FURNITURE. 477 



CHAPTER V. 



FURNITURE. 



IN the branch of Furniture, we include the manufacture of the 

 various utensils, and moveable articles, required for housekeeping or 

 personal convenience ; and which are not included in any of the pre- 

 ceding branches. The name is derived from the French fournir, to 

 furnish or provide ; and hence it admits of the extended sense in 

 which the term is here used, in the absence of any other more appro- 

 priate term. Thus, we include under it, the manufacture of glass 

 and gems ; of porcelain and pottery ; of hardware and jewelry ; of 

 lamps and mirrors, timepieces, and musical instruments ; of cabinet 

 work and carriages; of saddlery and travelling equipments; and of 

 various other minor articles, which hardly admit of rigid classification. 

 These manufactures, though separately they might be overlooked, 

 are, we think, collectively, of sufficient importance to be ranked as a 

 distinct branch of the arts included in the present department. 



The invention of furniture, of various kinds, must of course have 

 been very ancient ; and nearly coeval with that of the ruder forms of 

 Architecture. Seats, tables, beds, and implements for cooking, would 

 be required as soon as men began to improve their physical condition. 

 Earthen ware, was made by the ancient Egyptians ; and the potter's 

 wheel is said to have been invented as early as 1270 B. C. Porce- 

 lain, was invented in China, and first introduced into Europe by the 

 Portuguese, in modern times ; and the art of making it was reinvented 

 by Botticher of Germany, about A. D. 1706. Glass, according to 

 Pliny, was first made accidentally in Syria, by heating an alkali on 

 the sand. It was ornamented by cutting, as early as A. D. 60 ; and 

 first used for windows, near the close of the third century. Glass 

 windows were first introduced in England, about 1100; and plate 

 glass was first cast in France, by Thevenart, in 1688. 



Lamps, were an early invention ; and street lamps were used in 

 Antioch, A. D. 380. The clepsydra, or water clock, was invented in 

 Egypt ; and introduced into Rome by Scipio Nasica, about 200 B. C. 

 The invention of clocks with wheels, is attributed to Gerbert, (who 

 was afterwards Pope Sylvester II.) about the year 996. Hook in- 

 vented spiral watch springs, about 1660 ; and Harrison's chronometer 

 was completed in 1764. The hydraulic organ, is said to have been 

 invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria ; and it was first used in Roman 

 churches by Pope Vitellian, who died in 669. The water probably 

 served to compress the wind, forced into the wind chest at intervals, 

 by a simple bellows, but expelled in a constant current, to produce 

 the sounds. The modern organ, was invented about the year 1300, 

 by the Germans. The harp, and trumpet, were inventions of early 

 times ; but the violin appeared about the time of the crusades. The 

 piano-forte, or piano, a great improvement on the old virginal, and harp- 

 sichord, was invented by Schroeder of Saxony, about the year 1717. 



We shall here distribute the arts of Furniture under the heads of 



