The Chinese and Siberians are said to have gone farther than any modern nation in converting incombustible sub stances to use. M. Sage describes a small furnace, con structed by the former, of a kind of card or paper, which, in his opinion, consisted entirely of asbestos. It was nine inches high, six in diameter, and provided with a grate, and two doors for the ashes. The colour was grey tend ing to red, but it whitened with heat. Both externally and internally it had a smooth polish resembling pasteboard, and its fracture was absolutely similar. M. Sage conceiv ed that the asbestos, having been pounded, was mixed with a mucilage forming a paste, which being put into a mould, thereby acquired its shape and polish.
Besides incombustible cloth and paper, the ancients are supposed to have possessed the secret of making perpetual or inextinguishable lamps, apparently with the same ma terials. Several tombs have been opened, which the spec tators declare contained burning lamps, though many cen turies had elapsed from the sepulture of the deceased. Isidorus relates, that a candelabrum was reported to be in the temple of Venus, which neither wind nor rain could extinguish. We believe that directions have been given
for constructing perpetual lamps ; but the experiments of the moderns with asbestos do not appear to have been see. cessful, for oil would not rise in the wick. It is most like ly, however, that this is a mistake ; for oil ought to rise in asbestine as well as in other wicks. Yet this would only be gaining an incombustible wick. The ancients however affirm, that asbestos once heated never cools, which has probably been the source of other opinions that it may con stitute a perpetual lamp. See Pliny, Hist. Alitural. lib. xix. cap. 4. xxxvi. cap. 31 ; Dioscorides, lib. v. cap. 158 ; Isidorus, Origin um, lib. xvi cap. 4; Kircher, it.reedta Sub terraneus, vol. ii. var. loc.; Ccelius Rhodiginus, Lect. An tiy. lib. xi iii. cap. 31.; M. Pauli Veneti De Regknibus Ori entalibus, ate. Grynctus Jrovus Orbis, p. 355 ; Paheirollus, De Rebus de Perloitis ; Philosophical Transactions, vols. xiv. xv. xxii. xxvii. li. Bell's Travels, vol. i.