5i6 



NATL'RI- 



\Sept, 2i, 1882 



found, could lie rendered Btronger by being hammered at the 



sides so as i.i i in flanges upon them, much like those on 



,, ,-aik. 'I'll.- i-i I ■ LSI with these flanges upon 



them, and ii was then Found advantageous ti> make them expand 



in I 1,11. ..1 the blade, so as to allow them 1.. embrace the 



ides of tlic split haft in which they were mounted, Eventu- 



ally these projectin wings were hammered over so as to produce 



a kind of semicircular pocket for the haft on each side of the 



blade. At this stage a brilliant idea occurred to some ancient 



founder, and by means of a clay core he produced a single 



.1 tin- blade itself, and thus did away with 



the labour of hammering out the wings on the flat blade and 



turning them over, ami also with the trouble involved in making 



> notch in the baft, so that it might run down each side of 



the blade. But these semicircular wings had become a recognised 



i iiMii l.rt , and out .il regard to this la hion 



liesi oi the socketed blades were ea 1 with the two wings 



on each face, in imitation "f those of the older form. As ha 

 ..Ii. B been the case in such developments, what was at one time 



mini service urvives at another as a useless ornament, 

 aes in this little bit of history which these hatchets 



enable us to read. It is evident that Mm- in 1 .,. I ted blade 

 must have been cast in a country where the prevailing h, 

 hatchet had the semicircular wings on each face ; but this 1 ind 

 of hatchet, though abundant in some parts of the Continent, is 

 very rare in Britain, and we are therefore ju hind in concluding 

 that the arl ol casting batchel 1 with .1 socket was introduced into 



this country fr broad, Not but what our native founders 



cast plenty of hatchets of this socketed pattern when once they 

 were acquainted with it, for the moulds for producing them have 

 been found with lumps of metal and various bronze objects in 

 different parts of the Kingdom. 



Not only were the bronze-using people skilful as founders, but 

 they understood how to work 01 namentS in amber and |el as well 

 as in gold, am 1 1 imens nf their ornamental inlaying 



are such as would do credit to any modern workman. '1'he 

 wooden handle of a bronze dagger found in the grave of a 

 warrior in Wiltshire was inlaid with thousands of minute gold 

 pins, arranged in regular patterns, and the amber pommel ol a 

 1 1 found in 1 levonshire was as delicately inlaid with ■ 

 any tortoise-shell patch-box of the last century. 



The history of man in the bronze-using stage is, however, 

 better read on the Continent than here. On the horej of many 

 of the lakes of Switzerland, Italy, and tin- South of France the 

 remains of settlements belonging In the Inn e Age have been 

 discovered. As a safeguard against enemies and wild b 

 it was a custom in those time to construct artificial islands, or 

 platforms carried on piles above the water, on which to erect 

 their duellings. The same custom al prevailed within the 

 historic period both in Europe and Asia, and something of the 

 same kind was practised in Ireland until comparatively recent 

 times. A similar custom has been observed in other parts of the 

 World by modern travellers. In such buildings, from time P. 

 time, disastrous tires occurred, and what was thus lost to the 

 ml occupants has been preserved beneath the waters for the 

 instruction of long subsequent ages. Their houses seem to have 

 been formed of interlaced boughs smeared over with mud, after 

 the manner we nnv term " wattle and daub." They understood 

 the art of spinning and weaving both woollen and linen cloth. 

 Of donn in it. .I animals they possessed the dog, ox, sheep, goat, 

 pi ... and finally die horse. In this country they hunted the red 

 deer, the roe, the wild boar, the hai other animals. 



but they also were to some extent agriculturists, and reaped 

 their corn with bronze sickles. They made vessels of various 

 shapes in burnt clay, but were unacquainted with the potter's 

 wheel, though some cups < >f amber and a soft kind of pi 

 apparently turned in a lathe. Though using so many and such 

 well-made tools and weapons of bronze, a certain number .1 

 appliances for both peaceful ami warlike purposes were made ol 

 stone. The skins which they prepared as leather were scraped 

 by means of Hint scrapers. Their arrow points were made ol 

 flint, and their battle-axes and warmaces were in this country 

 carefully wrought out of stone. From the number and varieties 

 of the bronzcinstrumenls found in Britain, it has been inferred that 

 their use must have extended over several centuries, and II seems 

 probable that Ihe beginning of our Bron • back to 



at least some 1,200 or 1,400 years B.C. Such a dal 

 to agree fairly well with what we learn from history as to the 

 trading visits of the Phoenicians to this country in search of tin. 

