of the Engine suggests some explosive missile, connected with
clock-work, as the only means to insure its being compact and operating
on a precise day at a stated point of time. But his inventive faculty
once stimulated, even by the notices of Bourne, would speedily lead him
to many ingenious contrivances.
10.
A way from a mile off to dive and fasten a like Engine to any
Ship, so as it may punctually work the same effect either for
time or execution.
[_How to be fastened from aloof and under water._] The wording of this
article so far differs from the title as to allude only to diving, or a
kind of submarine navigation, but gives no intimation of the fastening
“aloof;” so that this latter may refer to any part of the ship’s sides
above her water-line.
“Mersennius,” observes Bishop Wilkins, “doth largely and pleasantly
descant concerning the making of a ship, wherein men may safely
swim under water.” He further declares, that “such a contrivance is
feasible, and may be effected, is beyond all question, because it hath
been already experimented here in England by Cornelius Dreble.” He
next considers various schemes, and mentions as one of the advantages
of such a submarine vessel, that, “It may be of very great advantage
against a navy of enemies, who by this means may be undermined in the
water and blown up.”--Math. Magick, 1648, p. 178.
Among the Sloane MSS. No. 4159, in the British Museum, is one for a
means of destroying an entire fleet with one ship. It is endorsed, “A
proposition sent to Mr. Augier, from Paris,” and the following is a
copy:--“A person who makes profession of honour, and saith he hath had
the good [fortune?] to have been known of Sir Oliver Flemming during
his public employments abroad, doth propound to a friend of yours that
by a secret he hath he can, with one ship alone, break what naval army
or fleet, &c.”
In 1596, the celebrated John Napier, of Merchiston, wrote a statement
of four “Secret Inventions,” concluding with the remark: “These
inventions, besides devices of _sailing under the water_, with divers
other devices and stratagems for harming of the enemies, by the grace
of God, and work of expert craftsmen, I hope to perform.” The original
MS. anno 1596, is in the Lambeth Library, No. 658.
There is an article in Tilloch’s “Philosophical Magazine,” Vol. 18,
for 1804, reviewing a Memoir of Lord Napier of Merchiston. On his
device for sailing under water, the writer observes:--“The famous Dutch
philosopher, Cornelius Drebell, the reputed inventor of the microscope
and the thermometer, constructed for James I. a subaqueous vessel,
which he tried on the Thames, and which carried twelve rowers, besides
some passengers, for whom the effete air was again rendered respirable
by a liquor, the composition of which Drebell never would communicate
to more than one person, and that person told Mr. Boyle what it
was.” The Marquis, might, likewise, even be acquainted with Napier’s
statement of his secret inventions.
Evelyn, in his Diary, informs us on the 1st of August, 1666, “I went
to Dr. Keffler, who married the daughter of the famous chymist,
Drebbell, inventor of the bodied scarlet.” On which his editor, Mr.
Bray, remarks, “Cornelius Van Drebbell, born at Alkmaar, in Holland,
in 1572; but in the reign of Charles I. settled in London, where he
died in 1634. He was famous for other discoveries in science--the most
important of which was the thermometer. He also made improvements in
microscopes and telescopes; and though, like many of his scientific
contemporaries, something of an empiric, possessed a considerable
knowledge of chemistry, and of different branches of natural
philosophy.”--Diary, vol. ii. p. 9.
Pepys, in his Diary, under date the 14th of March, 1662, says: “This
afternoon came the German, Dr. Knuffler, to discourse with us about his
engine to blow up ships. We doubted not the matter of fact, it being
tried in Cromwell’s time, but the safety of carrying them in ships;
but he do tell us, that when he comes to tell the King his secret, for
none but the Kings, successively, and their heirs must know it, it will
appear to be of no danger at all.”--Pepys’ Diary, ed. 1858, vol. i. p.
264.
Dr. Robert Hooke, in his “Philosophical Collections,” published in
1679, has “an account of Jo. Alphon. Borellius’s De Mo. Animalium,”
two volumes quarto, containing, among other things, “A way to make a
submarine vessel, whereby several persons may pass together from place
to place under water, accommodated with two ways to move it to and fro,
and to make it rise and sink in the water, &c. It is supposed it may be
much like that which Mersennus long since published.”
The American engineer, Robert Fulton, turned his attention to this
subject, and published “Torpedo War, and Sub-marine Explosions,” 4to.
New York, 1810.
11.
How to prevent and safeguard any Ship from such an attempt by day
or night.
[_How to prevent both._] Some armour or alarum is probably proposed,
which should be either invulnerable, or when struck indicate the
presence of the enemy’s “portable pocket engine,” intended
“irrecoverably to sink the ship;” not by merely perforating a single
hole, but by a powerful disruptive explosion, rending asunder all the
timbers. But the whole passage is so abundantly obscure that all
opinion on the matter goes for very little.
12.
A way to make a Ship not possible to be sunk though shot[4] an
hundred times betwixt wind and water by Cannon, and should[5]
lose a whole Plank, yet in half an hours time should be made as
fit to sail as before.
Footnotes
[4] shot at. P.
[5] she lose. P.
[_An unsinkable Ship._] As early as 1583, appeared “A Note of sundry
sorts of Engines,” without the author’s name. The 20th and last of
these is:--“To preserve a boat from drowning and the people that be
therein.” See J. O. Halliwell’s Rara Mathematica.
Considering the state of ship-building in 1655, the foregoing plan
must have been some very primitive scheme; but, rendering vessels
unsinkable, has long been a favourite subject with inventors.
13.
How to make such false Decks as in a moment should kill and take
prisoners as many as should board the Ship, without blowing
the[6] Decks up, or destroying them from being reducible, and in
a quarrer[7] of an hours time should recover their former shape,
and be made fit for any imployment without discovering the
secret.
Footnotes
[6] the real. P.
[7] _read_ quarter.
[_False destroying Decks._] William Bourne, in his “Inventions of
Devices,” 1578, devotes the “Third device” to show--“How to use a plain
or open deck hatches, that it is not possible to enter the ship without
spoiling of the enemies.”
14.
How to bring a force to weigh up an Anchor, or to do any forcible
exploit in the narrowest or[8] lowest room in any Ship, where few
hands shall do the work of many; and many hands applicable to the
same force, some standing, others sitting, and[9] by virtue of
their several helps a great force augmented in little room, as
effectual as if there were sufficient space to go about with an
Axle-tree, and work far from the Centre.
Footnotes
[8] and--for, or.
[9] and yet.
[_Multiplied strength in little room._] We shall have to allude to the
ambiguous use of the word “force” in the same sentence, as indicating
“strength, power, &c.” or, “a pump, or pump plunger,” in John Bate’s,
and other old works on mechanics. Now if we were to read this, “How to
bring the force [or plunger of a pump] to weigh up an anchor, &c., and
many hands applicable to the same force [or pump], &c.”--we should have
a statement strongly indicating the modern contrivance of the hydraulic
press. The concluding portion of the sentence only serves to strengthen
this suggestion. See “force” used in No. 21.
In 1594, Edmund Jentill, writing to Lord Burghley, mentions, as his
fourth invention:--“A devise whereby two men may be sufficient to
weigh the weightiest anchor in her Majesty’s navy, with greater
expedition than it is now done with the number now used.” Also, “The
like device is found for the hoisting of the main-yard with the like
expedition.”--MS. Lansdown, 113, Art. 4: and, “Letters on Scientific
Subjects,” edited by J. O. Halliwell, F.R.S. 8vo. 1841.
15.
A way[1] how to make a Boat work it self against Wind and Tide,
yea both without the help of man or beast; yet[2] so that the
Wind or Tide, though directly opposite, shall force the Ship or
Boat against it self; and in no point of the Compass, but it
shall be as effectual, as if the wind were in the Pupp,[3] or the
stream actually with the course it is to steer, according to
which the Oars shall row, and necessary motions work and move
towards the desired Port or point of the Compass.
Footnotes
[1] A way--omitted.
[2] but--for yet.
[3] poop. P.
[_A Boat driving against wind and tide._] The wording of this article
is varied as follows in the MS. of certain of his Inventions. See
Appendix A. He therein states:--
“By this (his quintessence of motion), I can make a vessel, of as
great burden as the river can bear, to go against the stream; which,
the more rapid it is, the faster it shall advance. And the moveable
part that works it, may be, by one man, still guided, to take the best
advantage of the stream; and yet to steer the boat to any point. And
this engine is applicable to any vessel or boat, whatsoever, without
being, therefore, made on purpose; and work these effects:--It roweth;
it draweth; it driveth, if need be, to pass London bridge against the
stream, at low water. And a boat lying at anchor, the engine may be
used for loading or unloading.”
He made this invention one of the four subjects in his Patent of 1661
(see Appendix B), which again varies the reading; but this last plainly
indicates the motive power as having been a mill. He proposes in his
patent specification:--“To make a boat that roweth, draweth, or setteth
even against wind or stream, yea, both, and to any part of the compass
which way soever the stream runs or wind blows, and yet the force of
the wind or stream causeth its motion, nothing being required but a
steersman; and whilest the boat stayeth to be loaded or unloaded, the
stream or wind shall perform such work as any water-mill or wind-mill
is capable of.”
Among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, there is an Italian book
of sketches on parchment, No. 3281, attributed to the 15th century,
entitled, “Delineationes Machinarum;” from one of the pen and ink
drawings of which the annexed engraving is a reduced copy. It is a
paddle boat of a very primitive form, to be operated by men working
at two crank handles. The Marquis seems to have had a very similar
idea, only employing the mechanical arrangements of a suitable wind or
water-mill.
[Illustration: Ancient Paddle Boat]
In that fine work, “Vitruvia de Architectura,” folio, Como, 1521,
there is an engraving of a large vessel propelled by paddles, worked
by animal power; therefore, so far as such a mode of propulsion is
concerned, paddle-wheels are of very ancient origin. In 1574, Ralph
Rabbards[J] presented to Queen Elizabeth, through the medium of the
venerable Lord Burghley, a list of twenty-five inventions. The 24th
is:--“The rarest engine that was ever invented for sea service. A
vessel in manner of a galley or galliotte to pass upon the seas and
rivers without oars or sail, against wind and tide, swifter than any
that ever hath been seen; of wonderful effect both for intelligence,
and many other admirable exploits, almost beyond the expectation of
man.”
William Bourne, in his “Inventions or Devices,” published in 1578, most
of which he claims to be his own projects, yet acknowledging some to
have been borrowed, offers the following in the 19th Device without
comment:--“And furthermore you may make a boat to go without oars or
sayle, by the placing of certain wheels on the outside of the boat, in
that sort, that the arms of the wheels may go into the water, and so
turning the wheels by some provision, and so the wheels shall make the
boat to go.”
This is followed by another application, being the 20th Device:--“And
also, they make a water-mill in a boat, for when that it rideth at an
anchor, the tide or stream will turn the wheels with great force, and
these mills are used in France, &c.”
In 1583, proposals were made for 20 different inventions, but the
author’s name does not appear. The 19th is:--“To make a boat to go
fast on the water without oar or saile;” but this is all we learn of
his project. See “Rara Mathematica,” edited by J. O. Halliwell, F.R.S.
&c. 8vo. 1841.
In 1594, Edmund Jentill addressed to Lord Burghley two communications
respecting his inventions. The last he names thus:--“A device wonderful
strange is also found out, whereby a vessel of burden may easily and
safely be guided both against wind and tide.” MS. Lansdown, 113, Art.
4; and “Letters on Scientific Subjects,” edited by J. O. Halliwell,
F.R.S. &c. 8vo. 1841.
Cressy Dymock, in his letter published by Hartlib in the “Legacie; or
an enlargement of the Discourse of Husbandry,” 4to. 1651, describing
what he saw at Wicklesen, mentions--“a pretty kind of Pinnace with
ordinance, somewhat like a close litter, but flat-bottomed; which
rowed with wheeles instead of oares, imployed it seemes formerly with
admirable successe, for the taking in of Crowland, and which gave me
a proofe of what I for many years have thought possible, and of very
great use and service, and still think it of unknowne value, if it were
skilfully indeed framed, and applyed as it might be.” [p. 110.]
Samuel Cotton, on the 28th of January, 1619, obtained a patent for
making and erecting mills upon barges or lighters in the river Thames.
David Ramsey and Thomas Wildgoose, on the 17th of January, 1618,
patented, among various other inventions, one “to make boats for the
carriage of burthens and passengers run upon the water as swift in
calms and more safe in storms than boats full sailed in great winds.”
David Ramsey includes in his patent of 21st of January, 1630, his
invention “to make boats, ships, and barges to go against the wind and
tide.”
And Dr. Thomas Grent, on the 20th of July, 1632, patented a plan “for
a more speedy passage of calmed ships.”
In 1640, Edward Ford, patented his invention, whereby he can make all
boats, &c. “go faster against wind and tide than now they use to do,
with half the men they have formerly used.”
It is stated in “Frier Bacon’s discovery of the Miracles of Art, &c.”
published in 12mo. 1659, that--“It is possible to make engines to sail
withal, as that either fresh or salt water vessels may be guided by the
help of one man, and made sail with a greater swiftness, than others
will which are full of men to help them.” Chap. iv. p. 17.
In “Humane Industry,” 1661, chap. 10, p. 154, it is noticed--“The
ancients had a way to drive their ships without oar or sail, so that
they could never be wind bound.” And at page 155, it is observed
that--“Scaliger doth aver, that he could make a ship that could steer
herself.”
