition as they are now. The secrot is not In the bricks or in the stone, but In the cement and mortar. In modern buildings these essentials are tho weakest points ; in the buildings which the Romans and Greeks raised, the cement and mortar are the strongest points, and hold good while the very stones they bind together crumbli away with age. Chemistry, we might imagine, ii the science which has made th< greatest strides during the last fiv< or six decades. Yet modern chemists cannot compound such dyes at were commonly used wh‘*n the great nations of to-day were still unborn Now* and again it happens that searchers after antiquities came across fragments of fabrics which wor« dyed thousands of years ago, and they were astonished by tho woud % r ful richness of tho colours of the cloths, which, despite their age, are brighter and purer than anything we can produce. Just as the secret of dyeing has been lost, so has the secret of preserving tho colours of artists’ raints with the result that the pictures ol modern artists will ho colourless when many of tho works of ancient artists are still bright,. Yet the secret which is as difficult to rediscover as that which lurks in tho mystical notes of a Stradivarius violin was known to every ancient artist, for they all mixed their own colours.

Hovr to make durable ink is another secret we have lost. Look at any letter five or ten years old and you will probably notice that the writing has faded to a brown colour and is very indistinct. Go to any big museum, and you will find ancient manuscripts, tho writing on which is aa black and distinct as if they were written tho day before yesterday.