306 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



Billiards. Invented by the French, by 

 whom, and by the Germans, Dutch, and Ital- 

 ians, they were brought into general vogue 

 throughout Europe. The French ascribe their 

 invention to Henrique Devigne, an artist, in 

 the reign of Charles IX., about 1571. Slate 

 billiard tables were introduced in England in 

 1827. 



Boots, said to have been the invention of 

 the Carians, were mentioned by Homer, 907 

 B. C., and frequently by the Roman historians. 

 A variety of forms may be seen in Fairholt's 

 " Costume in England." An instrument of 

 torture ' ' termed the boot ' ' was used in Scot- 

 land upon the Covenanters about 1666. 



Botany. Aristotle is considered the founder 

 of the philosophy of botany. The Historia Plan- 

 tarum of Theophrastus was written about 320 

 B. C. Authors on botany are numerous from 

 the earlier ages of the world to the close of the 

 fifteenth century, when the science became 

 better understood. The study was advanced 

 by Fuchsius, Bock, Bauhin, Csesalpinus, and 

 others, between 1535 and 1600. The system 

 and arrangement of Linnaeus, the first bota- 

 nist of modern times, made known about 1750 ; 

 Jussieu's system, in 1758. At the time of the 

 death of Linnaeus, A. D. 1778, the species of 

 plants actually described amounted in number 

 to 11,800. The number of species of all de- 

 nominations now recorded cannot fall short of 

 100,000. 



Bottles in ancient times were made of 

 leather. The art of making glass bottles and 

 drinking-glasses was known to the Romans at 

 least before 79 A. D. ; for these articles and 

 other vessels have been found in the ruins of 

 Pompeii. Bottles were made in England about 

 1558. 



Bread. Ching-Noung, the successor of 

 Fohi, is reputed to have been the first who 

 taught men (the Chinese) the art of hus- 

 bandry, and the method of making bread from 

 wheat, and wine from rice, 1998 B. C. Bak- 

 ing of bread was known in the patriarchal 

 ages ; it became a profession at Rome, 170 

 B, C. During the siege of Paris by Henry 

 IV., owing to the famine which then raged, 

 bread, which had been sold whilst any re- 

 mained for a crown a pound, was at last made 

 from the bones of the charnel-house of the 

 Holy Innocents, A. D. 1594. In the time of 

 James I. the usual bread of the poor was made 

 of barley ; in Iceland codfish beaten to powder 

 is made into bread ; potato bread is used in 

 Ireland. Bread was made with yeast by the 

 English bakers in 1634. In 1856 and 1857, 

 Dauglish patented a mode of making ' ' aerated 

 bread " in which carbonic acid gas is com- 

 bined with water aud mixed with the flour, 



and which is said to possess the advantages of 

 cleanliness, rapidity, and uniformity. 



Bricks were used in Babylon, Egypt, 

 Greece, and Rome ; in England by the Romans 

 about 44. Made under the direction of Al- 

 fred the Great, about 886. The size regu- 

 lated by order of Charles I., 1625. Brick ma- 

 chines were invented by Messrs. Cook and Cun- 

 ningham in 1839; by Messrs. Dixon and ('<>r- 

 bett in 1861. 



Butter. It was late before the Greeks 

 had any notion of butter, and by the early 

 Romans it was used as a medicine only, never 

 as food. The Christians of Egypt burned but- 

 ter in their lamps instead of oil, in the third 

 century. In Africa vegetable butter is made 

 from the fruit of the shea tree, and is of 

 richer taste, at Kebba, than any butter made 

 from cow's milk. 



Calico Printing. The art of calico 

 printing was introduced into Europe about the 

 seventeenth century, although it is believed to 

 have been known in India and Egypt as earh 

 as the first or second centuries. In this early 

 period the printing was done by means of 

 blocks on which the designs to be transferred 

 to the cloth had been engraved in relief. These 

 were dipped into dye-stuff, and then pressed 

 upon the material by hand. Later, presses for 

 this block-printing were invented, and the use 

 of several was introduced so engraved as to fill 

 up each other's vacancies, and thus several 

 colors were put into the pattern. About 1770 

 copper-plate printing was invented in England. 

 By this method the design was cut into plates, 

 the color filled into the sunken parts of the en- 

 graving, and the cloths were printed by being 

 pressed upon it. This invention finally led to 

 the introduction of cylinder-printing, the 

 method now in use. The cylinders are of cop- 

 per, and the design is engraved upon their 

 surface. A separate cylinder is required for 

 each color or shade of color to be used in print- 

 ing the cloth, and in fine and intricate designs 

 as many as twenty cylinders are sometimes 

 used. These are set in a strong frame against 

 the face of a large central drum made of iron 

 and covered with woolen cloth in several folds, 

 between which and the cylinders the calico is 

 printed as it passes. The color is spread upon 

 the cylinders, as they revolve, by contact with 

 another roller, which dips into a trough con- 

 taining the coloring-matter properly thickened. 

 This roller is made of an absorbent, elastic 

 material, similar to the roller used in inking 

 a printing press. Each cylinder thus receives 

 its proper color, and imparts it, in revolving, 

 to the calico pressed between its face and that 

 of the fixed drum. A sharp blade of metal 

 pressing against the copper cylinder removes all 



