b. ? and d. October 5, 1859

Sccotish mechanic and inventor; also manufacturer of lathes for jewelers. He invented a machine for making hooks and eyes, which had previously been done by hand, and was also the inventor of a seraphine.

The huge, rough stones from out the mine,
Unsightly and unfair,
Have veins of purest metal hid
Beneath the surface there.
Believe me, too, that rugged souls,
Beneath their rudeness hide
Much that is beautiful and good-
We’ve all our angel side.

—We’ve All Our Angel Side

Great Lapidary, fix upon Thy mill
This sordid earth! Wipe off the mould of green.
The writhing life, vermicular, obscene,
The slime of sea, the scurf of town and hill.
Then grind, O Lapidary! Labor still;
Polish the lifeless, primal granite clean,
Till mirrored true, shines from its heart serene
The undistorted image of Thy will.

—WM. S. Johnson

1750-1825—Abel Buell lived. He was an American mechanic and discovered the art of polishing crystals in 1766. The first lapidary machine is believed to have been constructed by him. He was also employed by the State in coining and devised all of his own apparatus. He also invented a process for casting printing type.

b. June 11, 1738 and d. October 4, 1815

French founder of important manufactures; introduced the cotton manufacture into France, 1759.

‘Mid the dust, and speed, and clamour,
Of the loom-shed and the mill;
‘Midst the clink of wheel and hammer,
Great results are growing still!

—Charles Swain

And as he wove, and weeping, still wove,
A tempter stole him nigh;
And with glozing words he to win him strove,
But the Weaver turned his eye.
He upward turned his eye to Heaven,
And still wove on, on, on!
Till the last, last cord from his heart was riven,
And the tissue strange was done.

—The Weaver

1690—Art of calico printing was introduced into England from France.

1787—Machinery was first used in France to spin cotton.

1799—A weaving-machine was made by Joseph Marie Jacquard, near Lyons.

1790, about—John Duncan invented the tambouring machine which produced flowers and figures upon muslins. His first machine was very imperfect, but he succeeded in rendering his machine automatic and it was operated by a steam engine.

b. October 4, 1841 and d. ?

American physicist. He was a Professor of Physics in the Imperial University in Tokio, Japan, and organized the courses of physics and the physical laboratory of the university. He made elaborate measurements of the wave-lengths of the principal Frauenhofer lines of the solar spectrum by means of a large spectrometer. He became interested in earthquake phenomena while in Japan and was one of the founders of the Seismological Society of Tokio. He was the first to devise and put into operation a system of weather signals for display on railway trains and in the U. S. Signal Service stations for the systematic observation of earthquake phenomena. He made a report on the Charleston earthquake of August 31, 1886.

The rocks fall headlong, and the valleys rise,
The rivers die into offensive pools,
And, charg’d with putrid verdure, breathe a gross
And mortal nuisance into all the air.
What solid was, by transformation strange,
Grows fluid; and the fixed and rooted earth,
Tormented into billows, heaves and swells,
Or with Vortiginous and hideous whirl
Sucks down its prey insatiable.

—Cowper