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Title: The Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester - from the Original MS with Historical and Explanatory Notes - and a Biographical Memoir
Author: Partington, Charles F.
Language: English
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* * * * *
THE
CENTURY OF INVENTIONS.
"A practical mathematician, who has quickness to seize a hint,
and sagacity to apply it, might avail himself greatly of these
scantlings. It is extremely probable, that Savery took from the
Marquis the hint of the Steam Engine, for raising water with a power
made by fire, which invention alone would entitle the author to
immortality."--_Granger's Biog. Hist._ vol. v. p. 278.
"Here it may not be amiss to recommend to the attention of every
mechanic the little work entitled a 'Century of Inventions,' by the
Marquis of Worcester, which, on account of the seeming improbability
of discovering many things mentioned therein, has been too much
neglected; but when it is considered that some of the contrivances
apparently not the least abstruse, have, by close application been
found to answer all that the Marquis says of them, and that the
first hint of that most powerful machine, the Steam Engine, is
given in that work, it is unnecessary to enlarge on the utility of
it."--_Trans. of the Society of Arts_, vol. iii. p. 6.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY C. ROWORTH, BELL YARD,
TEMPLE BAR.
THE
CENTURY OF INVENTIONS
OF THE
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
FROM THE ORIGINAL MS.
WITH
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES AND
A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR.
BY
CHARLES F. PARTINGTON,
AUTHOR OF A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE STEAM ENGINE,
AND LECTURER AT THE
LONDON, RUSSEL, SURREY, AND METROPOLITAN INSTITUTIONS,
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, &c. &c.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
MDCCCXXV.
TO
DOCTOR GEORGE BIRKBECK,
PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION
AND OF THE CHEMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL
SOCIETIES, FOUNDER AND PATRON OF THE
GLASGOW MECHANICS' INSTITUTE,
&c. &c. &c.
DEAR SIR,
As a connecting link in the History of the STEAM ENGINE, I know
that your attention has been directed to the Marquis of Worcester's
CENTURY OF INVENTIONS, and that its merits were duly appreciated by
you at a very early period of Life.--That these Illustrations of
one of the most valuable scientific productions of the seventeenth
century, may deserve your favourable notice, and prove an
acceptable present to the extensive class of Readers which your
patriotic exertions are now so rapidly adding to the Scientific
World, is the sincere wish of,
Dear Sir,
Your faithful and obliged
humble Servant,
CHARLES F. PARTINGTON.
London Institution,
Feb. 6th, 1825.
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR
OF
EDWARD
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
* * * * *
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR
OF
EDWARD
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
There are few persons who have suffered more from party zeal,
or gained less from historic candour, than the noble subject of
the following brief memoir. Indeed no regular biographer has yet
appeared to do justice to his zealous exertions in the cause of
his unfortunate but misguided master, or his still more patriotic
efforts for the advancement of scientific knowledge. All, however,
who have in any shape alluded, either to the political principles,
religious tenets, or scientific acquirements of the Marquis of
Worcester, appear to have been guided rather by a spirit of
fanatic intolerance, or a wish to clear King Charles from the heavy
responsibility which attached to instructions given under his own
hand and seal, when the Marquis was employed in Ireland. These
then appear to have been the concurring causes, that have so long
withheld from the noble Author the veneration his memory so justly
merits; and we now proceed to follow him through his short but
active career in public life.
Edward, sixth earl and second Marquis of Worcester, was born
at Ragland near Monmouth; and his family, who had long been
distinguished for the most devoted loyalty, possessed the largest
landed estate of any nobleman attached to the British court.
His grandfather Edward, fourth Earl of Worcester, enjoyed in a
most distinguished degree the favour of Queen Elizabeth, and her
successor King James. In 1593, he was instituted Knight of the
Garter, and received a pension of fifteen hundred pounds per annum
for life. Sandford describes him as "a great favourer of learning
and good literature:" he died in the 79th year of his age, at
Worcester House, in the Strand; and was buried in Ragland church.
Henry, the fifth earl, and father of the Marquis, succeeded to the
title and estates in 1628: the family revenue derived from those
in Monmouthshire alone, at this period amounting to upwards of
twenty-thousand pounds per annum. In 1642, the year in which he was
created Marquis of Worcester, he raised and supported an army of
1500 foot, and near 500 horse-soldiers, which were placed under the
command of his son Lord Herbert, the subject of this Memoir.
During the civil commotions, Charles made several visits to Ragland
castle, where he was entertained with the greatest magnificence,[1]
and on those occasions particularly distinguished the young Lord
Herbert. On an open rupture taking place between the King and
Parliament, his Majesty invested Lord Herbert with the command of
a large body of troops then raising in his native country, and
an opportunity was soon offered for calling his military talents
into action. Prince Rupert, shortly after the battle of _Marston
Moor_, directed his attention towards the Marches of Wales, which
awakening the jealousy of the Parliamentary General Massey, he by a
feigned counter-movement surprised the city of Monmouth, which had
always been considered as the key of South Wales, and thus threw the
inhabitants of Ragland into the greatest confusion and alarm.
[1] Some idea of the almost REGAL splendour of the noble possessor
of Ragland castle at this period, and an interesting picture of
baronial manners in the early part of the seventeenth century,
may be found in the following authentic document, which has been
accurately copied from the original MS.
LIST OF THE HOUSEHOLD, &C.
At eleven o'clock in the forenoon the castle gates were shut, and
the tables laid, viz. two in the dining-room, three in the hall,
one in Mrs. Watson's apartment, where the chaplains eat, (Sir Toby
Matthews being the first,) and two in the house-keeper's room, for
the ladies women.
The EARL entered the dining-room attended by his gentlemen.
As soon as he was seated, Sir Ralph Blackstone, steward of the
house, retired.
The comptroller, Mr. Holland, attended with his staff, as did the
sewer, the daily waiters, and many gentlemen's sons, with estates
from two to seven hundred pounds a year, who were bred up in the
castle: and my lady's gentlemen of the chamber.
_At the first table, sat_
The noble family, and such of the nobility as came there.
_At the second table, in the dining-room, sat_
Knights and honourable gentlemen, attended by footmen.
_In the hall, at the first table, sat_
Sir Ralph Blackstone, Steward--The Comptroller. The Secretary--The
Master of the Horse--The Master of the Fish Ponds, my Lord Herbert's
preceptor, with such gentlemen as came there under the degree of a
knight, attended by footmen, and plentifully served with wine.
_At the second table in the hall, served from my Lord's table, and
with other hot meats, sat_
The Sewer, with the gentlemen waiters, and pages, to the number of
twenty-four.
_At the third table in the hall, sat_
The Clerk of the Kitchen, with the yeomen, officers of the house,
two grooms of the chamber, &c.
_The other officers of the household, were_
Chief Auditor--Clerk of the Accounts--Purveyor of the Castle--Ushers
of the Hall--Closet Keeper--Gentlemen of the Chapel--Keeper of the
Records--Master of the Wardrobe--Master of the Armoury--Twelve
master Grooms of the Stables, for the War horses--Master of the
Hounds--Master Falconer--Porter and his man--two keepers of the Home
Park--two keepers of the Red deer Park--and footmen, grooms, and
other menial servants, to the number of _one hundred and fifty_!
On the first intelligence of the fall of Monmouth reaching the
Marquis, he despatched Lord Herbert with a considerable body of
forces, who joining a troop of cavaliers from Godridge, lodged
themselves undiscovered behind a rising ground near that city. A
party of about forty men, who volunteered for the occasion, were
headed by Lord Herbert, and proceeded to reconnoitre the town.
Having climbed an earthen redoubt which had been thrown up by the
Parliamentary forces, they passed the ditch and fell upon the guard,
who were immediately put to the sword, and a few seconds more
sufficed for breaking the _port-chain_ and forcing an entry for
the horse, who, having by this time joined their brave comrades,
entered the town at full gallop; surrounding the main guard, the
whole of whom they took prisoners. The result of this brilliant and
chivalrous enterprise was the capture of Colonel Broughton, four
captains, as many lieutenants and ensigns, the committee, all the
private soldiers, and a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition.
So signal a display of bravery and devotedness to the royal cause
in the young cavalier procured from his Majesty the warmest
commendations; and in the month of January, 1644, he had the
honour to receive his first commission to negotiate with the Irish
Catholics; while at the same time he was recommended by the king
to the Earl of Ormonde, as one whose loyalty might be relied upon.
With regard to his _Lordship's_ fitness for this appointment, there
can be but one opinion: educated among Catholics, and as such not
likely to excite the same suspicions as would naturally attach to
any negotiation with their avowed enemy, the Earl of Ormonde, and
possessing considerable influence at the court of Rome, he seemed
peculiarly qualified to fill the office of mediator; and having
become popular with the people at home by his known liberality
and patriotism, the appointment was not likely to excite much
dissatisfaction on the part of the Puritans.
The deranged state of his Majesty's affairs, which were now growing
desperate from the continued advantages of the rebels in Ireland,
and his still more violent and fanatic subjects at home, rendered
it necessary that some sacrifices should be made to conciliate the
Irish Catholics; as he would thus procure a powerful and efficient
force to aid him against the Covenanters. In proof of his anxiety on
this subject, there were no less than eight letters written by the
king himself, beside those of his secretaries, pressing for a speedy
adjustment of the differences that had so long agitated the sister
kingdom.
The first commission under the great seal was dated the sixth
of January, and furnished the Marquis with full power to levy
any number of men in Ireland or elsewhere; to make governors of
forts, &c.; and to receive the king's rents. Upon the twelfth of
March following, the Marquis received another commission, equally
as extensive as the preceding; a copy of which is preserved by
Rushworth, in his Collections, which we here subjoin.
"CHARLES R.
"CHARLES, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France,
and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to our trusty and well
beloved cousin, EDWARD Earl of Glamorgan, greeting. We, reposing
great and especial trust and confidence in your approved wisdom
and fidelity, do by these presents, as firmly as under our
Great Seal, to all intents and purposes, authorise, and give
you power to treat and conclude with the confederate Roman
Catholics in our kingdom of Ireland, if upon necessity any be to
be conscended unto, wherein our lieutenant (the Earl of Ormonde)
cannot so well be seen in, as also not fit for us at present
publicly to own. Therefore we charge you to proceed according to
this our warrant with all possible secrecy; and for whatsoever
you shall engage yourself, upon such valuable considerations as
you in your judgment shall deem fit, we promise, upon the word
of a king and a Christian, to ratify and perform, the same that
shall be granted by you and under your hand and seal; the said
confederate Catholics having by their supplies testified their
zeal to our service: and this shall be in each particular to you
a sufficient warrant.
"Given at our Court at Oxford, under our Signet and Royal
Signature, the twelfth of March, in the twentieth year of our
reign, sixteen hundred and forty-five."[2]
[2] His lordship was created Earl of Glamorgan a few days prior to
his departure for Ireland, and Carte, who in every point in which
Charles was concerned, invariably concealed whatever tended to cast
a stain on the king's character, and whose gross partiality in this
particular instance we shall hereafter more fully notice, has even
questioned the propriety of the Marquis's assuming the title of Earl
of Glamorgan. To support this argument, it is said that his Majesty
ordered Secretary Nicholas to acquaint the Earl of Ormonde, "that,
the patent for making Lord Herbert Earl of Glamorgan had never
passed the great seal;" and the apologist for Charles, anxious to
make the most of this equivocation in the king, adduces it as an
objection to the authenticity of the Irish commission. Sandford,
however, who in an intimate acquaintance with the history of the
royal grants was surpassed by none, says, "that there now remains
in the signet office a bill, under the royal sign manual at Oxford,
if a patent did not thereupon pass the great seal, in order to his
creation into the honour of Earl of Glamorgan."
Who, it may be asked after perusing this document, will be hardy
enough to pronounce with Hume that "the king was incapable of
dissimulation?" especially when coupled with his Majesty's
subsequent declaration to both Houses of Parliament; in which he
expressly says, that the Marquis, having made an offer to raise
forces in Ireland and conduct them into England for his service, had
a commission to that purpose; "but then," adds the king, "it was to
that purpose only, and not to treat of any thing else without the
privity and direction of the Lord Lieutenant."
What degree of credit ought to be given to the latter part of his
Majesty's declaration, is pretty plainly shewn by the following
letter to the papal legate, which fully accords with the instrument
we have just quoted of the twelfth of March:
SIR,
Hearing of your resolution for Ireland, we do not doubt but
things will go well, and that the good intentions began by
means of the last pope, will be accomplished by the present, by
your means in our kingdoms of Ireland and England, you joining
with our dear cousin the Earl of GLAMORGAN; with whom whatever
you shall resolve we shall think ourselves obliged to, and
perform it at his return. His great merits oblige us to this
confidence, which we repose in him above all, having known him
above twenty years; during which time, he hath always signally
advanced himself in our good esteem, and by all kind of means
carried the prize above all our subjects. This being joined
to the consideration of his blood, you may well judge of the
passion which we have particularly for him, and that nothing
shall be wanting on our part to perfect what he shall oblige
himself to in our name, in consideration of the favours received
by your means. Confide therefore in him: but in the meanwhile,
according to the directions we have given him, how important it
is that the affair should be kept secret, there is no occasion
to persuade you, since you see that the necessity of the thing
requires it. This is the first letter which we have ever wrote
immediately to any Minister of State of the Pope, hoping it will
not be the last; but that after the said earl and you shall have
concerted your measures, we shall openly shew ourself, as we
have assured him.
Your Friend,
CHARLES R.
_From our Court at Oxford,
30th April, 1645._
The earl's negotiation had hitherto gone on prosperously, and there
was good reason to suppose that he would shortly have brought the
rebels to a complete concurrence with his Majesty's views, when a
most unexpected accident disconcerted the whole of his schemes.
An attempt having been made by the Irish upon Kilkenny about the
end of October, 1645, in which the titular Archbishop of Tuam
had a command; the rebels were beaten and the prelate killed, in
whose baggage was found a copy of the treaty which his Lordship
had entered into with the confederate Catholics and the pope's
nuncio. Of this discovery immediate information was furnished to
the Parliament, then sitting, which had invariably expressed the
greatest aversion to any concession being made to the Catholics;
and the matter became so public, that the Lords Ormonde and Digby
found it necessary to do something towards the vindication of his
Majesty's honour, and to preserve appearances with the Parliament.
