BOHN’S STANDARD LIBRARY.

BECKMANN’S
HISTORY OF INVENTIONS,
DISCOVERIES, AND ORIGINS.

“Were I to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead under everyvariety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness tome during life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amissand the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading.... Give aman this taste, and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail ofmaking him a happy man; unless, indeed, you put into his hands a mostperverse selection of books. You place him in contact with the best societyin every period of history,—with the wisest, the wittiest, the tenderest, thebravest, and the purest characters who have adorned humanity. You makehim a denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages. The world hasbeen created for him.”—Sir John Herschel. Address on the opening ofthe Eton Library, 1833.

Lud. Schmidt.

J. J. Hinchliff.

John Beckmann.

A
HISTORY
OF
INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES,
AND ORIGINS.

By JOHN BECKMANN,
PROFESSOR OF ŒCONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN,
By WILLIAM JOHNSTON.

Fourth Edition,
CAREFULLY REVISED AND ENLARGED BY
WILLIAM FRANCIS, Ph.D., F.L.S.,
EDITOR OF THE CHEMICAL GAZETTE;
AND
J. W. GRIFFITH, M.D., F.L.S.,
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1846.

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

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CONTENTS.