- Chinese Porcelain Vase
It was in 1751 that Dr Wall, a chemist and artist, completed his experiment in the combination of various elements, and produced a porcelain which was more like the true or natural Chinese porcelain than any ever devised. This was the more remarkable because kaolin had not then been discovered in this country. - The English Colonies and the French Claims in 1754
The English Colonies and the French Claims in 1754 - Hind Feet of Dinosaurs
Hind Feet of Dinosaurs, to show the three chief types (Theropoda, Orthopoda, Sauropoda) - Book Divider
Book Divider - The Branks
The brank or scold’s bridle was unknown in America in its English shape: though from colonial records we learn that scolding women were far too plentiful, and were gagged for that annoying and irritating habit. The brank, sometimes called the gossip’s bridle, or dame’s bridle, or scold’s helm, was truly a “brydle for a curste queane.” It was a shocking instrument, a sort of iron cage, often of great weight; when worn, covering the entire head; with a spiked plate or flat tongue of iron to be placed in the mouth over the tongue. Hence if the offender spoke she was cruelly hurt. - Cyclops minutu
- Earliest form of Hand Gun
- Roe deer
Roe deer - Assyrian
Assyrian - Portland Vase
Portland Vase Wedgwood's copy of the Barberini or Portland Vase was a great triumph of his art. This vase, which had contained the ashes of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother, was of dark-blue glass, with white enamel figures. It now stands in the medal room of the British Museum alongside a model by Wedgwood. It stands 10 inches high, and is the finest specimen of an ancient cameo cut-glass vase known. It was smashed by a madman in 1845, but was afterwards skilfully repaired. Wedgwood made fifty copies in fine earthenware, which were originally sold at 25 guineas each. One of these now fetches £200. The vase itself once changed hands for eighteen hundred guineas, and a copy fetched two hundred and fifteen guineas in 1892. - Page Border
Page Border - Kudu
Kudu - Thuthu
THuthu, wife of Ani - LA Motordrome
- Cyclops quadricornis
“The body of this creature is covered with crustaceous or shelly plates, which overlap each other, and admit both of a lateral and vertical motion between them. Their ends do not meet on the side, but have sufficient space between them for the insertion and play of the organs of respiration. The rostrum, or beak, is short and pointed: it is a prolongation of the first segment which forms the head. A little above the beak, a single eye is imbedded beneath the shell, of a dark crimson colour, nearly approaching to blackness. The true form of this organ it is difficult to determine. Mr. Baker gives it the shape of two kidney-beans placed parallel to each other, and united at their lowest extremities. When viewed laterally, it appears round, while in some other positions it is square.” The eggs are curiously placed in two bags, presenting an appearance similar to clusters of grapes, and of considerable magnitude, compared with the size of the animal. These egg-bags are seen in the engraving, (which represents a female,) projecting from each side of the hinder portion of the shell. The centre of each egg is of a deep opaque colour, which in some specimens is green, in others red. The young of the Cyclops, when first excluded from the egg, are extremely minute, and so different from the mother, that Müller has described them as forming two distinct genera. - Whistling bouy
Whistling bouy Less picturesque than lighthouses and lightships, and with far less of human interest about them, are the buoys of various sorts of which the Lighthouse Board has more than one thousand in place, and under constant supervision. Yet, among the sailor's safeguards, they `rank` near the head. They point out for him the tortuous pathway into different harbors; with clanging bell or dismal whistle, they warn him away from menacing shallows and sunken wrecks. The resources of science and inventive genius have been drawn upon to devise ways for making them more effective. At night they shine with electric lights fed from a submarine cable, or with steady gas drawn from a reservoir that needs refilling only three or four times a year. If sound is to be trusted rather than light, recourse is had to a bell-buoy which tolls mournfully as the waves toss it about above the danger spot, or to a whistling buoy which toots unceasingly a locomotive whistle, with air compressed by the Page 355action of the waves. The whistling buoy is the giant of his family, for the necessity for providing a heavy charge of compressed air compels the attachment to the buoy of a tube thirty-two feet or more deep, which reaches straight down into the water. The sea rising and falling in this, as the buoy tosses on the waves, acts as a sort of piston, driving out the air through the whistle, as the water rises, admitting more air as it falls. - Page Border
Page Border - Angora goat
Angora goat Shortly after the Angora goat became known in Europe, efforts have started to acclimatize it on our continent. So far, there has been no reason to complain about the results of these experiments, which have led to the breeding of this breed in Spain, Italy, France and Sweden; it is even said that the wool of animals born in France is finer than that of their ancestors. - Aprecocks
