Virginia, 1715. First cast in England, at Blackstead, Sussex, 1544.

KNIVES.

It is difficult to ascertain the date of the introduction of every kind of cutting or pointed instruments; but when the utility and convenience of these domestic implements were once experienced, there can be no doubt that the practice of using them quickly became very general, and that manufactories of knives and other edge tools were consequently soon established in various parts of the kingdom. Table knives were first made in London in the year 1563, by one Thomas Matthews of Fleet Bridge. They were probably not in use in the time of Chaucer.

FORKS.

Neither the Greeks nor the Romans have any name for forks; they were not used by the ancients; they used the ligula, similar to our spoons. Formerly, persons of rank kept in their houses a carver. The Chinese use no forks, but have small sticks of ivory, of very beautiful workmanship, inlaid with gold and silver. The use of forks was first known in Italy towards the end of the fifteenth century, but at that time they were not very common.

In France, at the end of the sixteenth century, even at Court, they were entirely new. Coryate, the traveller, is said to be the first person who used forks in England, on which account, says Beckmann, he was called, by way of joke, Furcifer. In many parts of Spain at present, forks are rarities.

Among the Scotch Highlanders, knives have been introduced at table only since the revolution. Before that period every man had a knife of his own, as a companion to his dirk or dagger. The men cut the meat for the women into small morsels, who then put them into their mouths with their fingers.

The use of forks at table, was at first considered as a superfluous luxury; and therefore they were forbidden to convents, as was the case in regard to the congregation of St. Maur.

RAZORS.

The term Razor, as applied to the instrument that we shave with, is supposed to be derived from the word raze, to cut or pull down, to leave nothing standing. Razors are mentioned by Homer. Before English manufactures excelled in cutlery, Fosbroke says, razors were imported from Palermo in Italy, or rather Sicily.

PINS.

The pin was not known in England till towards the middle or latter end of the reign of Henry VIII.; the ladies until then

using ribbons, loops, skewers made of wood, of brass, silver, or gold. At first the pin was so ill made, that in the 34th year of the king, parliament enacted that none should be sold unless they be "double-headed, and have the headdes soudered faste to the shanke of the pynne," &c. But this interference had such an influence on the manufacture, that the public could obtain no supply until the obnoxious act was repealed. On referring to the statute book, the act of repeal, which passed in the 37th year of the same reign, contains the following clauses, which tends to shew how cautious the legislature ought to be not to interfere with any manufactory which they do not perfectly understand. The act of repeal having recited the former act, it then goes on to say, "At which tyme the pynners playnly promised to serve the kynge's liege people wel and sufficiently, and at a reasonable price. And for as much sens the makyng of the saide act there hath ben scarcitee of pynnes within this realme that the kynge's liege people have not ben wel nor competetly served of such pynnes nor ar like to be served nor the pynners of this realme (as it doeth nowe manifestly appere) be hable to serve the people of this realme accordyng to their saied promise. In consideracion whereof it maie please the kyng, &c., that it maie be adjudged and demed from hensforth frustrated and nihilated and to be repealed for ever."-Stat. Henrici Octavi, xxxvii. cap. 13.—The consumption of the whole nation is now, 1831, estimated at sixteen millions of pins per day.

NEEDLES.

The Cambrian inhabitants of Britain sewed together for garments the skins of animals, while they used as needles small bones of fish or animals, rudely sharpened at one end; and needles just of the same sort were used by the natives of the Sandwich islands when Captain Cook first visited them. Stowe says, that needles were first sold in Cheapside in the reign of Queen Mary, and then they were made by a Spanish negro, who refused to discover the secret of his art. It will be recollected, that many Spanish artisans came over to England on the marriage of Philip the Second with the said princess. So that we may fairly suppose the needle to be of Spanish origin. Needles were first manufactured in England 1566, by Elias Grouse, a German.

SAWS, &c.

The invention of this instrument is ascribed to the nephew of Daedalus, who, as they say, having accidentally met with the jaw of a serpent, which he used with success to divide a small piece of wood, thus acquired the first idea of such an implement, and soon afterwards formed a metallic instrument in imitation of it. It is also said, that from the saw originated the idea of the file.

A saw-mill was first fitted up in London in 1633, but afterwards demolished, that it might not deprive the poor of employ.

TOURNIQUET.

This instrument, used by surgeons to benumb the limb prior to amputation, was invented by one Morell, at the siege of Besançon, in 1674.

Petit, of France, invented the Screw Tourniquet in 1718.

ANCHORS.

The data of the invention of the anchor is somewhat obscure. The first anchors, however, were not made of iron, but of stone, and sometimes of wood. These latter were loaded with lead. Several writers relate that the Phoenicians, in their first voyages into Spain, having amassed more silver than their ships could contain, took the lead from their anchors, and supplied its place with silver.-Goguet's Origin of Laws, &c., vol. i. p. 292.

TELEGRAPHS

Were first invented, 1687; put into practice by the French in 1794; by the English, January 28, 1796. In 1816, it was determined to change the Admiralty Telegraphs into Semaphores. They consisted of an upright post, with moveable arms. This kind of Telegraph continued to be used at the Government Stations till the introduction of the

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

The idea of applying electricity to the purposes of telegraphic communication, is said to have originated with Mr. James Bain, an ingenious mechanic, to whom, by a recent legal decision, a handsome remuneration is to be paid out of the funds of the Electric Telegraph Company.

