A CURIOSITY.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 81, 27 January 1876, Page 3

A CURIOSITY.

Mr Wm. Webb, of London, has produced a curiosity: in microscopic'wri ting. He has accomplished the feat, by means of machinery, on glass with the aid of a diamond. The writing consists of the Lord's Prayer, which is written upon glass -within a space equal to one two hundred and ninety- fourth part of an inch in length, by 6rie four hundred amd fortieth part of an inch in width, a space corresponding io the dot over the printed letter i. The dot, of writing has been enlarged by, means of the photograph so as to occupy a space ot about 2in. long by l^in. broad. The photograph brings the" words out legibly, the number of letters being* 227." : Suqh is the minuteness of the original writing that 29,431,438 letters Vritten in the .same way. would only, cover one inch of . glass surface. The whole Bible,'including the old and New Testaments, contains 3,566,480 letters; therefore, Mr Webb could write the entire contents of more than eight Bibles within the space of one square : inch. Two specimen plates. of this microscopic writing have been produced for . the United States Museum at Washington, at a cost of 50dols. each. Mr Webb's machine,, however, .does not equal, in, the. fineness of writing or the .per fection it. has at- i tamed," a similar machine, the invention of Mr, Petrie, a wealthy; .ban ker. of London. , This machine produced writing! as long since as 1855,riearly three tirn^s a*s fine as- that of Mr Webb. It> wasf vl competent to. -engrave the entire-con-tents, of the Bible, 22 times oyer ,within tKe space of a single square inch. :' ;