1893. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 129 
places. To assign dates to the origin of apparatus that was 
universally employed before being specifically described is 
obviously impossible, especially since we 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 Egyptiam 
temples. 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 archeologist. 
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 Holy Bible contains frequent 
allusions to industrials arts. Cupellation is plainly described 
by Jeremiah, metallurgical operations by Job, Ezekiel, and 
others, and bellows by Jeremiah. This subject, however, I 
discussed in a paper read to the Academy April 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 omployed 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. 