It is chiefly, however, to the joint labours of Messrs. W. F. Cooke and Professor Wheatstone, that Electric Telegraphs owe their practical application. The first was laid down upon the London and Blackwall Railway; the second from London to West Drayton; the third (in 1849) from London to Gosport, and by means of this surprising agency, an instantaneous communication is now made between London and Paris. This invention was patented in 1837. When Faraday obtained the converse of electro-magnetism, by induced electricity from magnets in motion, he originated magneto-electricity, and it is possible that its successful application to the purposes of the Electric Telegraph, will supersede the use of the present galvanic electricity.

The Electric Telegraph is now marching apace over continental

Europe, and so complete is the magic network of its intellectual nerves, that for all purposes of communication it may be said that there is no longer any British Channel. From the mountain cities of Transylvania, to the marshes of Pomerania, there is scarcely a town of any literary or commercial importance not connected by the metallic pulses terminating at Charing Cross, The Baltic, the Black Sea, the Bay of Biscay, are all now brought into immediate contact with each other. A word may be shot by lightning from the Gulf of Venice to the Irish Sea. Holland has now been brought, as it were, into the human family; and Amsterdam, Haarlem, the Hague, Leyden, Rotterdam, and Breda, are but as links in the great chain of European confraternity.

ELECTRIC PRINTING TELEGRAPH.

Mr. J. Brett has invented an Electric Printing Telegraph, which consists of two parts, called the communicator, or keyboard, and the printing machine; the former is supposed to be at the station from which intelligence is to be transmitted, and the latter, the place to which it is to be sent. The machinery is propelled chiefly by the power of weights, or by ordinary clocksprings. The motion of the printing-machine is regulated by the galvanic current, by means of an escapement, and which requires much less power than is necessary to impel the machinery; thus both the advantage of the instantaneous action of the current, and the greater power of the weights, combine to accomplish the work for which this machine is designed. By the use of Mr. Brett's Telegraph, communications are made in any language, and printed upon paper with considerable rapidity and precision; the paper and ink are self-supplying, and sufficient may be placed in the apparatus of both to last for some time. It is calculated that the letters may be printed at a greater speed than a well-practised person could write them, and that a clerk, after some experience, might manipulate upon the finger key-board upwards of 150 letters per minute.

DOMESTIC TELEGRAPH.

The mechanical Domestic Telegraph consists of an arrangement of tubes, formed of gutta percha, and supplied with metallic and other mouth pieces, to which a whistle is attached. By blowing into the tube, the whistle is sounded in a remote apartment, and the message can then be delivered with scarcely any elevation of the voice through the tube, which transmits sound in a remarkable manner. Mr. Whishaw of John Street, Adelphi, contributed a Telekouphonon, or Speaking Telegraph, to the Great Exhibition. (See Official Descriptive Catalogue, vol. i. p. 454.) Mr. Burdett of Clapham, has also invented another Domestic Tele

graph, requiring only one bell for any number of rooms. All the rooms being numbered, wires are brought to corresponding numbers on this machine, so that, when the wire of any room is agitated, the bell will ring, and the indicator will point out the number of the room on the dial where attention is required.

TELESCOPES.

The precise period of the invention of the Telescope is unknown. Roger Bacon, before the end of the thirteenth century, had no doubt conceived the instrument, though there is no proof that his conception was carried into practice. About 1590, two Dutch opticians, Zachariah Jans (or Jansen,) and Hans Lapprey, constructed Telescopes. The first on record, however, who appears to have carried his theoretical notions into effect, is Leonard Digges, as we learn from the second edition of his Pantometria, published by his son in 1591. It was while Galileo was living at Venice, A. D. 1609, that he heard of its discovery, and immediately applied himself to make such improvements, so as to render this instrument available for the purposes of astronomy. In 1655, Huygens, in conjunction with his brother Constantine, applied himself to the manufacture of this noble instrument. Since his time, improvements have been made in it by James Gregory, Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Hooke, Herschel, and the Earl of Rosse.

HOROSCOPE.

This word, in astrology, is the degree or point of the heavens rising above the eastern point of the horizon at any given time, when a prediction is to be made of a future event, as, the fortune of a person then born, the success of a design then laid, the weather, and so on. The word is composed of ga, hour, and σκεπτομαι, I consider. Such was at one time the infatuation concerning horoscopes, that Albertus Magnus, Cardan, and others, are said to have had the temerity to draw that of Jesus Christ.

HOROSCOPE is also used for a scheme or figure of the twelve houses or signs of the Zodiac, in which is marked the disposition of the heavens for any given time. Thus we say, to draw a horoscope, to construct a horoscope, and the like. Calculating a nativity, is when the life and fortune of a person are the subject of the prediction.

SPECTACLES.

Dr. Johnson expressed his surprise that the inventor of spectacles was regarded with indifference, and had found no biographer to celebrate his deeds. Most authorities give the latter