A DESCRIPTIVE

AND

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF

HYDRAULIC AND OTHER MACHINES

FOR RAISING WATER.

BOOK I.

PRIMITIVE AND ANCIENT DEVICES FOR RAISING WATER.

CHAPTER I.

The subject of raising water, interesting to Philosophers and Mechanics-Led to the invention of the Steam Engine-Connected with the present advanced state of the Arts-Origin of the useful arts lostTheir history neglected by the Ancients-First Inventors the greatest benefactors-Memorials of them perished, while accounts of warriors and their acts pervade and pollute the pages of history-A record of the origin and early progress of the arts more useful and interesting than all the works of historians extant-The history of a single tool, (as that of a hammer,) invaluable-In the general wreck of the arts of the ancients, most of their devices for raising water preserved-Cause of this--Hydraulic machines of very remote origin-Few invented by the Greeks and Romans-Arrangement and division of the subject.

ALTHOUGH the subject of this work may present nothing very alluring to the general reader, it is not destitute of interest to the philosopher and intelligent mechanic. The art of raising water has ever been closely connected with the progress of man in civilization, so much so, indeed, that the state of this art, among a people, may be taken as an index of their position on the scale of refinement. It is also an art, which, from its importance called forth the ingenuity of man in the infancy of society; nor is it improbable, that it originated some of the simple machines, or mechanic powers themselves.

It was a favorite subject of research with eminent mathematicians and engineers of old; and the labors of their successors in modern days, have been rewarded with the most valuable machine which the arts ever presented to man—the STEAM ENGINE-for it was "raising of water" that exercised the ingenuity of DECAUS and WORcester, Moreland and PAPIN, SAVARY and NEWCOMEN; and those illustrious men, whose suc

2

Ancient Arts.

[Book I. cessive labors developed and matured that "semi-omnipotent engine," which "driveth up water by fire." A machine that has already greatly changed and immeasurably improved the state of civil society; and one which, in conjunction with the PRINTING PRESS, is destined to renovate both the political and moral world. The subject is therefore, intimately connected with the present advanced state of the arts; and the amazing progress made in them during the last two centuries, may be attributed in some degree to its cultivation.

The origin and early history of this art, (and of all others of primitive times) are irrecoverably lost. Tradition has scarcely preserved a single anecdote or circumstance relating to those meritorious men, with whom any of the useful arts originated; and when in process of time, HISTORY took her station in the temple of science, her professors deemed it beneath her dignity, to record the actions and lives of men, who were merely inventors of machines, or improvers of the useful arts; thus nearly all knowledge of those to whom the world is under the highest of obligations, has perished forever.

The SCHOLAR mourns, and the ANTIQUARY weeps over the wreck of ancient learning and art-the PHILOSOPHER regrets that sufficient of both has not been preserved to elucidate several interesting discoveries, which history has mentioned; nor to prove that those principles of science, upon which the action of some old machines depended, were understood; and the MECHANIC inquires in vain for the processes by which his predecessors in remote ages, worked the hardest granite without iron, transported it in masses that astound us, and used them in the erection of stupendous buildings, apparently with the facility that modern workmen lay bricks, or raise the lintels of doors. The machines by which they were elevated are as unknown as the individuals who directed their movements. We are almost as ignorant of their modes of working the metals, of their alloys which rivalled steel in hardness, of their furnaces, crucibles, and moulds; the details of forming the ennobling statue, or the more useful skillet or cauldron. Did the ancients laminate metal between rollers, and draw wire through plates, as we do? or, was it extended by hammers, as some specimens of both seem to show? On these and a thousand other subjects, much uncertainty prevails. Unfortunately learned men of old, deemed it a part of wisdom, to conceal from the vulgar, all discoveries in science. With this view, they wrapped them in mystical figures, that the people might not apprehend them. The custom was at one time so general, that philosophers refused to leave any thing in writing, explanatory of their researches.

Whenever we attempt to penetrate that obscurity which conceals from our view, the works of the ancients, we are led to regret, that some of their MECHANICS did not undertake, for the sake of posterity and their own fame, to write a history and description of their machines and manufactures.

We know that philosophers, generally, would not condescend to perform such a task, or stoop to acquire the requisite information, for they deemed it discreditable to apply their energies and learning, to the elucidation of such subjects. (Few could boast with Hippias-who was master of the liberal and mechanical arts-the ring on his finger, the tunic, cloak,

a" And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires." Exod. xxxix, 3. These plates, were probably similar to those made by the ancient goldsmiths of Mexico, which were "three quarters of a yard long, foure fingers broad, and as thicke as parchment." Purchas' Pilgrimage, 984. "Silver spread into plates, is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz." Jer. x, 9.

