〈PRETENSION REPRESSED.〉
We now made a tour of the city, and reached the factory {381} of the chief philosophical instrument-maker of Bologna. He took great pleasure in showing me the various instruments he manufactured; but still there was a certain air of presumption about him, which seemed to indicate a less amount of knowledge than I should otherwise have assigned to him. I had on the preceding day mentioned to my Italian friend, who now accompanied me, that there existed a very simple method of punching a hole in a piece of glass, which, as he was much interested about it, I promised to show him on the earliest opportunity.
Finding myself in the workshop of the first instrument maker in Bologna, and observing the few tools I wanted, I thought it a good opportunity to explain the process to my friend; but I could only do this by applying to the master for the loan of some tools. I also thought it possible that the method was known to him, and that, having more practice, he would do the work better than myself.
I therefore mentioned the circumstance of my promise, and asked the master whether he was acquainted with the process. His reply was, “Yes; we do it every day.” I then handed over to him the punch and the piece of glass, declaring that a mere amateur, who only occasionally practised it could not venture to operate before the first instrument-maker in Bologna, and in his own workshop.
I had observed a certain shade of surprise glance across the face of one of the workmen who heard the assertion of this daily practice of his master’s, and, as I had my doubts of it, I contrived to put him in such a position that he must either retract his statement or else attempt to do the trick.
〈AWFUL SMASH.〉
He then called for a flat piece of iron with a small hole in it. Placing the piece of glass upon the top of this bit of iron, and holding the punch upon it directly above the {382} aperture, he gave a strong blow of the hammer, and smashed the glass into a hundred pieces.
I immediately began to console him, remarking that I did not myself always succeed, and that unaccountable circumstances sometimes defeated the skill even of the most accomplished workman. I then advised him to try a larger[52] piece of glass. Just after the crash I had put my hand upon a heavier hammer, which I immediately withdrew on his perceiving it. Thus encouraged, he called for a larger piece of glass, and a bit of iron with a smaller hole in it. In the meantime all the men in the shop rested from their work to witness this feat of every-day occurrence. Their master now seized the heavier hammer, which I had previously just touched. Finding him preparing for a strong and decided blow, I turned aside my head, in order to avoid seeing him blush—and also to save my own face from the coming cloud of splinters.
[52] The larger the piece of glass to be punched the more certainly the process succeeds.
I just saw the last triumphant flourish of the heavy hammer waving over his head, and then heard, on its thundering fall, the crash made by the thousand fragments of glass which it scattered over the workshop.