The council having met on the twenty-sixth, Lord Digby appeared
at the board, and accusing the Earl of Glamorgan of high treason,
moved that he should be immediately committed to the castle. On the
following day he was examined by a committee of the council, when
he exonerated his Majesty, and requested that the whole blame of
the matter might be attributed to him; as he had consulted with
no one on the subject, but the parties with whom he had made the
agreement.[3]
[3] There is scarcely to be found on record, a more enthusiastic
instance of loyalty and self-devotion than was exhibited by his
lordship on this occasion; for with the damning proofs which he then
possessed of his Majesty's complete concurrence and participation
in the whole matter, there could not for an instant have been a
doubt of his own honourable acquittal. There was also a certain
assurance of procuring the favour of the Parliament: who required
nothing more than these documents to colour the proceedings they
were then meditating, and which, indeed, afterwards formed one of
the principal charges against this ill-fated monarch.
When the intelligence of his lordship's imprisonment reached
Kilkenny, where the supreme council then held their sittings,
the Catholics were thrown into the greatest confusion, and some
insisted on an immediate recourse to arms for his enlargement.
These proceedings, however, were soon stayed by the friends of the
Earl of Ormonde, and his lordship was shortly afterwards released
on bail. As soon as this was effected he repaired to Kilkenny,
in order to expedite the embarkation of a force amounting to
about three thousand men, which had been raised for the relief of
Chester; and, had there been a sufficient co-operation on the part
of the general council, they might have sailed time enough to have
afforded the most essential service to the royal cause; but after
repeated delays on their part, intelligence was brought of the loss
of that important city; and the Marquis, finding that his further
stay in Ireland was attended with considerable hazard to his own
life, without any commensurate benefit to his Majesty, resolved on
embarking for France, where he was soon after joined by the exiled
queen.
Immediately after his lordship's departure for the continent, the
parliamentary forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax appeared before
Ragland; and being refused admission by the venerable old Marquis,
their hostile approaches were carried on with great vigour, in
spite of repeated sallies from the fortress. The gallant veteran,
however, finding the garrison, which at first consisted of only
800 men, reduced to less than half that number, surrendered on
honourable terms on the 17th August. Notwithstanding the pledge
given by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the conditions of capitulation were
most disgracefully violated, and the Marquis was committed to the
custody of the Black Rod, where he languished till the December
following; when he expired in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and
was buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor.
In the mean time the fortifications of Ragland were destroyed, and
all the timber in the parks was cut down, and sold by the committee
of sequestrations. The lead alone that covered the castle was sold
for 6,000 pounds, and the loss to the family in the house and woods,
has been estimated at not less than 100,000 pounds!
From the destruction of Ragland castle by the Parliamentary forces,
till the beginning of 1654, the earl's name scarcely occurs in the
political history of those times; but about that period, we find
him attached to the suit of Charles II., who then resided at the
court of France: and in the following year he was dispatched by
the exiled monarch to London, for the purpose of procuring private
intelligence and supplies of money, of which the king was in the
greatest need. He was, however, speedily discovered and committed
a close prisoner to the Tower, where he remained in captivity for
several years.
Some idea of the state of indigence to which the Marquis was now
reduced may be formed from a perusal of the following Letter,
directed to the celebrated Colonel Copley, who was, it appears, one
of the noble Author's supporters.
"Dear Friend,
"I knowe not with what face to desire a curtesie from you,
since I have not yet payed you the five pownds, and the mayne
businesse soe long protracted, whereby my reallity and kindnesse
should with thankefullnesse appeare; for though the least I
intende you is to make up the somme allready promised, to a
thousand pownds yearly, or a share ammounting to farr more,
(which to nominate before the perfection of the woorke were but
an _individuum vagum_, and therefore I deferre it, and vpon noe
other score,) yet, in this interim, my disapointments are soe
great, as that I am forced to begge, if you could possible,
eyther to helpe me with tenne pownds to this bearer, or to
make vse of the coache, and to goe to Mr. Clerke, and if he
could this daye helpe me to fifty pownds, then to paye yourself
the five pownds I owe you out of them. Eyther of these will
infinitely oblige me. The alderman has taken three days time to
consider of it. Pardon the great troubles I give you, which I
doubt not but in time to deserve by really appearing
"Your most thankful friend
WORCESTER.
_28th of March, 1656._
"To my honored friend
Collonell Christopher Coppley,
These."
On the king's restoration, the Marquis of Worcester was one of the
first to congratulate his Majesty on the happy event, though the
situation of the unfortunate nobleman was little bettered by the
change; indeed it appeared but as the signal for new persecutions,
as one of the earliest public acts of that ungrateful monarch may be
characterized as an invidious attempt to set aside the just claims
of his earliest and best friend.
In 1660 the House of Lords appointed a committee to consider of
the validity of a patent granted to the Marquis of Worcester in
prejudice to the Peers, upon the first intimation of which his
Lordship sent a messenger to the committee then sitting, stating his
willingness to surrender it, and it was shortly afterwards presented
to the House by his son Lord Herbert.
In 1663 appeared the first edition of the noble Author's Century
of Inventions, and on the 3d of April in the same year, a bill was
brought in for granting to him and his successors the whole of the
profits that might arise from the use of an engine, described in
the last article in the _Century_.[4]
[4] Lord Orford describes this bill to have passed on the "simple
affirmation of the discovery that he (the Marquis) had made;" but
his lordship's palpable want of candour in this statement will
be apparent when it is known that there were no less than seven
meetings of committees on the subject, composed of some of the
most learned men in the house, who, after considerable amendments,
finally passed it on the 12th of May.--Vide, _Journals of the Lords
and Commons for 1663-4_.
Of the merits of the _Century of Inventions_ as a literary
composition but little can with justice be said; whether, however,
as a scientific production, it deserves the character that has been
given of it by men more celebrated for their literary attainments,
than for scientific knowledge, the reader, after a perusal of the
work, will readily determine.[5]
[5] A popular author, to one of whose mistatements we alluded in a
preceding note, describes the Marquis as "a fantastic projector,"
and his "Century as an amazing piece of folly." Having however, in
the notes appended to this work, fully demonstrated not only the
practicability of applying the major part of the inventions there
described, but the absolute application of many of them, though
under other names, to some of the most useful purposes of life; we
shall leave it to the public to judge, whether the man who first
discovered a mode of applying steam as a mechanical agent, an
invention alone sufficient to immortalize the age in which he lived,
deserves the name of a fantastic projector.
The second edition of the "Century" was published in 1746; the
third in 1767: while the fourth, which may be considered as the
best edition, is a reprint from the first, and is furnished with an
appendix "containing an Historical Account of the Fire Engine for
Raising Water." It is dated Kyo, near Lancaster, June 18, 1778. The
fifth is a reprint from the Glasgow copy, "by W. Bailey, Proprietor
of the Speaking Figure, now showing, by permission of the Right Hon.
the Lord Mayor, at No. 42, within Bishopsgate," 1786. The sixth
edition was confined to 100 copies, and dated London 1813.
The Marquis likewise published a work entitled "An Exact and true
Definition of the most stupendous Water-commanding Engine, invented
by the Right Honourable (and deservedly to be praised and admired)
Edward Somerset Lord Marquis of Worcester, and by his Lordship
himself presented to his most excellent Majesty Charles II., our
most gracious Sovereign." This was published in a small quarto
volume consisting of only twenty-two pages, and is now become
extremely rare.
His lordship survived the publication of this work but two years; as
he died in retirement near London upon the third of April 1667. His
remains were conveyed with funeral solemnity to the cemetery of the
Beaufort family in Ragland church; where he was interred on Friday
the nineteenth of the same month, near the body of his grandfather,
Edward Earl of Worcester. The coffin was placed in an arched stone
vault, with the following inscription on a brass plate:
"Depositum Illustrissimi Principis Edwardi Marchionis et Comitis
Wigorniæ, Comitis de Glamorgan, Baronis Herbert de Raglan, Chepstow
et Gower, nec non serenissimo nuper Domino Regi Carolo primo,
Southwalliæ locum tenentis: qui obiit apud Lond. tertio die Aprilis,
An. Dom. MDCLXVII."
ORIGINAL LETTERS
AND
OFFICIAL PAPERS,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PRECEDING MEMOIR.
The manuscripts from whence the annexed documents have been
selected, are now in the possession of his Grace the Duke of
Beaufort; and the Editor would be wanting in justice to another
distinguished member of the same noble family, did he omit to
acknowledge the great kindness which he has received from Lord
Granville Somerset, who has materially assisted the Editor in
illustrating the labours of his very ingenious ancestor.
GLAMORGAN
I heerew^{th} send you the rest of my dispatches for Ireland,
whether I praye hasten, time beeing most considerable. I am sensible
of the dangers y^u will undergoe, and y^e greate trouble and
expences you must be at, not being able to assiste y^w who have
already spent aboue a Million of Crowns in my service, neither can
I saye more then I well rememb^r to have spoke and written to you
that allready words could not expresse your merits nor my gratitude:
and that next to my wife and children I was most bound to take care
of you. whereof I have besides others particularly assured yo^r
Cosin Biron as a person deare unto you. What I can further thinke
at this pn̄t is to send y^w the Blue Ribben, and a Warrant for the
Title of Duke of Somerset both w^{ch} accept and make vse of at your
discretion, and if you should deferre y^e publishing of either for
a whyle to avoyde envye, and my being importuned by others yet I
promise yo^r Antiquitie for y^e one and your Pattent for y^e other
shall beare Date with the Warrants. And rest assured, if God should
crosse me w^{th} your miscarrying I will treate your Sonne as myne
owne, and that y^u labour for a deare freind as well as a thankefull
Master when tyme shall afforde meanes to acknowledge, how much I am
Yo^r most assured reall constant
and thankfull freind
Charles R.
Oxford Feb. 12, 1644.
_Oxford this seconde of January 1644 Severall Heades whereupon
you our Right trusty and right welbeloved Cosen Edward Earle of
Glamorgan may securely proceede in execution of our Commands._
First you may ingage y^r estate, interest and creditt that we
will most really and punctually performe any our promises to the
Irish, and as it is necessary to conclude a Peace suddainely, soe
whatsoever shall be consented unto by our Lieutenant the Marquis
of Ormond, We will dye a thousand deaths rather than disannull or
breake it, and if vpon necessity any thing be to be condescended
unto, and yet the Lord Marquis not willing to be seene therein, as
not fitt for us at the present publickely to owne, doe you endeavour
to supply the same.
If for the encouragement of the Lord Marquis of Ormond you see
it needefull to have the Guarter sent him, or any further favour
demonstrated from vs vnto him, we will cause the same to be
performed.
If for the advantage of our service you see fitt to promise any
titles, even to the Titles of Earles in eyther of our Kingdomes,
vpon notice from you we will cause the same to be performed.
For the Maintenance of our Army vnder y^r Com^~aund we are
gratiously pleased to allowe the Delinquentes estates where you
overcome, to be disposed by you, as alsoe any our revenues in the
sayd places, Customes or other, our profitts, woods and the like
w^{th} the contributions.
Whatever Townes or places of importance you shall thinke fitt to
possesse you shall place Com^~aunders and Governours therein at y^r
pleasure.
Whatever Order we shall sende you (w^{ch} you are only to obey)
We give you leave to impart the same to y^r Counsill at Warr and
if they and you approve not thereof We give you leave to replye,
and soe farr shall we be from taking it as a disobedience, that we
com^~aunde the same.
At y^r returne we will accept of some officers vpon y^r
recom^~endation, to the ende noe obstacle or delay may be in the
execution of y^r desires in order to our service, and our com^~aunds
in that behalfe.
At y^r Returne you shall have y^e Com^~aund of South Wales,
Herefordshire, and Glocester-shire of the Welsh-side returned to you
in as ample manner as before.
In y^r abscence we will not give creditt or countenance to any
thing, w^{ch} may be preiudiciall to y^r Father, you, or yours
C. R.
HERBERT
I wonder, you are not yet gone for Ireland; but since you have
stayed all this time, I hope these will ouertake you, whereby you
will the more see the great trust and confidence I repose in your
integrity, of which I have had soe long and soe good experience;
commanding yow to deale with all ingenuity and freedome with our
Lieutenant of Ireland the Marquis of Ormond, and on the word of
a King and a Christian I will make good any thing, which our
Lieutenant shall be induced unto upon your persuasion: and if
you find it fitting, you may privately shew him these, which I
intend not as obligatory to him, but to myselfe, and for both your
encouragements and warrantise, in whom I repose my cheefest hopes,
not having in all my Kingdomes two such subjects; whose endeauours
joining, I am confident to be soone drawen out of the mire, I am
now enforced to wallow in; and then shall I shew my thankfullnesse
to you both, and as you have neuer failed mee, soe shall I neuer
faile you, but in all things shew how much I am
Oxforde the 12th
of March 1644.
HERBERT
I am confident that this honest trusty bearer will give you good
satisfaction why I have not in euerie thing done as you desired, the
wante of Confidence in you beeing so farre from beeing y^e cause
thereof that I am euery daye more and more confirmed in the trust
that I have of you, for beleeve me it is not in the power of any to
make you suffer in my opinion by ill Offices, but of this and diuers
other things I have given so full Instructions that I will saye no
more, but that I am
Yo^r most assured constant freind
CHARLES R.
Oxford 26 Feb. 1645.
GLAMORGAN
I am glad to heare that you are gone to Ireland and assure y^u that
as my selfe is nowyse dishartened by our late misfortune so neither
this Country; for I could not have expected more from them, then
theye have now freely undertaken though I had come hether absolute
Victorious w^{ch} makes me hope well of y^e neighbouring Sheeres.
So that (by y^e grace of God) I hope shortly to recover my late
losse with aduantage if such succours come to me from that Kingdome
w^{ch} I have reason to expect, but the circumstance of time is that
of the greatest consequence, beeing that which is cheefliest and
earnestliest recommended you by
Your most assured reall constant
freind
CHARLES R.
Hereford 23 June 1645.
GLAMORGAN
I have no time nor do you expect that I should make unnecessary
repetitions to you wherefore referring you to Digby for business
this is onlie to giue you assurance of my constant freindship to you
which considering the generall Defection of common honesty is in a
sorte requisite howbeit I knowe y^u cannot be but confident of my
making good all instructions and promises to you
Y^r most assured constant freind
CHARLES R.
