A CURIOSITY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1912, 18 February 1875, Page 2

A CURIOSITY.

i MrWm. Webb,of London, has produced a curiosity in microscopic writing. He... has accomplished the feat; by means of machinery, on glass witlv the aid *of a diamond. The writing consists of the Lord's Prayer, which is written upon glass within a space equal to one. two hundred and ninety-fourth part of an inch in length, by one four hundred and fortieth part of an inch in width; a' space corresponding to the dot over the printed letter 1. The dot of writing has been enlarged by means of the photograph jso as to occupy a space of about 2in.'long by l^in. broad. The photograph brings the words but legibily, the number of letters being 227. Such is the minuteness of the original writing that 29,431,438 letters written in the same way would only cover one inch of glass surface. The whole Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, contains 3,566,480 letters ; therefore, Mr Webb could write the entire contents of more than eight Bibles witiin the space of one square inch. Two specimen plates of this microscopic writing have been produced' for the United States Museum at Washington, at a cost of SOdol. each. The Webb machine, however, does not equal, in the fineness of writing or the perfection, it has attained, a similar machine, the invention of Mr Petrie, a wealthy banker of London. This machine produced. writing as long since as 1855 nearly three times as fine as ;that of Mr Webb. It was competent to engrave the entire contents of the Bible, 22 times over, within the spice of a single square inch. \