Thomas Togood and James Heyes, in 1662, patented their invention for
the making of ships to sail without the assistance of wind or tide.
16.
How to make a Sea-castle or Fortification Cannon-proof, and[4]
capable of a thousand men, yet sailable at pleasure to defend a
passage, or in an hours time to divide it self into three Ships
as fit and trimm’d to sail as before: And even whilest it is a
Fort or Castle they shall be unanimously steered, and effectually
be driven by an indifferent strong wind.
Footnote
[4] and--omitted. P.
[_A Sea-sailing Fort._] Vitruvius, Vegetius, and many ancient writers
supply a variety of schemes to direct an inventor’s ingenuity. The idea
of such a construction, to divide into three or more sailing vessels
is likewise suggested, in many early designs, although no doubt very
different in some details. But the peculiarity hitherto unnoticed, of
the present invention, consists in the propelling and steering by means
of an artificial current of air. It is very clear that the Marquis had
discovered some pneumatic mode of propulsion. There is no inconsistency
in the idea of the same means being adapted for both steering and
propelling alternately. Even within the last few years extensive
experiments have been made, in which air-pumps were used to compress
the air beneath an inclined plane under the stern, which in flowing
upwards gave motion to the vessel.
17.
How to make upon the _Thames_ a floting Garden of pleasure, with
Trees, Flowers, Banquetting-Houses, and Fountains, Stews for all
kind of fishes, a reserve for Snow to keep Wine in, delicate
Bathing-places, and the like; with musick made with[5] Mills: and
all in the middest of the stream, where it is most rapid.
Footnote
[5] by--for with. MS. and P.
[_A pleasant floating Garden._] There appears to be little more
invention here than in the contrivance of so much variety, and the
selecting of “the stream where it is most rapid,” to give motion to
the water-mills to work the bellows for producing the promised music;
as well as to raise water high enough to obtain a pressure of it for
making the snow. The whole offers one of those raree-show designs in
which our great-grandfathers delighted, and the descriptions of which
formed the staple of their scientific discussions in polite society.
18.
An Artificial Fountain, to be turned like an Hour-glass by a
child, in the twinkling of an eye, it[6] holding great
quantity[7] of water, and of force sufficient to make snow, ice
and thunder, with a[8] chirping and singing of birds, and shewing
of several shapes and effects usual to Fountains of pleasure.
Footnotes
[6] yet--for it. MS. and P.
[7] quantities. P.
[8] the--for a. MS. and P.
[_An Hour-glasse Fountain._] In a MS. among the Marquis’s papers, the
foregoing appears to be the invention indicated under the
title:--“Fountains of pleasure, with artificial snow or hail, or
thunder, and quantity not limited.” [See p. 316.]
Kircher, Schottus, and others give descriptions, with engravings of
fountains, having the external appearance of the hour-glass. The
process of turning may have been facilitated by the machine resting
on two central pivots. But it must have been of considerable size to
produce an efficient hydraulic pressure engine to give forth snow
and ice. The thunder, &c., would depend on plans well understood for
producing stage effects, and their introduction here, with the music of
birds, &c. [see Article 46.] is similar to other automatic arrangements
which were the wonder and delight of that age, and a much later period.
In 1755, an engine of peculiar construction, to raise water from an
Hungarian mine, was erected by M. Hoel, at Chemnitz, which generated
intense cold as the water and air rushed out together, under great
columnar pressure, causing the formation of artificial hail, projected
with amazing force; the effect being very analogous to the suggestions
offered by the present articles, Nos. 17 and 18.
19.
A little engine within a Coach, whereby a child may stop it, and
secure all persons within it, and the Coachman himself, though
the horses be never so unruly[9] in a full career; a child being
sufficiently capable to loosen[1] them in what posture soever
they should have put themselves, turning never so short; for a
child can do it in the twinkling of an eye.
Footnotes
[9] and running.
[1] unloose. P.
[_A Coach-saving Engine._] We have two other readings of this article;
the first is the 5th article in his list of a portion of his
Inventions, (see Appendix A.) as follows:--“By this (his quintessence
of motion) I can make a child, in a coach, to stop the horses (running
away), and shall be able to secure himself, and those that be in the
coach; having a little engine placed therein, which shall not be
perceived, in what posture soever the horses draw. A child’s force
shall be able to disengage them, from overturning the coach, or
prejudicing anybody in it.”
The second reading is in his patent of 1661, (see Appendix B.) wherein
he offers:--“To make an engine applicable to any coach, by which a
child of six years old may secure from danger all in the coach, and
even the coachman himself, though the horses become never so unruly,
the child being able in the twinkling of an eye to loosen them from the
coach, in what posture soever they draw or turn, be it ever so short,
or to either hand.” By means of a T-ended lever, two or four bolts
could be simultaneously drawn inwards, and the horses thereby released
with the greatest possible ease and certainty.
20.
How to bring up water Balance-wise, so that as little weight or
force as will turn a Balance will be onely needful, more then the
weight of the water within the Buckets, which counterpoised[2]
empty themselves one into the other, the uppermost yielding its
water (how great a quantity soever it holds) at the self[3]- same
time the lower-most taketh it in, though it be an hundred fathom
high.
Footnotes
[2] counterpoise, and empty. MS. and P.
[3] self--omitted. P.
[_A Balance Water-work._] It is to be regretted that we have nothing
at present to aid us in offering a description at all approaching the
singular construction of this hydraulic machine. There are some curious
designs given in the description of M. Grollier de Servière’s cabinet,
1719, but we have never seen any plan fully realizing the effect above
indicated.
21.
How to raise water constantly with two Buckets onely day and
night, without any other force then its own motion, using not so
much as any force, wheel, or sucker, nor more pullies then one,
on which the cord or chain rolleth with a Bucket fastened at each
end. This, I confess,[4] I have seen and learned[5] of the great
Mathematician _Claudius_[6] [7] his studies at _Rome_, he having
made a Present thereof unto a Cardinal; and I desire not to own
any other mens[8] inventions, but if I set down any, to nominate
likewise the inventor.
Footnotes
[4] confess to have seen.
[5] in the great Mathematician’s study, Clauius at Rome.
[6] Clauius.
[7] Clavius’s Studies at Rome. P.
[8] man’s. MS. and P.
[_A Bucket-fountain._] In the present and preceding articles the
water is elevated by means of buckets, and it was only while these
pages were passing through the press that the author perceived those
precise marks of distinction between the two methods of employing the
buckets which enables him now to offer the following explanation of
each.
[Illustration: A Balance Water-work]
As regards No. 20, it seems, at first, absurd to expect to raise water
which is to be in a balance and pass from one bucket to the other. But
let us suppose an arrangement, as in the subjoined engraving, where
A, B, is a strong vertical wooden frame carrying six metal or wooden
pipes C, C, which can be moved simultaneously up and down on centres,
_a_, _a_, being connected by the iron rods, _b_, _b_; these pipes are
united with the top of six buckets at D, D', and with the bottom of six
other buckets at E, E'. The buckets D, D', are also connected at the
bottom with six other pipes F, F, each open at the end F, F, and so
arranged that the topmost pipe passes over a pulley _c_, but the other
five pipes with guide rods _d_, _d_, at their ends, enter the top end
of the five uppermost buckets on the side E; the pipe F, passing over
_c_, delivers the contents of bucket D, while the lower-most bucket E',
is being replenished, “thus the uppermost yielding its water at the
same time when the lower-most taketh it in.” In the present position
of the machine the pipes C, C, are inclined, and the pipes F, F, are
horizontal, but when the bucket E' is elevated, then these pipes will
all reverse their positions, being connected with the buckets by means
of flexible leather hose, or suitable jointed metal tubing.
[Illustration: A Bucket-fountain]
We have next to consider the present article No. 21. The conditions
stated require the use of but one pulley, one cord, and two buckets,
without any “force” or pump plunger, or “any wheel, or sucker.” An
arrangement so simple seems only possible to be attained by some such
plan as that exhibited in the illustration given below. We have here an
endless chain or cord, A B, passing over the pulley C, with a bucket
D, at the upper end; and another bucket E, at the lower end; the first
in the act of discharging its contents into the trough G, the second
re-charging with water at the level E. This endless chain is further
supplied with a series of conical or other shaped buckets, _a_, _a'_,
set on the endless cord in a reverse direction, so as to receive water
conveyed from an upper stream by the spout F, by which means the side
B, of the cord will descend, and the side A, ascend, “without any
other force than its own motion,” and that “with two buckets only, day
and night.” On the side _a'_, the conical buckets reverse and empty
themselves, thereby lightening the ascending side A, of the endless
chain or cord.
22.
To make a River in a Garden to ebbe and flow constantly, though
twenty foot over, with a childs force, in some private room or
place out of sight, and a competent distance from it.
[_An ebbing and flowing River._] In reference to this invention Mr.
Partington has quoted Peter Bogaerts’ ingenious method of a canal lock,
so contrived that, in a model, a weight of seven pounds was made to
raise ten hundred weight of water more than four feet in a few seconds.
But still the process of ebbing and flowing is not made out; it does
appear, however, that its operation requires the constant services of
a boy or other attendant, probably to keep alternately opening and
closing certain sluice arrangements, placed somewhere concealed from
view; the whole affording a water-work to amuse and surprise, and
forming a variety on the usual strange schemes attached to grottos,
caves, &c. spouting water in every variety of form.
See further the comments on article No. 57, which very probably
includes the principle here employed by the Marquis.
There is no communication in this article of facts requisite to direct
an engineer or inventor in the adjustment of any special kind of
machinery to obtain the desired ebbing and flowing river; which is
a novelty, in this respect, peculiar to the Marquis of Worcester’s
ingenuity. He was evidently not copying or improving any anterior
system of water-work. The next article is but an application of this
new system; and it is not until he has taken us through descriptive
hints of thirty-three totally different designs or devices, that in
No. 57, he offers “A constant water-flowing and ebbing motion.” We
think the three may be taken together, that is, No. 57, refers to the
principle and mechanism, of which Nos. 22 and 23, are mere simple
applications.
Thus, referring to what we have stated under No. 57, the
purpose named in the present article might be attained by means of two
domed or bell-shaped vessels, placed like gasometers, but otherwise
immoveable, partially immersed in a pond, or other artificial piece of
water; which being arranged so that, by admitting a steam pipe into
each, the contained air could be driven out thereby, condensation would
naturally follow, or might be accelerated; and one vessel immediately
filling with water, while the other was emptying, the surface of the
pond or river would be kept in a continual state of agitation, and the
water might be said to “ebb and flow constantly, though 20 feet over.”
No reason is assigned for proposing this modification of water work,
no advantage is pointed out, the Marquis doubtless depending on its
apparent impossibility for its exciting and stimulating inquiry. He
knew how the promulgation of such a wonder would have affected his
own mind, and never imagined but that the public would feel equally
inquisitive. His incomprehensible truths are, however, often denounced,
without investigation, as though they were false.
23.
To set a Clock in[9] a Castle, the[1] water filling the Trenches
about it;[2] it[3] shall shew by ebbing and flowing the Hours,
Minutes and Seconds, and all the comprehensible motions of the
Heavens, and Counterlibation[4] of the Earth, according to
_Copernicus_.
Footnotes
[9] as within a. MS and P.
[1] and the.
[2] about it shall show the hours, minutes, and seconds by ebbing.
[3] which--for it. P.
[4] counterlibration.
[_An ebbing and flowing Castle-clock._] John Bate, in his “Mysteries
of Nature and Art,” 1635, at p. 45, describes--“A water-clock, or a
glasse showing the hour of the day,” by three different arrangements.
This article is further noticed in commenting on No. 57.
24.
How to increase the strength of a Spring to such an height,[5] as
to shoot Bumbasses and Bullets of an hundred pound weight a
Steeple-height, and a quarter of a mile off and more,
Stone-bow-wise, admirable for Fire-works and astonishing of
besieged Cities, when without warning given by noise they find
themselves so forcibly and dangerously surprised.
Footnote
[5] degree--for height. P.
[_A Strength-increasing Spring._] The technical term
BUMBASSES, or probably bombasses, here used, has escaped the
attention of all compilers of Archaic Dictionaries. By the context
we may presume it was applied to the large stones usually fired from
bombards, and differing only from bullets in these last being made of
lead or iron.
Ancient cannon appear to have consisted of two kinds; a large one for
discharging stones, called a _Bombard_, and a lesser one for darts. In
1388, a stone bullet, weighing 195 pounds, is related, according to
Meyrick, to have been discharged from a _Bombard_, called the Trevisan.
Such stone missiles may have been of the kind called by the Marquis
“bumbasses,” and would be perhaps more properly named bombasses. The
Stone-bow was the Prodd; probably the Slurbowe was furnished with a
barrel through a slit, in which the string slided, when the trigger
was pulled. Three kinds are mentioned by Du Cange. See Fosbroke’s
Encyclopædia of Antiquities, 8vo. 1840.
Bishop Wilkins, treating on Catapultæ in his _Mathematicall Magick_,
1648, observes that their usual form was “after the manner of great
bows placed on carriages, and wound up by the strength of several
persons;” adding: “These were sometimes framed for the discharging of
two or three arrows together.”
