1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 129 



places. To assign dates to the origin of apparatus that was 

 universally emploj-ed before being si^ecitically described is 

 obviously impossible, especially since Ave shall depend upon 

 drawings to illustrate the subject, and these drawings are 

 commonly far more recent than the apparatus portrayed. 



The Egyptians attained great skill in industrial arts at a 

 remote period, and have left records of a most enduring 

 character, pictures cut in their granite tombs and temples. 

 There we see the processes of gold- washing and smelting ; the 

 use of blowpipes and of double bellows for intensifying heat, 

 various forms of furnaces, and crucibles having a shape quite 

 similar to those used to-day. Some of these crucibles preserved 

 in the Berlin Museum date from the fifteenth century B. C. 



Glass-blowing is a mechanical operation, but the preparation 

 of the glass itself is a chemical process. The skill of the 

 Egyptians in manufacturing glass is depicted on monuments 

 of Thebes and Beni Hassan, and dates at least as far back as 

 2500 B. C. 



Siphons for decanting wine, and on a large scale for draining 

 land, were in use in the fifteenth century B. C. (Wilkinson). 



The earliest chemical laboratories of which we have any 

 knowledge are those that were connected with the Egyptian 

 temjDles. Each temple had its library and its laboratory com- 

 monly situated in a definite part of the huge structure ; at Edfoo 

 the laboratory leads out of the Prosecus-halls. In these 

 laboratories the priests prepared the incense, oils, and other 

 substances used in the temple services, and on the granite 

 walls were carved the recipes and processes ; these are still to 

 be seen by the archaeologist. 



The Israelites driven out of Egypt carried with them to the 

 promised land knowledge of the technical and artistic skill of 

 their contemporaries, and the Hoi}' Bible contains frequent 

 allusions to industrials arts. Cupellation is plainly described 

 by Jeremiah, metallurgical oj^erations by Job, Ezekiel, and 

 others, and bellows by Jeremiah. This subject, however, I 

 discussed in a paj^er read to the Academy Aj^ril 12, 1892. 



Geber, the Arabian physician and chemist of the eighth 

 century, wrote very plainly of chemical processes, describing 

 minutely solution, filtration, crystallization, fusion, sublimation, 

 distillation, cupellation, and various kinds of furnaces and 

 apparatus amployed in these operations. Geber' s works first 

 appeared in a Latin translation from the Arabic at Strassburg, 

 1529 ; since then many editions in modern languages have 

 appeared, but the drawings in all those I have seen are 

 obviously of comparatively recent date. 



Trausactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. April 29, 1893. , 