Oxford 5 Aprile 1646
HENRIETTE MARIE R
Nous henriette Marie de bourbon Regne de la grande Bretagne auons
par l'ordre du Roy notre tres honoré Seigneur et Mary fait deliurer
es mains de notre tres cher et bien amé cousin Edouard Somerset
Comte et Marquis d Worcester un collier de Rubis contenant dix gros
Rubis et cent soixante perles enchassées et confilées en or entre
les dits Rubis comme aussy deux gros diamans l'un appellé Sancy et
l'autre le Portugal, confessans qu'outre les tres grandes depenses
faites par luy, pour le dit Roy notre tres honore Seigneur, il nous
a encore fourny trois cens soixante et dix mil liures tournois outre
les tres grands seruices qu'a ce present mesme il nous fait qui sont
au moins d'egale consequence, au regard de quoy nous faisons scauoir
que le dit collier et Diamans sont totalement pour en disposer par
luy soit par uente on engagement, sans que nous, ou aucun en notre
nom puisse en faire aucune demande, Rechercher ou troubler aucune
personne qui achetera ou prestera argent sur les dits Joyaux cy
dessus nommez en temoignage de quoy nous auons Signé et fait mettre
notre Séel Royal a cette presente a notre Cour a St Germain en Laye
ce Jourdhuy 20 May mil six cens quarente huiet.
L. S.
(The Royal Arms.)
_To the Kinges most Exelent Mai^{tie} The humble Petition of all
the Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace the Knights &
Burgises for Parliam^t setting for the Countie of Monmouth &
indeede of all the Gentry & Comonalty Freehoulders and other
inhabitence within the said Countie nemine contradicente but una
voce most humbly_
Sheweth
That whereas y^e Right hon^{ble} our very good Lord the now Earle
and Marquisse of Worcester after about twenty yeares absence
comforteth and honoureth us w^{th} his p^rsence to y^e great
sattisfaction of all your Maj^{ties} most loyall & devote^d
subjects, Wee become most humble petition^{rs} to your Gratious
and most sacred Maj^{tie} that you wilbe pleased to incuredge his
Exelency to make his cheife residance heer, which by longe and
suffitient experience wee well know will much conduce to your
Maj^{ties} intherest, and seruice, and to the good and great
sattisfaction not onely of this but of all y^e adjacent Counties,
his Lords^p having always been a disinterested Governor and freind
to us all, as most espetially a most faithfull zealouse and
powerfull promoter of seruices to y^e Crowne, yett with care and
sweetnesse euer shewed towards your Maj^{ties} Loyall subjects,
and nowayes partiall to those of his owne perswation and religion,
where ever his Excelency hath had command looking but vpon his kings
intherest and y^e peoples justifiable pretentions neither can his
greatest enimies make appeare y^e least profe to y^e contrary.
May itt therefore please your most Excelent Maj^{tie} vpon this
our most humble petition suplycat^g to Joyne his Lords^{pp} with
his most deseruing sonne, the Lord Herbert, in the Liuetenancie of
this Countie, and wee esteeme it wille soe far from derogateing
from my Lord his Sonne who we must hon^r that it wilbe an adit^~on
of coumfort and hon^r to his Lords^{pp} to have his beloued
father Joyned with him, as his Grandfather was with his Father
the Lord Privie Seale, that wise and stout Privie counsellor: his
Lords^{pps} great grandfather and predecessor neither doe wee looke
with lesse awfullnesse and respect vpon our now Lord Marquisse of
Worcester, if he reside amonghst us in a poore Grange of his then
whilst he dwelt in his most sumptuous Castle of Ragland, like a
Prince attended, esteemeing his now pouertie in respect of his
then opulancie, but as a badge of Loyaltie, and as readilie and
cheerfully shall wee obey his commands who our harts attend, as much
as then, if Impower^d by your Gratious Maj^{tie} to bee our Joynt
Lord Lieutenant which hon^r and power wee most humbly begg may be
againe conferred upon his Excelency.
And wee shall euer pray, &c.
May it please y^r Grace
The obiections yow were pleased to make against the owning and
subscribing y^e Letter to his Ma^{tie} were as I humbly conceaue y^r
Graces resolution not to trouble y^e King for any money businesse
euen in your owne behalfe much lesse in an others, and secondly
that as for Creations you had absolutely promised his Ma^{tie}
you would not importune him againe, to the furst I answeare that
this is to save the Kings Coffirs, since certainely if eyther
honor or conscience should take place his Ma^{tie} ought to saue
me harmelesse from the six thousand pound Confest and proued to be
y^e Crownes Debt, soe happyly now vpon his Head by your Graces noe
lesse prudent and valerous then dutyfull endeauours blest by Devine
Prouidence neuer intending the ruine of his best deseruing subiects,
and y^e only promoting of his ribells, which the child unborne may
rue if not timely preuented, and as a wise Privye-Counsillor y^r
Graces part is to minde his Ma^{tie} soe of, as not totally to
disharten I will not say disgust his good subiects well desarueing
yet that as far as loyalty and Religion will giue them leaue, and I
am sory his Ma^{tie} should bedd a diew to workes of superergation
and loue in his subiects and most Certinely they are not his best
Councellers who aduise him to it, and y^r Grace will be most
Commendable in douing the Contrery, and at long running the King
will loue you best for it, soe that this obiection of y^r Grace I
humbly conceave to be totally solued.
As for the seconde y^r Graces promise not to speake for any more
Creations be pleased to vnderstand it rightly, and you are noe
motioner of this, you doe but lay before him my reasonable Petition
therein, such as indeed my Lord Chancellor was pleased to thinke
soe fitting as he once vndertook it for me, and I am confident
will thanke y^r Grace for reuiuing of it and in my Conscience soe
will y^e King too in graunting of it, for I cannot haue soe meane
a thought of his Ma^{tie} but that against the hayre he hath binne
forced to bistow honoure to the highest degree upon five member
men and vpon irth as subscribed to his father of happy memory his
death, and that he will thinke mutch to countinance him who only
assisted his late Ma'^{ie} to flye from theyr compulsion of him to
agree to such acts as would have lefet him selfe our now Gratious
King y^e sucessior of a title of a King of three Kingdoms but to the
substance of noe one of them. It was I furnished his Ma^{tie} with
money to goe (to) Theobalds to goe to Yorke when the then Marquis
of Hambleton refused to pay three hundered pound for his Ma^{tie}
at Theobalds only to deliuer him to the Parliament, as he had donne
the Earle of Strafford, and to * * * the * * * Parliament, It was
I carried him money to sett vp his standard at Yorke, and procured
my father to giue the then s^r John Byron five thousand pound to
rayse the first Regiment of Horse, and kept a table for aboue twenty
Officers at Yorke, which I vnderhand sent thether to keepe them
from takeing Conditions from y^e Parliament, and soe were ready to
accept his. It was I vittled the towre of London & gaue fiue and
twenty hundred pound to y^e then Lieutenant s^r John Byron my Cosin
Germain by my first wifes side. It was I raysed most of the Menne at
Edgehill fight, and after I was betrayed at when soe many Gentlemen
of Quality were taken and of twenty fiue thousand men first & last
by me raysed Eight thousand men disperssed by the Contriuance of
such as called themselues y^e Kings good subiects, and some of them
rewarded for it, they were my men weekely payed without takeing a
farthing contribution because the country tottered, who tooke in the
forest of Deane, Goodredge Castle, Monmouth, Chepstowe, Carlyon and
Cardiff from y^e Parliament forces, in w^{ch} and y^e Garrison of
Ragland I can bring profe of aboue an hundered and fifty thousand
pounds expended, and in ready Money first & last to y^e Kings owne
Purse aboue as much more, and of aboue thirty five thousand Pounds
Receaued by my father and me Comunely Armes in forty--forty two--and
forty three I have not now fiue and twenty hundered and that clogged
well, twenty thousand Pounds Crying Debts that keepe me not only
from a competent maintenance but euen from sleepe, I speake not
heare of aboue three hundered thowsands pounds which it hath cost
y^e Noblemen Knights and Gentlmen which ridd in my Life Guarde
for ther comporting they makeing amongst them aboue three-score
thousand Pownds yearly of Land of inheretance and I vpon my interest
with seauen Countys had begune an Engagement of above three hundered
thousand Pounds yearly land of inhiretance against my returne with
men from beyonde the sea in which endeauours my charges have beine
vast, besides hazard by sea euen of shipwracke and by Land of deadly
encounters, I doe not trouble y^r Lo^p with, but all this being true
to a tittle as vpon my word and honour dearer to me then my life I
advouche it, I cannot doubt but y^r Grace will call for a peane to
signe y^e Letter, and if you please sende this together with it,
and rest assured that if the King refuse my request I will neuer
importune you more, nor euer sett my foote into his Ma^{ties} Court
againe vnlesse expressly comanded by him for his seruice, otherwise
I will only heartyly pray for him but neuer hereafter shall I or
any freind of mine engage for him further, then y^e simple duty of
a Loyall subiect sitting quiettly at home noe ways breake the peace
or disobying the wholsom lawes of the land, and god seande him
better and more able subiects to searve his Ma^{tie} then my selfe,
willinger I am sure he cannot, and I beseeche y^r Grace to pardon me
if passion hath a little transported me beyonde good manners, and
lay what pennance you please vpon me soe it tende not to lessen y^r
Graces beliefe that I am
Y^r Graces
Most really deuoted freind
and seruant ever to obey you
WORCESTER.
Dec. 29th, 1665.
My deare Lord, my heart is yet full froughted and I can say much
more for myselfe, were I not ashamed of giueing y^r Grace soe great
a trouble with my scribling, which I will thus ende, promising to
smoother as long as may be my deplorable condition, and worse vsage,
but it will at last fly ouer the whole world to the disheartining
of all zelous and Loyall subiects, vnlesse such a true hearted
Englishman and fathful seruant as y^r Grace doe awaken his Ma^{tie}
out of the leturgie my enimies have cast him not to be sensible of
what I have done or suffered. Cardinall Mazarine presented me to his
King, with these woords "S^r who soeuer hath Loyalty or Religion
in recommendation must honour this well Borne Person," and Queene
Mother now Dowager hath often sayd to have heard her husband say
that next to her and his Children he wass bound to take a care of
me of whom it may be now verified qui iacet in terra non habet vnde
cadet, I am cast to the Ground I can fall noe lower.[6]
[6] The above Letter, as appears by the envelope, was directed to
his Grace the Duke of Albermarle.
* * * * *
_To the Kings most Excellent Majesty, The most humble Petition
of Edward Marquis of Worcester._
Sheweth
That yo^r petitioner overwhelmed with the very, very much he hath to
say, fearefull too long to detaine y^r sacred Ma^{ty} therewith from
the more serious affaires humbly prayeth that you wilbe pleased to
refer him to be heard by the Lord high Chancellor of England, The
Lord privie seale, The Duke of Alm^~erle, the Earle of Lotherdale,
the Lord Arlington, the Lord Ashley, and Mr. Secretary Morris, or to
such of them, or other persons, as yo^r Ma^{ty} shall thinke fitt,
and that vppon their Report yo^r Ma^{ty} will vouchsafe to doe with
yo^r petitioner, or to yo^r petitioner, what they in the petitioners
behalfe, and congruous to yo^r service shall finde reasonable, and
consonant with yo^r petitioners meritts or demeritts, the petitioner
most intirely submitting to your will and pleasure, Casting
himselfe vppon yo^r Ma^{tyes} goodnesse, noe wayes standing vppon
his deserts, though really found never soe many not thought of, or
hetherto kept from yo^r Ma^{tyes} knowledge, your peti^r doth not
say through envy or malice, since perhaps through ignorance such
ignorance notwithstanding as the divines call ignorantia crassa, but
whatsoever in quality or number, his services were, they were but
due to such a gratious King and Master as yo^r Ma^{tyes} Father
of happy memory was to yo^r petitioner, and to yo^r incomparable
selfe, and therefore acknowledgeth they fall farr shorte of his true
loyalty and devotion to either and being once rightly made knowne
and p^rsented to yo^r sacred Maiesty yo^r petitioner promiseth
himselfe noe lesse incouragement for the future from your Ma^{ty}
nor lesse abilities in himselfe to become as useful as formerly, and
as disinterresedly to serve you, Neither shall any thing for the
future dismaye, or in any kinde deterr, your petitioner, from that
his resolution, but from the bottome of his heart
He shall ever pray, &c.
WORCESTER.
Att y^e Court att Hampton Court Jan. 29th
1666.
His Ma^{ty} is graciously pleased to referr and recom^~end the
Peticōner to bee heard by the within named Lords Referrees or to any
fower or more of them, and they to give their Report to his Ma^{ty}
as soon as conveniently may bee.
ARLINGTON.
