WONDERS OF MINUTE WORKMAN-SHIP.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 89, 15 April 1879, Page 4

WONDERS OF MINUTE WORK-MAN-SHIP.

In the twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth a blacksmith named Mark Scaliot made a lock consisting of eleven pieceß of iron, steel, and brass, all of which, together with a key to it, weighed but > one grain of gold. Ec also made a

chain of gold, consisting of 43 linkp, and, having fastened this to the beforementioned lock and key, be put the chain about the neck of a flea, which drew them all with ease, All these fogetber, lock and key, chain and flea, weighed only one grain and a half. Oswaldus Northingerus, who was more famous even than Scaliot for his minute contrivances, is said to have made IGOO dishes of turned ivory, all perfect and complete in every part, yet so small, thin, ami slender, that all of them were included at once in a cup turned out of a pepper-corn of the common size. Johannus Shad, of Mitelbrach, carried this wonderful work with him to Eome and showed it to Pope Paul V , who saw and counted them with the help of a pair of spectacles. They were so little as to be almost invisible to the eye. Johannes Ferrarius, a Jesuit, had in his possession cannons of wood, with their carriages, wheels, and all other military furniture, all of which were also contained in a pepper-corn of the ordinary size. An artist named Cludius Galius made for Hippolytus d'Este, Cardinal of Ferrarn, representatives of sundry birds sitting on the tops of trees which by hydraulic art and secret conveyance of water through the trunks and branches of the trees, were made to sing and clap their wings ; but at the sudden appearance of an owl out of a bush of the same artifice, they immediately became all mute and silent.