COSMETIC FROM TOMB

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 30

COSMETIC FROM TOMB

USED BY EGYPTIANS 3,300 YEARS AGO EXHIBITED IN LONDON Women visitors to the Royal Society’s conversazione at Burlington House, London, recently, were able to see a specimen of the cosmetic used by the Egyptians 3,300 years ago. Discovered in a beautifully carved ealcite jar in the tomb of Tutankhamen at Luxor by Dr. Howard Carter, the cosmetic has been analysed by Mr. A. Chaston Chapman and Dr. H. J. Plenderleith. The results suggest that it consisted of about 90 per cent, of a neutral animal fat, with about 10 per cent, of some resin or balsam. It is probable that the cosmetic was used as a face ointment. When the jar in which it was found was opened, the substance was a rather sticky mixture of yellow nodules with a chocolate coloured material, which emitted a faint but distinctive odour. The formation of certain salts around the lid of the jar had hermetically sealed it, and the tomb had remained sealed from the outside air for 3,300 years. Another exhibit which fascinated many visitors was the mutochrome of Messrs. Adam Hilger. This instrument enables individual portions of a pattern or design to be photographed independently and then projected on a screen. By the manipulation of various lenses the colours of the design can be altered at will and the best combinations selected. Experiments have been made with the mutochrome as an adjunct to theatrical scenery. A reporter was told that with one landscape scene it would be possible to go through all the phases of the day—from sunrise to the rising of the moon—simply by the manipulation of the lights. In another room were specimens of some of the wonderful steel made by Sir Robert Hadfield's firm, including a new tool steel—a combination of iron with no fewer than eight other elements—which is even capable of machining the hard material known as manganese steel. Also on view was a photograph of the new British-made rock crusher, which can take a block of hard North Wales granite weighing 2$ tons and r rush it into fragments in 55 seconds.