MADDAM
I did not thinke I should have had the occation to have troubled
you with an other Letter but I am soe little sattisfyed with yours
in what I required conscerninge my monyes that I cannot thinke a
survilous paper an equal ballance for soe waighty and iust a debt:
I confesse I have hard of a new way to pay ould debts but certainly
this is the newest, I belieue your Ladiship is one of the first that
euer tryd it: itt may bee _al a mode_, but truely I doe not like
the fashion, though itt may bee others doe: To answare your Letter,
first for your Religion I medle not with itt It conscerns not mee;
if I have, certainely I have done rather an hon^r to itt then an
iniury: for I belieu'd soe well of your Religion that itt tought noe
man to distroy his faith, Hon^r, and Christianety; which my Lord
hath done in his engagement to mee I onely speake of him--I pray you
Maddam lett mee aske, what is hon^r if broken? tis easely answared
noe hon^r, what is itt to pretend a faith in Jesus Christ, to be
call'd a Christian, and to breake that faith, and likewise forfitt
that Christianety, he's noe Christian and whereas you say I wronge
the memory of the late Kinge (I know not upon what grounds) Maddam
you doe mee wronge, I serve the memory of that Royall Martyr, equall
to any hee that lives: I pray you did his Ma^{tie} euer engage
his faith, hon^r, and Christianety, to pay any debts, where in he
fail'd; Maddam vnder fauour I must say you doe his incomparable
ashes iniury. You likewise tell mee noe gallant pearson wilbeleiue
but that my Lord will pay mee when hee hath itt, tis a large extent,
and for ought I know may reach to Dooms day; tis small sattisfaction
to expect a certaine debt att such an vncertaine payment. Maddam you
haue the priueledge of a Woeman in speakinge of my Loyalty, noe man
can, nor dare tax itt, for my publishinge any thinge that conscernes
your Lord, tis his owne actions that causeth mee to report those
truths: You say my Lord hath spent more in his Ma^{ties} seruice
than any Protestant, I dare say there has beine ten thousand loyall
faithfull Protestants hath spent as much: where of I am one, for
wee have spent, and lost all wee had to our proportions, tis as
much as hee (the widowes mite will make itt good) and in soe doinge
wee did but our dutyes, and wee ought not to obraide the King with
itt, tis vnhandsome to expect Sallery for a lawfull duty. Your
Ladyship saith that I reported my Lord gaue mee counterfitt plates,
I confesse hee gaue mee some plates, and forced them upon mee, hee
likewise borrowed them of mee againe, resoluinge to returne them
within too dayes, but he hath not restored them to this day, I heare
since that my Lord hath sould them: I hope hee will confesse that
noe man of Hon^r did euer such an action before, allthough he was
ready to starue, and for his giuinge mee false plate, I must deny
itt for I neuer said itt, but this I did say, that when I was at his
Lordsp's house he showed mee some plates, that was not the same that
hee had formerly giuen mee for the first was beaten, and the latter
was cast, if that was counterfitt, I sayd itt, and that ile iustify.
for your friuolous paper, I dare say your reconcil'd iudgment doth
repent the sendinge of itt, I have shewed it to diuers of your
religion, and they condemne you for itt, likewise the paper, nor can
the Kinge of Englande giue you thanks for itt. But his royall Mother
beinge a Roman Catholique, my hon^r and admiration of her doth
silence my penn in answeringe that scandalous paper.
Your Ladiships humble Servant
RICH. HASTINGS.
Paris Ape 3
Directed,
Forr the Right Hon^{ble} the Marchioness
of Worcester these
humbly
Jesus + Mi^~a September 6 1670
NOBLE MADAM--
The Grace of the Holy-ghost be with you.
The great esteeme and honour w^{ch} I have euer had for your Ladys^p
hath all waise made mee prompt and willing to serve you to the
best of my power, without the bias of selfe interest, as your selfe
can witnesse; And because I feare that at present, your Honour hath
noe one, that in the greate concernes, which you have in hand,
will tell you the truth, as it often happens to persons of greate
quality: I have thought it the part of my Priestly function, and
fidelity towards yo^r Ho^r: (haveing first in my poore prayers,
humbly commended it to Alm: God) to represent unto you, that w^{ch}
all your friends know to bee true, as well as myselfe, and would be
willing that your Ladys^p should know it likewise.
Alm: God hath Madam put you into a happy, and flourishing condition,
fitt and able to serue God, and to doe much good to your selfe and
others; and your Ladys^p makes yourselfe unhappy, by seeming not to
be contented with your condition but troubling your spiritts with
many thoughts of attayning to greater dignityes and riches.
Madam all those that wish you well, are greeued to see your Ladys^p
to bee allready soe much disturbed & weakened in your iudgment &
in danger to loose the right use of your reason, if you doe not
tymely endeauour to preuent it, by ceasing to goe on with such high
designes, as you are vppon, which I declare to you, in the faith
of a Priest to bee true: The cause of your present distemper, and
of the aforesayd danger, is doubtlesse, that your thoughts and
imagination are very much fixed on the title of Plantagenet, and of
disposing yourselfe for that greate dignity by getting of greate
sums of money from the king, to pay your deceased Lords debts, and
enriching your selfe by the great Machine and the like. Now Madam
how vnproper such undertakings are for your L. and how vnpossible
for you to effect them, or any one of them, all your friends can
tell you if they please to discover the trueth to you.
The ill effects that flow from hence are many: as the danger of
looseing your health and iudgment by such violent application of
your fancies in such high designes and ambitious desires; the
probability of offending Alm: God and preiudising your owne soule
thereby: the advantage you may thereby give to those who desire to
make a prey of your fortune, and to rayse themselves by ruining of
you: the spending greate sums of money in rich and sumptuous things
w^{ch} are not suteable to the gravity of your Ladys^p and present
condition of Widdow-hoode and mourning for your deceased Lord.
Although it bee certine, that it is a greate temptation which
you are now vnder, and very dangerous and hurtfull both to your
temporall and eternall happynesse; yet I confesse that the Devil,
to make his suggestion the more preualent, doth make vse of some
motives that seeme plausible, as of paying your Lords debts, of
founding of monasterys, and the like, and that your Ladys^p hath
the Kings favour to carry on your designes. But Madam it is certine
that the King is offended with your comeing to the Court, and much
more with your pretention to the title of Plantaginet; and it is
dangerous to provoke him any farther: And for paying of Debts and
founding of Monasteryes, wee all know that your L. can neuer bee in
a better condition to doe it, than now you are; and as you are not
bound to doe such things, so they are not expected from you; but wee
all applaud your pious inclinations herein, of w^{ch} you will not
loose the merit with Alm: God but our apprehensions are, least you
should by your Ladys^{ps} inordinate designes bring your selfe into
such a condition, as not to bee able to helpe your friends nor your
selfe.
Bee pleased Madam now to give mee leave to suggest some waie how
the approaching dangers may bee prevented, by changing the objects
of your affections, and insteede of temporall, to seeke after
eternall riches, and honors, which your age doth assure you are not
far off; for w^{ch} you may dispose yourselfe, before death comes,
by retiring into the countrey for some time, from the distractions
of the Court, where you may haue the advice and directions of some
learned Priest, in whose vertue you may wholey confide, and bee
guided by him, for your internall quiet & security. Many places may
soone be found out, that are fitt for that purpose: At Hammersmith
Mrs. Bedingfield a very vertuous & discreete person, and of your
Ladys^{ps} acquaintance, hath lately taken a faire house & garden, &
hath but a small family. In some such place your Ho^r might likewise
haue the aduice of some well experienced Doctor, for the health of
your person, and the benefitt of good ayre and of quietnesse, would
much conduce to your health: And soe by Alm. Gods blessing, you may
recouer from that most pernicious distemper of bodey and mind, vnto
w^{ch} every one seese you to bee very neere approching, and may
live many yeares with your owne fortune & dignity in greate honour
and happynesse & bee the author of many good workes of piety &
Charity to the glory of God & eternall saluation of your owne soule.
Thus dear Madam I have ventured to declare a great trueth to you,
w^{ch} was before a secrett only to your selfe. I know that I run
the hazerd of incurring your displeasure, if your Ladys^p should not
reade the candor of my intentions, w^{ch} in my Letter I intend
towards you: but my assurance of haveing herein performed a duty
w^{ch} I owe to my God, and the hope I have that you will take it
well as I intend it, have encouraged mee to doe it, and to subscribe
myselfe
Honored Madam
Your humb. Ser. in C. J.
WALT. TRAVERS.
_The Lord Marquesse of Worcester's ejaculatory and extemporary
thanksgiving Prayer, when first with his corporal eyes, he did
see finished a perfect trial of his Water-commanding Engine,
delightful and useful to whomsoever hath in recommendation
either knowledge, profit, or pleasure._
Oh! infinitely omnipotent God! whose mercies are fathomlesse, and
whose knowledge is immense, and inexhaustible; next to my creation
and redemption I render thee most humble thanks from the very
bottom of my heart and bowels, for thy vouchsafing me, (the meanest
in understanding,) an insight in soe great a secret of nature,
beneficent to all mankind, as this my water commanding engine.
Suffer me not to be puffed upp, O Lord, by the knowing of it, and
many more rare and unheard off, yea unparalleled inventions, tryals,
and experiments.--But humble my haughty heart, by the true knowledge
of myne own ignorant, weake, and unworthy nature: proane to all
euill, O most mercifull Father my creator, most compassionatting
Sonne my redeemer, and Holyest of Spiritts, the sanctifier, three
diuine persons, and one God, grant me a further concurring grace
with fortitude to take hould of thy goodnesse, to the end that
whatever I doe, unanimously and courageously to serve my king and
country, to disabuse, rectifie, and convert my vndeserved, yet
wilfully incredulous enemyes, to reimburse thankfully my creditors,
to reimmunerate my benefactors, to reinhearten my distressed family,
and with complacence to gratifie my suffering and confiding friends,
may, voyde of vanity or selfe ends, be only directed to thy honour
and glory everlastingly. Amen.
A
CENTURY
OF THE
NAMES AND SCANTLINGS
OF SUCH
INVENTIONS,
As at present I can call to mind to have tried and perfected,
which (my former Notes being lost) I have, at the instance of a
powerful Friend, endeavoured now in the Year 1655, to set these
down in such a way, as may sufficiently instruct me to put any
of them in practice.
----_Artis et Naturæ proles._
TO
THE KING'S
MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
SIR,
"Scire meum nihil est, nisi me scire hoc sciat alter," saith the
poet, and I most justly in order to your Majesty, whose satisfaction
is my happiness, and whom to serve is my only aim, placing therein
my "summum bonum" in this world: be therefore pleased to cast your
gracious eye over this summary collection, and then to pick and
choose. I confess, I made it but for the superficial satisfaction of
a friend's curiosity, according as it is set down; and if it might
now serve to give aim to your Majesty how to make use of my poor
endeavours, it would crown my thoughts, who am neither covetous nor
ambitious, but of deserving your Majesty's favour, upon my own cost
and charges, yet, according to the old English proverb, "It is a
poor dog not worth whistling after." Let but your Majesty approve,
and I will effectually perform to the height of my undertaking:
vouchsafe but to command, and with my life and fortune I shall
cheerfully obey, and maugre envy, ignorance and malice, ever appear
Your Majesty's
Passionately-devoted, or otherwise disinterested
Subject and Servant,
WORCESTER.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE
LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL;
AND TO
THE KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, AND BURGESSES
OF THE
HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS:
NOW ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT.
MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,
Be not startled if I address to all, and every of you, this Century
of Summary Heads of Wonderful Things, even after the dedication
of them to his most excellent Majesty, since it is with his
most gracious and particular consent, as well as indeed no ways
derogating from my duty to his sacred self, but rather in further
order unto it, since your Lordships, who are his great Council, and
you, Gentlemen, his whole kingdom's Representatives (most worthily
welcome unto him) may fitly receive into your wise and serious
considerations, what doth or may publicly concern both his Majesty
and his tenderly-beloved people.
Pardon me, if I say, (my Lords and Gentlemen) that it is jointly
your parts to digest to his hand, these ensuing particulars, fitting
them to his palate, and ordering how to reduce them into practice,
in a way useful and beneficial, both to his Majesty and his kingdom.
Neither do I esteem it less proper for me to present them to you in
order to his Majesty's service, than it is to give into the hands of
a faithful and provident steward, whatsoever dainties and provisions
are intended for the master's diet; the knowing and faithful steward
being best able to make use thereof to his master's contentment, and
greatest profit, keeping for the morrow whatever should be overplus
or needless for the present day, or at least to save something
else in lieu thereof. In a word, (my Lords and Gentlemen,) I humbly
conceive, this simile not improper, since you are his Majesty's
provident stewards, into whose hands I commit myself, with all
properties fit to obey you; that is to say, with a heart harbouring
no ambition, but an endless aim to serve my King and Country: and
if my endeavours prove effectual, (as I am confident they will,)
his Majesty shall not only become rich, but his people likewise,
as treasurers unto him; and his peerless Majesty, our King, shall
become both beloved at home, and feared abroad; deeming the riches
of a King to consist in the plenty enjoyed by his people.
And the way to render him to be feared abroad, is to content his
people at home, who then with heart and hand are ready to assist
him; and whatsoever God blesseth me with to contribute towards the
increase of his revenues, in any considerable way, I desire it may
be imployed to the use of his people; that is, for the taking off
such taxes or burthens from them as they chiefly groan under,
and by a temporary necessity only imposed on them; which being
thus supplied, will certainly best content the King, and satisfy
his people; which, I dare say, is the continual tend of all your
indefatigable pains, and the perfect demonstrations of your zeal
to his Majesty, and an evidence that the kingdom's trust is justly
and deservedly reposed in you. And if ever Parliament acquitted
themselves thereof, it is this of yours, composed of most deserving
and qualified persons; qualified, I say, with your affection to your
Prince, and with a tenderness to his people; with a bountiful heart
towards him, yet a frugality in their behalfs.
Go on therefore chearfully (my Lords and Gentlemen) and not only our
gracious King, but the King of Kings will reward you, the prayers of
the people will attend you, and his Majesty will with thankful arms
embrace you. And be pleased to make use of me and my endeavours to
enrich them, not myself; such being my only request unto you, spare
me not in what your wisdoms shall find me useful, who do esteem
myself not only by the act of the Water-commanding Engine (which
so chearfully you have past) sufficiently rewarded, but likewise
with courage enabled to do ten times more for the future; and my
debts being paid, and a competency to live according to my birth
and quality settled, the rest shall I dedicate to the service of
our King and Country by your disposals: and esteem me not the more,
or rather any more, by what is past, but what's to come; professing
really from my heart, that my intentions are to outgo the six or
seven hundred thousand pounds already sacrificed, if countenanced
and encouraged by you, ingenuously confessing, that the melancholy
which hath lately seized upon me (the cause whereof none of you but
may easily guess) hath, I dare say, retarded more advantages to
the public service than modesty will permit me to utter: and now,
revived by your promising favours, I shall infallibly be enabled
thereunto in the experiments extant, and comprised under these
heads, practicable with my directions by the unparalleled workman
both for trust and skill, Caspar Kaltoff's hand, who hath been these
five and thirty years as in a school under me employed, and still
at my disposal, in a place by my great expences made fit for public
service, yet lately like to be taken from me, and consequently from
the service of King and kingdom, without the least regard of above
ten thousand pounds expended by me, and through my zeal to the
common good; my zeal, I say, a field large enough for you (my Lords
and Gentlemen) to work upon.
The treasures buried under these heads, both for war, peace, and
pleasure, being inexhaustible; I beseech you pardon me if I say so;
it seems a vanity, but comprehends a truth; since no good spring but
becomes the more plentiful by how much more it is drawn; and the
spinner to weave his web is never stinted, but further inforced.
