“Schola Steganographica,” etc., Norimbergæ, 1665, gives, at pp. 258–264, a description of the dial telegraph of Daniell Schwenter.
“Jocoseriorum Naturæ et Artis,” etc., published about 1666, alludes to the “Thaumaturgus Mathematicus” of Gaspar Ens, published at Cologne, 1651, as well as to the “Deliciæ Physico-Mathematicæ” of Daniell Schwenter and Geo. Philippi Harsdoerffer (Senator of Nuremberg), to “La Récréation Mathématique” of Jean Leurechon, and to the works of Cardan, Mizauld, Aldrovandi and others.
References.—“Notice Raisonnée des Ouvrages de Gaspar Schott,” par M. L’Abbé Mxxx de St. Léger de Soissons, Paris, 1785, pp. 6, 31, 32, 37, 44, 70; Muirhead’s translation of Arago’s Eloge de James Watt, London, 1839, p. 51.[46]
A.D. 1660.—Guericke (Otto von), a burgomaster of Magdeburg, Prussian Saxony, constructs the first frictional electric machine. It consisted of a globe of sulphur, cast in a glass sphere, and mounted upon a revolving axis, which when rubbed by a cloth pressed against it by the hand, emitted both sound and light. It was Guericke who “heard the first sound and saw the first light in artificially excited electricity.” He proved that light bodies, when attracted by an excited electric, were immediately repelled by the latter and became incapable of a second attraction until touched by some other body; also that light bodies develop electrical excitation when suspended within the sphere of an excited electric.
References.—“Experimenta Nova Magdeburgica,” 1672, lib. iv, cap. 15, p. 147, also all relating to the sulphur globe reproduced from the “Experimenta Nova” at end of Figuier’s “Exposition et Histoire,” etc., Vol. IV. Paris, 1857; Moncony, Voyages, 1665; Schott (Gaspar), “Technica Curiosa,” etc., Norimbergæ, 1664; “Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathem.,” Leipzig, 1898, Vol. VIII. pp. 69–112, for the two articles by Ferdinand Rosenberger on the development of the electric machine, etc., from the time of Von Guericke.
A.D. 1660.—At the meeting of the English Royal Society, held June 5, 1660, Magnetical Remedies were discoursed of. Sir Gilbert Talbot promised to bring in what he knew of sympatheticall cures, and those who possessed any powder of sympathy were requested to fetch some at the next meeting.
A.D. 1661.—Somerset (Edward), second Marquis of Worcester, an English inventor, announces, in his “Century of Inventions” that he has discovered “a method by which at a window as far as the eye can discover black from white, a man may hold discourse with his correspondent, without noise made or notice taken; being, according to occasion given, or means afforded, ex re nata, and no need of provision beforehand: though much better if foreseen, and course taken by mutual consent of parties.” This method, he asserts, he can put into practice “by night as well as by day, though as dark as pitch is black.”
References.—Dircks’ “Life of Worcester,” p. 357; “Dictionary of National Biography,” Vol. LIII. pp. 232–237.
A.D. 1662.—Rupert (Prince Robert), of Bavaria, son of Frederick V, elector palatine, and one of the founders of the Royal Society of London, is credited with the discovery of the curious glass bubbles called “Rupert’s drops.” These are merely drops of glass thrown, when melted, into water, and thus becoming suddenly consolidated into a shape somewhat resembling the form of a tear. The globular end may be subjected to quite a smart stroke without breaking, but if a particle of the tail is nipped off, the whole flies into fine powder with almost explosive violence.
“Mr. Peter did show us the experiment (which I had heard talked of) of the chymicall glasses, which break all to dust by breaking off a little small end; which is a great mystery to me” (Samuel Pepys, “Diary,” January 13, 1662).