Chap. 1.]

History polluted with accounts of Warriors.

3

and shoes which he wore, were the work of his own hands.) Plato inveighed with great indignation against Archytas and Eudoxus, for having debased and corrupted the excellency of geometry, by mechanical solutions, causing her to descend, as he said, from incorporeal and intellectual to sensible things; and obliging her to make use of matter, which requires manual labor, and is the object of servile trades.

To the prevalence of such unphilosophical notions amongst the learned men of old, may be attributed, the irretrievable loss of information respecting the prominent mechanics of the early ages, those

"Searching wits,

Who graced their age with new invented arts."

Virgil, En. vi, 900.

Their works, their inventions, and their names, are buried beneath the waves of oblivion; whilst the light and worthless memorials of heroes, falsely so called, have floated on the surface, and history has become polluted with tainted descriptions of men, who, without having added an atom to the wealth, or to the happiness of society, have been permitted to riot on the fruit of other men's labors; to wade in the blood of their species, and to be heralded as the honorable of the earth! And still, as in former times, humanity shudders, at these monsters being held up, as they impiously are, to the admiration of the world, and even by some christians too, as examples for our children.

"We may reasonably hope," says Mr. Davies in his popular work on the Chinese, "that the science and civilization which have already greatly enlarged the bounds of our knowledge of foreign countries, may, by diminishing the vulgar admiration of such pests and scourges of the human race, as military conquerors have usually proved, advance and facilitate the peaceful intercourse of the most remote countries with each other, and thereby increase the general stock of knowledge and happiness among mankind." Vol. 1, 18.

"Of what utility to us at this day, is either Nimrod, Cyrus, or Alexander, or their successors, who have astonished mankind from time to time? With all their magnificence and vast designs, they are returned into nothing with regard to us. They are dispersed like vapors, and have vanished like phantoms. But the INVENTORS of the ARTS and SCIENCES labored for ALL AGES. We still enjoy the fruits of their application and industry— they have procured for us, all the conveniencies of life-they have converted all nature to our uses. Yet, all our admiration turns generally on the side of those heroes in blood, while we scarce take any notice of what we owe to the INVENTORS OF THE ARTS." Rollin's Introduction to the Arts and Sciences of the Ancients.

Who that consults history, only for that which is useful, would not prefer to peruse a journal of the daily manipulations of the laborers and mechanics who furnished clothing, arms, culinary utensils, and food for the armies of old-to the most eloquent descriptions of their generals, or their battles? And as it is now with respect to accounts of such transactions in past ages so will it be in future with regard to similar ones of modern times. Narrations of political convulsions, recitals of battles, and of honors conferred on statesmen and heroes, while dripping with human gore, will hereafter be unnoticed, or will be read with horror and disgust, while DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE and DESCRIPTIONS OF USEFUL MACHINES, will be all in all.

It is pleasing to anticipate that day, which the present extensive and extending diffusion of knowledge is about to usher in, when despotism

a Plutarch's Life of Marcellus.

4

Workshops of the Ancients,

[Book 1. shall no longer hold the GREAT MASS of our species, in a state of unnatural ignorance, and of physical degradation, beneath that of the beasts which perish; but when the mechanics of the world, the creators of its wealth, shall exercise that influence in society to which their labors entitle them.

If we judged correctly of human character, we should admit that the mechanic who made the chair in which Xerxes sat, when he reviewed his mighty host, or witnessed the sea fight at Salamis, was a more useful member of society than that great king:-and, that the artisans who constructed the drinking vessels of Mardonius, and the brass mangers in which his horses were fed, were really more worthy of post humous fame, than that general, or the monarch he served: and, if it be more virtuous, more praiseworthy, to alleviate human sufferings than to cause or increase them; then that old mechanician, who, when Marcus Sergius lost his hand in the Punic war, furnished him with an iron one, was an incomparably better man, than that or any other mere warrior: and so was he, who, according to Herodotus, constructed an artificial foot for Hegisostratus.a

Notwithstanding the opinion of Plato-we believe a description of the WORKSHOPS Of DEDALUS, and of TALUS his nephew; those of THEODORUS of Samos and of GLAUCUS of Chios, (the alleged inventor of the inlaying of metals;) an account of the process of making the famous Lesbian and Dodonean cauldrons, and of the method by which those celebrated paintings in glass, were executed, fragments of which have come down to us, and which have puzzled, and still continue to puzzle, both our artists and our chemists; (the figures in which, of the most minute and exquisite finish, pass entirely and uniformly through the glass ;) if to these were added, the particulars of a working jeweller's shop of Persepolis and of Troy; of a lapidary's and an engraver's of Memphis; of a cutler's and upholsterer's of Damascus; and of a cabinet maker's and brazier's of Rome; together with those of a Sidonian or Athenian ship yard --such a record would have been more truly useful, and more really interesting, than almost all that ancient philosophers ever wrote, or poets

ever sung.

