(without the expenditure of any additional time and labor to lower it, as with the single bucket,) while its weight in descending, contributed towards raising the charged one.

These advantages were not the only results of the simple addition of another bucket; though they were probably all that were anticipated by the author at the time. It really imparted a new feature to the apparatus, and one which naturally led to the development of that great machine, in which terminated all the improvements of the older mechanics on the primitive cord and bucket-and to which, modern ingenuity has added— nothing-viz: THE ENDLESS CHAIN OF POTS-indeed nothing more was then wanting, but to unite the two ends of the rope together, and attach a number of vessels to it, at equal distances from each other, through the whole of its length, and the machine just named was all but complete.

The Anglo Saxons used two buckets hooped with iron, one at each end of a chain which passed over a pulley. And in the old Norman castles, water was raised by the same means. In one of the keeps or towers, still remaining, which was built by Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, in the reigns of the Conqueror and William Rufus, the mode of elevating the water is obvious. "For water, there was a well in the very middle of the partition wall: it was also made to go through the whole wall, from the bottom of the tower up to the very leads, (i. e. the roof) and on every floor were small arches in the wall, forming a communication between the pipe of the wall, and the several apartments, so that by a pulley, water was communicated every where." And in Newcastle, a similar tower exhibits the same device for obtaining the water: "a remarkable pillar from which arches branched out very beautifully on each side, inclosed a pipe, (that is, the continuation of the well,) which conducted water from the well." It appears to have been, in the middle ages, the uniform practice to enclose wells within the walls of towers, that in case of sieges, the water might not be cut off. It was the same in early Rome: the capitol was supplied by a deep well at the foot of the Tarpeian Rock, into which buckets were lowered through an artificial groove or passage made in the rock.c The double bucket is still used in inns in Spain. See a figure in Sat. Mag. Vol. vii, 58.

A simple mode is practised in Italy, by which a person in the upper story of a house, and at some distance from the well or cistern, (which is generally in the court yard,) raises water without being obliged to descend. One end of a strong iron rod or wire, is fixed to the house above the window of an upper landing or passage, and the other end in the ground,

a Encyc. Antiq. 524.

b Ibid, 82.

Gell's Topography of Rome, ii, 203.

Chap. 9.]

Raising Water to Upper Floors.

63

on the farther side of the well and in a line with its centre as in No. 15. A ring which slides easily over the wire is secured to the handle of the bucket, to which a cord is also attached and passes over a pulley fixed above the window. Thus when the cord is slackened, the bucket de

No. 15. Italian mode of raising water to the upper floors of a house.

scends along the wire into the water, and when filled is drawn up by a person at the window. (Kitchens in the houses of Italy, like those of London and Paris are often on the upper floors.) "This mode of raising water to the upper stories of houses is practised in Venice and some other towns in Italy."a We are not acquainted with the origin of this device. From the circumstance of the ancient, (as well as the modern) in habitants of Asia, Greece, Italy, &c. having had jets d'eau and tanks of water in the centre of their court-yards, it is possible that this mode of raising water to the upper floors of dwellings, may be of ancient date. It was in use in the 16th century, and is described in Serviere's collection, from which the figure is taken. In the same work are devices for raising water in buckets to the tops of buildings by pulleys, ropes, &c. moved by water wheels.

Of modern devices for raising water with the pulley and bucket, the most efficient is said to be that of Dr. Desaguliers. After passing the rope over a pulley, he suspended to its end a frame of wood on which a man could stand-the bucket at the other end was made heavier than this frame, and therefore descended of itself. The length of the rope was such, that when the bucket was at the bottom, the frame was level with the place to which the water was to be raised. As soon as the bucket was filled with water, for the admission of which a hole was made in its bottom, and covered by a flap or valve, a man, whose weight exceeded, (with the frame) that of the bucket and water, stepped upon the frame, and sunk down with it to the bottom, and consequently raised the bucket of water to the required height, when a hook catched in a hasp at the side of the bucket, turned it over, and discharged its contents into the reservoir. As soon as the bucket was empty, the man at the bottom stepped off the frame and ran up a flight of stairs made for the purpose, to the place whence he descended; and in the mean time, the bucket being heavier than the frame, descended to the water, and was again raised by the same process.

