The Book of Curiosities

by John Platts

The next subject is a curious Weaving Engine.—At Dantzic in Poland, there was set up a rare invention for weaving four or five webs at a time, without any human help. It was an engine that moved of itself, and would work night and day. This invention was suppressed, because it would have ruined the poor people of the town; and the artificer was secretly destroyed, as Lancelotti, the Italian abbot, relates from the mouth of M. Muller, a Pole, who had seen the device.

Hydraulic Birds.—At Tibur, in Tivoli, near Rome, in the gardens of Hippolitus d’Este, Cardinal of Ferrara, there are the representations of sundry birds sitting on the tops of trees, which, by hydraulic art, and secret conveyances of water through the trunks and branches of the trees, are made to sing and clap their wings; but at the sudden appearance of an owl out of a bush of the same artifice, they immediately become all mute and silent. It was the work of Claudius Gallus, as Possivenus informs us.

Herschell’s Grand Telescope.—The tube of this telescope is thirty-nine feet four inches in length, and four feet ten inches in diameter, every part being made of iron. It stands in the open air, appears to be considerably elevated, and is encircled with a complicated scaffolding, by which its steadiness is secured. The concave face of its speculum is forty-eight inches of polished surface in diameter, and it weighs nearly two thousand one hundred and eighteen pounds! With proper eye-glasses it magnifies above six thousand times: it is the largest instrument, and has the greatest magnifying power, of any that has been made. By its aid, Dr. Herschell has been able to observe the lightning in the atmosphere of the moon, and has found out several celestial bodies, unknown to preceding astronomers. The whole was finished on August the 28th, 1789, on which day the sixth satellite of Saturn was discovered. The observer, suspended at the end of the instrument, with his back towards the object he views, looks down the tube, and sees the image reflected from the mirror; whilst a man below turns gently round the instrument, to accord with the apparent rotatory motion of the heavens, thus preserving the image of the object on the mirror with stability.

Boverick’s Curiosities.—Mr. Baker, in his Treatise on the Microscope, says, “I myself have seen, near Durham Yard, in the Strand, and have examined with my microscope, a chaise, (made by one Mr. Boverick, a watch-maker,) having four wheels, with all the proper apparatus belonging to them, turning readily on their axles, together with a man sitting in the chaise, all formed of ivory, and drawn along by a flea, without any seeming difficulty. I weighed it with the greatest care I was able; and found the chaise, man, and flea, were barely equal to a single grain. I weighed also, at the same time and place, a brass chain made by the same hand, about two inches long, containing two hundred links, with a hook at one end, and a padlock and key at the other; and found it less than the third part of a grain. I have seen (made by the same artist) a quadrille table with a drawer in it, an eating-table, a sideboard table, a looking-glass, twelve chairs, with skeleton backs, two dozen of plates, six dishes, a dozen knives, and as many forks, twelve spoons, two salts, a frame and castors, together with a gentleman, lady, and footman, all contained in a cherry-stone, and not filling much more than half of it.”

Bunzlau Curiosities.—Mr. Adams, in his Letters on Silesia, gives the following account of two ingenious mechanics he met with at Bunzlau. Their names were Jacob, and Huttig; the one was a carpenter, the other a weaver, and they were next-door neighbours to each other. “The first (says Mr. Adams) has made a machine, in which, by the means of certain clock-work, a number of puppets, about six inches high, are made to move upon a kind of stage, so as to represent in several successive scenes the passion of Jesus Christ. The first exhibits him in the garden at prayer, while the three apostles are sleeping at a distance. In the last, he is shewn dead in the sepulchre, guarded by two Roman soldiers. The intervening scenes represent the treachery of Judas, the examination of Jesus before Caiaphas, the dialogue between Pilate and the Jews concerning him, the denial of Peter, the scourging, and the crucifixion. It is all accompanied by a mournful dirge of music; and the maker, by way of explanation, repeats the passages of Scripture which relate the events he has undertaken to shew. I never saw a stronger proof of the strength of the impression of objects, which are brought immediately home to the senses. I have heard and read more than one eloquent sermon upon the passion; but I confess, none of their most laboured efforts at the pathetic ever touched my heart with one-half the force of this puppet-show. The traitor’s kiss, the blow struck by the high-priest’s servant, the scourging, the nailing to the cross, the sponge of vinegar, every indignity offered, and every pain inflicted, occasioned a sensation, when thus made perceptible to the eye, which I had never felt at mere description.

