A Mechanical Marvel

Jlr. Wilham Webb, of Londou, bas produced a curiosity in microscopio wiitiiig. He bas accoiuplished the feat by moans of niaohinery on glass, with the aid of a diamond. The writing consista of the Lord's Prayer, which is written upon glasa within a spaco equal to one 294th part of an inch in length, by one 44Oth part in width, a space corresponding to the dot over the priuted letter . The dot of writing has been eularged by means of the photograph so as to occupy a space of about two inches long by one and a half inches broad. The photograph brings the words out legibly, the number of letters being 227. Such is the fineness of the original writing that 29,431,458 letters written the same way would only cover one square inch of glass surface. The whole Biblc, including the Old aud New Testaments, contain 2,556,180 letters ; therefore Mr. Webb could write the entire contents of more than eight Bibles within the space of one square inch. Two specimen plates of this microscopio writing have been produced for the Uuiod States Museum at Washingtonat a cost of $50 each. The Webb machino, however, does not oqual in the fineness of the writiug or tbe perfection it has attained a similar machine, the invention of Mr. Peters, a wealthy banker of London. This machine produced writing as long since as 1855, nearly three times as fine as that of Mr. Webb. It was competent to engrave the entire contents of the Bible, 22 times over, within the space of a single square inch.