Such a device is well enough for philosophical experiment, but is certainly not adapted for practical purposes. Simple as it may appear, there are requisites necessary to its efficient application, which in common practice are unattainable.

Cadell's Journey into Carniola, Italy, &c. Edinburgh, 1820, i, 481.

Recueil D'Ouvrages Curieux de Mathematique et de Mechanique, ou Description du Cabinet de M. Grollier de Serviere, avec des figures en taille douce, par M. Grollier de Serviere, son petit fils. A Lyon, 1719. The elder Serviere died in the 17th century.

SELF-ACTING, OR GAINING AND LOSIng buckets.

In the latter part of the 16th, or beginning of the 17th century, a machine for raising water, was in use in Italy, which is entitled to particular notice, on account of its being alleged to be the first one of the kind which was self-acting; and in that respect, was the forerunner of the motive Fire Engine' itself. It appears to have been first described by Schottus in his Technia Curiosa. According to Moxon, his description was taken from one in actual operation "at a nobleman's house at Basil." (Mech. Pow. 107.) But Belidor, says the first one who put such a thing in execution, was Gironimo Finugio, at Rome in 1616; although Schottus had long before contrived an engine for this purpose. Moxon has given a figure and description of one, but without naming the source from whence he obtained it: he says it was "made at Rome, in the convent of St. Maria de Victoria the lesser bucket did contain more than a whole urn of water, (at Rome they say un barile,) but before, while they used lesser buckets, the engine wanted success." It would seem that it was to one of these 'Roman Engines,' that the Marquis of Worcester referred, in the 21st proposition of his Century of Inventions: "How to raise water constantly with two buckets only, day and night, without any other force than its own motion, using not so much as any force, wheel or sucker, nor more pulleys than one, on which the cord or chain rolleth, with a bucket fastened at each end. This I confess I have seen and learned of the great mathematician Claudius, his studies at Rome, he having made a present thereof unto a cardinal, and I desire not to own any other men's inventions, but if I set down any, to nominate likewise the inventor."

S

No. 16. Gaining and Losing
Buckets.

The machine described by Moxon, is encumbered with too many appendages for popular illustration-its essential parts will be understood by the accompanying diagram, from Hachette's Traité Elémentaire des Machines, Paris, 1819. Over a pulley S, are suspended two vessels A and B, of unequal dimensions. The smaller one B, is made heavier than A when both are empty, but lighter when they are filled. It is required to raise by them, part of the water from the spring or reservoir E, into the cistern Z. As the smaller bucket B, by its superior gravity, descends into E, (a flap or valve in its bottom admitting the water,) it consequently raises A into the position represented in the figure. A pipe F, then conveys water from the reservoir into A, the orifice or bore of which pipe, is so proportioned, that both vessels are filled simultaneously. The larger bucket then preponderates, descending to O, and B at the same time rising to the upper edge of Z, when the projecting pins O O, catch against others on the lower sides of the buckets, and overturn them at the same moment. The bails or handles are attached by swivels to the sides, a little above the

Chap. 9.]

Self-Acting Buckets.

65

centre of gravity. As soon as both vessels are emptied, B again preponderates, and the operation is repeated without any attendance, as long as there is water in E and the apparatus continues in order.

In Moxon's machine, the vessels were filled by two separate tubes of unequal bore; the orifices being covered by valves, to prevent the escape of water while the buckets were in motion; these valves were opened and closed by means of cords attached to the buckets. The efflux through F in the figure, may easily be stopped as soon as A begins to descend, by the action of either bucket on the end of a lever attached to a valve, or by other obvious contrivances. The water discharged from A, runs to waste through some channel provided for the purpose. These machines are of limited application, since they require a fall for the descent of A, equal to the elevation to which the liquid is raised in B. They may however be modified to suit locations where a less descent only can be obtained. Thus, by connecting the rope of B to the periphery of a large wheel, while that of A is united to a smaller one on the same axis, water may be raised higher than the larger bucket falls, but the quantity raised will of course be proportionally diminished.

