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Article MEMOIRS OF PRINCE RUPERT, ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Memoirs Of Prince Rupert,
Society . In the year 1666 , the king entrusted him , in conjunction with the duke of Albemarle , to command the fleet , when he exhibited all the qualities that are necessary to constitute JI great admiral . By his happy return to the fleet , on the 3 d of June , he wrested from the Dutch the only victory they had the appearance of gainingand afterwards the 24 th of the same monthhe beat them
; , on , efrecuially , pursued them to their own coast , and blocked up their harbour . Indeed , the great intrepidity which prince Rupert displayed , in this naval war , was highly and justly celebrated in his own time ; and in the last Dutch war he seemed to retain all the activity and fire of his youth , and beat the enemy 111 several engagements . . and retired
From this time prince Rupert led a quiet , chiefly a life , mostly at Windsor-castle , of which he was governor ; and he very much employed himself in the prosecution of chemical and philosophical experiments , as well as in the practice of mechanic arts , for which he was very famous . He is mentioned by foreign authors with applause for his skill in painting ; and is considered as the inventor of mezzotinto , of which he is said tp have taken the hint from a soldier scraping his rusty fusil . The circumstances are
thus related : —The prince going out early one morning , observed , a centinel ,. at some distance from his post , very busy doing something to his p iece . The prince asked what he was about ? He replied , that the dew had fallen in the night , had made his fusil rusty , and that he was scraping and cleaning it . The prince looking at it , was struck with something like a figure eaten into the closed like fnezed
barrel , with innumerable little holes together , work on gold orsilver , part of which the soldier had scraped away .-From this trifling incident , prince Rupert is said to have conceived mezzotinto . He concluded , that some contrivance might be found to cover a brass p late with such a grained ground of fine pressed holeswhich would undoubtedl ive an impression all
, y , g ; black , and that by scraping away proper parts , the smooth superficies would leave the rest of the paper white . Communicating his ideas to Wallerant Vaillant , a painter whom he maintained , they made several experiments , and at last invented a steel roller , cut with tools to make teeth like a file or rasp , with projecting pointswhich effectually produced the black grounds ; those being
, scraped away , and diminished at pleasure , left the gradations of lig ht . It is said , that the first mezzotinto print ever published was executed by his highness himself . It may be seen in the first edition - of Evelyn ' s Sculpture ; and there is a copy of it in the second
edition , printed m 1755 . Prince Rupert also delig hted in making locks for fire-arms , and was the inventor of a composition , called from him prince ' s metal , and in which guns were cast . He communicated to the Royal Society his improvements upon gunpowder , by refining the several ingredients , and making it more carefully , by which , as appeared , by several experiments , it ' s force was augmented , in comparison at
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Memoirs Of Prince Rupert,
Society . In the year 1666 , the king entrusted him , in conjunction with the duke of Albemarle , to command the fleet , when he exhibited all the qualities that are necessary to constitute JI great admiral . By his happy return to the fleet , on the 3 d of June , he wrested from the Dutch the only victory they had the appearance of gainingand afterwards the 24 th of the same monthhe beat them
; , on , efrecuially , pursued them to their own coast , and blocked up their harbour . Indeed , the great intrepidity which prince Rupert displayed , in this naval war , was highly and justly celebrated in his own time ; and in the last Dutch war he seemed to retain all the activity and fire of his youth , and beat the enemy 111 several engagements . . and retired
From this time prince Rupert led a quiet , chiefly a life , mostly at Windsor-castle , of which he was governor ; and he very much employed himself in the prosecution of chemical and philosophical experiments , as well as in the practice of mechanic arts , for which he was very famous . He is mentioned by foreign authors with applause for his skill in painting ; and is considered as the inventor of mezzotinto , of which he is said tp have taken the hint from a soldier scraping his rusty fusil . The circumstances are
thus related : —The prince going out early one morning , observed , a centinel ,. at some distance from his post , very busy doing something to his p iece . The prince asked what he was about ? He replied , that the dew had fallen in the night , had made his fusil rusty , and that he was scraping and cleaning it . The prince looking at it , was struck with something like a figure eaten into the closed like fnezed
barrel , with innumerable little holes together , work on gold orsilver , part of which the soldier had scraped away .-From this trifling incident , prince Rupert is said to have conceived mezzotinto . He concluded , that some contrivance might be found to cover a brass p late with such a grained ground of fine pressed holeswhich would undoubtedl ive an impression all
, y , g ; black , and that by scraping away proper parts , the smooth superficies would leave the rest of the paper white . Communicating his ideas to Wallerant Vaillant , a painter whom he maintained , they made several experiments , and at last invented a steel roller , cut with tools to make teeth like a file or rasp , with projecting pointswhich effectually produced the black grounds ; those being
, scraped away , and diminished at pleasure , left the gradations of lig ht . It is said , that the first mezzotinto print ever published was executed by his highness himself . It may be seen in the first edition - of Evelyn ' s Sculpture ; and there is a copy of it in the second
edition , printed m 1755 . Prince Rupert also delig hted in making locks for fire-arms , and was the inventor of a composition , called from him prince ' s metal , and in which guns were cast . He communicated to the Royal Society his improvements upon gunpowder , by refining the several ingredients , and making it more carefully , by which , as appeared , by several experiments , it ' s force was augmented , in comparison at