360 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



de Oviedo, who took it to Spain and cultivated 

 it for ornamental purposes ; but its narcotic 

 qualities were shortly afterward discovered and 

 the practice of smoking it soon became gen- 

 eral, and its manufacture into snuff followed in 

 course of time. It was introduced in Italy and 

 France in 1560, and was brought into the latter 

 country by Jean Nicot, the French Embassador 

 to Portugal, in whose honor it received its bo- 

 tanical name Nicotiana, whence the name nico- 

 tine. The plant was introduced into England 

 by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was along in the 

 seventeenth century before it was known to 

 be used in Asia, but the Oriental nations at 

 the present time are probably the greatest 

 smokers in the world. 



Type-Setting Machines. The first 

 type-setting machine appears to have been in- 

 vented by William Church of Connecticut 

 about 1820. This, after the lapse of twenty 

 years, was followed by a number of others, 

 scarcely a year passing without one or more 

 being made the subject of a patent. In 1857 

 a machine was invented by Robert Hattersley 

 which is capable of setting from 4,000 to 6,000 

 types in an hour about three men's work. 

 This machine, which occupies a space of about 

 two or three feet, has a horizontal stage on 

 which is placed a partitioned tray, containing 

 the rows of type running from back to front, 

 each row being, of course, all the same letter. 

 Descending vertically along the front of this 

 tray is a series of as many wires with pistons 

 as there are rows of types, and these pistons 

 are depressed by the keys acting by bell 

 cranks, and then return to their positions 

 by means of India rubber bands or springs. 

 A propeller kept in a state of tension by an 

 India rubber string is placed in the rear of each 

 row of types, and draws them forward to the 

 piston. When the girl working the machine 

 presses down, say, an e key, it depresses the e 

 piston, which pulls down with it an e type, and 

 drops it into a tube or channel, which conveys 

 it to what represents the composing-stick, and 

 so on with every letter, figure, comma, or space. 

 Another successful machine is the Mitchell 

 type-setter. The compositor has a key-board, 

 each key of which strikes out a type from a 

 brass slide placed on an incline. The type 

 travels along an endless band to a spot where 

 it is turned on end and pushed forward by a 

 notched wheel. The apparatus comprises nu- 

 merous bands, the lengths and velocities of 

 which so vary as to enable the types at differ- 

 ent distances from the wheel to reach it in the 

 order in which the keys are struck. The words 

 are built up in rows thirty inches long, and 

 "justified," as is the case with the Hattersley 

 machine, by hand. 



Typewriters. Perhaps the earliest form 

 of a typewriter is a rude machine invented in 

 England in 1714, without any practical fruits. 

 M. Foucault sent to the Paris Exposition of 

 1855, a writing machine for the blind, but the 

 first of what are now popularly known as 

 typewriters, was patented in 1868 by C. L. 

 Sholes, of Wisconsin. This has been im- 

 proved, until now it is possible to attain a 

 speed of seventy-five to eighty words a minute 

 in writing with this machine, which is fast 

 enough for reporting speeches. The princi- 

 pal advantages gained are rapidity of execu- 

 tion and legibility. A typewriter can write 

 with both hands and several fingers in instant 

 succession, every letter being made with a sin- 

 gle light touch, instead of requiring from three 

 to seven distinct strokes and dots, as in ordi- 

 nary script. 



TJmbrellas are by no means a modern in- 

 vention. They are found sculptured on the 

 monuments of Egypt, and on the ruins of 

 Nineveh, and their use in China and India is 

 also very ancient. In Greece they had a part 

 in certain religious ceremonies ; and there is no 

 doubt, from the paintings on ancient Greek 

 vases, that umbrellas very much like those in 

 use at the present time were known many years 

 before the Christian era. They were also used 

 among the Romans, but only by women. The 

 umbrella also seems to have been a part of an 

 insignia of royalty, as is still the case in parts 

 of Asia and Africa. An English dictionary, 

 published in 1708, defines an umbrella as " a 

 screen commonly used by women to keep off 

 rain." Jonas Han way is said to have been 

 the first man to have carried an umbrella 

 through the streets of London in rainy weather, 

 about 1750, and he was hooted and jeered at 

 by boys for his fears of a wetting. It is not 

 known, however, when their use began in 

 England, as representations of such articles are 

 found in very ancient manuscripts. Umbrellas 

 were introduced in America in the latter part 

 of the eighteenth century, but their use at first 

 was confined almost exclusively to women, as 

 it was considered very effeminate to carry one. 



Undulatory Theory of Light. For a 

 long while there were two rival theories to 

 account for the nature of light and optical 

 phenomena, and it is only of late years that the 

 observations and experiments of scientists have 

 fully established the undulatory theory ai.d 

 disproved the corpuscular theory. The former 

 maintains that light is a transference of energy 

 to the eye ; the latter, that it is a transference 

 of matter. The undulatory theory assumes the 

 entire universe and all matter to be pervad 

 with a highly elastic imponderable fluid, which 

 is called ether. Light, then, consists in t." 