As the Marquis wrote the Century in 1655, only seven years after
Wilkins’ publication, it is not at all unlikely that he seriously
contemplated the contriving of a most useful warlike implement; and
this appears the more reasonable when we find the worthy and learned
prelate advancing, as it appeared to him, cogent reasons in his 19th
chapter, in favour of the “Military offensive engines used amongst the
ancients,” as compared to cannon; gravely summing up his observations
with the remark--“that the force of these Engines does rather exceed
than come short of our gun-powder inventions.” Then again on the ground
of expense he shows an advantage in favour of Ballistæ and Catapultæ.
Thus: “the price of these gun-powder instruments is extremely
expensive.” This is proved from “a whole Cannon weighing commonly 8,000
pounds, a half Cannon 5,000, a Culverin 4,500, a Demi-culverin 3,000,”
which “must needs be very costly,” amounting “to several hundred
pounds,” for which sum “at least 10 of the ancient timber made engines
might be purchased”!
Then their transport was a serious matter, for “a whole Cannon does
require at the least 90 men, or 16 horses,” and so in proportion for
others. But the timber made engines are light, and their “materials to
be found everywhere.”
Then the gun-powder is costly; “a whole Cannon requiring for every
charge 40 pound of powder, and a bullet of 64 pounds,” and in
proportion for lesser cannon; whereas those other engines may be
charged only with stones. So that only for the superior force of cannon
“those ancient inventions” he conceives to be “much more commodious
than these later inventions.”
Among questions propounded and agreed upon, in January, 1660, to be
sent to Teneriffe by the Lord Brouncker and Mr. Boyle, the fifth
was,--“Try the power of a stone bow, or other spring, both above and
below (the hill), and note well the difference.”--Weld’s Hist. Royal
Society, Vol. i. p. 98.
25.
How to make a Weight that cannot take up an hundred pound, and
yet shall take up two hundred pound, and[6] at the self-same
distance from the Centre; and so proportionally to millions of
pounds.
Footnote
[6] and--omitted.
[_A double-drawing Engine for weights._] The articles Nos. 25, 27,
and 29 can only be taken as descriptive of elucidatory models,
demonstrative of the applications of a certain principle, the result
of condensation. For some unaccountable reason there has been a
prevalent opinion that the Marquis was ignorant of condensation. If
such an opinion is grounded on his not expressly alluding to it in
the “Century,” then by the same rule it might be doubted whether he
understood anything about steam! But as the “Century” was written to
remind himself, and not to inform others of the _modus operandi_, it
was sufficient for his purpose to particularise only the results. We
can usually distinguish where he treads a beaten track, the result
of reading, and where his course deviates into his “fire-water-work”
experiments. The former generally has its parallel in some old author;
but when the same rule is attempted to be applied to measure the
others, we find we are dealing either with a new order of things, or
else with sheer paradoxes of the most chimerical character. While,
on the other hand, follow him in his own new track of experimental
research, and we are rewarded at every step with a full and clear
exposition of the wonderfully ingenious processes of inquiry by which
he attained the perfection ascribed by him to his “Water-commanding
Engine.”
[Illustration: A double-drawing Engine]
In the present article it is required that a weight shall take up
double its own weight, not by the old rule of leverage, but “at the
self-same distance from the centre.” In the subjoined diagram we have
two cylinders C, B, connected at the lower end with a steam pipe,
supplied with the steam-cock A. A cord passing over the drum wheel D,
is connected at its ends with the pistons B, C; and the whole stands
in a trough E. Steam having been admitted to B, and then cut off,
condensation has ensued, the piston B has descended and C has been
raised, and along with it a quantity of water. Here we may take the
two pistons as representing “one hundred pound” each, and although
they balance, yet we thus find “how to make a weight” under such
circumstances, nevertheless, take up “two hundred pounds,” that is,
including the water.
A very similar kind of piston to the one here shown, is suggested by
Fludd, Besson, and others, to be worked by a spiral spring, which being
drawn to the bottom of a cylindrical vessel, water may be poured in
above it, and being then tightly covered, with a lid having either an
open jet or a tap in the centre, on releasing the spiral spring, the
false bottom rising, and pressing the liquid, causes it to escape in a
jet d’eau, gradually diminishing as the spring relaxes. The contrivance
is elaborately illustrated in the 18th folio engraving of Besson’s
“Theatrum Instrumentorum et Machinarum,” 1578; the Marquis, therefore,
had only to substitute steam for the spiral spring.
26.
To raise weight as[7] well and as forcibly with the drawing back
of the Lever, as with the thrusting it[8] forwards; and by that
means to lose no time in motion or strength. This I saw in the
_Arcenal_ at _Venice_.[9]
Footnotes
[7] so--for as.
[8] of it.
[9] at Venice in the arsenal.
[_A to and fro Lever._] William Bourne offers the following as his
112th Device, “touching the making of engines to thrust from or pull
to you with great force or strength.” He says, “And furthermore, you
may make an engine to thrust from you or to pull unto you, to lift vp
or to presse downe with great force, eyther to goe with wheeles as
before is declared, or else to goe with skrewes or to goe with both,
as to thrust open huge and strong gates, or else you taking good hold,
to pull them open vnto you wards, and will make but little noyse in
the doyng thereof, but you must be sure to set the engine fast, if to
thrust from, to be strongly and well backed, and to pull to them it
must be strongly bolstered before, sufficient to be of force to scrue
the turne.”
[Illustration: A to and fro Lever]
The Venetian arrangement may be described, as shown in the annexed
engraving, where A, B, C, is a frame, the two upright sides of which D
E, are provided with a series of clicks, appearing in the drawing like
the serrated edge of a saw, and each is so placed secured by a pin on
which it moves, as always to incline to fall outwards. F, F, is a long
lever, having a stout short cross bar in the centre, and is represented
on the point of taking up on a click at _a_, while it leaves one on the
opposite _b_, such being the _to_ and _fro_ motion required, thereby
losing “no time in motion or strength.”
27.
A way to remove to and fro huge weights with a most
inconsiderable strength from place to place. For example, Ten
Tunne with ten pounds, and less; the said ten pounds not to fall
lower then it makes the ten Tunne to advance or retreat upon a
Level.
[Illustration: A most easy level Draught]
[_A most easie level Draught._] The weight is in this case to be moved
“with a most inconsiderable strength.” Ten pounds, or less, are to be
capable of moving 22,400 pounds. And the precise conditions are--“the
said ten pounds not to _fall lower_ than it makes the ten ton _to
advance_.” The annexed engraving shows, as in No. 25, two cylinders B,
C, with their steam-pipe and valve at A, having above a platform G, on
which is a loaded truck F, attached by a cord _a_, at one end passing
over a pulley, and the drum wheel D, to the piston B; and a second
cord at the other end passing over a pulley at _a'_, attached in like
manner to the other piston C. Steam having been admitted to B, on its
condensation the piston descending draws along with it the weighted
truck F, while the piston C, ascends, drawing in air at E.
We thus attain the strict letter of the conditions set down, the _fall_
and the _advance_ being equal.
28.
A Bridge portable in[1] a Cart with six horses, which in a few
hours time may be placed over a River half a mile broad, whereon
with much expedition may[2] be transported Horse, Foot and
Cannon.
Footnotes
[1] upon a. MS. and P.
[2] there may be.
[_A portable Bridge._] The great painter, Leonardo da Vinci, born in
1452, and who died at 67 years of age in 1520, was a man of singularly
inventive talent. Among his other projects, he declares:--“I have the
means of constructing light bridges, easy of carriage, and equally
adapted to pursue or escape an enemy, secure from fire; and as easy to
remove as to replace; and also the means of destroying those of the
enemy.” See an interesting Memoir of him by J. W. Brown. 12mo. 1828.
Bourne’s 94th Device promises, “How you may make a bridge upon a
sudden, that a whole army of men and their carriages may pass over any
river or haven, if that it be of not too great breadth.”--See his
Inventions or Devices, 1578.
Sir Hugh Plat, in his “Jewel House of Art and Nature,” 1653, shows, in
article No. 22, “How to erect or build over any brook, or small river,
a cheap and wooden bridge of 40 or 50 feet in length, without fastening
any timber work within the water.”
29.
A portable Fortification able to contain five hundred fighting
men, and yet[3] in six hours time may[4] be set up, and made
Cannon-proof, upon the side of a River or Pass, with Cannon
mounted upon it, and as complete as a regular Fortification, with
Half-moons and Counterscarps.
Footnotes
[3] yet--omitted.
[4] able to be--for, may be.
[_A moveable Fortification._] Vegetius, in “De re militari,” 1535,
offers many similar schemes but less ambitious than the present
one; which is, after all, little if any more than an extension and
improvement on what had previously been more or less practised.
In his “Naturæ simia seu technica,” dated 1618, Robert Fludd, at page
421, gives a folio engraving of a triangular fort, with six pieces of
cannon and three gunners. It appears to be on wheels, and is pushed
along by a beam running on three wheels, having four horses yoked to
it; literally the cart before the horse.
30.
A way in one nights time to raise a Bulwork twenty or thirty foot
high, Cannon-proof, and Cannon mounted upon it, with men to
overlook, command and batter a Towne; for though it contain but
four Pieces, they shall be able to discharge two hundred Bullets
each hour.
[_A Rising Bulwork._] Grose, in his “Military Antiquities,” Vol. I.
Page 355, notices a moveable tower, the use of which was revived by the
Royalists in their attack on Gloucester, during the Civil War.
In 1644, Edmond Felton, gentleman, published a pamphlet entitled,
“Engins invented to save blood and moneys;” the nature of which he
“discovered unto the Committee for the fortifications of the City of
London.” The Honourable Major General Skippon attested in respect of
it, that the engine “was of three tiers of ten muskets in a tier, to
shoot arrows withal.” The inventor satisfied the Committee, “how an
engine will secure the foot from the horse, and the soldiers from
musket shot, which engine in fair ways two men may manage at pleasure.”
He complains of a piracy of his invention, observing, “There was about
twenty of the said engines made at Oxford, and from thence carried
to Gloucester, to go up to the walls. And had not his Excellency the
Earl of Essex so happily arrived to raise the siege as he did, it was
reported by some of the army, the city was in great fear to be taken
thereby; most of which said engines the besiegers burnt, because
they should not be taken.”
In the second volume of “Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis: a collection of
scarce and curious tracts, by John Washbourn, jun. Gloucester. 4to.
1825,” there is a reprint of “Corbet’s Historicall relation of the
Military Government of Gloucester, 1645,” which contains this
passage: “Wherefore besides their mine and battery, they framed great
store of those unperfect and troublesome engines to assault the lower
parts of the city. Those engines ran upon wheels, with planks
musket-proof placed on the axle-tree, with holes for musket-shot and
a bridge before it, the end whereof (the wheels falling into the
ditch) was to rest upon our breast works.” Page 54.
And in the reprint of “A briefe and exact diurnall of the siege
before Gloucester, by John Dorney, Esquire, 1643,” we meet with the
following:--“Munday, September 4. We understood likewise that the
enemy had by the direction of that Jesuitticall Doctor Chillingworth,
provided great store of engines after the manner of the Romane
Testudines cum Pluteis, with which they intended to have assaulted the
parts of the city, between the south and west gates. These engines ran
upon cart wheeles, with a blinde of plankes musquet proofe, and holes
for foure musquetiers to play out of, placed upon the axeltree to
defend the musquetiers and those that thrust it forward, and carrying
a bridge before it; the wheeles were to fall into the ditch, and the
end of the bridge to rest upon our brest-workes, so making severall
compleat bridges to enter the city. After the raising of the siege, we
tooke all these engines, and brought them into the towne.”--Page 225.
In the first volume of this work there is a note on the two preceding
passages, in which the editor observes:--“The plan of these machines
was borrowed from the ancients. Various contrivances of this kind
were also employed in the middle ages, before and for a considerable
time after the invention of fire-arms. Sometimes they used them for
undermining the walls. At the siege of Ribadavia in Spain, during
the reign of Richard II. similar moveable machines were used. See
Froissart, viii. c. 26. Such an engine is also mentioned by the Marquis
of Worcester in his Century of Inventions.”
31.
A way how safely and speedily to make an approach to a Castle or
Town-wall, and over the very Ditch at Noon-day.
[_An approaching Blinde._] Vegetius, in “De re militari,” 1535,
depicts and describes several kinds of these ancient military blinds,
screens, and other contrivances and machines for protecting the
attacking party. At page 15 he shows a ponderous advancing screen or
shield on four wheels, and at two pages further a side view of the
same, covering a large body of soldiers. Some have raised, hinged
platforms, to be lowered for crossing a ditch.
Grose says:--“The cattus, cat-house, gattus or cat, was a covered
shed, occasionally fixed on wheels, and used for covering soldiers
employed in filling up the ditch, &c.”--Military Antiquities, 4to.
1801.
32.
How to compose an universal Character methodical and easie to be
written, yet intelligible in any Language; so that if an
English-man write it in English, a French-man,[5] Italian,
Spaniard, Irish,[6] Welsh,[7] being Scholars; yea, Grecian or
Hebritian shall as perfectly understand it in their owne Tongue,
as if they were perfect[8] English, distinguishing the Verbs from
the Nouns, the Numbers, Tenses and Cases as properly expressed in
their own Language as it was written in English.
Footnotes
[5] man--omitted.
[6] Irish and.
[7] or Welchman. P.
[8] perfect--omitted. P.
[_An universall Character._] In 1668, the Royal Society ordered the
printing of “An Essay towards a real Character, and a philosophical
language; by John Wilkins, D. D. Dean of Ripon, and F. R. S.,” folio.
