HISTORY

OF

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES:

ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED.

BY

FRANCIS SELLON WHITE, Esq. F. A. S.

MANY YEARS ON THE MILITARY STAFF IN INDIA.

PRINTED FOR C, AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON,

BY CREASY AND BAKER, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON.

PREFACE.

AN attempt is made in this publication to trace, in a plain and concise manner, the Origin and Progress of the various Arts and Sciences, and of those Discoveries and Institutions which have contributed to the improvement or civilization of mankind, or are intimately connected with the history of this country: by which the acquirements of the Ancients are brought into competition with those of the Moderns, and the introduction and cultivation of the liberal and mechanical arts in England, compared with the advancement of them in other countries.

It may, however, be necessary to premise, that most of the arts requisite to the subsistence, or conducive to the immediate comfort of mankind, are nearly co-eval with the human race, or have sprung up at different periods, and in various countries, so remote, as to preclude any satisfactory information with respect to their origin; and the history of many others which tend to the embellishments and luxuries of life, has been transmitted to us either by written documents, which, during the lapse of ages, must have been greatly mutilated and corrupted, or, by the still less satisfactory channel of tradition, intermixed with fabulous and romantic conceits.