A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

Though the great antiquity of chimneys is not disputed, too little information has been collected to enable us to determine, with any degree of certainty, the period when they first came into use. If it be true, as Du Cange, Vossius, and others affirm, that apartments called caminatæ were apartments with chimneys, these must, indeed, be very old; for that word occurs as early as the year 1069, and perhaps earlier⁹⁴⁸; but it is always found connected in such a manner as contradicts entirely the above signification. Papias the grammarian, who wrote about 1051, explains the word fumarium by caminus per quem exit fumus; and Johannes de Janua, a monk, who about 1268 wrote his Catholicon, printed at Venice, says “Epicaustorium, instrumentum quod fit super ignem caussa emittendi fumum.” But these fumaria and epicaustoria may have been pipes by which the smoke, as is the case in our vent-furnaces, was conveyed through the nearest wall or window: at any rate, this expression, with its explanations, can afford no certain proof that chimneys are so old⁹⁴⁹; especially as later writers give us reason to believe the contrary. Riccobaldus de Ferrara⁹⁵⁰, Galvano Fiamma or Flamma, a Dominican monk from Milan⁹⁵¹, who died in 1344 professor at Pavia, and Giovanni de Mussis, who about 1388 wrote his Chronicon Placentinum⁹⁵², and all the writers of the fourteenth century, seem either to have been unacquainted with chimneys, or to have considered them as the newest invention of luxury.

That there were no chimneys in the tenth, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, seems to be proved by the so-called ignitegium, or pyritegium, the curfew-bell of the English, and couvre-feu of the French. In the middle ages, as they are termed, people made fires in their houses in a hole or pit in the centre of the floor, under an opening formed in the roof; and when the fire was burnt out, or the family went to bed at night, the hole was shut by a cover of wood. In those periods a law was almost everywhere established, that the fire should be extinguished at a certain time in the evening; that the cover should be put over the fire-place; and that all the family should retire to rest, or at least be at home⁹⁵³. The time when this ought to be done was signified by the ringing of a bell. William the Conqueror introduced this law into England in the year 1068, and fixed the ignitegium at seven in the evening, in order to prevent nocturnal assemblies⁹⁵⁴; but this law was abolished by Henry I., in 1100. From this ancient practice has arisen, in my opinion, a custom in Lower Saxony of saying, when people wish to go home sooner than the company choose, that they hear the Bürgerglocke, burghers’ bell. The ringing of the curfew-bell gave rise also to the prayer-bell, as it was called, which has still been retained in some protestant countries. Pope John XXIII., with a view to avert certain apprehended misfortunes, which rendered his life uncomfortable, gave orders that every person, on hearing the ignitegium, should repeat the Ave Maria three times⁹⁵⁵. When the appearance of a comet and a dread of the Turks afterwards alarmed all Christendom, Pope Calixtus III. increased these periodical times of prayer by ordering the prayer-bell to be rung also at noon⁹⁵⁶.

The oldest certain account of chimneys with which I am acquainted, occurs in the year 1347; for an inscription which is still existing or did exist at Venice, relates that at the above period a great many chimneys (molti camini) were thrown down by an earthquake⁹⁵⁷. This circumstance is confirmed by John Villani, the historian, who died at Florence in 1348, and who calls the chimneys fumajuoli⁹⁵⁸. Galeazzo Gataro, who in the Dictionary of Learned Men is named De Gataris, and who died of the plague in 1405, says in his History of Padua, which was afterwards improved and published by his son Andrew, that Francesco da Carraro, lord of Padua, came to Rome in the year 1368, and finding no chimneys in the hotel where he lodged, because at that time fire was kindled in a hole in the middle of the floor, he caused two chimneys, like those which had been long used at Padua, to be constructed, and arched by masons and carpenters whom he had brought along with him. Over these chimneys, the first ever seen at Rome, he affixed his arms, which were still remaining in the time of Gataro⁹⁵⁹.

