Entries from June 2006 ↓

A post-mortem examination on the body of James Ellis, aged 65, who died in Leavenworth, Kan., showed death to have been caused by a pin, swallowed perhaps in childhood.

China, the “cradle of the arts,” claims the honor of the invention of printing. Away back in the year 593, nearly 1,000 years before Gutenberg issued the first volume of his famous bible, the Chinese were using the “block system” of printing, says the St. Louis Republic, and in the tenth century, 400 years before Europe had become acquainted with the “art preservative,” the almond-eyed celestial typos were better versed in the science of setting movable types than were the American printers of the days of Benjamin Franklin. The “block system” of printing, which was so well known in the flowery kingdom less than six centuries after the birth of Christ, did not find its way to Europe until about the first of the fifteenth century, when “devotional manuals,” each bearing a portrait and a few lines in printing, became popular. These cuts and printed lines were taken from engravings made on a single block, the very earliest-dated specimen of that character made in Europe bearing date of 1423. There is still a question as to who was the first European printer to use the movable types. It is not a question as to what Europeans invented movable types, for it is known that the honor belongs in the far east. The honor of being the first to adopt the system appears to rest between Laurenz Coster of Haarlem (died 1440), John Faust and John Gutenberg. In the above list some include the name of Peter Schoffer, as son-in-law of Faust. Dutch authorities claim that Coster was the first to use the movable types, and that Gutenberg, who was at one time a workman in Coster’s shop, stole the idea from him. The Germans give Gutenberg the honor and set the date of his first successful practice of the art at 1436. The first entire European book ever printed from movable types bears the name of Johann Faust on its title page. It bore the name of “Tractatus Petri Hispani” and was printed at Mentz in 1442. As Gutenberg did not put his name on all of his books or the date when they were issued there is some doubt when the first appeared or how many were issued. Gutenberg’s great work was his Latin bible, which appeared in 1456, and which is often catalogued as the “first book ever printed on moveable types.”

Some time ago it was announced that bee farming had been taken up at Gennevillers, one of the most loathesome industrial suburbs of Paris. This was treated as a joke, but the news is, our correspondent says, nevertheless true, and the Prefect of the Seine has just received a petition from the inhabitants to abate the nuisance. The bees live upon the sugar refineries of the neighborhood, clearing away all the dust of the roofs, and even landing on the bare backs of the workmen. It has been stated by a sugar refiner that every hive in the neighborhood carries away twenty shillings’ worth of sugar in a year from the factories. He does not, however, complain of this loss, but of the irritation the perpetual buzz inflicts on the workmen.

Mr. E. M. Bass, of the well known house of E. M. Bass & Co., is counting a pile of Mexican and Spanish coins and trying to decipher the various descriptions and peculiar marks on them. Mr. Bass and his brother own a farm near Carrollton, and Friday the money was plowed up by an old negro farm hand. The coins had been buried for years near the stump of an old tree, and their discovery was entirely accidental. The old man’s plow turned one of the pieces of money out of the ground, and a little work resulted in the finding of over $100. The coin must have been buried fifty or more years ago, for the most recent date on any of the pieces is 1838. The oldest of the coins is a Spanish 25 cent piece, which bears the date 1746. Many of the smaller coins have holes punched in them and look as if they had been worn strung around the neck of some person. The coins were brought to Atlanta yesterday by Mr. Bass’ brother and given to him to dispose of. The old man who found them promptly reported it to Mr. Bass, who says he intends to give the proceeds of their sale to him, says the Atlanta Constitution. Many of the coins are very quaint and there is no doubt many a collector of such things that would be delighted to get hold of them.