TIIE BALLOON.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 426, 22 November 1861, Page 3

TIIE BALLOON.

From the days of Icarus downwards there seems to have been no lack of speculation on the possibility of the bibes iinplumis rivalling the natural denizens of the air. The ingenious Bishop Wilkins, in his «Discourse concerning the possibility of a passaga to the World in the Moon,' proposes the constructien of a flying-chariot, large enough to carry up several men with their food and luggage, on the principle on which he supposes Archytas to have made his wooden dove, and Regiomontanus the wondrous eagle, which is stated to have flown out of the good town of Nuremberg, and flapped a welcome to Charles V. Till tho date of the incident I am about to mention, however, people had talked about it, but done nothing else.".. : - On a winter's evening, about 1782, Montgolfier Brothers (Joseph and James Stephen), never in their lives having thought about balloons, are sitting (as you see by this little picture) beside the ample chimney of a private room in their paper factory at Annonhy, near Lyons. A blazing fire is on the hearth, and the *, gude wile' has availed herself, of the opportunity to range her household linen about it that it may be •aired.' Montgolfier Brothers have a soul above buttons. For the moment paper is not on their minds. They take an interest in pub!ic affairs; and just now public attention is engrossed with the fortunes of the French, who are besieging the perjide nation at Gibraltar. A map of that formidable fortress lies on the table; and a well marked spot, indicating the • Snake in the Grass ' outwork, shows the interest that has been felt in this portion of the defences. • If only,' says Joseph with a sigh, *we could get over that.*—Ah if! Is it an omen ? Is it a hint from some invisible power? A garment, which need not be more particularly named, flutters down from its hanging place, over the fire, becomes inflated with the smoke, rises majestically and sails upwards into sooty space. The idea has struck them both. They will build a monster I It shall be of paper of course, —and Gibraltar shall be French —to the great and everlasting honor of the Montgolfier name, and to the no small profit of the factory of Montgolfier Freres ! The other story is less dramatic, and we reject it. It is that which supposes the same Stephen Montgolfier to have taken his hint from a spherical paper cap placed by some lncky circumstance over a coffeepot ' upon the boil.' The invention does not appear to have hung fire. On the 19th September, 1783, Montgolfier exhibited before the King and Royal family at Versailles, a grand machine, near sixty-threa feet high and forty-three in diameter, which ascended with a cage containing a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which it conveyed safely to a distance of 10,000 feet. STOCKING LOOM. Who is there that has not seen, or, having seen, has not been charmed with, a print of the picture representing • The Origin of the Stocking-loom ?' A scholar out of work—about the most shiftless being on earth's round—is sitting in sad silence beside his wife and child, watching the wan fingers of that knitting figure, alas! the only ' bread-winner 'ot the house. The angel of Domestic Happiness inspires him with an idea! and henceforward those dea fingures are at rest, and the labor is transferred to mute machinery. Oxford and Cambridge vie in rival versions of the story, for the honor of having instituted the persecution of the ingenious Lee; and those who favor either cause may find matter of satisfaction in the discrepancies which abound in both. In one the hero is a lover not a husband, and invents the machinery that he may gain the ear of a low-born but proud maiden, who has a notion that she can't and won't afford to put by her work merely to hear a lover pour out his vows. In all, however, the inspiring element is love. THE BAYONET. And now for the origin of the * Queen of weapons'—the bright agent of British gallantry on many a well-fought field. There was rough work, as was seeming, at its birth. A Basque regiment on one of the ridges of the mountains near Bayonne, is hard pressed, and, to add to their misfortunes, ammunition has run short. With the ingenuity of despair, they fix their long knives which form part of their ordinary equipment into the barrels of their muskets, and a glorious victory crowns the first intance on record of a bayonet charge. Our foundling was fortunate enough to receive j encouragement at the hands of the • authorities 'of the day. We find it on record as a regular weapon of war in the memoirs of Puysegur so early as 1647 ; mentioned as imported into England in the first half of the year 1672; as used with success in 1680 in its ringed form by Mackay against the Highlanders at Killicrankie; and finally as being in general use with a socket in 1703. MF.ZZOTINTO. It was during the lull of 1656 in the stormy life of Rupert, we are told by his latest biographer, that he discovered the ait of mezzotinto. He was not a novice with the burin. In 1637, he had solaced many hours of imprisonment at Lintz in executing engravings that still remain. He is now in retirement at Brussels. One morning early he goes out, as is his manner, for a walk, and comes upon a soldier who is just going to clean his gun. The gun has been left owt all night in the rain, and part of the