It is dedicated to the president, William Lord Viscount Brouncker, and
consists of a treatise of 454 pages, to which is appended a dictionary
of 155 pages. The very extent of such a work is almost fatal to its
acceptance, and we must admit that it is questionable whether, with
all its learning and ingenuity, it affords a single hint calculated to
promote the intended object.
In relation to this subject, the reader, desirous of enlarged
information, could not do better than consult the recently published
“Lectures on the Science of Language,” by Professor Max Müller, M. A.
It would be highly interesting to possess any clue whatever to the
ideas of the Marquis on this subject. He was so truthful in his
statements, that he must have made a considerable advance in the
discovery of means for obtaining the end proposed, although he may have
over-estimated its application, according to our judgment.
Of early publications on this topic we would especially notice, “Le
Caractère universel, par lequel toutes Nations peuvent comprendre les
conceptions l’une de l’autre en lisant par une escriture commune, à
toutes leur propre langage maternelle. Par Cave Beck. M. A.” London,
1657, 12mo. Also “Joh. J. Becheri Spirensis character, pro Notitia
Linguarum Universali.” Francfort, 1661. And “Ars signorum, vulgo
character universalis et lingua philosophica,” by Georgius Dalgarno: a
small 12mo. volume in Latin. 1661.
A system of a universal alphabet has been recently proposed for
telegraphic purposes, by means of which it is believed all the sounds
of the human speech may be recorded and transmitted; mastering all the
sounds which the human voice is capable of uttering in any language.
The proposed scheme is even said to have been severely tested by many
eminent linguists. It is to be hoped that the announced discovery will
be found to realize all it promises, and remunerate the ingenious
inventor.
33.
To write with a Needle and Thred, white, or any[9] colour upon
white, or[1] any other[2] colour, so that one stitch shall
significantly shew any letter, and as readily and[3] as easily
shew the one letter as the other, and fit for any Language.
Footnotes
[9] any other. P.
[1] or upon.
[2] other--omitted.
[3] and as. MS. and P.
[_A Needle-alphabet._]
34.
To write by a knotted Silk string, so that every knot shall
signifie any letter with Comma, Full point, or Interrogation, and
as legible as with Pen and Ink upon white Paper.
[_A knotted String-alphabet._]
35.
The like, by the fringe of Gloves.
[_A Fringe-alphabet._]
36.
By stringing of Bracelets.
[_A Bracelet-alphabet._]
37.
By Pinck’d Gloves.
[_A Pinck’d Glove-alphabet._]
38.
By holes in the bottom of a Sieve.
[_A Sieve-alphabet._]
39.
By a Lattin or[4] Plate Lanthorn.[5]
Footnotes
[4] or candlestick lantern. P.
[5] plate candlestick Lanthorn.
[_A Lanthorn-alphabet._]
40.
By the Smell.
41.
By the Taste.
42.
By the Touch.
By these three Senses as perfectly, distinctly and unconfusedly,
yea as readily as by the sight.
[_An alphabet by the--Smell; Taste; Touch._]
43.
How to vary each of these, so that ten thousand may know them,
and yet[6] keep the understanding part from any but their
Correspondent.
Footnote
[6] yet--omitted.
[_A variation of all and each of these._] We have here ten Alphabets,
concluding with a variation on each, which, had it been given, would
have at least increased the number to twenty, but that was by no means
the limit. Cipher Alphabets are the least interesting portion of the
“Century;” we imagine we trace in them some of the Marquis’s earliest
studies, and fancy that later in life they were retained from fond
recollections of the past.
These secret methods of corresponding are no longer of any service, and
have no interest beyond what may attach to them in connection with the
history of short-hand writing, wherein the object is rather dispatch
than secrecy. Among early writers on the art of Senigraphy, and
Stenography, are Bright, 1588, Bales 1590, Arnold Bostius, Trithemius
1600, Willis 1618, Dix 1633, Wilkins 1641, Cartwright 1652, Rich 1654,
Falconer (“The Art of Secret Information,”) 1685, with others.
John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan of considerable eminence, born 1445,
and who died in 1515, wrote “De Occultis Literarium Notis, Libri
quinque,” Argent. 1608, octavo, in which he gives no less than 180
different methods of secret writing.
The learned and ingenious Bishop Wilkins in 1641, published his
“Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger.”
Of line alphabets he says--“Who would mistrust any private news or
treachery to lie hid in a thread, wherein there was nothing to be
discerned, but sundry confused knots or other the like marks?” It is,
however, easily effected by each party having like tablets marked at
top with the alphabet, and having hooks down each side for the passing
and holding of a thread worked backwards and forwards, in which action
it is to have a knot made on it for the desired letter above; making
altogether words and sentences.
Chapter 6, is on “Secret writing with the common letters, by changing
of their places.”
In chapter 11, “Of writing by invented characters,” he says: “There
have been some other inventions of writing by points, or lines, or
figures.”
Chapter 13 is, “concerning an universal character that may be legible
to all nations and languages,” concluding with observations on “The
benefit and possibility of this.”
In chapter 17, we are told “of secret and swift informations by the
species of sound.” Among others he names “Bells,” as a species which
“may be a sufficient means, whereby to communicate the thoughts;” and
in chapter 18, he treats “concerning a language that may consist only
of tunes and musical notes, without any articulate sound.” And lastly,
in chapter 20, we have “Of informations by significatory fires and
smokes.”
Among the “variations” the sense of Seeing may be employed, as proposed
by Sir Hugh Plat in his “Jewel House of Art and Nature,” 1653, in
which he describes “How to speak by signs only without uttering of any
word”--using the fingers and motions with them and the hands, which he
calls a “conceited alphabet.”--Page 38.
Those who are curious in such matters, may see more at large in Dr.
W. Hooper’s Rational Recreations, ed. 1794, 8vo. different methods of
writing in cipher, commencing at p. 143, of 1st Vol.--thus:--
To communicate intelligence by a pack of piquet cards.--The musical
dial.--The corresponding spaces.--The musical cipher.--Rules for
deciphering.--Example of a cipher written in arbitrary characters,
and the words separate from each other.--Visual correspondence; and,
Correspondence by bells.
44.
To make a Key of a Chamber door, which to your sight hath its
Wards and Rose-pipe but Paper-thick, and yet at pleasure in a
minute of an hour shall become a perfect Pistol, capable to shoot
through a Brest-plate commonly of Carabine-proof, with Prime,
Powder and Firelock, undiscoverable in a strangers hand.
[_A Key-Pistol._] This mere piece of ingenuity, so pleasing to certain
mechanics in working out mechanical trinkets, might be effected by
causing the removal of the key handle to expose a sufficiently strong
pistol barrel, while the “rose pipe but paper thick” would answer to
receive, and perform the office of retaining the key handle securely,
by which to hold it while firing this key-pistol. The next part of
the contrivance would be, to make the “wards” serve to conceal the
pistol pan, cock, &c. The description is well calculated to mislead
the reader, under the impression that the barrel itself is “but
paper-thick.”
45.
How to light a Fire and a Candle at what hour of the night one
awaketh, without rising or putting ones hand out of the bed. And
the same thing[7] becomes[8] a serviceable Pistol at pleasure;
yet by a stranger, not knowing the secret, seemeth but a
dexterous Tinder-box.
Footnotes
[7] to be a. P.
[8] becomes to be.
[_A most conceited Tinder-box._] The following note from “Humane
Industry,” 1661, appears highly suggestive of such an instrument,
although the Marquis’s invention is more elaborate. “Andrew Alciat the
great Civilian of France, had a kind of Clock in his chamber, that
should awake him at any hour of the night that he determined, and when
it struck the determined hour, it struck fire likewise out of a flint,
which fell among tinder, to light him a candle: it was the invention of
one Caravagio of Sienna in Italy.”
46.
How to make an artificial Bird to fly which way and as long as
one pleaseth, by or against the wind, sometimes chirping, other
times hovering, still tending the way it is designed for.
[_An artificial Bird._] The third article in his list of a portion
of his inventions supplies a different reading, thus: “By this (his
‘quint-essence of motion’) I can make an artificial bird to fly which
way, and as long as I please.” [Appendix A.]
The Marquis, not to be behind the curious and ingenious men of ancient
times, has here and in article No. 18, emulated John Muller of
Nuremberg, better known as Regiomontanus, who was born in 1436. He is
celebrated for this species of _rara avis_; a self-moving and flying
eagle, and an iron fly have afforded much matter for romantic and
no doubt exaggerated accounts of their performances; the one flying
a good way in the open air and returning; the other flying from the
philosopher round a table and coming back to his hand. He evinced a
genius of the first order as a great inventor, and also as a promoter
of the advancement of science.
In Ramelli’s great work on various machines, folio, 1588, the 187th
figure offers a detailed representation of a handsomely furnished
apartment, in which a large carved sideboard sustains a gigantic vase
containing a flowering shrub, in the branches of which six birds appear
in the act of singing. The vase being a sectional drawing, various
pipes can be seen, also the performer behind, who is blowing through a
single pipe into the body of the vase.
But the highly popular work of Hero of Alexandria promulgated several
similar schemes. He shows how to make an artificial bird sing by
flowing water, or alternately sing and be silent. See Mr. Woodcroft’s
handsome edition of Hero’s Pneumatics, 4to. 1851.
William Bourne, also, in his “Inventions or Devices,” 1578, treats of
“birds of wood or metal made by art to fly,” and of others, “to sing
sweetly at certain hours appointed.”
Bate, in his “Mysteries of Nature and Art,” 1635, treats, at page
24, “How to make that a bird sitting on a basis, shall make a noise,
and drink out of a cup of water, being held to the mouth of it;” and
further, “Advice whereby several voices of birds chirping may be heard.”
So again Isaac De Caus, in his “Rare Inventions of Water Works,” folio,
1659, at page 20, gives instructions--“To counterfeit the voice of
small birds by means of water and air.” And in Plate XIV. “To represent
divers birds which shall sing diversly when an owl turns towards them;
and when the said owl turns back again they shall cease their singing.”
These later examples show that the Marquis was neither altogether
original nor singular in attempting improvements in these automatic
toys, which from the time of Hero of Alexandria were accounted
sufficiently wonderful evidence of mechanical ingenuity to attract
the serious attention of even the most talented engineers of the last
century. Of such mechanical achievements of the ingenious a full
account may be read in Montucla’s edition of Ozanam’s “Mathematical
Recreations.”
Volant automata, as he calls them, did not escape the attentive
consideration of Bishop Wilkins, and he says enough on this class of
mechanical curiosities to have stimulated the mechanical ingenuity of
even a less enthusiastic inventor than the Marquis of Worcester, as
of the wooden dove of Archytas, and the wooden eagle and iron fly of
Regiomontanus.
The Marquis, if he ever perused the little treatise just quoted, would
be keenly alive to the truthfulness of the remark that--“it is none
of the meanest discouragements, that any strange inventions are so
generally derided by common opinion, being esteemed only as the dreams
of a melancholy and distempered fancy; for that saying of Virgil,
“Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen,” &c.
“hath been an old censure applied unto such as ventured upon any
strange or incredible attempt.”--See Math. Magick, 1648, p. 198.
The Rev. Dr. Powell, in the last chapter of his “Humane Industry,”
1661, treats of various minute automata as--“Certain sports and
extravagancies of art,” for which he offers an ingenious apology,
observing: “As nature hath her _ludicra_, so art hath hers too; that
is, some pretty knacks that are made, not so much for use, as to show
subtilty of wit, being made _de Gaieté de Cœur_, and for pastime
as it were; yet the workmanship and elegancy of these may justly
deserve admiration;” concluding--“art, as well as nature, is never
more wonderful than in smaller pieces.” After describing small chains,
locks, chariots, ships, clocks, and insects, he remarks:--“though
these knacks are but little useful, and take up more time than needed
to be lost, yet they discover a marvellous pregnancy of wit in the
artificers; and may be _experimenta lucifera_, if not _frugifera_ hints
of greater matters.”
It will not appear strange to find the inventor of the steam engine
engaged toying with an artificial bird, an imprisoning chair, a brazen
head, or a riding horse, when it is remembered that for a hundred
years later such automata were highly prized by the nobility and
gentry, and proved extemely lucrative to the public exhibitors of such
mechanical imitations of life. M. Vaucanson’s inventions were of this
chararcter, attracting admiring audiences among the learned and the
vulgar, on the Continent and in England. A learned society received
his communication in Paris, while in London it had the unquestionable
honour of being translated by Dr. Desaguliers, who says in his preface,
“In giving this paper an English dress, I am still acting in my
province, which has been for many years to explain the works of art, as
well as the phenomena of nature;” and his translation is given under
the following elaborate title:--
“An account of the mechanism of an automaton or image playing on the
German Flute: as it was presented in a memoire, to the gentlemen of the
Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. By M. Vaucanson, Inventor and maker
of the said machine. Together with a description of an artificial Duck,
eating, drinking, macerating the food, &c. As also that of another
image, no less wonderful than the first, playing on the tabor and
pipe; as he has given an account of them since the memoir was written.
Translated out of the French original, by J. T. Desaguliers, LL.D.,
F.R.S., Chaplain to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 4to. 1742.”
[24 pages, and an engraved frontispiece.]
47.
To make a Ball of any metal, which thrown into a Pool or Pail of
water shall presently rise from the bottom, and constantly shew
by the _superficies_ of the water the hour of the day or night,
never rising more out of the water then just to the minute it
sheweth of each quarter of the hour; and if by force kept under
water, yet the time is not lost, but recovered as soon as it is
permitted to rise to the _superficies_[9] of the water.