To dry Apricocks. Take them when they be ripe, stone them, and pare off their rindes very thin, then take halfe as much Sugar as they weigh, finely beaten, and lay them with that Sugar into a silver or earthen dish, laying first a lay of Sugar, and then of Fruit, and let them stand so all night, and in the morning the Sugar will be all melted, then put them into a Skillet, and boyle them apace, scumming them well, and as soon as they grow tender take them off from the fire, and let them stand two dayes in the Syrupe, then take them out, and lay them on a fine plate, and so dry them in a Stove. - Horse and Cart divider
Horse and Cart divider - Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster, the Defender and Expounder of the Constitution Webster's magnificent reach of thought and profound reverence for the Union is best expressed in his speeches. The most famous one is his brilliant "Reply to Hayne." Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, had delivered an able speech, in which he put the authority of the State before that of the Union, and said that the Constitution supported that doctrine. Webster, then a senator from Massachusetts, had but one night to prepare an answer. But he knew the Constitution by heart, for he had been a close student of it since the days of childhood, when he had learned it from the cotton handkerchief. Senator Hayne's masterly speech caused many people to question whether even Daniel Webster could answer his arguments, and New England men especially, fearing the dangerous doctrine of State Rights, awaited anxiously the outcome. When, therefore, on the morning of January 26, 1830, Mr. Webster entered the Senate Chamber to utter that memorable reply, he found a crowd of eager men and women waiting to hear him. "It is a critical moment," said a friend to Mr. Webster, "and it is time, it is high time, that the people of this country should know what this Constitution is." "Then," said Webster, "by the blessing of Heaven they shall learn, this day, before the sun goes down what I understand it to be." Nationality was Webster's theme, his sole purpose being to strengthen the claims of the Union. For four hours he held his audience spellbound while he set forth with convincing logic the meaning of the Constitution. The great orator won an overwhelming victory. Not only were many of his hearers in the Senate chamber that day convinced, but loyal Americans all over the country were inspired with more earnest devotion to the Union. His last words "Liberty and Union! one and inseparable, now and forever" electrified his countrymen and became a watchword of national progress. - Assala
Assala snake swallowing a bird whole - Revenue Cutter
- Outline Restorations of Dinosaurs
Outline Restorations of Dinosaurs - Hunitng Meal
Hunting-Meal.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of the "Livre du Roy Modus" (National Library of Paris) - Stone in Front of the Harrington House
Stone in Front of the Harrington House, Lexington, Marking the Line of the Minute-Men - Due on Wines
Due on Wines To add to these already excessive rates and taxes, there were endless dues, under all shapes and names, claimed by the ecclesiastical lords. And not only did the nobility make without scruple these enormous exactions, but the Crown supported them in avenging any act, however opposed to all sense of justice; so that the nobles were really placed above the great law of equality, without which the continuance of social order seemed normally impossible. - Lumpers discharging timber ship
- The Treachourous Kayak
The Treachourous Kayak Mastering all the literature of the Arctic, he (Charles Hall) determined to undertake himself the arduous work of the explorer. Taking passage on a whaler, he spent several years among the Esquimaux, living in their crowded and fetid igloos, devouring the blubber and uncooked fish that form their staple articles of diet, wearing their garb of furs, learning to navigate the treacherous kayak in tossing seas, to direct the yelping, quarreling team of dogs over fields of ice as rugged as the edge of some monstrous saw, studying the geography so far as known of the Arctic regions, perfecting himself in all the arts by which man has contested the supremacy of that land with the ice-king. - vase divider
vase divider - Chinese Field piece Peiho 1860
- THE ZOEA OF THE COMMON CRAB
- Medlers
To make a Tart of Medlers. Take Medlers that be rotten, and stamp them, and set them upon a chafin dish with coales, and beat in two yolks of Eggs, boyling till it be somewhat thick, then season it with Sugar, Cinamon, and Ginger, and lay it in paste. - Early form of the regals
- Cherries
To make a close Tart of Cherries. Take out the stones, and lay them as whole as you can in a Charger, and put Mustard, Cinamon, and Sugar, into them, and lay them into a Tart whole, and close them, then let them stand three quarters of an hour in the Oven, and then make a Syrupe of Muskadine, and Damask water and sugar, and so serve it. - Basin maker
- Wolf Head
Wolf Head - The Issue