The more then that you shall be pleased to make use of my
Inventions, the more inventive shall you ever find me, one invention
begetting still another, and more and more improving my ability to
serve my King and you; and as to my heartiness therein there needs
no addition, nor to my readiness a spur. And therefore (my Lords
and Gentlemen) be pleased to begin, and desist not from commanding
me, till I flag in my obedience and endeavours to serve my King and
Country:
For certainly you'l find me breathless first t'expire,
Before my hands grow weary, or my legs do tire.
Yet abstracting from any interest of my own, but as a fellow-subject
and compatriot will I ever labour in the vineyard, most heartily and
readily obeying the least summons from you, by putting faithfully in
execution, what your judgments shall think fit to pitch upon amongst
this Century of Experiments, perhaps dearly purchased by me, but now
frankly and gratis offered to you. Since my heart (methinks) cannot
be satisfied in serving my King and Country, if it should cost them
any thing: as I confess when I had the honour to be near so obliging
a master as his late Majesty of happy memory, who never refused me
his ear to any reasonable motion: and as for unreasonable ones, or
such as were not fitting for him to grant, I would rather to have
died a thousand deaths, than ever to have made any one unto him.
Yet whatever I was so happy as to obtain for any deserving person,
my pains, breath and interest imployed therein satisfied me not,
unless I likewise satisfied the fees; but that was in my golden age.
And even now, though my ability and means are shortened, the world
knows why my heart remains still the same; and be you pleased (my
Lords and Gentlemen) to rest most assured, that the very complacency
that I shall take in the executing your commands, shall be unto me a
sufficient and an abundantly-satisfactory reward.
Vouchsafe therefore to dispose freely of me, and whatever lieth
in my power to perform; first, in order to his Majesty's service;
secondly, for the good and advantage of the Kingdom; thirdly, to
all your satisfactions, for particular profit and pleasure to your
individual selves, professing that in all and each of the three
respects I will ever demean myself as it best becomes,
My Lords and Gentlemen,
Your most passionately bent fellow subject in his Majesty's
service, com-patriot for the public good and advantage, and a
most humble Servant to all and every of you,
WORCESTER.
CONTENTS.
No. Page.
1. Seals abundantly significant 1
2. Private and particular to each Owner 5
3. A one line Cypher _ib._
4. Reduced to a Point 7
5. Varied significantly to all the 24 Letters 8
6. A mute and perfect Discourse by Colours 9
7. To hold the same by Night _ib._
8. To level Cannons by Night 12
9. A Ship-destroying Engine _ib._
10. How to be fastened from aloof and under
Water 13
11. How to prevent both 14
12. An unsinkable Ship _ib._
13. False destroying Decks 15
14. Multiplied Strength in little Room 16
15. A Boat driving against Wind and Tide _ib._
16. A Sea-sailing Fort 17
17. A pleasant floating Garden 18
18. An Hour-glass Fountain 20
19. A Coach-saving Engine 21
20. A Balance Water-work 22
21. A Bucket Fountain 23
22. An ebbing and flowing River 24
23. An ebbing and flowing Castle Clock 25
24. A Strength-increasing Spring 26
25. A double drawing Engine for Weights 27
26. A to and fro Lever _ib._
27. A most easy level Draught 28
28. A portable Bridge _ib._
29. A moveable Fortification 29
30. A rising Bulwark 30
31. An approaching Blind 31
32. An universal Character 32
33. A Needle Alphabet 38
34. A knotted String Alphabet _ib._
35. A Fringe Alphabet 40
36. A Bracelet Alphabet _ib._
37. A pinked Glove Alphabet 40
38. A Sieve Alphabet 41
39. A Lanthorn Alphabet _ib._
40. An Alphabet by the Smell _ib._
41. Ditto Taste _ib._
42. Ditto Touch 42
43. A variation of all and each of these 43
44. A Key-Pistol _ib._
45. A most conceited Tinder-box 44
46. An artificial Bird 45
47. An Hour Water Ball _ib._
48. A screwed ascent of Stairs 46
49. A Tobacco-tongs engine 48
50. A Pocket-ladder 48
51. A Rule of Gradation 49
52. A mystical jangling of Bells _ib._
53. An hollowing of a Water Screw 51
54. A transparent Water Screw _ib._
55. A double Water Screw 52
56. An advantageous change of Centres 53
57. A constant Water-flowing and ebbing motion 55
58. An often discharging Pistol 57
59. An especial way for Carabines 58
60. A Flask Charger _ib._
61. A way for Musquets 59
62. A way for a Harquebus, a Crock _ib._
63. For Sakers and Minyons _ib._
64. For the biggest Cannon 60
65. For a whole side of Ship-musquets _ib._
66. For guarding several Avenues to a Town 61
67. For Musquetoons on Horseback 62
68. A Fire Water work _ib._
69. A triangle Key 64
70. A Rose Key 65
71. A square Key with a turning Screw _ib._
72. An Escutcheon for all Locks _ib._
73. A transmittible Gallery 67
74. A conceited Door 68
75. A Discourse woven on Tape or Ribbon _ib._
76. To write in the dark 69
77. A flying Man 69
78. A continually going Watch 76
79. A total locking of Cabinet Boxes 77
80. Light Pistol Barrels 78
81. A Comb conveyance for Letters _ib._
82. A Knife, Spoon, or Fork conveyance 79
83. A Rasping Mill _ib._
84. An Arithmetical Instrument _ib._
85. An untoothsome Pear 80
86. An imprisoning Chair 81
87. A Candle Mould 82
88. A Coining Engine 84
88. A Brazen Head 85
89. Primero Gloves 89
90. A Dicing Box _ib._
91. An artificial Ring-horse 90
92. A Gravel Engine 93
93. A Ship raising Engine 94
94. A pocket Engine to open any Door 95
95. A double Cross Bow _ib._
96. A way for Sea Banks 96
97. A perspective Instrument 98
98. A semi-omnipotent Engine 99
99. A most admirable way to raise Weights _ib._
100. A stupendous Water-work 100
THE
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER'S
CENTURY OF INVENTIONS,
EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED.
No. I.
Several sorts of seals, some showing by screws, others by gauges,
fastening or unfastening all the marks at once: others, by
additional points and imaginary places, proportionable to ordinary
escutcheons and seals at arms, each way palpably and punctually
setting down (yet private from all others, but the owner, and by his
assent) the day of the month, the day of the week, the month of the
year, the year of our Lord, the names of the witnesses, and the
individual place where any thing was sealed, though in ten thousand
several places, together with the very number of lines contained in
a contract, whereby falsification may be discovered, and manifestly
proved, being upon good grounds suspected.
Upon any of these seals a man may keep accounts of receipts and
disbursements, from one farthing to an hundred millions, punctually
showing each pound, shilling, penny, or farthing.
By these seals, likewise, any letter, though written but in English,
may be read and understood in eight several languages; and in
English itself, to clear contrary and different sense, unknown to
any but the correspondent, and not to be read or understood by
him neither, if opened before it arrive unto him; so that neither
threats, nor hopes of reward, can make him reveal the secret, the
letter having been intercepted, and first opened by the enemy.
NOTE.
The use of _sigili_ or "autograph seals" is very ancient, indeed
we find them mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah (chap. xxii. v.
10); these, however, were invariably engraved on the collets
or stones of rings, and it was not till a much later date that
hand stamps were applied to that purpose. In England, the first
sealed charter extant is that of Edward the Confessor, upon his
founding Westminster Abbey; and many of our English kings used
them, from an inability to affix any other kind of signature:
this indeed is candidly acknowledged by Caedwalla, a Saxon king,
who says, at the conclusion of one of his charters, "_propriâ
manu pro ignorantiâ literarum signum sanctæ crucis expressi et
subscripsi_."
The nearest approach to a _corresponding seal_ that occurs
prior to the sixteenth century, is that described in a decree
of Cardinal Otto, who was papal legate in 1237, by which the
bishops were to bear on their seals their title, office,
dignity, and even their proper names. About this period _mottos_
were likewise generally introduced, but none of those before
the publication of the noble author's work were at all adapted
for secret correspondence; or, in fact, had they any mode of
combining moveable characters in the matrix for the purpose
of varying the impression. The principle upon which those
described by the Marquis must have been formed is simply this:
a frame similar to those in which seals are generally mounted
having been first prepared, a number of moveable circles may
be made to slide within each other on one common centre. If
three are employed, they should be engraved with the numerals,
the alphabet, and, if intended for secret writing, the third
circle may be furnished with any arbitrary signs that may
suggest themselves. These, by means of a key, of which both the
corresponding parties must possess a duplicate, may be combined
to form the day of the week, month, year, &c.
It would be found very useful in preventing and detecting the
mistakes which so frequently occur in the delivery of letters,
if the seals in common use were provided with at least two of
these revolving circles, with the day of the month and hour
of the day engraved on their face, parallel to the stone. A
particular part of the arms or cipher being used as an index
hand, it would then show the precise hour the letter was sent,
without the trouble of dating, &c.
In engraved seals where coats of arms are used, it will be
obvious that the seal must be larger than those generally
in use, as the circles must be made to revolve round the
outer extremity of the stone, and their usefulness will be
considerably diminished. With regard to the possibility
of forming a key by which writing in any language may be
deciphered, we have the following curious anecdote, furnished
by the late learned and ingenious Mr. Astle, keeper of His
Majesty's Records: he states, on the authority of a noble Lord,
deceased, that the late Earl Granville, while Secretary of
State, told him, that when he came into office he had his doubts
respecting the certainty of deciphering. That he wrote down
two or three sentences in the Swedish language, and afterwards
put them into such arbitrary marks or characters, as his mind
suggested to him; that he sent the paper to Dr. Willes, who
returned it the next day, and informed his lordship, that the
characters he had sent to him formed certain words, which he
had written beneath the cipher, but that he did not understand
the language; and Lord Granville declared, that the words were
exactly those which he had first written, before he put them
into cipher.
No. II.
How ten thousand persons may use these seals to all and every of the
purposes aforesaid, and yet keep their secrets from any but whom
they please.
NOTE.
As the mode of deciphering inscriptions, dates, &c. formed
by these seals, depends on a key, the formation of which is
arbitrary, and resting entirely upon the fancy or ingenuity of
its composer; it follows, that the smallest variation from the
one originally intended for that purpose, will entirely destroy
the effect of the proposed combination.
No. III.
A cipher and character so contrived, that one line, without returns
and circumflexes, stands for each and every one of the twenty-four
letters; and as ready to be made for the one letter as the other.
NOTE.
Of this and the following invention, the noble author has left
to the curious in the stenographic art, his own definition; a
manuscript, in the Marquis's hand-writing, having been preserved
in the _Harleian Collection_, appended to an original copy of
the Century of Inventions, in which he explains the system
upon which these two articles are founded. The MS. alluded to
is thus entitled:--"An Explanation of the most exact and most
compendious way of Short-hand Writing; and an Example, given
by way of Questions and Resolves upon each significant Point,
proving how and why it stands for such and such a Letter, in
order, alphabetically placed in every page."--_Bibl. Harl._ No.
2428.
The above work is accompanied with engraved brass plates; and
his system, which is simple and easy of attainment, may be
thus described:--A sheet of paper must first be prepared, with
a given number of horizontal rows of small octagons, somewhat
resembling the chequers on a draft-board. Straight lines are
then to be drawn from the centre towards the sides of these
squares, in different positions, and of various lengths, for
each letter in the alphabet. Thus, A is a short horizontal
stroke, made to the right hand, and not touching the side; E,
A, and W, are represented by a similar stroke in the opposite
direction, but varying in their lengths. By a similar method the
author suggests, in the following article, that we may write
with a dot, or single point only, placed in a given situation
in the octagon; varying the position for each letter, as is
at present done in music, the paper being prepared with ruled
lines, or it may be simplified by the use of coloured inks for
the vowels and consonants.
No. IV.
This invention refined, and so abbreviated, that a point only
showeth distinctly and significantly any of the twenty-four letters;
and these very points to be made with two pens, so that no time will
be lost, but as one finger riseth, the other may make the following
letter, never clogging the memory with several figures for words,
and combinations of letters; which, with ease and void of confusion,
are thus speedily and punctually, letter for letter, set down by
naked and not multiplied points. And nothing can be less than a
point, the mathematical definition of it being _cujus pars nulla_.
And of a motion, equally as swift as _semiquavers_ or _relishes_,
yet applicable to this manner of writing.
NOTE.
_Vide_ the preceding article.
No. V.
A way, by a circular motion, either along a rule or ring-wise, to
vary any alphabet, even this of points, so that the self same point,
individually placed, without the least additional mark or variation
of place, shall stand for all the twenty-four letters, and not for
the same letter twice in ten sheets writing; yet as easily and
certainly read and known, as if it stood but for one and the self
same letter constantly signified.
NOTE.
The gauge, in this case, must accompany the letter to be
deciphered, and, when circular, made to resemble a _map-meter_.
By noticing the number of lines passed over by this instrument,
and comparing the index-hand with the dots, a sufficiently
intelligible though certainly complex cipher may be formed.
No. VI.
How, at a window, as far as eye can discover black from white, a man
may hold discourse with his correspondent, without noise made or
noise taken; being, according to occasion given and means afforded,
_ex re natâ_, and no need of provision beforehand; though much
better if foreseen, and means prepared for it, and a premeditated
course taken by mutual consent of parties.
NOTE.
The _telegraph_, though not generally used in Europe till the
commencement of the French revolution, appears to have been
well known to the ancients. Polybius describes a method of
communication, which was invented by Cleoxenus, which answered
both by day and night. Kircher and Scott likewise allude to
its use; but the description given by the Marquis is evidently
superior to any that had preceded him; and, indeed, must have
nearly resembled that in use at the present period.
No. VII.
A way to do it by night as well as by day, though as dark as pitch
is black.
NOTE.
The allusion here to a telegraphic communication is likewise
sufficiently evident; though it is obvious that, for night
signals, it will become necessary to substitute rockets or
reflecting lamps for the painted boards.