— \\ barrel which has been exposed, has become rusted. A linen cloth, with which the soldier is about to clean the barrel, brings off a pattern which strikes the prince at once ! with an idea—an idea which with the assistance of one Vallerant Vaillant, a reputable | printer, assumes very nearly the position occupied by the mezzotinto of the present day. LITHOGRAPHY. A noteworthy example of the way in which some of the most valuable inventions have been suggested by incidents in common lite, is that of lithography by Senefelder. In the memory of many living persons, the art was as yet unknown. The anecdote connected with its invention illustrates the peculiar position of the inventor. There is none that can be quoted more encouraging to struggling genius. At starting in life, Young Senefelder had mistaken his vocation. Failing as an actor, he fancied his mission was to be a poet; and we need not, therefore be much surprised at finding him depicted here as miserably poor. He wrote for the stage, and his writings seemed destined either never to see the light or die without having repaid the outlay they had caused. Horrible! Was his « Mathilda- yon Altenstein order die Barenhohla,' with all its harrowing incidents and noble diction, to be lost to the world, merely because his previous works had met with cold receptions ? Perish the thought! If publishers—alway a dull-sighted race— wouldn't take the poor play on trust, he would print it with his own hands ! That requires type. He has none. He will engrave it. He has no copper. Never mind; then he will engrave on stone. (This after a failure in original stereotyping of sealing-wax,) He engraves it in a piece, finally polished Kellheim stone and makes but soiry progress with his work. The slab splinters. He endeavors to remedy the defects by the use of composition of wax, soap, and lampblack, and these defects are leading him to the goal. One day, you see him as he has polished his stone for etching, when his mother enters the room hurriedly, and requests him to make a note of some articles of linen going to the wash. Not a scrap of paper—thank goodness !— can he find. The inkstand is (fortunately) dry. He writes with a lump of his composition the required matter on his stone. What is the idea that suggests itself ? If he were to throw aquafortis on the stone. He does, and the writing remains in relief. Joy I—joy for ever! ' Mathilda yon Altenstein' has not long to wait! With all his might he now strives to bring his invention into practical form, and he succeeds. Tbe next thing is to gain his livelihood by practising it. To develop the idea, not less than too hundred florins will be requisite. He thinks himself happy in finding a Bavarian gentleman willing to supply him with as much, on condition of his acting as his substitute, and serving in | the artillery. The quid pro quo appears to the struggling author and inventor the merest bagatelle. He starts off gaily for the camp. His • leisure hours' will be devoted to carrying out his new idea 1! He reaches Ingoldstadt, on the road from Prague (his native city) to Munich, with a batch of recruits, and here the golden vision fades away. He is not Bavarian born, and his services cannot be accepted by the State. What is to be done ? He manages to persuade a musician, one Gleissner, of the Elector's band, how admirably the invention he has perfected is adapted for the publication of music; and several works, published by the two, establish the capabilities of the art beyond a doubt. With his subsequent fortunes we i need not stop to occupy ourselves here. He died in official clover at Munich, on the 26th February, 1831, in the sixty-third year of his age. At the close of the interesting and circumstantial record of the experiments and difficulties which we have by his own band, the author observes, * 1 esteem myself happy in seeing in my own lifetime the value of my invention so universally appreciated, and in having myself been able to attain in it a degree of perfection which in a thousand other inventions has not been reached till long after the death of the first inventor.' GALVANIC BATTERY. We have a lady entitled to the honours of a chance inventor: albeit the hare she started required runners of sterner stuff to run it down. The date of Signora Gal vani's famous cold is fixed for the year 1790. Her medical man has called, and seen her, and prescribed—frog soup. Thrice fortunate prescription !! The frogs skinned for the cook's "use are laid, as you see in this tableau, upon a table in the laboratory of her husband, close to where an electrical machine is being used. One of the Professor's assistants chances to bring the point of a scalpel near the crural nerves jof a Froggie in the sad condition we have ' described ; and immediately the said crural nerves become agitated with violent convulsions, as if poor Froggie's spirit had returned. Our heroine is looking on, and, struck with the phenomenon, brings it under the notice of the Professor, who observes its repetition on merely passing copper hooks through these same nerves, and suspending them on an iron rail. Galvani holds Froggie to be only an animated Ley den jar. Volta makes another supposition, which, after being duly controverted and discussed, leads to the invention, in 1800, of the well-known .Voltaic pile. Signoro Galvani and her frog-broth have given the world a new system of Physiology. AUGAND BURNER. Young Argand was a skylarking harumscarum fellow, with about as much science in him as a young terrier-—one of those scourges of the studio, ever meddling with retorts, and overhauling in a Destructive manner everything that is intellectually beyond their ken. Argand Senior is in his laboratory, hard at work with his problem Of the lamp j but lh<? geniui has refused to ,

appear at his invocation. The dusky circle of fire seems to have thrown the experimentalist into a gloomy mood. He turns his back for a moment —the dull circle of smoke starts as if by magic into a bright white flame, and the chamber is brilliantly lighted up. Who has wrought the wonder ? Who but Argand junior ! He has been clapping an old oil-flask with the bottom out over every article in the chamber that admitted of the treatment, has at last applied it to the lamp, and—the problem is solved. Ones more a «lazy idle boy' carries off the prize !!— MacniiUans Magazine.