Footnote
[9] surface. P.
[_An Hour Water-ball._] The 4th article of his selected list of his
inventions supplies the following varied reading:--
“By these (his quintessence of Motion) I can make a ball of silver or
gold, which thrown into a pail, or poole of water, shall arise again
to the perfect hour of any day or night. The superficies of the water
shall still show the hour distinctly; even the minutes, if I please.”
See Appendix A.
Many curious specimens of these Horologies occur in the description of
M. Grollier de Servière’s cabinet, published 1719.
48.
A scrued Ascent, instead of Stairs, with fit landing places to
the best Chambers of each Story, with Back-stairs within the
Noell[1] of it, convenient for Servants to pass up and down to
the inward Rooms of them unseen and private.
Footnote
[1] Noell, in the MS.
[_A scru’d ascent of Stairs._] This title does not strictly agree
with the text, for there is a material difference between “a screwed
ascent, _instead_ of stairs,” and “a screwed ascent of stairs;”
the former altogether dispenses with stairs, giving the idea of an
inclined ascent without steps, such as is employed in the construction
of the Observatory of Copenhagen; the width being sufficient and the
ascent so gradual, that a carriage and four may easily be driven up to
the top circular gallery.
According to this improvement there are “back-stairs within the
_noell_,” that is, the Noel, Nowel, Noyau, or Newell, a term applied
to the centre round which the stairs of a circular staircase wind, and
which may be either a solid column, or an open space. Such stairs are
said to be neweled.
The great labour and expense bestowed on some kinds of staircases is
well exemplified by Evelyn in his tour of France, who describes going
to Blois, in 1664, and seeing there a palace built by Francis the
First, the staircase of which, consisting of 274 steps, is mentioned
by Palladio; he notices it as a wonderful piece of work, from its
construction having occupied 1800 workmen during twelve years. “The
stayre-case (he says) is devised with four entries or ascents, which
cross one another, so that though four persons meet, they never come
in sight, but by small loopholes, till they land.”--Memoirs of John
Evelyn, 2nd edit. 4to. vol. i. page 59.
49.
A portable Engine, in way of a Tobacco-tongs, whereby a man may
get over a wall, or get up again being come down, finding the
coast proving[2] [3] unsecure unto him.
Footnotes
[2] proveth insecure for him. P.
[3] proveth.
[_A Tobacco-tongs Engine._] The designation here given, when published
in 1663, was doubtless generally understood, but the smallness of the
“engine,” its very nature, and not less, its long discontinuance of
use, now renders the passage obscure. It so happens, however, that a
scientific experiment, in which this humble instrument was employed
by the Honourable Robert Boyle, has preserved, for our information
in this matter, the true figure of the “tobacco-tongs.” In the 3rd
Volume of Boyle’s Works, folio, published in 1744, is recorded his
pneumatical experiments on the falling of bodies in vacuo. Treating
of “New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the
air,” illustrated by the well-known experiment of dropping at the same
time a guinea and a feather within an exhausted glass receiver, he
says: “We so fastened a small pair of _tobacco-tongs_ to the inside
of the receiver’s brass cover, that by moving a turning key, we might
by a string tied to one part of them open the tongs, which else their
own spring would keep shut.”
[Illustration: Tobacco-tongs]
In an illustrative engraved plate, accompanying his description, the
fourth figure therein is designed to show the “tobacco-tongs,” which
appear in the form of a figure of 8, as in the annexed diagram, where
_a_, is the top or hand portion, being the largest oval, while the
lower oval _b_, is not above one third its size, at which point this
steel spring instrument was cut through, to form the tong or nippers.
We imagine that a side view would be like the dotted figure _c_, _d_,
where _d_, shows how the ends of these nippers were probably elongated
a little, the more readily to take up and part with the tobacco or
other material. The least pressure on the outside of the large oval,
will extend the nippers _b_, _d_, which again close when such pressure
is removed.
But there may have been another form of such tongs, like the letter X,
or two such figures combined; and by increasing the series we should
produce the instrument known as the lazy-tongs, which collapse into a
very small space, yet will extend to a great distance.
50.
A complete light portable Ladder, which taken out of ones Pocket,
may be by himself fastened an hundred foot[4] high to get up by
from the ground.
Footnote
[4] feet. P.
[_A Pocket-ladder._] There are many curious and ingenious designs for
portable scaling ladders, offered by Vegetius in “De re militari,”
1535, but which would require to be very considerably modified to
become pocketable; however, they occur in every variety at page 35,
in short pieces, each with a screw at one end, and a socket at the
other; at p. 59, as a neat rope ladder; at p. 113, on the principle of
the lazy-tongs; and at p. 162, a method of connecting short poles is
exhibited.
Robert Fludd, in the second book of his works, published in 1617 and
1618, folio, Page 384, gives a large copper-plate engraving of a very
ingenious form of ladder. Each step is of wood, and the two sides of
rope. The ingenuity of the invention consists in each step having
a ferrule at one end, and the opposite end tapered sufficiently to
fit into each ferrule of the adjoining step; by this means the whole
can be put together like an ordinary fishing rod, and the top step
terminating with a hook, it can easily be attached to any elevated
place, and on pulling the pole, each part separates, falling at once
into the form of a ladder with rope sides. Bourne’s 62nd Device, in his
“Inventions, or Devices,” 1578, is--“How for to make a scaling ladder.”
Van Etten, 1653, gives for his 111th Problem, “To make a Ladder of
Cords, which may be carried in ones pocket: by which one may easily
mount up a wall, or tree alone.” It consists simply of two pulleys,
with “a cord of an half inch thick (which may be of silk, because it
is for the pocket),” having a staff at one end to sit upon. The author
gravely concludes, “This secret is most excellent in warre, and for
lovers, its supportablenesse avoids suspition.” See page 248.
Among Friar Bacon’s inventions, the following is recorded in the
fourth chapter of his “Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature and
Magick,” 12mo. published in 1659:--“It is possible to invent an Engine
of a little bulk, yet of great efficacy, either to the depressing
or elevation of the very greatest weight; which would be of much
consequence in several accidents; for hereby a man may either ascend or
descend any walls, delivering himself or comrades from prison; and this
engine is only three fingers high and four broad.”
51.
A Rule of Gradation, which with ease and method reduceth all
things to a private correspondence, most useful for secret
Intelligence.
[_A Rule of Gradation._] Probably some scheme which appeared to
be capable of indefinite multiplication, the object of the secret
correspondent always being to elude the utmost skill of an expert
decipherer. Twenty-six lines of 26 letters of the alphabet each, would
form a square; and supposing the letters placed in different order
on each line, we might produce 26 linear alphabets, and 26 columnar
alphabets; or change these by diagonal or other lines. These, and
similar variations appear interminable, but it is questionable whether
they would not delay rather than defy detection.
52.
How to signifie words and a perfect Discourse by[5] jangling
of[6] Bells of any Parish-Church, or by any Musical Instrument
within hearing, in a seeming way of tuning it; or of an unskilful
beginner.
Footnotes
[5] by the.
[6] of the.
[_A mysticall jangling of Bells._] There occurs at page 185, of Van
Etten’s Math. Recreat. 1653, among the several heads of Problem 84,
“Of changes in Bells.” He inquires: “Is it not an admirable thing
to consider how the skill of numbers doth easily furnish us with
the knowledge of mysterious hidden things?” He says: “It is often
debated--what number of changes there might be made in 5, 6, 7, 8, or
more bells;” observing thereon, “that a childe which can but multiply
one number by another, may easily resolve it.” Not only have we here
a kindred subject discussed, but also in language very analogous to
that employed by the Marquis, particularly in the use of the words
“mysterious,” “admirable,” and “a child;” the latter being a favourite
similitude.
53.
A way how to make hollow and cover a Water-scrue as big and as
long as one pleaseth in an easie and cheap way.
[_An hollowing of a Water-scrue._] This was probably no more than an
ingenious piece of carpentry, to obtain an object which was then most
likely of considerable importance. Three of his inventions refer to the
Archimedian screw, so that the Marquis seems to have given the subject
more than ordinary attention.
54.
How to make a Water-scrue tite, and yet transparent, and free
from breaking; but so clear, that one may palpably see the water
or any heavy thing how and why it is mounted by turning.
[_A transparent Water-scrue._] This invention does not appear to be
offered as one of any other use than for pleasure and instruction, to
“see the water or any heavy thing, how and why it mounteth by turning.”
Was it not by such models that he had early informed his own mind?
If the transparent covering was not to be glass or horn, the Marquis
may have used the material proposed by Sir Hugh Plat in his “Jewel
House of Art and Nature,” 1653, in which is given, at page 72, a
recipe: “To make parchment clear and transparent to serve for divers
purposes. This I commend, (he says) before oiled paper, because it is
more lasting”--when employed for windows.
55.
A double Water-scrue, the innermost to mount the water, and the
outermost for it to descend more in number of threds, and
consequently in quantity of water, though much shorter then the
innermost scrue, by which the water ascendeth, a most
extraordinary help for the turning of the scrue to make the water
rise.
[_A double Water-scrue._] The arrangement of this simple invention is
so clearly and amply set forth, that it is a wonder it could ever have
been misunderstood; yet it so baffled Mr. Partington, that he classes
it among “extraordinary sleight of hand discoveries.”
M. Pattu, a French engineer, in 1815, published his account of a double
water-screw of this description which he had invented, capable of
being applied in three different ways, the construction, however, in
all being the same. In one arrangement, the enlarged end of the screw
is about one-eighth part that of the entire length of the internal
or lesser screw, and it surrounds the “innermost” screw, the spirals
winding in a reversed direction. The top of the shorter or “outermost”
screw may be on a level with a stream of water “for it to descend”
therein, to promote “the turning of the screw” (of greater length and
smaller diameter) “to make the water rise,” from a lower stream.
In a second application, the long screw may be used to propel the
short one, to raise water a moderate height.
Or, thirdly, the enlargement may form the upper end, and be used to
propel from above, instead of from below, as at first described.
56.
To provide and make that all the Weights of the descending side
of a Wheel shall be perpetually further from the Centre, then
those of the mounting side, and yet equal in number and heft
to[7] the one side as the other. A most incredible thing, if not
seen, but tried before the late king (of[8] blessed memory) in
the _Tower_, by my directions, two Extraordinary Embassadors
accompanying His Majesty, and the Duke of _Richmond_ and Duke[9]
_Hamilton_, with[1] most[2] of the Court, attending Him. The
Wheel was 14. Foot[3] over, and 40. Weights of 50. pounds apiece.
Sir _William Balfore_,[4][K] then Lieutenant of the _Tower_,[5]
can justifie[6] it, with several others. They all saw, that no
sooner these great Weights passed the Diameter-line of the
lower[7] side, but they hung a foot further from the Centre, nor
no sooner passed the Diameter-line of the upper[8] side, but they
hung a foot nearer. Be pleased to judge the consequence.
Footnotes
[7] of--for to. MS. and P.
[8] of happy and glorious. MS. and P.
[9] of, omitted.
[1] and--for with.
[2] most part.
[3] feet. P.
[4] Belford. MS. and P.
[5] and yet living can.
[6] testify--for justify. P.
[7] upper--for lower. MS. and P.
[8] lower--for upper. MS. and P.
[_An advantageous change of Centres._] This is the most minutely as
well as circumstantially noted of all the Marquis’s inventions; yet we
have no evidence of his ever afterwards recurring to it. The mention of
Sir William Balfour makes it probable that the exhibition of this great
weighted wheel took place between 1638 and 1641. [See Life, Times,
&c., page 25.] Dr. John Dee, in his celebrated preface to Sir Henry
Billingsley’s first English edition of Euclid, published in folio,
1570, speaks of such a machine, as not only possible, but as having
been actually constructed, and “a thing most incredible if not seen;”
this, compared with the language used by the Marquis, would lead to the
supposition that he had not only read but copied the passage.
It is difficult to reconcile the statement he has here made, with the
declaration on the title page, of his inventions having been “tried
and perfected.” In this single instance, he leaves the reader to “Be
pleased to judge the consequence.”
[Illustration: A weighted wheel]
Dr. Desaguliers, in a memoir, published by the Royal Society, vol.
31, 1720–21, quoting the foregoing article, ventures the reply: “Now
the consequence of this, and such like machines [assuming them to be
as above described,] is nothing less than a perpetual motion.” Of
course he does not admit even the possibility of such an arrangements
of parts, he only allows that if _that_ could be executed, the other
would follow. But Desaguliers admitted too much, for it may easily be
demonstrated that the conditions stated may be mechanically produced,
without any resulting motion. Let the annexed diagram represent a
wheel of 14 feet in diameter, having 40 spokes, seven feet each, and
with an inner rim coinciding with the periphery, at one foot distance,
all round. Next provide 40 balls or weights, hanging in the centre
of cords or chains two feet long. Now fasten one end of this cord at
the top of the centre spoke C, and the other end of the cord to the
next right hand spoke one foot below the upper end, or on the inner
ring; proceed in like manner with every other spoke in succession;
and it will be found, that, at A, the cord will have the position
shown outside the wheel; while at B, C, and D, it will also take the
respective positions, as shown on the outside. The result in this
case will be, that, all the weights on the side A, C, D, hang to the
great, or outer circle, while on the side B, C, D, all the weights
are suspended from the lesser or inner circle. And if we reverse the
motion of the wheel, turning it from the right hand to the left hand,
we shall reverse these positions also, (the lower end of the cord
sliding in a groove towards a left hand spoke) but without the wheel
having any tendency to move of itself.