While chimneys continued to be built in so simple a manner, and of such a width as they are still observed to be in old houses, they were so easily cleaned that this service could be performed by a servant with a wisp of straw, or a little brushwood fastened to a rope; but after the flues, in order to save room, were made narrower, or when several flues were united together, the cleaning of them became so difficult, that they required boys, or people of small size, accustomed to that employment. The first chimney-sweepers in Germany came from Savoy, Piedmont, and the neighbouring territories⁹⁶⁰. These for a long time were the only countries where the cleaning of chimneys was followed as a trade; and I am thence inclined to conjecture that chimneys were invented in Italy⁹⁶¹, rather than that the Savoyards learned the art of climbing from the marmots or mountain-rats, as some have asserted⁹⁶². These needy but industrious people chose and appropriated to themselves, perhaps, this occupation, because they could find no other so profitable. The Lotharingians, however, undertook this business also, and on that account the duke of Lotharingia was styled the Imperial Fire-master. The first Germans who condescended to clean chimneys appear to have been miners; and our chimney-sweepers still procure boys from the Hartz forest, who may be easily discovered by their language. The greater part of the chimney-sweepers (ramoneurs de cheminées) in Paris, at present, are Savoyards; and one may see there everywhere in the streets large groups of their boys⁹⁶³, many of whom are not above eight years of age, and who, clad in linen frocks, will, when called upon, scramble up at the hazard of their lives, with their besoms and other instruments, through a narrow funnel often fifty feet in length, filled with soot and smoke, and in which they cannot breathe till they arrive at the top, in order to gain five sous; and even of this small pittance they are obliged to pay a part to their avaricious masters⁹⁶⁴.

HUNGARY WATER

Hungary water is spirit of wine distilled upon rosemary, and which therefore contains the essential oil and powerful aroma of that plant. To be really good the spirit of wine ought to be very strong and the rosemary fresh; and if that be the case, the leaves are as proper as the flowers, which according to the prescription of some should only be employed. It is likewise necessary that the spirit of wine be distilled several times over the rosemary; but that process is too troublesome and expensive to admit of this water being disposed of at the low price for which it is usually sold; and it is certain that the greater part of it is nothing else than common spirit, united with the essence of rosemary in the simplest manner. In general, it is only mixed with a few drops of the oil. For a long time past this article has been brought to us principally from France, where it is prepared, particularly at Beaucaire, Montpelier, and other places in Languedoc, where that plant grows in great abundance.

The name, l’eau de la reine d’Hongrie, seems to signify that this water, so celebrated for its medicinal virtues, is an Hungarian invention; and we read in many books that the receipt for preparing it was given to a queen of Hungary by a hermit, or as others say, by an angel, who appeared to her in a garden all entrance to which was shut, in the form of a hermit or a youth⁹⁶⁵. Some call the queen St. Isabella⁹⁶⁶; but those who pretend to be best acquainted with the circumstance affirm that Elizabeth wife of Charles Robert king of Hungary, and daughter of Uladislaus II. king of Poland, who died in 1380 or 1381, was the inventress. By often washing with this spirit of rosemary, when in the seventieth year of her age, she was cured, as we are told, of the gout and an universal lameness; so that she not only lived to pass eighty, but became so lively and beautiful that she was courted by the king of Poland, who was then a widower, and who wished to make her his second wife.

John George Hoyer⁹⁶⁷ says that the receipt for preparing this water, written by queen Elizabeth’s own hand, in golden characters, is still preserved in the Imperial library at Vienna. But it has been already remarked by others⁹⁶⁸ that Hoyer is mistaken, and that he does not properly remember the account given of the receipt. It is to be found for the first time, as far as I know, in a small book by John Prevot, which, after his death in 1631, was published by his two sons at Frankfort in 1659⁹⁶⁹.

One may easily see that Prevot mistook this Elizabeth for St. Elizabeth, the daughter of king Andrew II., who was never queen of Hungary, but died wife of a landgrave of Thuringia in 1235. But respecting Elizabeth, the wife of king Charles Robert, we know from the information of Hungarian writers⁹⁷⁰, that in her will she really did mention two breviaries, one of which she bequeathed to her daughter-in-law, and the other to one Clara von Pukur, with this stipulation, however, that after her death it should belong to a monastery at Buda. It is not impossible, therefore, that one of these books may have come into the hands of Podacather’s ancestors.

