Remarks on the History of Inventions. 245 



phocles, however, we find a distinct description, which cannot be mistaken 

 ('JVachinia?, 712) : 



Qt£ ttqwvoq 

 'EK^pu/iar' av ^Xtipeiag ev TOjiy S,v\s. 



" Thus from the saw 

 The dust flies scattered as it cleaves the wood." 



The saws represented in the paintings of Hercuianeum have exactly the 

 same form as those of our carpenters, and are used in the same manner. 



But what an interval is there between the first invention, and the con- 

 struction of instruments like the circular saws moved by steam, in the 

 block machinery of Portsmouth. 



The classical writers have handed down several tales concerning the in- 

 vention of the saw ; but the personages and circumstances mentioned are 

 clearly rather mythological than historical. Some ascribe it to Daedalus, 

 others to his nephew Talus, who is said to have been led to the discovery 

 by using the jagged jaw-bone of a species of serpent, for dividing wood, 

 and then to have imitated the form in iron : his jealous uncle, we are told, 

 murdered the inventor and pirated the invention. Other authorities again 

 (among whom is Ovid) call this unfortunate nephew of Daedalus by the 

 name of Perdix, and say that he imitated not the jaw-bone of a serpent, 

 but the spine of a fish. 



Ille etiam medio spinas in pisce notatas 

 Traxit in exemplum ; ferroque incidit acuto 

 Perpetuas denies, et serrte repperit usum. 



Some commentators have supposed that the bone here called spina, must 

 be the serrated bone projecting from the snout of the saw- fish, pristis, 

 which we are told was really used as a saw, by the aboriginal inhabitants 

 of Madeira. Tliis is indeed very probable ; but with regard to the Ovidiau 

 tale, where we find that it concludes by the resuscitation of its hero, under 

 the form of a partridge, after his being drowned by his uncle, it will be 

 sufficient perhaps to treat it as he was himself treated, and make game of 

 it. 



We find the turning lathe mentioned by Thcognis, in the sixth century, 

 before our aera : Pliny says the name of the inventor was Theodosius Sa- 

 mius, of whom nothing more seems to be known. 



Not only is the employment of these essential tools obvious, even to 

 the least cultivated of the species, i)ut wc may also say the same of the 

 employment of the simpler mechanical powers, to increase the force we are 

 able to apply to any weight which we wish to move. Without reflecting 

 on the principle, the savage would be naturally led to use his pole, to aid 

 him in moving forward the trunk of the tree he had just succeeded in 

 felling; and thus, like the bourgeois gentilhomrae in Molicre, he would 

 employ the lever without knowing any thing about the matter. The usage 