Among the signs for nightly information at a distance, those by
fire are extremely common, and have been used by the Chinese,
Persians, and other nations, in the remotest times. This species
of communication is affirmed by Diodorus Siculus to have been
practised by Medea in her conspiracy with Jason, which carries
us back three thousand and seventy years; and although there
must be some uncertainty on this question, Pliny, in his
"History," lib. vii. cap. 56, says, it originated with Sinon.
"Specularem significationem Trojano bello Sinon invenit." This
was the signal upon which Sinon agreed to unlock the wooden
horse in the siege of Troy, about 1184 years before Christ:
"----Flammas cum regia puppis
Extulerat."
_Virgil. Æn._ lib. ii. 256.
And, after the taking of Troy, Æschylus relates, that Agamemnon
immediately apprized his queen, Clytemnestra, of that event by
a similar method; which, we suppose, must have been done either
by men placed at certain distances with lighted torches, which
they held up in succession, or by a considerable number of fires
on the tops of hills, denoting the simple fact previously agreed
on between the parties. See Onosander's Strategicus, cap. 25,
where this practice is described.
The fire-signals of the Greeks and Romans are also slightly
mentioned by Quintus Curtius, Livy, Cæsar, Herodotus, Homer,
and Thucydides; likewise by Vegetius and Frontinus; but still
more in detail by Polybius and Æneas Tacticus; the latter of
whom was contemporary with Aristotle, and has left a valuable
fragment on the duties of a general, (translated into Latin by
Casaubon,) wherein are many curious remarks on the subject of
secret correspondence. The Greek signals were much improved by
Polybius, who, in his history, (lib. x. cap. 45. p. 296. tom.
iii. Lips. 1790. edit. Joh. Schweighaeuser,) attributes the
invention to Cleomenes and Democritus, or (more correctly) to
Cleoxenus and Democlitus, in words thus rendered: "Postrema
ratio, cujus auctores sunt Cleoxenus et Democlitus, sed quam
nos correximus, certa definitaque est, adeo ut quidquid exortum
fuerit negotii, id possis certo facere notum." Prior to that
period, the information communicated by torches, flags, smoke,
or otherwise, was very limited, and it was requisite to settle
beforehand what each signal should mean; whereas Polybius showed
how to correspond alphabetically, and to give or receive any
species of intelligence, without this previous concert. The
plans of Æneas Tacticus had never arrived at such perfection,
and were therefore of comparatively small use; though, without
doubt, he at least equalled any of his predecessors in the
facility of his telegraphic communications.
No. VIII.
A way how to level and shoot cannon by night as well as by day, and
as directly, without a platform or measures taken by day, yet by a
plain and infallible rule.
No. IX.
An engine, portable in one's pocket, which may be carried and
fastened on the inside of the greatest ship, _tanquam aliud agens_,
and, at any appointed minute, though a week after, either of day or
night, it shall irrecoverably sink that ship.
NOTE.
To prepare this dangerous instrument, it is merely necessary to
connect a gun-lock with a common bomb shell, filled in the usual
manner, and a small clock attached; which will at any given
time discharge the lock, and cause the shell to explode: the
tremendous effects of which in the cabin or hold of a vessel may
easier be conceived than described.
No. X.
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.
NOTE.
Mr. Fulton, of the United States, the inventor of the _Torpedo_,
recommends the use of a gun-harpoon for fixing this destructive
engine on the side of a ship; but this plan appears liable to
two objections: the resistance that would be offered by the
water, should the harpoon be fired from a considerable distance;
and the certainty of discovery from the report of the cannon,
on a near approach to the hull of the vessel. The methods
most eligible for this object appear to be, either to let the
machine float with the tide, and by striking against the side
of the vessel discharge a gun-lock; or else, by employing a
_diving-bell_, pass beneath the surface of the water. In proof
of the practicability of the latter plan, about the time of the
attack made by the English at Boulogne, Buonaparte caused a
small diving vessel to be made, which, at a preconcerted signal,
lowered its masts, yards, &c.; and by admitting a certain
quantity of water sunk it to the required depth; it was then
impelled forward by means of a circular paddle or wheel turned
within the vessel, and upon the air becoming foul or exhausted,
the vessel was raised to the surface by means of pumps or
dropping of ballast. It appears more than probable, that this
is the species of vessel to which the Marquis alludes. Hook, in
his _Philosophical Collections_, No. 2, describes an air-vessel
possessing similar properties with the above.
No. XI.
How to prevent and safeguard any ship from such an attempt by day or
night.
NOTE.
A safe and easy method of preventing the dreadful consequences
attendant on the explosion of this tremendous machine, may be
found in the use of a strong net, resembling that used in the
salmon fishery; which must be kept at the required distance from
the vessel by floating buoys placed for that purpose. It will
also be necessary to fix a bell upon the upper extremity of
each buoy, which will, by its ringing on a calm night, discover
the approach of any hydrostatic vessel; and should the weather
be stormy, the attempt must end in the destruction of the
sub-marine voyagers.
No. XII.
A way to make a ship not possible to be sunk, though shot at an
hundred times between wind and water by cannon, and should she lose
a whole plank, yet, in half an hour's time, should be made as fit to
sail as before.
NOTE.
Provided the hull of the vessel be composed of number of small
divisions, similar to the life preservers constructed by Mr.
Daniel, it will scarcely be possible to sink it, especially if a
large sheet, well prepared with oakum, be drawn under the vessel
in the event of a fracture occurring, as the pressure of the
water on the surface of the vessel will force the canvass into
the chasm, and allow of the necessary reparation. The latter
method has been adopted in the navy for several years.
No. XIII.
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 real
decks up, or destroying them from being reducible; and, in a quarter
of an hour's time, should recover their former shape, and to be made
fit for any employment without discovering the secret.
NOTE.
At about six inches from the fixed deck, and supported by cross
beams, it will be necessary to raise an artificial one of thin
planks, under which must be previously placed a number of small
iron boxes, open at the top, and filled with powder, connected
with each other by a train. The instant this is fired, the
upper, or false deck, will blow up _en masse_, without affecting
in the slightest degree the permanent deck beneath.
No. XIV.
How to bring a force to weigh up an anchor, or to do any forcible
exploit in the narrowest or 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, 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.
NOTE.
The application of an endless screw, or worm, appears the most
advantageous mode of increasing power in a small space; and it
possesses the additional advantage of remaining stationary at
any point without the assistance of the ratchet and click.
No. XV.
A way how to make a boat work itself against wind and tide, yea,
both without the help of man or beast; yet so, that the wind or
tide, though directly opposite, shall force the ship or boat
against itself; and in no point of the compass, but it shall be as
effectual as if the wind were in the poop, 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.
NOTE.
A _Panemore_, or globular wind-mill, erected in the centre of
a ship, has been proposed for the turning of two wheels or
paddles, placed on the bows, which would thus impel the vessel
forward in any required direction. The panemore, which was
invented by M. Desquinemare, consists of a kind of globe placed
on the top of a mast, on which it always turns round with the
wind. In consequence of the ingenious adjustment of the curves
which it presents in all its points, the rotary motion is always
in the same direction, be that of the wind as it may; and their
utmost violence, instead of being detrimental to its action,
only augments its power. The means of the instrument increasing
in a cubical ratio when the wind doubles its velocity; and by
doubling the surface its power is increased eight-fold.
No. XVI.
How to make a sea-castle, or fortification, cannon-proof, capable
of a thousand men, yet sailable at pleasure to defend a passage,
or, in an hour's time, to divide itself into three ships, as fit and
trimmed to sail as before; and even whilst it is a fort or castle,
they shall be unanimously steered, and effectually be driven by an
indifferent strong wind.
NOTE.
Scheffer, in his treatise entitled _De Militiâ Navali_,
describes a vessel of a somewhat similar construction: it
was composed of four floating tanks, or parts of vessels,
which could at pleasure be joined together by means of bolts.
Bomb-proof batteries of prodigious force were used by the
Spaniards in their attack on Gibraltar, in 1782. Their upper
decks were at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and
composed of successive layers of oak-planking and raw hides.
These offered an irresistible barrier to the shot and shells
commonly used, till General Elliot decided on the application
of red-hot balls, which, by burning a passage through the outer
layers, quickly communicated to that part of the hold used as a
depository for powder, &c., and the consequence was, the entire
destruction of this immense flotilla.
No. XVII.
How to make upon the Thames a floating garden of pleasure, with
trees, flowers, banqueting-houses, and fountains, stews for all
kind of fishes, a reserve for snow to keep wine in, delicate bathing
places, and the like; with music made by mills; and all in the midst
of the stream, where it is most rapid.
NOTE.
The most celebrated gardens of this description were those made
by the Mexicans on the great lake which surrounds the capital;
here they planted trees, and cultivated maize, pepper, and other
plants necessary for their support. In progress of time, as
these floating fields grew numerous from the industry of the
people, they formed among them gardens for flowers and other
odoriferous plants, which were employed in the worship of their
gods, and which served also for the recreation of the nobles.
Every day of the year, at sun-rise, innumerable vessels, laden
with various kinds of flowers and herbs, cultivated on the
water, arrived by the canal, at the great market-place of the
capital.
To form their floats, they first plait or twist willows, with
roots of marsh plants, and upon this foundation they place the
mud and dirt which they draw from the bed of the lake. When the
owner of a garden wishes to change his situation, to remove from
a disagreeable neighbour, or to come nearer his own family,
he gets into his little vessel and tows the plantation after
him.--Vide _Nov. His. de Mexico par le Abbé Francesco Saverio
Clavigero_.
The floating pleasure bath moored in the River Thames, near
Westminster Bridge, is supported by empty casks; and this plan,
if assisted by mooring-chains, may be applied to gardens of any
reasonable extent, even in the broadest and most rapid rivers.
No. XVIII.
An artificial fountain, to be turned like an hour-glass, by a child,
in the twinkling of an eye, it yet holding great quantities of
water, and of force sufficient to make snow, ice, and thunder; with
the chirping and singing of birds, and showing of several shapes and
effects, usual to fountains of pleasure.
NOTE.
That a fountain may be made upon the principle of an hour-glass,
and that when the upper division is exhausted, the lower may be
elevated by a crank and lever, the fluid passing through the
centre of its axis, we may easily conceive; but how a fountain
of water can produce snow, ice, thunder, and the singing of
birds, is a circumstance not easy to be comprehended.
No. XIX.
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, in full career; a child being
sufficiently capable to unloose 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.
NOTE.
There are but few persons who will disallow the utility of an
invention, whose object is to prevent, as much as possible, the
frequent and terrible accidents which occur from the present
mode of attaching horses to carriages, and other vehicles; that
these might in a great measure be avoided, by the application of
the Marquis's invention, and a legislative enactment to secure
its adoption, there can be no doubt.
To accomplish this very desirable object, a bar, of equal length
with the axle-tree, to which is fixed the pole and traces; must
be furnished with three iron bolts made to fit a like number of
sockets in the axle-tree; and from which, the additional bar
may be readily raised, by the application of a common lever:
either by the pressure of the driver's foot, or by a string made
to communicate with the body of the vehicle. For a chaise the
apparatus will be no less simple, with the exception of a small
resting bar, or foot, which it will be necessary to discharge
by the same lever which sets at liberty the horse, and by this
means prevent the sudden jerk, that must otherwise occur in a
two wheeled carriage.
No. XX.
How to bring up water balance-wise, so that as little weight or
force as will turn a balance, will be only needful, more than the
weight of the water within the buckets, which counterpoise and empty
themselves one into the other, the uppermost yielding its water
(how great a quantity soever it holds) at the same time when the
lowermost taketh it in, though it be an hundred fathom high.
NOTE.
An engine answering the above description may be composed of a
series of ladles or buckets, the handles of which being hollow
will admit a passage for the water by elevating the bucket end.
A number of these, sufficient for the required height, must be
fastened in a frame; each ladle being suspended by a fulcrum
so balanced that when filled with water, they may remain in
equilibrio. The whole of the buckets thus constructed may be
connected by rods passing from the top of the machine to the
lowest handle, and the continued series so placed, that the
handle of the one bucket will empty itself into the reservoir
of the succeeding one, so that by alternately raising and
depressing the rods the water is raised to the top of the
machine.
No. XXI.
How to raise water constantly with two buckets only, day and night,
without any other force than its own motion, using not so much as
any force, wheel, or sucker, nor more pullies than one, on which the
cord or chain rolleth, with a bucket at each end. This, I confess, I
have seen and learned of the great mathematician Clavius's _Studies
at Rome_, he having made a present thereof unto a cardinal; and I
desire not to own any other man's inventions; but if I set down any,
to nominate likewise the inventor.
NOTE.
The construction of an hydraulic engine with powers nearly
similar to this, may be thus described: two buckets of unequal
size must be first suspended by a flexible chain turning on a
double roller or pulley; so that one bucket will be elevated to
the required height, while the other reaches the level of the
water to be raised; a small stream of water must then be made
to communicate with the largest bucket, which will speedily be
depressed and descend to the lower level, while the opposite
bucket will discharge its contents into a cistern or reservoir
at the top of the machine: the larger bucket being likewise
emptied by striking against a projecting beam placed there for
that purpose.
Mr. Sarjeant has described a very simple and powerful machine
for raising water, nearly similar in point of principle to the
above. An engraving of Mr. S.'s engine, together with an account
of its construction, is inserted in the Trans. of the Soc. of
Arts, vol. xix. p. 255.
No. XXII.
To make a river in a garden ebb and flow constantly, though twenty
foot over, with a child's force, in some private room, or place out
of sight, and a competent distance from it.
NOTE.
The very ingenious canal lock lately invented by Peter Bogaerts,
Esq., appears fully calculated for effecting this object. In
this lock, which from its simplicity is no less useful than
economical, a small portion of water is made to assist in
displacing several tons of that element, and there is no doubt
but a _child's force_ would raise double the quantity of water
described by the Marquis. In the model lately exhibited, a
weight of seven pounds was made to raise 10 _cwt._ of water more
than four feet in a few seconds.
No. XXIII.
To set a clock as within a castle, the water filling the trenches
about it; which shall show, by ebbing and flowing, the hours,
minutes, and seconds, and all the comprehensible motions of the
heavens, and counterlibration of the earth, according to Copernicus.
NOTE.