I must however confess, that respecting this pretended invention of the Hungarian queen I have doubts; it may be readily conjectured that this Elizabeth must have been extremely vain; but when she wished to make posterity believe that in the seventieth, or seventy-second year of her age she became so sound and so beautiful that a king, at that time a widower, grew enamoured of her, we may justly conclude that she was more than vain – that she was perhaps childish. I have taken the trouble to search for the king, then a widower, who paid his addresses to Elizabeth, but my labour has proved fruitless. This proposal of marriage must have been made about the year 1370; but Casimir III., brother of the Hungarian Elizabeth, reigned in Poland till that year, and was succeeded by her son Louis, who died after her in 1382; and the throne then remained vacant for three years.

It is rather singular that the name of aqua-vitæ, and the practice of distilling spirit of wine upon aromatic herbs, should be known in Hungary so early as the fourteenth century, though I will not pretend to affirm the contrary. But I consider it as more remarkable that the botanists of the seventeenth century should have spoken of and extolled the various properties of rosemary without mentioning Hungary water. It cannot however be denied, that in the sixteenth century, long before Prevot, Zapata⁹⁷¹, an Italian physician, taught the method of preparing rosemary-water: and he has even told us that it was known, though imperfectly, to Arnoldus de Villa Nova; but he does not say that it was an Hungarian invention. It appears to me most probable, at present, that the name l’eau de la reine d’Hongrie, was chosen by those who in later times prepared rosemary-water for sale, in order to give greater consequence and credit to their commodity; as various medicines, some years ago, were extolled in the gazettes under the title of Pompadour, though the celebrated lady from whose name they derived their importance, certainly neither ever saw them nor used them.

CORK

Those who are accustomed to value things used in common life only according to the price for which they can be purchased, will perhaps imagine that my subject must be nearly exhausted when I think it worth my while to entertain my readers with a matter so inconsiderable. Cork, however, is a substance of such a singular property, that no other has yet been found which can be so generally employed with the same advantage; and before the use of it was known, people were obliged on many occasions to supply the want of it by means which to us would appear extremely troublesome.

Cork is a body remarkably light, can be easily compressed, expands again by its elasticity as soon as the compressing power is removed, and therefore fills or stops up very closely that space into which it has been driven by force. It may be easily cut into all forms; and though it abounds with pores, which are the cause of its lightness, it suffers neither water, beer, nor any common liquid to escape through it, and it is only very slowly and after a considerable length of time that it can be penetrated even by spirits. Its numerous pores seem to be too small to afford a passage to the finest particles of water and wine, which can with greater facility ooze through more compact wood that has larger or wider pores⁹⁷².

Cork is the exterior bark of a tree, belonging to the genus of the oak, which grows wild in the southern parts of Europe, particularly France, Spain, Portugal and Italy⁹⁷³. When the tree is about twenty-six years old it is fit to be barked, and this can be done successively every eight years⁹⁷⁴. The bark always grows up again, and its quality improves with the increasing age of the tree. It is commonly singed a little over a strong fire or glowing coals, and laid to soak a certain time in water, after which it is placed under stones in order to be pressed straight.

This tree, as well as its use, was known to the Greeks and the Romans. By the former it was called phellus. Theophrastus reckons it among the oaks, and says that it has a thick fleshy bark, which must be stripped off every three years to prevent it from perishing. He adds, that it was so light as never to sink in water, and on that account could be used with great advantage for a variety of purposes⁹⁷⁵. The only circumstance which on the first consideration can excite any doubt of the phellus being our cork-tree, is, that he expressly says it lost its leaves annually, whereas our cork-tree retains them. In another passage however he calls it an evergreen⁹⁷⁶. This apparent contradiction several commentators have endeavoured to clear up, but their labour seems unnecessary; for there is a species of our cork-tree which really drops its leaves. Linnæus did not think this species worth his notice; but it has been accurately observed by Clusius and Matthiolus⁹⁷⁷, and its existence is confirmed by Miller⁹⁷⁸. As Theophrastus⁹⁷⁹, Pliny⁹⁸⁰, Varro⁹⁸¹ and others mention a common oak which always retains its leaves, it appears clear to me that the first-mentioned author, where he speaks of evergreens, meant our common species of the cork-tree, and that extraordinary kind of oak; but in the other passage that species which drops its leaves in winter.

That the suber of the Romans was our cork-tree, is generally and with justice admitted. Pliny relates of it, in the clearest manner, every thing said by Theophrastus⁹⁸² of the phellus⁹⁸³; and we find by his account, that cork at the period when he wrote was applied to as many purposes as at present⁹⁸⁴.

