106 



SCIENCE 



LVol. IV., No. 78. 



power and a greater rate of speed. 4°. The wheel 

 and treadle should be placed under a bench, and the 



work, a diamond-pointed tool, the diamond being the 

 amorphous carbonado. This would in all respects be 

 a miniature rock-drill. Mr. Kunz 

 had no doubt that with this tool, 

 the diamond being properly secured, 

 any stone softer than diamond could 

 be engraved much more readily than 

 with any known drill; and that for 

 engraving on diamond it could also 

 possibly be used, since the amor- 

 phous diamond is really harder than 

 the crystalline form of this mineral. 

 As engraving on this gem has been 

 much more in vogue of late than 

 ever before, its use in this field, also, 

 would be required. It could at least 

 make the round furrows, such as in 

 ancient times were made by the bow- 

 drill, and afterward by the diamond 

 or emery-stone point, and then pol- 

 ished out by the finer particles of 

 these minerals. One great advan- 

 tage of this method is, that the very 

 pulsation, as it were, of the artist, 

 will be conveyed to the drill, thus 

 imparting to the stone whatever 

 artistic feeling he may possess, in- 

 stead of the mechanical, unartistic 

 effect so common with the work of 

 the old machine. By this method, 

 should it be given a fair trial, not 

 only will the style of work be likely 

 to be greatly improved, but a ra- 

 pidity of execution will be attained 

 that has never been accomplished 

 by the old lathe-machine, even by 

 the best workmen. Who would 

 think of a sculptor holding the 

 statue against the chisel, or of a 

 violinist rubbing the bow with the 

 violin ? And yet the present mode 

 of engraving is quite correctly illus- 

 trated in these apparently extreme 

 examples. The conveyance of the 

 pulsation through such a machine 

 as this is really the same as the in- 

 spiration which a musician or an 

 artist conveys to his instrument, 

 his brush, or pencil: it is what he 

 the graver cannot convey this pulsation 

 1 lathe. 



THE WHITE DENTAL, ENGINE, APPLICABLE TO GEM-ENGRAVING. 



flexible arm passed through its centre, in front of the 

 workman. A machine of this kind might be used 

 for all rough grinding-out; or, for some of the fine 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In the article in our number of last week, on the 

 organization of an international scientific association, 

 no sufficiently distinct reference was made to the com- 

 mittee appointed by the American association. Dr. 

 Minot has called our attention to the omission, which 

 we endeavor to make good by the following statement. 

 The committee referred to was appointed in 1882 at 

 the Montreal meeting of the American association 



