Page:Edward Thorpe — History of Chemistry, Volume I (1909).pdf/22

6 arts. The word wine means, in fact, a product of fermentation. Mosaic history relates that Noah, soon after he got to dry land, “planted a vineyard and drank of the wine,” with results that would appear to show that the potency of wine was not unfamiliar to him. Diodorus Siculus, who studied Egyptian antiquities when Egypt was a Roman province, states that the ancient Egyptians ascribed the origin of wine to Osiris. It was a sacrificial offering even in the earliest times, as was bread. Wine seems to have been prepared by the Chinese as far back as the time of the Emperor Yü, circa 2220 B.C. Beer was manufactured in Egypt in the time of Senwosret III. (Sesostris) B.C. 1880.

The Egyptians were skilled in dyeing and in the manufacture of leather, and in the production and working of metals and alloys. They were familiar with the methods of tempering iron. They made glass, artificial gems, and enamels. The oldest known enamel was found as an amulet on the Egyptian Queen Aahotep (1700 B.C.), and glass beads were made before the time of Thutmosis III. (1475 B.C.). The Jews knew of gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin. Indeed, it is through them and the Phoenicians, who were among the earliest of traders, that Europe was gradually made acquainted with many technical products of Eastern origin.

The beginnings of the art of extracting and