His notice of this exhibition was not written by the Marquis until
1655, from 14 to 17 years after its occurrence, and he may have then
hesitated to say that it was not a success; but he may have persuaded
himself that he was at last in possession of the secret that was at
first wanting. Besides, we are not to infer that the company described
as being present had gone to the Tower purposely to see the Marquis’s
wheel; it being far more probable that, Charles the First and the
foreign ambassadors were there to view that fortress with all its
treasures and curiosities.
According to the state of knowledge in 1663, the Marquis of Worcester
was not singular in entertaining this subject, and all we can make of
the present article is, that he has left it open to doubt whether he
himself did not consider that his experiment required confirmation.
“Perpetuum Mobile; or a history of the search for self-motive power,”
1862, is a work which may be taken as an elaborate note on this
article, for it was the perusal of it that led the author, to commence
the compilation of that work, more than thirty years ago.
Before the publication of the “Century” Samuel Hartlib had, (on the
10th of August, 1658,) written to Mr. Boyle on the subject of a
perpetual motion invented by the ingenious and celebrated John Joachim
Becher, an account of which was to be printed at Frankfort.--Boyle’s
Works, fol. 1744, p. 280.
Charles the Second was favoured with the exhibition of another scheme
of this sort, by John Evelyn, a Fellow of the Royal Society at the
time, and therefore not likely to participate in any matter which the
scientific world of his day repudiated. But learned men of his time
rather approved of all wonder-working automata than otherwise. Evelyn
says in his Diary, under the date of 14th July, 1668, that during an
interview with the King:--“I showed his Majesty the perpetual motion
sent to me by Dr. Stokes from Cologne.”--Vol. ii. p. 37, ed. 1859.
57.
An ebbing and flowing Water-work in two Vessels, into either of
which the water standing at a level, if a Globe be cast in,
instead of rising it presently ebbeth, and so remaineth untill a
like Globe be cast into the other Vessel, which the water is no
sooner sensible of, but[9] that[1] Vessel presently ebbeth, and
the other floweth, and so continueth ebbing and flowing untill
one or both of[2] the Globes be taken out, working some little
effect besides its own motion, without the help of any man within
sight or hearing: But if either of the Globes be taken out with
ever so swift or easie a motion, at[3] the very instant the
ebbing and flowing ceaseth; for if during the[4] ebbing you take
out the Globe, the water of that Vessel presently returneth to
flow, and never ebbeth after, until[5] the Globe be returned into
it, and then the motion beginneth as before.
Footnotes
[9] but that the. P.
[1] the--for that.
[2] of--omitted. MS. and P.
[3] at that instant. P.
[4] that--for the.
[5] unless--for until.
[_A constant Water-flowing and ebbing motion_.] We are very much
mistaken if this is not the result of one of the Marquis’s early
experimental model demonstrations, and a happy illustrative example for
the lecture-table of raising water by the condensation of steam.
[Illustration: A water-flowing and ebbing motion]
A, B, represents two water tanks or cisterns, permanently connected
by the water-pipe C, and having within, D, D, two perforated shelves
or false bottoms; E, is a main steam-pipe, with a four-way steam cock
at F, branching into the form shown at G, G', and passing through
the bottom of each tank, rises vertically to the level of the false
bottoms, where each is supplied with a valve at the top end, to prevent
the ingress of water. G', is shown receiving steam from E. H, I, are
two hollow metal globes, surmounted with a small crown ornament to
conceal a spring valve, to which a floating weight is suspended by a
chain, as at X'; but floated upwards at X, where it operates to open
the spring valve within the crown. In the above diagram, it is obvious
that water placed in A, will flow onward to B, and stand at the same
level in both cisterns. The valve in each globe requires to be so
arranged, that when forced open its spring will prevent its closing
until acted on by a weight, which weight must hang to the inside of the
valve by means of a chain, and be able to float on the surface of the
water, and it will be requisite to adjust the chain to such a length
that when the water is at a certain level it shall have no influence on
the float-weight of the valve, which will then close.
With this apparatus, the operator can conceal the connection between
the two cisterns, and that between the bottoms to admit steam. The
water is now seen at the same level in “two vessels,” and with a
perforated shelf about an inch below the surface of each. We may
now find, “if a globe be cast in,” the water “instead of rising, it
presently ebbeth, and so remaineth,” doing nothing further “until
a like globe be cast into the other vessel; which the water is no
sooner sensible of, but _that_ vessel presently ebbeth, and the other
floweth.” For it must be observed, the first globe was placed in the
centre, over a steam pipe, its nozzle protected with a valve, and on
letting in the steam, being otherwise empty and the valve purposely
opened for the escape of steam and air, but which its weight closed
as soon as permitted to act, and thereon condensation followed, the
water flowed into that vessel, but ebbed in the other. We then insert a
second globe, in the second cistern, under like conditions; and as soon
as the rising water has opened the top valve of the first globe, this
second globe will repeat the operation, “and so continueth ebbing and
flowing until one or both the globes be taken out.” And this ebbing and
flowing, this rising, and these changing heights in the water in the
two tanks or cisterns, may easily be adapted for “working some little
effect besides its own motion, without the help of any man within sight
or hearing,” and of course too far off to be the acting agent in such
additional “working of some little effect,” some see-sawing action,
to work automata or like “little effects” for the delectation of the
ingenious and the delight of all the lovers of the marvellous. And
note “if during the ebbing,” when that globe and that cistern is all
but empty, “you take out the globe, the water of that vessel presently
returneth to flow,” showing that the globe thus removed was quite
empty; and therefore would be shown as part of the miracle, the same
empty globe had been performing such strange motions in the water.
But let “the globe be returned (empty as it was before) into it [the
cistern], and then the motion beginneth as before.”
If we are correct in this conjecture, the principle involved would
easily account for the inventions couched in the terms of articles No.
22, An ebbing and flowing river; and No. 23, An ebbing and flowing
Castle Clock.
The present article, viewed in any other light than as illustrative
of the peculiar properties of the great principle with which he was
operating, and which he was incessantly investigating, and varying its
applications, is altogether incomprehensible. But it was very natural
for him to preserve in this simple but striking form the sure signs of
greater applications. In the present example, we have no attempt, in
this philosophical demonstrative model, to cater to the popular taste,
although the fertile genius of the noble inventor could not permit
the suggestion to escape his pen that the rise and the fall of the
water might be made to operate--shall we say bellows, mills and the
like, and cause birds to chirp, and fountains to play? Thus “working
some little effect besides its own motion” of soberly ebbing and
flowing. But this is a mere parenthetical, gratuitous offer to dash the
concealed purpose, and give colour to the supposition that it had no
higher design. There is generally something to serve for amusement, or
to answer some practical purpose, observable in all the 100 articles,
but who could assign the use of two globes, in two vessels of water,
causing the same to flow and ebb? Viewed independent of the object here
suggested, it bears a most purposeless character; and in no other way
than as illustrative of the results of the condensation of steam, set
forth in a merely experimental apparatus, can we conceive it possible
of receiving either a scientific or any other reasonable explanation.
For adjusting the apparatus it would be necessary to fill the troughs
or cisterns until the water was level with the perforated false
bottom, and next to add as much more water as would be equal to the
contents of one globe, when the water altogether would cover the false
bottoms. The globes should be heavy enough not to overturn either on
the admission of the steam, or the expulsion of steam and air from
beneath. While steam is entering, the top spring-valve is kept closed
by the float-weight, but when condensation commences, the external
pressure performs the same duty; so soon, however, as the rising water
has elevated the float to the underside of the spring-valve, its
pressure against it and the action of the spring, cause it to open,
and then the column of water will at once commence descending. As a
matter of detail, the float would require a guide rod, or some similar
contrivance to direct and keep its course uniformly under the valve, so
as to open it.
The whole experiment is one of mere matter of fact and not of
excellence. It is simply to develope a principle and not to carry out
any express piece of curious workmanship; there is not, therefore, any
statement of its possessing surprising qualities, the utmost proposed
is “a constant water-flowing and ebbing motion,” without any condition
as to degree, quantity, or extent of its effect. This and no more would
the apparatus here described demonstrate on its trial.
This article of the “Century” strikingly illustrates how truly the
Marquis wrote it as he says--“in a way, as may sufficiently instruct
_me_ to put any of them in practice;” or, rather to repeat the practice
of them, for he has only a line or two before told us, they are such
of his inventions as “I can call to mind to have TRIED and
PERFECTED;” and what he wrote he meant, let sceptics and
superficial critics pervert his words as they may to uphold their own
narrow conceits. The reader of articles, Nos. 22 and 23, is informed
of effects without the least intimation of a means; he is then amused
with springs, weights, levers, portable bridges, fortifications,
stenography, keys, automata, stairs, ladders, cochlea, and so forth, to
the number of 33 inventions, and then, after losing sight of No. 22,
and No. 23, he is invited to examine the machine by which the “ebbing
and flowing” effects are produced. All this is perfectly legitimate,
but, nevertheless, well worthy of notice, as opening to view the
peculiar tact and skill of the writer; and the extreme necessity of
exercising cautious judgment in our estimate of “The treasures buried
under these heads, both for war, peace, and pleasure.”
It is when we refer back to No. 22, that we become convinced, beyond
what No. 57 alone might persuade us of, that by no means short of
the condensation of steam could the proposed ebbing and flowing be
effected on a river “twenty feet over,” and be managed by “a child’s
force,” as in article No. 100.
58.
How to make a Pistol to discharge a dozen times with one loading,
and without so much as once new Priming requisite, or to change
it out of one hand into the other, or stop ones horse.
[_An often-discharging Pistol._] About the year 1575, a description
was given of the operation and advantages of a certain newly invented
engine of war, whereby twenty-four bullets could be discharged from one
piece at a time. And it appears that at that period there were in the
Tower 200 of the engines and 3000 bullets.--Cal. State Papers, Vol. 106.
About 1580 (?) John the Almain wrote to Walsyngham, recommends one of
his countrymen, who had invented an harquebuse, “that shall contain
ten balls or pelletes of lead, all the which shall go off, one after
another, having once given fire; so that with one harquebuse one may
kill ten thieves or other enemies without recharging.”--Cal. State
Papers, Vol. 146.
Porta, in his “Natural Magick,” folio, English edition, 1658, gives an
account, in the 12th Book, how “A brass gun once fired, may discharge
ten times.” He says, “It is a new invention, that a great brass-gun, or
hand-gun, may discharge 10 or more bullets one after another without
intermission. Make a dark powder, such as I used in the precedent part,
and fill it thus:--First, put in a certain measure of gunpowder, that
being put in, may discharge the ball, but a small one, that it may go
in loosely, and that the powder put in upon it may come to touch the
gunpowder: then pour in this dark powder two or three fingers deep;
then put in your gunpowder and your bullet; and thus in order, one
after the other, until the gun seems to be full to the very mouth.
Lastly pour in some of your dark clammy powder: and when you have
levelled your gun to the place appointed, put fire to the mouth of
it; for it will cast out the bullets, and then fire for so long time
as a man may discharge a hand-gun at divers shoots. And thus with one
brass-gun you may discharge many times.”--(p. 293.)
59.
Another way as fast and[6] effectual, but more proper for
Carabines.
Footnote
[6] and as.
[_An especial way for Carbines._] The Carabine or Carbine was a short
gun for bullets of twenty-four to the pound.
60.
A way with a Flask appropriated unto it, which will furnish
either Pistol or Carabine with a dozen Charges in three minutes
time, to do the whole execution of[7] a dozen shots, as soon as
one pleaseth, proportionably.
Footnote
[7] of 12.
[_A Flask-charger._] His patent of 1661 gives the following altered
reading to his improvements applying to guns, thus:--“To make certain
guns or pistols, which in the tenth part of one minute or an hour, may,
with a flask contrived to that purpose, be recharged, the fourth part
of one turn of the barrel, which remains still fixed, fastening it as
forcibly and effectually as a dozen threads of any screw, which in the
ordinary and usual way require as many turns.”--See Appendix B.
61.
A third way, and[8] particular[9] for Musquets, without taking
them from their Rests to charge or prime, to a like execution,
and as fast as the Flask, the musquet containing but one Charge
at a time.
Footnotes
[8] and--omitted.
[9] particularly. P.
[_A way for Musquets._] The heavy firearms of the seventeenth century
afforded the Marquis fine scope for the exercise of his versatile
ingenuity. Muskets were originally matchlocks; long, heavy, and
requiring a tall forked rest to steady them in firing. Eventually
their bore was reduced for bullets of eighteen to the pound. It is
curious to observe the difference between the drill practice of those
times compared with the present. In “The compleat Gentleman,” by
Henry Peacham, M.A., published in 1627, among his other “Military
Observations,” he gives the following: “The postures of the Musquet.