A tide-mill was several years back exhibited in the Museum of
that very ingenious mechanic, Mr. G. J. Hawkins; and a similar
prime mover has been suggested for the purpose of winding
a clock for a bell signal station on the Northern coast of
England. An astronomical machine as described by the Marquis,
must be provided with two barrels, each possessing a maintaining
power sufficient for the correct performance of the whole. In
addition to the line that supports the weight, or maintaining
power, each barrel must be provided with a revolving pulley
resembling those used for old thirty-hour clocks; with chains
passing over their axis; and the chains being attached to large
floats of wood will be alternately raised or depressed by the
ebbing and flowing of the tide; and thus in succession wind up
the weights which form the maintaining power of the clock. The
clepsydræ, or hydraulic clock, was in general use among the
ancients, and a stream of water was frequently employed to give
motion to planetary machines.
No. XXIV.
How to increase the strength of a spring to such a degree as to
shoot bombasses 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.
NOTE.
The strength of a compound spring formed of two metals may,
by the application of heat, be increased to any given power.
_Rationale._--Iron possessing an expansive power of 1/95, and
brass being only 1/60, the weaker metal will be bent by that
whose power of expansion is greater, and the impulse of the
spring increased in an equal ratio.
No. XXV.
How to make a weight, that cannot take up an hundred pound, and yet
shall take up two hundred pounds, and at the self same distance from
the centre; and so, proportionally, to millions of pounds.
NOTE.
This is indeed paradoxical, and so completely contrary to every
established principle or rule in science, that we may fairly set
it down among the number of those inventions which, by partaking
so highly of the marvellous, have contributed to bring the whole
_Century_ into disrepute.
No. XXVI.
To raise a weight so well and as forcibly with the drawing back of
the lever, as with the thrusting it forwards; and by that means to
lose no time in motion or strength. This I saw in the arsenal at
Venice.
NOTE.
The mere application of a crank, such as is used for the
_foot-lathe_, acting upon a drum and fly-wheel, with a chain
attached to move a second lever or upright sliding bar, will
fully effect the object here described.
No. XXVII.
A way to remove to and fro huge weights, with a most inconsiderable
strength, from place to place. For example: ten ton with ten pounds,
and less; the said ten pounds not to fall lower than it makes the
ten ton to advance or retreat upon a level.
NOTE.
A weight attached to an ordinary crane may be moved with the
utmost facility; and it is well known that the employment of
friction wheels furnishes a ready medium of conveyance for
masses of iron and stone of the greatest magnitude.
No. XXVIII.
A bridge, portable upon 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 be transported, horse, foot, and cannon.
NOTE.
A portable bridge, or rather ferry boat, calculated for crossing
wide and deep rivers, was frequently employed in ancient
warfare, and is still used for the conveyance of horses and
passengers in many parts of Europe. The apparatus for this
purpose may readily be attached to the banks of the most
rapid river, as it merely consists in the employment of two
ropes or wires, tightened by means of a winch, on which slide
pullies connected with a large floating tank or waggon, that is
afterwards intended to be employed as a medium of conveyance.
The apparatus being thus prepared, a communication may readily
be opened by means of two cords between the opposite banks of
the river.
No. XXIX.
A portable fortification, able to contain five hundred fighting
men, and yet, in six hours' time, may 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.
NOTE.
It is difficult to attempt an elucidation of this or the
following articles; but the annexed extract from the _General
Evening Post_ for 1747 appears to throw some light on No. XXX.
"On the 11th instant, Mr. James Allis was presented to the
Royal Society, with a new invented cannon, which charges and
discharges both at one time, and twenty times in a minute: he
had their thanks, and a handsome present."
No. XXX.
A way, in one night's time, to raise a bulwark, twenty or thirty
foot high, cannon proof, and cannon mounted upon it; with men to
overlook, command and batter a town; for, though it contain but four
pieces, they shall be able to discharge two hundred bullets each
hour.
NOTE.
Vide the preceding Article.
Since writing the above, the Editor has been called to witness
the effects of highly elastic vapour applied to the propelling
of leaden bullets, in an apparatus contrived by Mr. Perkins; and
these destructive missile engines are capable of discharging
nearly two hundred bullets, in one sixtieth part of the time
described by our author in the present Article.
No. XXXI.
A way how safely and speedily to make an approach to a castle or
town-wall, and over the very ditch, at noon-day.
NOTE.
A wheel carriage, of sufficient strength to support an heavy
iron tower, must first be provided. It may be constructed of
thick wrought iron, with door, &c., of the same material, and
hung round with sand-bags, through the interstices of which
may project from six to eight small guns to protect it from
musquetry. The most eligible method of moving the tower appears
to be by fixing small handles to the axles of the wheels, which
may be turned at pleasure by those within the walls. To prevent
any attempt of the enemy who may sally forth to drag the machine
within the walls of the town, &c., it will be adviseable to arm
the wheels with long steel studs, which, when the handles are
fastened within, will render it immoveable.
This tower, though but of little use in modern warfare, appears
well adapted for reconnoitring the walls of a fortified town,
and, if fixed upon a hollow iron vessel, will possess the
further advantage of crossing rivers and moats. Nearly similar
machines are described by Vitruvius, and other authors who treat
on military engineering.
No. XXXII.
How to compose an universal character, methodical and easy to be
written, yet intelligible in any language; so that if an Englishman
write it in English, a Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, Irish or
Welchman, being scholars, yea, Grecian or Hebritian, shall as
perfectly understand it in their own tongue as if they were 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.
NOTE.
The great difficulty which the various contrivers of a universal
character or philosophical language have hitherto had to
encounter, from the Marquis of Worcester and Bishop Wilkins
down to M. Lodowick, appears to have arisen rather from the
difficulty attendant on engaging the several nations to use it,
than in inventing the most convenient character.
The _real character_ of Bishop Wilkins, which there is every
reason to suppose strongly resembled that of his contemporary
the Marquis, was repeatedly recommended by Dr. Hook, who, to
engage the world in the study of it, published some curious
inventions of his own, tending to its illustration. But the most
accurate notice on the history of _pasigraphy_ yet published
appeared in the _Spect. du Nord_ for May, 1798. The anonymous
author of this interesting memoir commences by a brief inquiry
into the nature and utility of the universal character, and then
proceeds with this very just eulogium on our immortal countryman
Bacon.
It is generally allowed that Lord Bacon of Verulam comprehended
nearly the whole circle of human knowledge at the period in
which he lived, and foresaw most of the discoveries which have
since been made. He laid the foundation of an Encyclopædia,
and was very near discovering various important philosophical
results, such as the weight of the air, &c. If we open his
book on the progress of the sciences, we shall find the notion
of a pasigraphy in the chapter entitled _The Instrument of
Discourse_. "It is possible to invent such signs," says he, "for
the communication of our thoughts, that people of different
languages may, by this means, understand each other; and
that each may read immediately in his own language, a book
which shall be written in another." But Bacon did not think
of confining this to twelve characters: on the contrary, he
requires a great number, at least as many as the number of
radical words; on which head he quotes the example of the
Chinese; "and although," adds he, "our alphabet may appear
more commodious than this method of writing, the thing itself
nevertheless is well deserving of attention. The problem relates
to the signs by which thoughts may be rendered current; and,
as money may be struck of other materials as well as gold and
silver, it is possible likewise to discover other signs of
things as well as letters and words."
Des Cartes, in his third letter to father Mercennus, discusses
the invention of a Frenchman, whom he does not name, but who, by
means of a certain language and an artificial writing, pretended
to understand all the different idioms. He remarks on this
subject, that it would be very possible to compose a short and
convenient grammar, with general signs, which should render all
foreign languages intelligible.
In the year 1661, John Joachim Becher published a Latin folio,
the title of which was "Characters for the Universal Knowledge
of Languages: a Stenographic Invention hitherto unheard of."
This unheard of invention consists of a method by which a native
of any country may make himself understood by all foreigners by
writing in his own language, and be enabled also to comprehend
what they write in theirs. It was truly at that time a thing
unheard of; for Becher, being the first who had given a complete
treatise on this art, may be considered as the inventor.
He begins his work by a series of highly interesting
observations upon general grammar, and the fundamental relations
of all languages with regard to each other. He gives a learned
comparative table of the relations and harmony of the Latin,
the Greek, the Hebrew, the Arabian, the Sclavonian, the French,
and the German. This work cannot be too highly esteemed, and
assuredly was not unknown to the author of the work _Du Monde
Primitif_. A Latin dictionary then follows, in which every word
corresponds with one or more Arabic numeral figures arbitrarily
taken. Every number is assumed as distinctive, or denoting the
same word in all languages; and consequently nothing more is
required than to compose a dictionary for each, similar to that
which he has given for the Latin.
There is likewise a table of declensions and conjugations, which
presents certain determinate numbers for all the cases, moods,
tenses, or persons. By means of this general disposition, when
a Frenchman is desirous of writing to a German the following
phrase, _La guerre est un grand mal_ (war is a great evil), he
seeks in his index, _guerre_, _être_, _grand_, _mal_; and he
writes the correspondent numbers,
13, 33, 67, 68.
The sentence might be understood by these four characteristic
numbers; but, to leave no room for ambiguity, he says, _Guerre_
is the nominative case, and finds, as the characteristic of
the nominative, the Arabic figure 1. _Est_ is the third person
singular of the indicative mood, present tense, of which the
characteristic is 15. To _grand_, and to _mal_, belong likewise
the figure 1, for the nominative case; he will therefore write
13.1 | 33.15 | 67.1 | 68.1 |
where the numbers are separated by small vertical bars to
prevent confusion. It may easily be conceived how, by the
inverse method, the German will find in his tables the words
denoted by the ciphers, which will form _Der krieg ist ein
grosses uebel_.
This invention of Becher, which is the same thing nearly with
regard to language, as algebra is to arithmetic, is possessed
of considerable simplicity, and even a few hours practice will
render it easy. A great variety of attempts on this principle
may be found in Sturmius, _Essais d'Expériences Curieuses_.
In the same year, George Dalgaru, an Englishman, published in
London a work of which the prolix title is sufficient to show
its object. It runs thus, "The Art of Signs, or an Universal
Character and Philosophical Language, by Means of which, Men
of the most different Idioms may, in the Space of two Weeks,
learn to communicate, whether by Word of Mouth or by Writing,
all their Thoughts, as clearly as in their Mother Tongue.
Besides which, young Persons may therein learn the Principles of
Philosophy, and the Practice of true Logic, more speedily and
more readily than in the ordinary philosophic Writings." The
book of Dalgaru is written in Latin, and Beckman accuses him of
extreme pedantry. His characters likewise were ciphers.
Joachim Frisichius, professor at the Gymnasium at Riga, was
employed on a similar attempt, his object being to introduce a
natural, rational, and universal language, of which some sheets
printed at Thorn in 1681 contain the only specimen extant.
The death of the author interrupted his labours. He purposed
to call his new language Ludovicean, in honour of Louis XIV.,
under whose patronage he pursued his labours; a prince whose
generosity was extended to the learned of all countries.
Athanasius Kircher also published a work on this subject,
entitled "A New and Universal Polygraphia, deduced from the
Art of Combination," and by means of which, says Morhoff,
(Polyhistor, l. ii. c. 5.) he who understands one language only
may correspond in writing with all the nations of the earth.
It would perhaps be unjust to pass in silence the little-known
work of father Besnier, a Jesuit, who, in a book entitled _La
Réunion des Langues, ou l'Art de les apprendre toutes par une
seule_, printed at Paris in 1674, has furnished many important
hints for the cultivation of this branch of language.
The most remarkable work, however, which has been written on
this subject, is that for which we are indebted to Bishop
Wilkins, the brother-in-law of Cromwell: it is entitled,
"An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical
Language, London, 1668." It is divided into four parts: 1st,
Considerations on the various languages, their defects and
imperfections, from which a philosophic language ought to
be exempt. 2dly, Philosophical inquiries respecting all the
things and notions to which proper names ought to be assigned.
3dly, The organic science of native grammar considered as the
necessary means of representing simple ideas in discourse.
4thly, The application of the general rules to every character
and language. Examples, &c. This concise outline sufficiently
shows the importance of the work.
In his appendix, the author explains the utility of a method of
writing without alphabetic characters, by means of signs, which
are to be used to denote all the principal ideas, the relative
attributes being designated by small strokes added at right,
acute, or obtuse angles, to the right or left; &c. Of principal
or chief ideas he admits but forty, under which he ranges
all the others, by that means forming a series of categories.
His new language is calculated to afford great facility of
comprehension, and new openings to the various processes of
science.
After so many attempts, more or less philosophical, and of
different degrees of perfection, with others probably of
which we know nothing, we must not overlook the efforts of
the celebrated Leibnitz. His History and Development of a
Characteristic Universal Language is very generally known.
Leibnitz considered his universal characteristic as the art of
inventing and judging. He stated his conviction that an alphabet
might be formed, and of this alphabet such words as would
afford a language capable of giving mathematical precision to
all the sciences. "Men may thus acquire," says he, "as it were,
a new organ, which would add energy to their moral faculties,
as the microscopic lens increases the power of the eye. The
compass is not more highly valuable to the navigator, than this
philosophical language would be to him who embarks on the sea of
reason and experiments, which is now so full of danger."
In concluding this brief sketch, it may be enough to notice the
ingenious method of the Abbé de l'Epée, who, by means of various
gestures, dictated to his various deaf and dumb pupils certain
discourses, which they wrote with equal readiness in four
languages.
No. XXXIII.
To write with a needle and thread, white, or any other colour, upon
white, or any other colour, so that one stitch shall significantly
show any letter, and as readily and as easily show the one letter as
the other, and fit for any language.
NOTE.
Vide Article LXXV.
No. XXXIV.
To write by a knotted silk string, so that every knot shall signify
any letter, with comma, full-point, or interrogation; and as legible
as with pen and ink upon white paper.
NOTE.
This very ingenious mode of secret writing is the most simple
of any suggested by our author. A silk string of considerable
length having been provided, it will be necessary to furnish the
persons corresponding with a key or graduated gauge, by means of
which the writing will be rendered intelligible. Having procured
a duplicate or corresponding gauge it may then be commenced,
1/16 of an inch being allowed for the first letter, 1/4 for the
second, 3/8 for the third, and so on, in equal proportions,
through the whole alphabet. Should this arrangement be found to
extend the line to an inconvenient length, it may be advisable
to form a certain number of changes on three different lengths,
as in No. LII.; though the former way is the least difficult.