A description of the FOUNDRIES and FORGES of India and of Egypt; of Babylon and Byzantium; of Sidon, and Carthage and Tyre; would have imparted to us a more accurate and extensive knowledge of the ancients, of their manners and customs, their intelligence and progress in science, than all the works of their historians extant; and would have been of infinitely greater service to mankind.

Had a narrative been preserved, of all the circumstances which led to the invention and early applications of the LEVER, the SCREW, the WEDGE, PULLEY, WHEEL and AXLE, &c.; and of those which contributed to the discovery and working of the metals, the use and management of fire, agriculture, spinning of thread, matting of felt, weaving of cloth, &c. it would have been the most perfect history of our species-the most valuable of earthly legacies. Though such a work might have been deemed of trifling import by philosophers of old, with what intense interest would it have been perused by scientific men in modern times! and what pure delight its examination would have imparted to every inquisitive and intelligent mind!

Such a record, would not only have filled the mighty chasm in the early history of the world, but would have had an important influence in pro

a Herod. ix, 37. Eneid, iii, 595, and v, 350. Herod. iv, 61. Ed. Encyc. Art. Glass.

Chap. 1.]

And their Tools.

5

moting the best interests of our race. It would have embraced incidents respecting man's early wants, and his rude efforts to supply them; particulars respecting eminent individuals, and the origin of antediluvian discoveries and inventions, &c. of such thrilling interest, as no modern novelist could equal, nor the most fertile imagination surpass.

It would have included a detail of those eventful experiments in which iron was first cast into cauldrons, forged into hatchets, and drawn into wire; with an account of the individuals, by whose ingenuity and perseverance, these invaluable operations, were, for the first time on this planet, successfully performed. Finally, it would have convinced us, that these men were the true HEROES of old, the genuine benefactors of their species, whose labors were for the benefit of all ages, and all people; and an account of whose lives (not those of robbers,) should have occupied the pages of history, and whose names should have been embalmed in everlasting remembrance.

A chronological account of a few mechanical implements, would have afforded a clearer insight into the state of society in remote times, than any writings now subsisting. Nay, if we could realize a complete history of a single tool, as a hammer, a saw, a chisel, a hatchet, an auger, or a loom, it would form a more comprehensive history of the world, than has ever been, or perhaps ever will be written. Take for example a hammer; what a multitude of interesting circumstances are inseparably connected with its development and early uses! circumstances, which, if we were in possession of, would explain almost all that is dark and mysterious respecting our ancient progenitors. A history of this implement would embrace the origin and general progress of all the useful arts; and would elucidate the civil and scientific acquirements of man, in every age. It would open to our view, the public and private economy of the ancients; introduce us into the interior of their workshops, their dwellings and their temples; it would illustrate their manners, politics, religion, superstition, &c. In tracing the various purposes to which it was applied, we should become acquainted with all the material transactions in the lives of some ancient individuals from their birth to their death; and also, with the circumstances which led to the rise and fall of empires. Like the celebrated "History of a Guinea," it would open to our inspection all the minutiæ in private and public life.

How infinitely various, are the materials, sizes, forms, and uses of the hammer? and how indicative are they all of the state of society and manmers? At first, a club; then a rude mallet of wood; next, the head formed of stone, and bound to the handle by withes, or by the sinews of animals; afterward, the heads formed of metal. These, before iron or steel was known, were often of copper and even of gold; and subsequently, those of the latter material were faced, like some ancient chisels, with the more scarce and expensive iron.a

Ancient hammers varied as now in size, from the huge sledge of the Cyclops, to the portable one, with which Vulcan chased the more delicate work on the shield of Achilles,-from the maul, by which masses of ore were separated from their beds in the mines, to the diminutive ones, which Myrmecides of Miletus, and Theodorus of Samos, used to fabricate carriages and horses of metal, which were so minute as to be covered by the

"It appears that in the tangible remains of smelting furnaces, found in Siberia, that gold hammers, knives, chisels, &c. have been discovered, the edges of which were skilfully tipped with iron; showing the scarcity of the ore, the difficulty of manufacturing it, and the plenty and apparently trifling value of the other." Scientific Tracts, Boston, 1833. Vol. iii, 411.