1. March with your Musquet and Rest shouldred; 2. Prepare your Rest;
3. Slipp your Musket; 4. Pease your Musket; 5. Joyne your Rest and
Musquet; 6. Take out your Match; 7. Blow your Match; 8. Cock your
Match; 9. Try your Match; 10. Guard your Pann; 11. Blow your Match;
12. Open your Pann; 13. Present; 14. Give Fire,” &c.
Then, “25. Open your Charge; 26. Charge your Musket; 27. Draw out your
Scouring Sticke; 28. Shorten your Scouring Sticke; 29. Ram your Powder;
30. Withdraw your Scouring Sticke;” &c.
Thomas Smith, in his “Additions to the Book of Gunnery, both pleasant
and profitable,” published in quarto, 1643, black letter, mentions
“certain short muskets of an inch, or very near an inch bore, out of
which you may shoot either chained bullets, or half a score pistol
bullets, or half a dozen harquebus bullets at one shot, or you may
shoot out of the same fire arrows made with strong shafts, feathered
with horn, or with common feathers, glued and bound on with thread.
When you are to shoot a fire arrow out of any of these pieces, you must
not give the piece her full loading of powder.” He further notices that
“The string made fast to the end of the fire-work is to keep the arrow
straight in his passage.”
[Illustration: A musketeer, 1643]
A graphical sketch of the soldier accompanies these remarks (as in
the facsimile annexed), which appears almost a caricature, but it
must have been seriously approved as a good illustration, by our
author, the “Souldier of Berwick-upon-Tweed.”
Mr. Hewett gives the following table in his “Ancient Armour and
Weapons,” page 715.
+-----------+-----------+-------------------+-----------------+
| | Length of | Number of Bullets | Nature of lock. |
| | Barrel. | to the pound. | |
+-----------+-----------+-------------------+-----------------+
| Musquet | 4 ft. | 10 | Match |
| Harquebus | 2½ ft. | 17 | Wheel |
| Carbine | 2½ ft. | 24 | Flint |
+-----------+-----------+-------------------+-----------------+
62.
A way for a Harquebuss, a Crock, or Ship-musquet, six upon a
Carriage, shooting with such expedition, as[1] without danger one
may charge, level, and discharge[2] them sixty times in a minute
of an hour, two or three together.
Footnotes
[1] as that.
[2] level and discharge--omitted.
[_A way for a Harquebus, a Crock._] Arquebuse, corrupted to
Harquebus--a firearm requiring a forked rest placed in the ground, on
which to steady the heavy barrel, which carried a ball of 2 ounces, or
for fortresses 3½ ounces.
Arquebuse à croc--a small piece of ordnance placed on a stock or club,
fired by a match. We find among the records of the State Paper Office
the following notice in the Calendars, viz.:--John the Almain[L]
writes to Walsyngham, recommending one of his countrymen, who had
invented an harquebuse “that shall containe ten balls or pellets of
lead, all the which shall goe off, one after another, having once
given fire, so that with one harquebuse one may kill ten theeves or
other enemies without recharging.”--Cal. State Papers, Dom. Series,
1547–1580. Edited by R. Lemon, F.S.A., 8vo. 1856, p. 696. No. 45.
63.
A sixth way,[3] most excellent for Sakers, differing from the
other, yet as swift.
Footnote
[3] way--omitted.
[_For Sakers and Minyons._] Sakers were cannon, 5 to 8 pounders; and
Minion, long 4 pounders, or short 3 pounders.
64.
A seventh, tried and approved before the late King (of ever
blessed memory) and an hundred Lords and Commons, in a Cannon of
8. inches half quarter,[4] to shoot Bullets of 64. pounds weight,
and 24. pounds of pouder, twenty times in six minutes; so clear
from danger, that after all were discharged, a Pound of Butter
did not melt being laid upon the Cannon-britch, nor the green
Oile discoloured that was first anointed[5] and used between the
Barrel thereof, and the Engine, having never in it, nor within
six foot, but one charge at a time.
Footnotes
[4] a quarter. P.
[5] it and.
[_For the biggest Cannon._] This article affords a further example of
the practical working out of another invention of the Marquis, and
possibly at the Tower, previous to 1641.
As early as the 16th century cannon had been undergoing gradual
although slight improvements. The Marquis had many opportunities for
obtaining the best information, and his active mind must have long been
on the alert, both at home and abroad, to ascertain all that was then
known on the subject of their manufacture, with their best form and
dimensions. We have very early intelligence on the subject of Engines
of War among the valuable records of our State Paper Office, from which
we have selected the following:--
1575? No. 74. Description of the operation and advantages of a certain
newly invented engine of war, whereby twenty-four bullets can be
discharged from one piece at a time.
No. 75. Notes by the inventor touching the engines of war, with the
expense of making a few at a time. It would require above 100 engines
to be employed at once. Desires a yearly pension in consideration of
his invention.
No. 76. A note of the effects already performed by the engine of war;
of which there are 200 engines and 3000 bullets already delivered into
the Tower for service.--Cal. State Papers, Dom. Series, 1547–1580.
Edited by R. Lemon, F.S.A., 8vo. 1856, page 513.
In the Bodleian Library there is a folio volume of the MS. papers of
General Mountagu, or the Earl of Sandwich, lettered on the back
“Carte Papers, 1604–1684. Letters to Earl of Sandwich, &c. 74,” in
which is the following: “Invention for Cannon to doe extraordinary
execution. (No. 123.) Canon that shall shute more then 400 paces, a
bulett of four fadem longe to destroy the Riggings of any ship, the
which bulett must necessarily goe a twart, and cannot come
perpendicularly, as other chayne buletts, and other such like, who by
that means may misse the intended effect and passe through the
cordage or Riggings.”
Among the Sloane MSS. in the British Museum is one, No. 2497, with
rude drawings of cannon, &c. viz.: a fauconet; a faucon; a minnion;
a saker; a demi-culveringe; a culvering; a demi-cannon; a cannon; a
cannon-peuterer; a cannon-rial; each with its proper ball, ramrods, &c.
Robert Norton, Engineer and Gunner in “The gunners dialogue with the
art of great Artillery,” a black letter quarto, accompanying “The Arte
of shooting in great ordnance,” by William Bourne, 1643, gives the
names, &c. of ordnance, thus:--
Cannon of 8 weighing 8,000 lbs.
--〃-- of 7 7,000
Demi-Cannon 6,000
Culvering 4,500
Demi-Culvering 2,500
Saker 1,500
Minion 1,200
Among other inquiries in the course of the dialogue occur the
following:--“If you were to make a shot in the night, at a mark showed
you in the day, how would you prepare for it?” And:--“How would you
make a shot at an enemies light, in a dark night, not having any
candle, lanthorn, or other light by you?”
David Papillon, in his “Practical Art of Fortification,” 4to. 1645,
enumerating the ordnance and ammunition of a garrison, observes:--“for
a towne of two English miles circumference, of these sorts, six
cannons, six demi-cannons, six long culverins [or double for a
sea-port], twentie sacres [or less for a sea-port], and twelve drakes,
and one hundred thousand [pounds?] weight of powder.”--P. 97.
In “Mathematical Magick,” 1648, Bishop Wilkins incidentally
remarks--“the greatest cannon in use, does not carry above 64 pound
weight,” page 126. And in the 19th chapter of the same work he states
the charge to be 40 lbs. of powder.
John Greaves, Geometry Professor of Gresham College, who was born in
1602, and died in October, 1652, made experiments for trying the force
of great guns, at Woolwich, 18th of March, 1651, which were published
in the 15th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, 1685.
The following extracts are given, from their specifying the
description, weight, and sometimes the size of the cannon used, with
the charge of powder and weight of shot.
The great ordnance tried were:--
1. “An iron demy Canon, of 3500 lbs. weight, and having a cylinder
bore, the bullet 32 lb. of iron, the powder 10 lb.
2. “An iron demy Canon, having a taper bore, and being 3600 lbs. in
weight, and 4 inches longer than the former, the iron bullet 32 lb.
3. “Experiment with a whole Culverin in brass, of 5300 lbs. in weight,
11 foot one inch in length, with a taper bore, being intended for a
chase piece to the frigate called the Speaker; the iron bullet was 18
lbs. in weight, the powder 10 lbs.
4. “A whole Culverin in brass, made at Amsterdam, for the French, with
this mark 3580, being 10 foot long, and not very thick in the breech,
18 lb. bullet, and 9 lb. of powder.
5. “An iron Demy Culverin, 9 lbs. iron bullet, and 4 lb. of powder.
This half Culverin was shot eight times.
6. “A brass Demy Culverin, the breech 13-5/8 inches, the mouth 9-5/8,
9 lb. iron bullet, 4 lb. of powder.”
65.
A way that one man in the Cabin may govern the[6] whole side of
Ship-musquets, to the number (if need require) of 2. or 3000.
shots.
Footnote
[6] a--for the. MS. and P.
[_For a whole side of Ship-musquets._] The list of five inventions,
which appears in the “Life, Times, &c.,” page 316, refers to a similar
improvement, viz.: “Oft shooting peards, controlable in one plane,
either for number or time.”
The 43rd Device, given by Bourne in his “Inventions or Devices,” 1578,
is entitled, “How to make any piece of Ordnance go off at any hour or
time appointed, by itself, and no person there.”
Again, in the 44th Device, we have, “How to make a piece go off when
you list, and no person there.”
66.
A way that against[7] several Advenues[8] to a Fort or Castle,
one man may charge fifty Cannons playing, and stopping when he
pleaseth, though out of sight of the Cannon.
Footnotes
[7] the. MS. and P.
[8] avenues. P.
[_For guarding several advenues to a Town._] This would appear to be no
more than an extended application of the preceding invention. We can
imagine that Caspar Kaltoff executed a very beautiful model of this
piece of machinery, with its 50 little brass guns, 50 ramrods, &c., all
worked simultaneously by a man below, “out of sight of the cannon;”
but it is very unlikely that the Marquis would have recommended its
adoption; it shows, however, how he persevered in endeavours to abridge
human labour.
67.
A rare way likewise for musquettoons fastened to the Pummel of
the Saddle, so that a Common Trooper cannot misse to charge them,
with twenty or thirty Bullets at a time, even in full career.
_When first I gave my thoughts to make Guns shoot often, I
thought there had been but one only exquisite way inventible, yet
by several trials and much charge I have perfectly tried all
these._
[_For Musquettoons on horseback._] The remark which forms a postscript
to this article, naturally leads to the conclusion that the
improvements in guns were among the later inventions of the Marquis,
perhaps about or after 1641, when his own active services promised
soon to be required in the field. His improved firearms are chiefly
recommended for effecting rapid firing. It may have been one of the
results of his experiments, that Caspar Kaltoff became engaged at
Vauxhall in such manufactures for the government.
The Marquis would obtain little assistance from Vegetius, although he
would find some extraordinary applications of “Mirabilis Machina.” We
see there the “Tormentum,” with its great stone ball, and fire issuing
from muzzle and touch-hole, manipulated after an extraordinary fashion,
bristling down the sides of an angular frame; whirled round on a
circular table like a capstan; eight placed crosswise; or two placed
breech to breech, one horizontal, the other vertical, to be fired from
behind a goodly target. But the Marquis went far beyond these ancient
military weapons, for gunpowder was then beginning to be understood and
applied with a degree of effect that startled and surprised the enemy,
while it only disgusted the humane portion of our forefathers of that
day, who, in case of dire necessity alone, favoured the use of balista,
catapulta, bows, and pikes, in the conduct of military and naval
engagements.
Musketoons were the same as the blunderbuss, being of large bore to
fire with a charge of twenty or more pistol bullets, of from seven to
seven and a half ounces of lead, among a multitude, to disperse the
crowd.
The arms offensive and defensive of the old militia, described by
Grose, in his “Military Antiquities,” 1801, as applying to a trooper,
with the furniture for his horse, were as follows:--“The defensive
armour, a breast, back, and pot (or scull cap without vizor or bever),
pistol proof; the offensive arms, a sword, and a case of _pistols_,
the barrels not under 14 inches in length; the furniture for the
horse, a great saddle, or pad, with burs and straps for affixing the
holsters, a bit and bridle, with a pectoral and crupper: for the foot,
a _musketeer_ had a _musket_, the barrel, not under three feet in
length, and the guage of the bore for 12 bullets to the pound, a collar
of bandileers, with a sword.” (Vol. 1.)
Abraham Hill, a Fellow of the Royal Society, patented, 3rd of March,
1664, among other inventions, one for guns and pistols, with several
devices for the speedier and more effectual discharge of them; also a
new kind of powder horn.
We shall close these observations on improvements in firearms with the
following miscellaneous illustrations respecting the several kinds then
in use.
In “The Exercise of Armes for Calivers, Musketts, and Pikes, after the
order of his excellence Maurits Prince of Orange, &c. Sett forth in
the figures by Jacob de Gheyn. Printed at the Hage,” folio, 1607:--the
instructions commence with an engraved illustration of the soldier,
showing how he should stand and “carry his caliver, matche, and
rapier;” and proceeds to observe, “he shall also hold the match burning
or kindled at both the endes, betwixt the two least fingers of the same
left hand.” He is thus represented, holding a piece of smouldering
touch-rope of two or three feet long, lighted at both ends, and has
other similar reserve cords at his belt.
In the splendid work on “Ancient Armour and Arms,” by Sir S. R.
Meyrick, 2 vols. folio, 1830, numerous illustrative plates of
firearms occur in the following order:--_Arquebus_, plate 114, figure
5.--_Blunderbuss_, a snaphaunce, from the Dutch donderbus, thunder-gun,
p. 119, f. 10.--_Carabine_, a wheel-lock, p. 116, f. 1.--117, and 119,
f. 9.--_Carabineers_, p. 43.--_Cross bow_, p. 94; 95; 98.--_Flask for
powder_, p. 123; 124.--_Musket_, p. 117; 119.--_Musketeer_, p. 36.