At that time fishermen made floats to their nets of cork, that is, they affixed pieces of cork to the rope which formed the upper edge of the net, and which it was necessary should be kept at the surface of the water, in the same manner as is done at present⁹⁸⁵. The use of cork for fishing-nets is mentioned by Ausonius⁹⁸⁶; and Alciphron describes so abundant a capture that the net and the cork floats sunk by the weight. This use, however, was much limited by the high price of cork; and small boards of light wood, such as that of the pine, aspen-tree, lime-tree, and poplar, were employed in its stead⁹⁸⁷. The wood of the Marum arborescens is used as floats in Guiana, and that of the Hibiscus cuspidatus in Otaheite⁹⁸⁸. The German and Swedish fishermen, and also the Cossacks, use for the same purpose the bark of the black poplar; but the Dutch and Hanoverians, who fish on the Weser, employ for their nets a kind of wood called in Holland toll-hout. It is a wood of a reddish-brown colour, extremely light, and of a very fine grain, which the Dutch, who export it to Germany, procure from the Baltic. At Amsterdam it costs a stiver per pound; but I have not yet been able to learn what wood it properly is.

Another use to which cork was applied, according to Pliny, was for anchor-buoys. “Usus ejus ancoralibus maxime navium.” These words Hardouin has not explained; and Scheffer⁹⁸⁹, where he speaks of anchors, and what belongs to them, takes no notice of cork. Gesner, however, has attempted an explanation⁹⁹⁰, but what he says is, in my opinion, not satisfactory. He certainly could not mean that it was employed to render anchors lighter. According to my idea, they may be easily made light enough without cork, and perhaps they can never be made too heavy. The true explanation of this passage is, that it was used for making buoys, called ancoralia, which were fixed to the cable, and by floating on the surface of the water, over the anchor, pointed out the place where it lay⁹⁹¹. Our navigators use for that purpose a large but light block of wood, which, in order that it may float better, is often made hollow⁹⁹². A large cask also is sometimes employed. The Dutch sailors call these blocks of wood boei or boeye; and hence comes their proverb, “Hy heeft een kop als een boei,” he has a head like a buoy; he is a blockhead.

A third use of cork among the Romans was its being made into soles, which were put into their shoes in order to secure the feet from water, especially in winter; and as high heels were not then introduced, the ladies who wished to appear taller than they had been formed by nature, put plenty of cork under them⁹⁹³.

The practice of employing cork for making jackets to assist one in swimming, is also very old; for we are informed that the Roman whom Camillus sent to the Capitol when besieged by the Gauls, put on a light dress, and took cork with him under it, because, to avoid being taken by the enemy, it was necessary that he should swim through the Tiber. When he arrived at the river, he bound his clothes upon his head, and, placing the cork under him, was so fortunate as to succeed in his attempt⁹⁹⁴.

The most extensive and principal use of cork at present, is for stoppers to bottles. This was not entirely unknown to the Romans, for Pliny says expressly, that it served to stop vessels of every kind; and instances of its being employed for that purpose may be seen in Cato⁹⁹⁵ and Horace⁹⁹⁶. Its application to this use, however, seems not to have been very common, else cork-stoppers would have been oftener mentioned by the authors who have written on agriculture and cookery, and also in the works of the ancient poets. We everywhere find directions given to close up wine-casks and other vessels with pitch⁹⁹⁷, clay, gypsum or potters-earth, or to fill the upper part of the vessel with oil or honey, in order to exclude the air from those liquors which one wished to preserve⁹⁹⁸. In the passages therefore already quoted, where cork is named, mention is made also of pitching. The reason of this I believe to be, that the ancients used for their wine large earthen vessels with wide mouths, which could not be stopped sufficiently close by means of cork. Wooden casks were then unknown, or at least scarce, as Italy produced little timber, otherwise these vessels would have been stopped with wood, as is the case at present. The practice of drawing off wine for daily consumption, from the large vessels into which it is first put, into such smaller vessels as can be easily corked, was then not prevalent⁹⁹⁹. The ancients drew off from their large jars into cups or pitchers whatever quantity of wine they thought necessary for the time, instead of which the moderns use bottles. It appears to have been customary at the French court, about the year 1258, when grand entertainments were given, and more wine-vessels had been opened than were emptied, that the remainder became a perquisite of the grand-bouteiller¹⁰⁰⁰.

