Chapter XXVI

MUSIC, ACOUSTICS, OPTICS, PHOTOGRAPHY, FINE ARTS.

Musical Instruments Old as Religion.--Abounded before the Lyre of Apollo or the Harp of Orpheus.--Their Evolution.--To Meet Wants and Growing Tastes.--Nineteenth Century and the Laws of Helmholtz.--The Story of the Piano, the Queen, Involves whole History of the Art of Music.--Ancient Harp and Growth.-- Psaltery and Dulcimer of Assyrians and Hebrews.--No Inventions by Greeks and Romans in this Art.--Fifteenth Century and the Clavicitherium.--Sixteenth Century, the Virginal and the Spinet.--Seventeenth Century, the Clavichord and Harpsichord.-- Italian Cembello.--Bach, Mozart, Handel, Haydn.--Cristofori of Florence, Schreiber of Germany and Modern Piano.--Eighteenth Century, Pianos of Broadwood and Clementi of London, Erard of Strasburg, Petzold of Paris and Others.--Two Thousand Years Taken to Ripen the Modern Piano.--Description of Piano Parts.-- Helmholtz’s Great Work, 1862.--Effect on System of Music and Musical Instruments.--The Organ, King in the Realm of Music.-- History of, from Earliest Times.--Improvements of the Nineteenth Century.--The Auto-harp.--Self-playing Instruments.--The Science of Acoustics and Practical Applications.--Auricular Tubes.-- Telephone, Phonograph, Graphophone, Gramophone.--Their Evolution and their Inventors.--Optical Instruments.--Their Growth.--Lippersheim, Galileo, Lieberkulm, John Dolland.--The Improvements and Inventors of the Nineteenth Century.--Brewster and the Kaleidoscope, Stereoscope.--Lenticular Lenses.-- Lighthouse Illumination.--Faraday and Tyndall.--Abbé Moigno’s Troubles.--Ophthalmoscope.--Spectroscope.--Making of Great Lenses.--Solarmeter.--Measuring the Position and Distances of Unseen Objects.--Light Converted into Music.--Daguerre and Photography.--History and Development.--Colour Reproduction.-- Pencils.--Painting.--Air Brushes.--Telegraphic Photographs. 400

CHAPTER XXVII.

SAFES AND LOCKS.

Safes, how Constructed before this Century.--Classification.-- Century Starts out to Make Safes Fireproof.--Scott in 1801.-- Marr, 1834.--Result of Great Fire in New York, 1835.--Wilder’s and Herring’s Safes.--Burglar-proof Safes, 1835.--Chubb, Newton, Thompson, Hall, Marvin and Others.--Electricity.--Seal Locks from 1815.--Locks of Various Kinds in Ancient Days.--Of Ponderous Size.--Key of the House of David.--Lock of Penelope’s House.--Locks of the Middle Ages.--Letter Locks of the Dutch, 1650.--Carew’s Verse.--Eighteenth Century Locks.--Tumblers.-- Joseph Bramah’s Locks.--Combination, Permutation and Time Locks.--Yale Locks.--Modern Locks Invented for Special Uses.-- Master or Secondary Key Locks.--Value of Simple, Cheap, Effective Locks.--Mail Locks and Others.--Greater General Security for Property of all Kinds now Obtained. 420

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CARRIAGES AND CARRYING MACHINES GENERALLY.

Review of Conveyances from Time of Ptolemy’s Great Procession, 270 B. C., until Nineteenth Century.--The Old Stage Coaches.-- Coaches of the Rich, the Middle Classes and the Poor.--The Past Art Compared with the Art as Exhibited at Centennial Exhibition in 1876 at Philadelphia.--The Varieties of Different Vehicles there Displayed by Different Nations.--Velocipedes and Bicycles.--1800 to 1869.--French, German, English, Scotch.-- The “Draisine” of Von Drais, 1816.--Johnson’s “Curricle,” 1818.--Gompertz’s “Dandy” and “Hobby Horse,” 1821.--Michaux’s, 1863.--Lallement’s of France, 1866, Crank and Pedal.--America and Europe Adopts it, 1866, 1869.--Pneumatic Rubber Tire Invented by Thomson, 1845.--Sleeps Forty Years.--Improvements since 1869.--Motor Vehicles and Automobiles.--Traction Engines.--Brakes, Railway, Air and Electric.--Automatic Couplers, Buffers, and Vestibule Trains. 428