68.
An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by[9] fire,
not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the
Philosopher calleth it, _Intra_[1] _sphæram activitatis_, which
is but at such a distance. But this way hath no Bounder, if the
Vessels be strong enough; for I have taken a piece of a whole
Cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three quarters
full of water,[2] stopping and scruing up the[3] broken end; as
also the Touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within
24. hours it burst and made a great crack: So that having a[4]
way to make my Vessels, so that they are strengthened by the
force within them, and the one to fill after the other.[5] I have
seen the water run[6] like a constant Fountaine-stream forty
foot[7] high; one Vessel of water rarified by fire driveth[8] up
forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work is but to turn
two Cocks, that one Vessel of water being consumed, another
begins to force and[9] re-fill with cold water, and so
successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the
self-same Person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim
between the necessity of[1] turning the said Cocks.
Footnotes
[9] with--for by.
[1] “Intra”--in printed edition, 1663. But “Infra” in MS. and P.
[2] of water--omitted. MS. and P.
[3] that--for the.
[4] found a.
[5] other, have seen. P.
[6] to run.
[7] feet. P.
[8] driving 40 of.
[9] and that to refill.
[1] necessity of--omitted.
[_A Fire Water-work._] This is that great invention which has
popularized and preserved the fame of the Marquis of Worcester in the
public mind. Had the whole of the Century been destroyed, with the
exception of this 68th article, enough would have remained to satisfy
any engineer, that the Marquis had achieved a grand discovery.
We shall proceed to notice what information books and the patent
records would afford, to stimulate his inquiries into the possible
practical application of the effects, resulting from the action of fire
on water in close vessels.
The work which has, from being often quoted, acquired especial notice
on this subject is, “Les Raisons des forces Mouvantes avec diverses
Machines. Par Salomon de Caus,” folio, published at Frankfort, 1615, in
which, at page 4, theorem V, under the title, “_L’eau montera par aide
du feu, plus haut que son niveau_,” it is illustrated and described
as follows:--“Le troisiesme moyen de faire monter, est par l’aide du
feu, dont il se peut faire diverses machines, i’en donneray icy la
demonstration d’une. Soit une balle de cuiure marquee A. bien soudee
tout a lentour, à laquelle il y aura un souspiral marqué D, par ou lon
mettra leau, et aussi un tuyau marqué B, C, qui sera soudé en haut de
la balle, et le bout C, aprochera pres du fond, sans y toucher, apres
faut emplir ladite balle d’eau par le souspiral, puis le bien reboucher
et le mettre sur le feu, alors la chaleur donnant contre ladite
balle, fera monter toute leau, par le tuyau B, C.” See also Figuier’s
“Exposition et Histoire des principales découvertes Scientifiques
Modernes.” Tome premier. Paris, 1862, p. 25.
[Illustration: De Caus’ Fountain.]
The adjoining engraving is exactly traced from the original, of which
it is, in every respect, a faithful copy. It represents a globular
metallic vessel A, with a jet and stop-cock at B, and another stop-cock
at D, through which water can be injected by means of a syringe. The
jet B, is the top end of a pipe C, which nearly touches the bottom of
the inside of the hollow sphere. Supposing the globe to be half or two
thirds full of water, and placed on a fire, the heat will presently
raise a quantity of steam, which, as it increases in quantity, will
occupy the upper empty space of the sphere, and by its pressure on the
surface of the boiling water, cause the same to rise rapidly up the
vertical pipe C, and produce the jet-d’eau above B, the instant the
stop-cock is opened. And this operation will continue so long as any
water remains for the bottom end of the pipe C, to dip into; after
which it can only be renewed by refilling the vessel, and re-boiling
the fresh supply of water.
De Caus, in his large folio work, in which varieties of fountains
are explained by elaborate copper-plates, and minute descriptions,
satisfies himself with the above brief explanation of the simple
woodcut figure, which we have here reproduced; from which we infer
that he laid no claim to its being his own invention, or at all events
that he presented it to his readers as a gratuitous offering, for
its curious and amusing results. It is not likely that the author
of a considerable work, amidst recondite descriptions and sumptuous
engravings of comparatively common affairs would consign his own most
valuable contribution to a few lines of bare description and a coarsely
engraved diagram. It is obvious, therefore, that De Caus himself, set
no great store by this toy fountain; he saw no great scope in its
application, and certainly never assumed it to be of greater value than
as an amusing experimental fountain. To claim more for an Inventor,
than an Inventor claims for himself is mere infatuation. To say that
De Caus had only to add another pipe, and only to make another
arrangement or two, and then this petite fontaine would somewhat
resemble a steam engine, is neither sound nor admissible. An inventor
must be judged by his own aim and object, and the example he offers
us, without any additions or subtractions at other hands. What De Caus
desribes, therefore, is not a continuous but an intermittent fountain;
not self-feeding, but to be refilled by a syringe; not emitting cold,
but boiling hot water; and the difficulties and delays in the use of
which materially increased in proportion with its dimensions.
But there was shortly afterwards published another highly suggestive
work, on a mechanical application of steam, in “Le Machine,” by
Giovanni Branca, 4to. 1628; in which the 25th figure represents the
operation of pounding, the pestles being acted on by pulleys and
cog-wheels set in motion by a jet of steam issuing from a pipe against
the vanes of a horizontal wheel. The boiler is in the fanciful form of
the bust of a negro, with the steam pipe issuing from the mouth.
On the 21st of January, 1630, a patent was granted to David Ramsey,
for, among other inventions, one “to raise water from low pits by
fire.” But unfortunately, like all patents of that period, it is
unaccompanied by any description.
John Bate, in his “Mysteries of Art and Nature,” 1635, 4to. has “a
conceited lamp, for forcing water or air through the figure of a bird.”
A minute description is given for constructing a small boiler in the
form of a crown, surmounted by a bird, and enclosing various perforated
pipes and valves, capable of being turned in various directions; the
whole is set over a circular lamp, with several cotton wicks. Water
being put in the boiler, Bate observes--“Then the water being by little
and little converted into ayre, by the heate of the lights that are
underneath, will breathe forth at the mouth of the cock;” but, on being
partially turned, “then there being no vent for the ayre to breath out
at, it will presse the water, and force it to ascend the pipe, and
issue out where the air breathed before.” In conclusion he shrewdly
remarks:--“_Other devices and those more strange in their effects, may
be contrived from hence_.” (p. 33, 34.)
In the “Recreation Mathematique” of H. van Etten, 1629, 12mo. of
which there were translations in several editions, as 1633, 1653, and
others, the 67th problem is descriptive “Of the properties of Æolipiles
or bowels to blow the fire.” In the course of the article on this
subject it is observed: “Vitruvius, in his first book of Architecture,
cap. 8, approves from these engines, that winde is no other thing
than a quantity of vapours and exhalations agitated with the aire by
rarefaction and condensation;” a remark curious enough, if only for the
last word “_condensation_.” The article concludes--“Now it is cunning
and subtiltie to fill one of these Æolipiles with water at so little a
hole, and therefore requires the knowledge of a philosopher to finde
it out; and the way is thus:--Heat the Æolipiles being empty, and the
aire which is within it will become extreamely rarefied; then being
thus hot throw it into water, and the aire will begin to be condensed:
by which meanes it will occupie lesse roome, therefore the water will
immediately enter in at the hole to avoide vacuitie: thus you have some
practicall speculation upon the Æolipile.”
Here we have “condensation” a second time adverted to, while the whole
experiment proves the folly of attributing to Savery a similar result
as a novelty leading for the first time to a knowledge of the property
of “condensation,” to the disparagement of the Marquis and his
predecessors, assuming their total ignorance of what is here so clearly
and graphically described.
Again, Van Etten in the fifth section of Problem LXXXV. treats--“Of a
fine fountaine which spouts water very high, and with great violence by
turning of a cock.” page 193. “Let there be a vessel made close in all
its parts, in the middle of which let a pipe open neare the bottome;
and then with a squirt squirt in the water (stopped above by the cock
or faucet) with as great violence as possible you can, and turne the
cock immediately. Now there being an indifferent quantity of water and
aire in the vessel, the water keeps itself in the bottom, and the aire
which was greatly pressed, seeks for more place, that turning the cock
the water issueth forth at the pipe, and flyes very high, _and that
especially if the vessell be a little heated_.” The concluding sentence
would no doubt afford a mind like that of the Marquis of Worcester’s
abundant matter for experimental trial, if ever consulted by him,
either in the original, or in the translation of 1633.
The following extract from Van Etten’s 83rd Problem, “Of Cannons or
great Artillery,” affords strong presumptive evidence (taken along
with other extracts) of the Marquis’s acquaintance with the work.
The Problem is divided into two parts, of which the first alone need
be noticed, namely,--“How to charge a cannon without powder.” It is
observed--“This may be done with aire and water, only having thrown
cold water into the cannon, which might be squirted forceably in by the
closure of the mouth of the piece, that so by this pressure the aire
might more condense, then having a round piece of wood very just, and
oiled well for the better to slide, and thrust the bullet when it shall
be time. This piece of wood may be held fast with some pole, for feare
it be not thrust out before his time: _then let fire be made about the
trunnion or hinder part of the piece to heat the aire and water_, and
then when one would shoot it let the pole be quickly loosened, for then
the aire searching a greater place, and having way now offered, will
thrust out the wood and the bullet very quick: the experiment which
we have in long trunkes [tubes] shooting out pellats with aire only,
sheweth the verity of this Probleme.” (page 173.)
The words italicised are a complete description of the Marquis’s
experiment, although made with a widely different object, but both
afford evidence of the force obtainable from a small quantity of
heated water, the one in an imperfectly closed, the other in a well
closed cannon. It is remarkable how near this experiment comes to the
steam-engine cylinder, piston, and safety valve; and we can scarcely
believe that such applications would escape the Marquis’s observation,
when repeated and varied as was his customary course in pursuing his
own inquiries.
We have thus, from 1615 to 1653, shown, what sources were open to
afford suggestions to the Marquis of Worcester’s wakeful and watchful
mind, alive and on the alert to seize on every hint promising some
enlarged and useful application. We come next to that part of his own
statement, where he says: “so that having found a way to make my
vessels, so that they are strengthened by the FORCE within them, and
the one to fill after the other, &c.” “Vessels” may here apply to
cisterns, receivers, boilers, &c., in short whatever appliances were
used. But it is usually supposed to mean the boiler only, and hence
the difficulty to understand how its safety should increase with the
increased internal expansive _force_ of the steam. But allowance must
be made for the general vagueness throughout the “Century,” and we
must bear in mind that its language was not arranged to inform the
public in respect to construction, but, as its author explicitly
states, the several inventions are “set down in such a way as may
_sufficiently_ instruct _me_ to put any of them in practice.” Now
there is good ground for believing that the Marquis had a special
meaning for the word “force,” as here applied, a word then used
indifferently in its ordinary and in a technical sense, in the same
sentence. This is particularly worth illustrating; firstly, because
it shows a probability that the Marquis had, before 1655, designed
some kind of safety-valve; and secondly, to remove the common
supposition of the foregoing invention being utterly paradoxical.
It has already been stated, that there is sufficient evidence to prove,
that John Bate’s “Mysteries of Nature and Art,” had attracted the
especial notice of the Marquis. He would be about 33 years of age on
its first publication, and he wrote his Century about 20 years after
its appearance, we may, therefore, readily see how likely it would be
for him to adopt even its very style and language. John Bate says, at
page 11:--
[Illustration: A forcer]
“A forcer is a plug of wood exactly turned and leathered about; the
end that goeth into the barrel, is semicircularly concave; p. 57.
_Forces_ may be made to move either horizontally or perpendicularly,
according unto the convenience of the work, or the invention of the
artist and engineer; p. 59. (Describing ‘the water mill or engine
near the north end of London Bridge.’) These two barrels must be
bound fast unto two posts of the frame, with two strong iron bands,
as T T; unto each of these must be fitted a _force_ well leathered,
and in the tops of the _forces_ must be set two pieces of wood.” Then
again, at page 66:--“K K, L L, the barrels of the _forces_, which
force the water;” p. 67. “E, a barrel of brass or wood fastened in the
well, K, a _force_ fitted into it.” Again, “the _force_ must be very
heavy;” p. 71. “B, a barrel of iron or brass, fastened in the midst
of the cistern, with a _force_ fitted unto it;” p. 72. “The _force_
is linked, and it is noted with the letter D,” (in the engraving.)
Again, “F, the barrel of the _force_, fastened within two or three
inches of the bottom of the cistern;” p. 73, “C, a _force_, D, the
_forces_ barrel.” Again, “the _force_ draweth the water out of the
cistern B, into the barrel D;” p. 74, “another strong iron bar as I
I, unto each end whereof must be linked a _force_; K K, the two
barrels of the aforesaid _forces_.”
In the 21st volume of Philosophical Transactions, published in 1700,
there is a description, with an engraving,[M] being, “An account of
Mr. Thomas Savery’s engine for raising water by the help of fire.” It
states that Mr. Savery, on the 14th of June, 1699:--“Entertained the
Royal Society with shewing a model of his Engine for raising water by
the help of fire, which he set to work before them; the experiment
succeeded according to expectation, and to their satisfaction. The
Engine may be understood by the draughts of it, where Fig. 1 is the
front of the Engine for raising water by fire; and Fig. 2, the side
prospect of the Engine.