Stoppers of cork seem to have been first introduced after the invention of glass-bottles, and of these I find no mention before the fifteenth century; for the amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ of Petronius¹⁰⁰¹, to the necks of which were affixed labels, containing the name and age of the wine, appear to have been large jars, and to have formed part of the many uncommon articles by which the voluptuary Trimalchio wished to distinguish himself. It is however singular, that these convenient vessels were not thought of at an earlier period, especially as among the small funeral urns of the ancients, many are to be found which in shape resemble our bottles¹⁰⁰². In the figure of the Syracusan wine-flasks, I think I can discover their origin from these urns. Charpentier¹⁰⁰³ quotes from a writing of the year 1387, an expression which seems to allude to one of our glass bottles; but, when attentively considered, it may be easily discovered that cups or drinking-glasses are meant. The name boutiaux or boutilles, occurs in the French language for the first time in the fifteenth century; but were it even older it would prove nothing, as it signified originally, and even still signifies, vessels of clay or metal, and particularly of leather¹⁰⁰⁴. Such vessels filled with wine, which travellers were accustomed to suspend from their saddles, could be stopped with a piece of wood, or closed by means of wooden or metal tops screwed on them, which are still used for earthen-pitchers. In the year 1553, when C. Stephanus wrote his Prædium Rusticum, cork stoppers must have been very little known, else he would not have said that in his time cork in France was used principally for soles (p. 578). In the time of Lottichius, rich people however had glass flasks with tin mouths, which could be stopped sufficiently close without cork; and these flasks appear to have been as thin as the Syracusan wine-bottles; for he adds, that it was necessary to wrap them round with rushes or straw¹⁰⁰⁵.

Flasks covered with basket-work must have been common among the Greeks, if it be certain that πυτίνη signifies a flask of this kind. It appears indeed to do so, because Hesychius says it was a plaited wine-vessel, like the baskets which prisoners were accustomed to make. Suidas, however, states that it was a vessel woven of twigs, named in his time φλασκεῖον, from which is derived our word flask. It is probable that these wine-vessels covered with basket-work were only of earthenware, as glass ones were at that time costly and scarce. But I do not think it can be proved that a flask of this kind was called by the Romans tinia.

In the shops of the apothecaries in Germany, cork stoppers began first to be used about the end of the seventeenth century. Before that period they used stoppers of wax, which were not only much more expensive, but also far more troublesome.

That the use of cork for stoppers was not known in the sixteenth century may be proved from this circumstance, that it is mentioned neither by Ruellius¹⁰⁰⁶ nor Aldrovandi¹⁰⁰⁷, though they describe all the other purposes to which this substance was applied. How great the consumption of it is at present, will appear from the quantity used by the directors of the springs at Niederselters alone; who in the year 1781 employed 2,208,000 stoppers, each thousand of which cost four florins, making a total of 8832 florins. They were furnished by a merchant at Strasburg, who was obliged to take back the refuse, which he then caused to be cut on his own account into smaller stoppers, and many of these could be used by the people at the springs. The experiment also was once made of causing the corks to be cut on account of the directors of the springs; but the carriage of the refuse became too dear, and there was no sale for the stoppers of the apothecary phials which were made of them.

In later times, some other vegetable productions have been found which can be employed instead of cork for the last-mentioned purpose. Among these is the wood of a tree common in South America, particularly in moist places, which is called there monbin or monbain, and by botanists Spondias lutea. This wood was brought to England in great abundance for that use. The spongy root of a North American tree, known by the name of nyssa, is also used for the same end, as are the roots of liquorice, which on that account is much cultivated in Sclavonia, and exported to other countries, and likewise the black poplar, for its bark is employed by the Cossacks¹⁰⁰⁸ as stoppers to their flasks, and the Æschynomene lagenaria, which is used instead of cork in Cochin-China¹⁰⁰⁹.

[That most useful substance, caoutchouc, now replaces cork for numerous purposes, and is superior to it in almost every respect, especially in its greater elasticity, in being subject to less injury from the action of many substances, and but slightly affected by moisture or dryness. It also keeps better, and is not much more expensive. The quantity of stoppers now manufactured by the Patent Caoutchouc Company is perfectly astonishing.]