The Issue de Table.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the Treatise of Christoforo di Messisburgo, "Banchetti compositioni di Vivende," 4to., Ferrara, 1549. At the issue de table wafers or some other light pastry were introduced, which were eaten with the hypocras wine. The boute-hors, which was served when the guests, after having washed their hands and said grace, had passed into the drawing-room, consisted of spices, different from those which had appeared at dessert, and intended specially to assist the digestion; and for this object they must have been much needed, considering that a repast lasted several hours. Whilst eating these spices they drank Grenache, Malmsey, or aromatic wines - Marseilles
View and Plan of Marseilles and its Harbour, in the Sixteenth Century.--From a Copper-plate in the Collection of G. Bruin, in folio: "Théâtre des Citez du Monde." - Sunrise over sea
Sunrise over sea - Peruvian Pan Pipes
- Samuel Adams
The East India Company arranged to ship cargoes of tea to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. When the tea arrived, the people in New York and Philadelphia refused to let it land, and in Charleston they stored it in damp cellars, where it spoiled. But in Boston, where the Tory Governor, Hutchinson, was determined to fight a hard battle for the King, there was a most exciting time. The result was the famous "Boston Tea Party." - Deep Well Pump
- Treading the grape
Treading the Grape - Saxon Pneumatic Organ
The organ, already introduced into divine service, became, under the hands of St. Dunstan, a large and important instrument. William of Malmesbury says that Dunstan gave many to churches which had pipes of brass and were inflated with bellows. In a MS. psalter in Trinity College, Cambridge, is a picture of one of considerable size, which has no less than four bellows played by four men. [Comment on the same picture in book Musical Instruments, by Carl Engel Published in 1875 and Available from gutenberg.org] Some progress in the construction of the organ is exhibited in an illustration dating from the twelfth century, in a psalter of Eadwine, in the library of Trinity college, Cambridge. The instrument has ten pipes, or perhaps fourteen, as four of them appear to be double pipes. It required four men exerting all their power to produce the necessary wind, and two men to play the instrument. Moreover, both players seem also to be busily engaged in directing the blowers about the proper supply of wind. Six men and only fourteen pipes! It must be admitted that since the twelfth century some progress has been made, at all events, in the construction of the organ. - Catapulta.
- Early part of 15th Century
- Ancient Screw piece
- Pterocera scorpio
The Squill seems to form a connecting link between the last and present order. It is the only genus of the heterobranchial Crustacea in which [Pg 138]the eyes are placed on footstalks; the head, instead of being distinct, appears in a great measure drawn into the corslet. It has been called the Sea Mantis, from its bearing some resemblance to an insect of that name, on account of the singularly-formed hooks with which two of its foot-jaws are armed - Cab Driver
Cab driver in winter coat with horse whip. Excerpt from the book Of the cabdrivers there are several classes, according to the times at which they are employed. These are known in the trade by the names of the “long-day men,” “the morning-men,” the “long-night men,” and the “short-night men,” and “the bucks.” The long-day man is the driver who is supposed to be driving his cab the whole day. He usually fetches his cab out between 9 and 10 in the morning, and returns at 4 or 5, or even 7 or 8, the next morning; indeed it is no matter at what hour he comes in so long as he brings the money that he signs for; the long-day men are mostly employed for the contractors, though some of the respectable masters work their cabs with long-day men, but then they leave the yard between 8 and 9 and are expected to return between 12 and 1. - A Priestess
A Priestess - The Mint
Woodcut in the Translation of the Latin Work of Francis Patricius, "De l'Institution et Administration de la Chose Politique:" folio, 1520. - Culture of the vine
- Machine for throwing stones
- Catching wolves
- Ladies Hunting hat
Orcagna, Campo Santa, Pisa. - Side striped jackel
Side striped jackel - Whale sending boat flying
Whale sending boat flying While the right whale usually takes the steel sullenly, and dies like an overgrown seal, the cachalot fights fiercely, now diving with such a rush that he has been known to break his jaw by the fury with which he strikes the bottom at the depth of 200 fathoms; now raising his enormous bulk in air, to fall with an all-obliterating crash upon the boat which holds his tormentors, or sending boat and men flying into the air with a furious blow of his gristly flukes, or turning on his back and crunching his assailants between his cavernous jaws. - Sedentary Occupations of the Peasants.
A small kitchen-garden, which he cultivated himself, was usually attached to the cottage, which was guarded by a large watch-dog. There was also a shed for the cows, whose milk contributed to the sustenance of the establishment; and on the thatched roof of this and his cottage the wild cats hunted the rats and mice. The family were never idle, even in the bad season, and the children were taught from infancy to work by the side of their parents - Bombard and Carriage