 ( To be continued. ) 



RECENT PROGRESS AY '/'/•'/.A7Y/CWK 1 



mPI IE Telephone was in 1 introduced to the British public at 



1 the meetings of tin- British Association. In 1871. 

 Glasgow, Sir William Thomson Startled his hearers by 



announcing thai he had beard, in Ihiladelphia, Shakespeare 

 quoted though an electric wire, by the aid of the inventi 

 Mr. Graham Bell, which he then pronounced to be " the greatest 

 by far of all the marvels of the electric telegraph," In 1877, at 

 Plymouth, I had Ihe pi. in actual operation the 



finally developed instrument now known as the Bell Telephi 



whlcn 1 had |usl brought ovei 1 America; and conversal 



in illy maintained between 1'lymoulh and Kxeter. Five 

 ... elapsed ince then, and it is lilting that the British 



1 should hear of the progress of this astonishing 



apparatus. 



In 1S77, it was a scientific toy; it has now grown to be a 

 practical instrument. 1,550,000/. capital is already embarked 

 in its extension in England, and it is earning a revenue of 

 109,000/. Hitherto it has been practically a monopoly in the 

 e private company, who hold the controlling patents, 

 and of the Post Office, \s 1 1 . > posses the controlling power, but 

 this monopoly has been broken, and we are about to wil 



[t 1 often lid thai in any 



in in.: 1 wij] have the effect of reducing the rate 



the public, but the es pei 1. ace ol 1 in- 1 . and 



telegraphs scarcely leaches this lesson, Undue 



tends to lower tin- rates for a time, bul it eventually leads I 1 

 amalgamation — to the absorption of the weak by the strong — to 

 swollen and watered capital, aud, finally in many instanci 



higher rates to a too-confiding public. Competition, however, 

 better service, and ultimately, in this respect, the public 

 gain. 



The free traffic in patents, however, I. ml; to jobbery and 



speculation of the worst type. We have recently seen a mania 

 for electric speculations thai almost rivals the South Sea Hubble 

 period. The public have wildly rushed into ill-matured schemes 

 that have swollen the purses of gambling promoters, have 

 turned tin- heads of invent irs, have retarded the true progri 

 the beneficial application of this new science to the wants of man, 

 and have thrown away millions upon imperfect chemes Muchhl 

 been said against the monopoly of Ihe Post Office in telegraphic 

 business, but at any rate it has the merit that it has checked the 



..1 company promoters ami patent mongers in that 



branch of the practical application of electricity, while no one 

 ert that it has checked thi il telegraphy. 



liming the insi week thai the telegraphs in this country were 

 iiin 1. 1 1 .J to the State, the total number of messages transmitted 

 was 26,000, while in il" week ending August nth it amounted 

 to 724,000. There is no inventor who can assert that his scheme 

 has not received propet consideration, n. 1 -h"". :' real improve- 

 ment that has not been adopted and remunerated ; while the 

 improvements of the Post Office itself are trecly adopted by 

 other countries, and America itself — the home of the inventor — 

 has found the advanced system of England worthy of 

 acceptance. 



Rtccivtrs.- -Tin original telephone receiver of Bell has scarcely 

 been improved upon ; il remains in form and construction very 

 nearly the same as that which I exhibited in 1877. The per- 

 fection of its working depends upon the truth and perfection of 



its manufacture. It is now more solid and substantial than it 

 was al first, more powerful magnets are Used ; but still it is the 

 same simple, marvellou , and beautiful instrument that I brought 

 over from America. Mr. Cower has increased its loudness by 

 varying the form of its various pari., and using very powerful 

 hoe magnets of peculiar form ; but 1 - I that 



loudness is always obtained at the expense of clearness of 

 articulation ; and, although for many purp er-Bell 



instrument, which is adopted by tin- Posl Office and is now in 

 use to connect together all tin ection ol the British Association 

 scattered through the town of Southampton, 1. more practical, 

 nothing for delicate arti. alation surpas - s the original 



The Paris Exhibition of last year, so fruitful in electrical 

 novelties, did not bring forth any marked improvement in tele- 

 phonic apparatus, It was noticeable chiefly for its practical 

 applications of tin- telephone, and particularly to the transmission 



1 Inging and musii listance, M. Ader"s modificati 



Bell's receiver i thai almost universally used in Paris, It is a 



1 Paper read at die Southampton ranting of the British Association. 

 Revised by the author. 