In Serviere's Collection, a Gaining and Losing Bucket Machine is described. Another one was invented in 1725, by George Gerves an English carpenter, who probably was not aware that he had been anticipated by continental mechanics upwards of a century before. He erected one in Buckinghamshire, which was much approved of by Sir Isaac Newton, Beighton, Desaguliers, Switzer, and others. Mr. Beighton who drew up a description of it, observes that it was so free from friction, that "it is likely to continue an age without repair;" and Dr. Desaguliers on inserting an account of it in his Experimental Philosophy, vol. ii, 461, says, “this engine has not been out of order since it was first set up, about fifteen years ago." Notwithstanding these favorable testimonials, it has fallen into disuse. It was much too complex and cumbersome, and of too limited application ever to become popular.

The principle of self-action in all these machines is no modern discovery, for it was described by Heron of Alexandria, who applied it to the opening and closing the doors of a temple, and to other purposes. The motive bucket when filled, descended and communicated by a secret cord the movement required, and when its contents were discharged (by a siphon similar to the one figured in the Clepsydra of Ctesibius, in our fifth book,) it was again raised by a weight at the other end of the cord, like the bucket, in the last figure. See De Naturæ Simia seu technica macrocosmi historia, by Robert Fludd, (the English Rosicrucian.) Oppenheim, 1618, pp. 478 and 489, where several similar contrivances are figured— hence the device is much older than has been supposed. Perhaps the best modification of the Gaining and Losing Bucket', is Francini's, a description of which may be seen in our account of the Endless Chain of Pots.

A lever machine described by Dr. Desaguliers may here be noticed. "AA, (No. 17,) are two spouts running from a gutter or spring of water, into the two buckets D and E. D containing about thirty gallons and being called the losing bucket, and E the gaining bucket, containing less than a quarter part of D, as for example six gallons. D E, is a lever or beam movable about the axis or centre C, which is supported by the pieces F F, between which the bucket D can descend when the contrary bucket E is raised up, D C, is to C E, as one is to four. G L is an upright piece, through the top of which the lever K I moves about the centre L, sometimes resting on the prop H, and sometimes raised from it by the

pressure of the arm C E on the end I. The bucket D when empty, has its mouth upwards, being suspended as above mentioned. The end D with its bucket is also lighter than the end with the bucket E, when both are empty. By reason of the different bore of the spouts, D is filled almost as soon as E, and immediately preponderating, sinks down to D, and thereby raises the contrary end of the lever and its bucket up to the cistern M, into which it discharges its water; but immediately the bucket D becoming full, pours out its water, and the end of the lever E comes down again into its horizontal situation, and striking upon the end I of the loaded lever I K, raises the weight K, by which means the force of its blow is broken. If the distance A B or fall of the water be about six feet, this machine will raise the water into the cistern M twentyfour feet high. Such a machine is very simple and may be made in any proportion according to the fall of the water, the quantity allowed to be wasted, and the height to which the water must be raised."

"Some years ago," Dr. Desaguliers continues, "a gentleman showed me a model of such an engine varying something from this, but so contrived as to stop the running of the water at A A, when the lever DE began to move. He told me he had set up an engine in Ireland, which raised about half a hogshead of water in a minute, forty feet high, and did not cost forty shillings a year to keep it in repair, and that it was not very expensive to set up at first." Experimental Philosophy, vol. i, 78.

There is a singular historical fact connected with the use of buckets to raise water from wells, which will serve to conclude this part of the subject. Every person knows, that war between nations has often arisen from the most trifling causes; when thousands of human beings, alike ignorant and innocent of its origin, hired by its authors, armed with murderous weapons and incessantly exercised in the use of them, are marshaled into the presence of a similar host; when both being stimulated by inflaming addresses, and often excited by ardent spirits, destroy each other like infuriated tigers! Then after one party is overcome, the other glorying in the slaughter, hail their leader a hero, and not infrequently do that, which fiends would shudder to think of-viz. return thanks to the benign Savior of men, for having enabled them thus to de