“Hultig, the weaver, with an equal, or superior mechanical genius, has applied it in a different manner, and devoted it to geographical, astronomical, and historical pursuits. In the intervals of his leisure from the common weaver’s work, which affords him subsistence, he has become a very learned man. The walls of his rooms are covered with maps and drawings of his own, representing, here the course of the Oder, with all the towns and villages through which it runs; there, the mountains of Switzerland, and those of Silesia, over both of which he has travelled in person. In one room he has two very large tables, one raised above the other: on one of them he has ranged all the towns and remarkable places of Germany; and on the other, of all Europe: they are placed according to their respective geographical bearings. The names of the towns are written on a small square piece of paper, and fixed in a slit on the top of a peg, which is stuck into the table. The remarkable mountains are shewn by some pyramidical black stones; and little white pyramids are stationed at all the spots which have been distinguished by any great battle, or other remarkable incident. The man himself, in explaining his work, shews abundance of learning, relative to the ancient names of places, and the former inhabitants of the countries to which he points; and amused us with anecdotes of various kinds, connected with the lands he has marked out.

“Thus, in shewing us the Alps, he pointed to the very spot over which the French army of reserve so lately passed, and where Buonaparte so fortunately escaped being taken by an Austrian officer; and then he gave us a short comment of his own, upon the character and extraordinary good fortune of the First Consul. In a second room he has a large machine, representing the Copernican system of the universe: it is made in such a manner, that the whole firmament of fixed stars moves round our solar system once in every twenty-four hours, and thus always exhibits the stars, in the exact position, relative to our earth, in which they really stand. Internally, he has stationed all the planets which belong to our system, with their several satellites, and all the comets that have been observed during the last three centuries. In a third room he has another machine, exhibiting in different parts the various phases of the moon, and those of Jupiter’s satellites, the apparent motion of the sun round the earth, and the real motion of the earth round the sun.

“In his garret he has another work, upon which he is yet occupied, and which, being his last labour, seems to be that in which he takes the most delight. Upon a very large table, similar to that in the first room, he has inlaid a number of thin plates of wood, formed so as to represent a projection of the earth under Mercator’s plan. All the intervals between the plates of wood designate that portion of the world which is covered with water. He has used a number of very small ropes of two colours, drawn over the surface in such a manner as to describe the tracks of all the celebrated circumnavigators of the globe. The colours of the ropes distinguish the several voyages which claim especial pre-eminence above the rest. To Columbus, Anson, and Cook, he has shewn a special honour by three little models of ships bearing their names, which are placed upon the surface of his ocean, in some spot of their respective courses. The names of all the other voyagers, and the times at which their voyages were performed, are marked by papers fixed at the points of their departure. Such is the imperfect description I can give you, from a short view of the labours of this really curious man. He must be nearly, or quite seventy years old, and has all his lifetime been of an infirm constitution. But this taste for the sciences, he told us, was hereditary in his family, and had been common to them all, from his great-grandfather down to himself. His dress and appearance were those of a common weaver: but his expressive countenance, at once full of enthusiastic fire and of amiable good-nature, was a model, upon which Lavater might expatiate with exultation. The honest and ingenious weaver, on our taking leave, made us smile by exclaiming, that now, if he could but have a traveller from Africa come to see his works, he could boast of having had visitors from all the four quarters of the globe.”

Artificial Flying.—The art of flying has been attempted by several persons in all ages. The Leucadians, out of superstition, are reported to have had a custom of precipitating a man from a high cliff into the sea, first fixing feathers, variously expanded, round his body, in order to break his fall. Friar Bacon, who lived near five hundred years ago, not only affirms the art of flying possible, but assures us, that he himself knew how to make an engine, wherein a man, sitting, might be able to cenvey himself through the air, like a bird; and further adds, that there was one who had then tried it with success: but this method, which consisted of a couple of large thin hollow copper globes, exhausted of the air, and sustaining a person who sat thereon, Dr. Hooke shews to be impracticable. The philosophers of King Charles the Second’s reign were mightily busied about this art. Bishop Wilkins was so confident of success in it, that he says, he does not question but, in future ages, it will be as usual to hear a man call for his wings, when he is going a journey, as it is now to call for his boots.