No. XXXV.
The like by the fringe of gloves.
NOTE.
The principle of this and the four following Articles is the
same as the preceding, with this difference, that in the first,
the letters, or words, are formed by knotting the fringe, to
which the gauge is afterwards applied; in the second, and most
desirable way, the beads are set to the required distance; by
the third, the gloves are pierced or pricked in rows, according
to the divisions on the gauge; and by the fourth and fifth, the
rows of parallel holes in a sieve or lantern are stopped at the
required distances, and the gauge applied as before.
No. XXXVI.
By stringing of bracelets.
No. XXXVII.
By pinked gloves.
No. XXXVIII.
By holes in the bottom of a sieve.
No. XXXIX.
By a lattin or candlestick lantern.
No. XL.
By the _smell_.
NOTE.
Pegs of sandal, cedar, and rose woods, may be so varied, that
a person writing in the dark will, by the smell, readily
distinguish the formation of words and sentences.
No. XLI.
By the _taste_.
NOTE.
For writing by the _taste_, it will be necessary to immerse
an equal number of the pegs or beads in weak solutions of
alum, aloes, common salt, or any other liquid whose taste is
sufficiently pungent or aromatic, to be distinguished when dry,
on applying the tongue to them for that purpose.
No. XLII.
By the _touch_.
By these three senses, as perfectly, distinctly, and unconfusedly,
yea, as readily as by the sight.
NOTE.
This object may be readily attained by the use of raised
moveable types and the heavy pressure of an iron pen or mallet.
A mode of corresponding by the touch has been suggested by M.
Haüy, and by this means the blind have been fully instructed,
not only in the rudiments of language, but also in the liberal
arts and sciences. M. Haüy's method of preparing the books, &c.,
which is simple and easy of attainment, is as follows: when the
types have been arranged and fixed, a page of very strong paper
is moistened, so as to be capable of receiving and retaining
impressions, and laid upon the types; and then by the operation
of a press or hammer, frequently repeated over the surface, the
impression of the type is made to rise on the opposite side of
the paper; and it continues, when dry, not only "obvious to the
sight," but to the touch, and is not easily effaced. On the
upper side of the paper, the letters appear in their proper
position; and by their sensible elevation above the common
surface, the blind may easily read them with their fingers. For
epistolary correspondence it will be necessary to moisten the
paper and use a metal pen.
No. XLIII.
How to vary each of these, so that ten thousand may know them, and
yet keep the understanding part from any but their correspondent.
NOTE.
This may be effected by changing the order of their arrangement,
which can only be ascertained by a previous examination of a key
chosen for that purpose.
No. XLIV.
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
breastplate, commonly of carabine proof, with prime, powder, and
fire-lock, undiscoverable in a stranger's hand.
NOTE.
The _rose-pipe_ must in this case be formed like the sliding
tubes of a telescope; that next the wards being furnished with
a screw at the inner and capable of holding the whole of them
together. A small quantity of detonating powder being first
placed within, the pipe may be readily discharged by tightening
of the screw.
No. XLV.
How to light a fire and a candle, at what hour of the night one
awaketh, without rising or putting one's hand out of bed. And
the same thing to be a serviceable pistol at pleasure; yet, by a
stranger, not knowing the secret, seemeth but a dexterous tinder-box.
NOTE.
The pistol tinder-box may readily be made to perform the
whole of what is here described. A bell rope attached to the
trigger will suffice to elicit fire, which, communicating with
a quick-match or fusee, will quickly ignite and produce the
required light. If the fire is previously prepared with wood
or some other combustible material, and a small quantity of
inflammable spirits sprinkled over it, the slightest spark will
throw the whole into a blaze. For the latter qualification
mentioned by the noble author, a pistol barrel may easily be
secreted under the tinder.
The inflammable air-lamp contrived by Volta possesses similar
properties: a stream of hydrogen gas being inflamed by the spark
from an electrophorus.--Vide _Brande's Manual of Chemistry_,
vol. i. p. 240.
No. XLVI.
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.
NOTE.
In the year 1810, two birds were exhibited at the museum of
the late Mr. Merlin; these performed nearly all the evolutions
described by the Author: with this exception, however, that they
were supported by fine wires; and a similar bird was exhibited
in London in the year 1786.--Vide _77th Art. in the Century_.
No. XLVII.
To make a ball of any metal, which, thrown into a pool or pail of
water, shall presently rise from the bottom, and constantly show,
by the superficies of the water, the hour of the day or night, never
rising more out of the water than just to the minute it showeth 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 surface of the water.
NOTE.
A metal ball graduated on the surface, in the same manner as
the index stem to an hydrometer, with a balance to preserve
its equilibrium, must first be exhausted of air, which being
effected, the water may be allowed to enter by a small aperture,
and it will gradually sink till the vessel is filled: this, if
the ball is about 12 inches in diameter and the aperture of a
proportionate size, will not take place in less than twelve
hours.
No. XLVIII.
A screwed ascent, instead of stairs, with fit landing places to the
best chambers of each story, with back stairs within the _noel_ of
it, convenient for servants to pass up and down to the inward rooms
of them, unseen and private.
NOTE.
It is most probable that the Marquis here alludes to the
geometrical staircase now in such general use, with the addition
of a small flight of stairs in the centre, in lieu of the common
handrail, which being surrounded by a partition of boards,
would readily serve as a private communication with the upper
stories: sufficient space being left between the ceiling and
under side of the principal staircase to admit of a passage to
the inner rooms. Since writing the above, the Editor has seen a
more explicit account of this species of staircase. It occurs
in "Evelin's Memoirs," vol. i. page 59, and forms part of that
learned and amusing author's tour through France in 1644. The
following is an extract. "Quitting our barke, we hired horses
to Blois, by way of Chambourg, a famous house of y^e King's,
built by Francis I. in the middle of a solitary parke, full of
deere; the enclosure is a wall. I was particularly desirous
of seeing this palace, from the extravagance of the design,
especially the _stayrecase_, mentioned by Palladio. It is said
that 1800 workmen were constantly employed in this fabric for
twelve yeares; if so, it is wonderfull that it was not finish'd,
it being no greater than divers gentlemen's houses in England,
both for roome or circuit. The carvings are very rich and full.
The stayrecase is devised w^{th} four entries or ascents, which
cross one another, so that though four persons meete, they never
come in sight, but by small loope-holes, till they land. It
consists of 274 steps (as I remember), and is an extraordinary
worke, but of far greater expense than use or beauty."
No. XLIX.
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
proveth insecure for him.
NOTE.
It is not very easy to discover to what the noble author here
alludes: if by _tobacco-tongs_, he means a combination of levers
such as is used by gardeners, to gather choice fruit or lop the
upper boughs of trees, the mode of applying them is extremely
easy. A number of short pieces of brass, jointed together, and
made to resemble a row of _trellis_ work, may, by distending the
joints in an horizontal direction, be made to go in the smallest
compass; and again, by closing the arms, the machine will be
elevated. An ingenious mechanic has constructed a _fire-escape_
upon this principle, of which a model is preserved in the Museum
of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c.
No. L.
A complete light portable ladder, which taken out of one's pocket,
may be by himself fastened an hundred feet high to get up by from
the ground.
NOTE.
A number of light brass tubes, each having a socket to receive
the end of the preceding joint, may be raised to any given
height, and with the assistance of small loops of cord will
fully answer the purpose here described. It will be necessary
to have a small stud at one end of each joint, with a narrow
slit at the end of the following tube to receive it, which
being carried on in a right angle for about twice its width,
will on being turned round serve as a key to prevent the joints
separating.
No. LI.
A rule of gradation, which, with ease and method, reduceth all
things to a private correspondence, most useful for secret
intelligence.
NOTE.
_Vide_ Article V.
No. LII.
How to signify words, and a perfect discourse, by jangling of bells
of any parish church, or by any musical instrument within hearing,
in a seeming way of tuning it, or of an unskilful beginner.
NOTE.
By varying the order of arrangement, the whole alphabet may
readily be rung on three bells; and these, being formed into
sentences by short pauses between each word, will fully serve
for distant conversation. For musical instruments, it is merely
changing keys for bells, and the same purpose may be answered
without the trouble of forming changes upon so small a number
of fixed tones. A table is subjoined, by the use of which a
combination of three bells is made to express the whole alphabet:
A represented by 111
B 112
C 113
D 121
E 122
F 123
G 131
H 132
I 133
K 211
L 212
M 213
N 221
O 222
P 223
Q 231
R 232
S 233
T 311
V 312
U 313
W 321
X 322
Y 323
Z 333
No. LIII.
A way how to make hollow and cover a water-screw, as big and as long
as one pleaseth, in an easy and cheap way.
NOTE.
A leathern water-pipe, such as is used by the firemen, being
nailed in a spiral form round a long circular pole, is the
cheapest and most simple method yet discovered of making the
Archimedean screw.
No. LIV.
How to make a water-screw tight, 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.
NOTE.
This may be readily effected either by making a coarse screw in
the usual manner, and covering it with horn, or by fitting a
spiral tube of glass on a wooden cylinder, and filling up the
interstices with wax or any hard cement so as to project beyond
the glass tube: this appears the most eligible method, though
the former is the most economical.
M. A. Rochon has likewise proposed a most ingenious substitute
for the use of horn in the construction of the Archimedean
screw, and other hydraulic instruments. It is formed (like the
safety lamp of Sir H. Davy) of a coarse wire gauze which, on
being immersed in pure fish-glue or size, forms when varnished a
cheap and durable substitute for the use of glass.
No. LV.
A double water-screw, the innermost to mount the water, and
the outermost for it to descend more in number of threads, and
consequently in quantity of water, though much shorter than the
innermost screw, by which the water ascendeth, a most extraordinary
help for the turning of the screw to make the water rise.
NOTE.
This appears one of those extraordinary slight of hand
discoveries in which the noble author is too apt to indulge;
and though we may readily admit that two water-screws may be
most advantageously employed in turning of any water-wheel,
where an abundant supply is found at the top of the machine,
it yet requires a greater share of penetration than we choose
to take credit for, to discover how a larger quantity of water
can descend than has been previously raised, or, if so, how the
machine could be at all applied to the _raising_ of water.
No. LVI.
To provide and make, that all the weights of the descending side of
a wheel shall be perpetually farther from the centre than those of
the mounting side, and yet equal in number and heft of the one side
as the other. A most incredible thing, if not seen, but tried before
the late king of happy and glorious memory, in the Tower, by my
directions; two extraordinary ambassadors accompanying his Majesty,
and the Duke of Richmond, and Duke Hamilton, with most of the court
attending him. The wheel was fourteen feet over, and forty weights
of fifty pounds a-piece. Sir William Belford, then Lieutenant of the
Tower, can testify it, with several others. They all saw, that no
sooner these great weights passed the diameter line of the upper
side, but they hung a foot farther from the centre; nor no sooner
passed the diameter line of the lower side, but they hung a foot
nearer. Be pleased to judge the consequence.
NOTE.
The celebrated problem of a self-impelling power, though denied
by Huygens and de la Hire, who have attempted to demonstrate its
fallacy, has yet been supported by some of the most celebrated
among the ancient as well as modern philosophers. Innumerable
have been the machines to which the idea of _the perpetual
motion_ has given birth; but the most celebrated among the
moderns is the _Orffyrean wheel_. This machine, according to
the description given of it by M. Grævesande, in his _Œuvres
Philosophiques_, consisted of a large circular wheel or drum,
twelve feet in diameter, and fourteen inches in depth. It
was composed of a number of thin deals, the spaces between
which were covered with wax cloth, in order to conceal the
interior parts of it. On giving the wheel, which rested on the
two extremities of an iron axis, a slight impulse in either
direction, its motion was gradually accelerated; so that after
two or three revolutions it is said to have acquired so great a
velocity as to make twenty-five or more turns in a minute: and
it appears to have preserved this rapid motion for the space of
two months, during which time the Landgrave of Hesse, in whose
chamber it was placed to prevent a possibility of collusion,
kept his own seal on the outer door. At the end of that time it
was stopped to prevent the wear of the materials. Grævesande,
who had been an eye-witness to the performance of this machine,
examined all the external parts of it, and was convinced that
there could not be any communication between it and the adjacent
rooms. Orffyreus, however, having been informed of the ill-timed
curiosity of the professor, and incensed at the refusal of a
premium of _twenty thousand pounds_, which he had made a _sine
quâ non_ for disclosing the mechanism of its construction,
broke the whole apparatus into atoms, and his life was soon
after sacrificed to chagrin at his disappointment. The analogy
between the Marquis's description and the Orffyrean wheel is
sufficiently evident; and the experiment having been made in the
Tower, more than fifty years prior to the attempt of the German
mechanic, it is more than probable that the idea was derived
from the noble author's work.
No. LVII.
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, until a like
globe be cast into the other vessel, which the water is no sooner
sensible of, but that the vessel presently ebbeth, and the other
floweth, and so continueth ebbing and flowing, until one or both
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 easy
a motion, at that instant the ebbing and flowing ceaseth; for if,
during the ebbing, you take out the globe, the water of that vessel
presently returneth to flow, and never ebbeth after, until the globe
be returned into it, and then the motion beginneth as before.
NOTE.
This invention, which is evidently more a matter of curiosity
than of real utility, is no doubt effected upon the principle
of an ebbing and flowing spring; the throwing in of the ball,
by causing a commensurate rise of the water, fills a syphon,
and sets the water-work in motion, but as the effect of this
would cease after the two vessels attained an equilibrium, the
machine must be assisted by a moving power attached to one or
both of the vessels, as the Marquis merely says, that it may
be performed "without the help of any man _within sight or
hearing_."
No. LVIII.
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 one's horse.
NOTE.
An attentive examination of this and the subsequent articles
has suggested what appears an improvement of considerable
importance in the principle of modern fire-arms. The expense
attendant on the manufacture of double barrelled guns, and the
inconvenience which arises from their additional weight, have
hitherto prevented their coming into general use, though their
utility in the field is very generally allowed. An economical
gun uniting all the advantages of the one, with the lightness
and portability of the other, must therefore be considered
as a desideratum of the first importance. To effect this, a
common gun barrel must be pierced with the required number
of touchholes, at a sufficient distance to allow of an equal
number of charges. A detonating magazine gunlock may then be
made to slide on the lower part of the barrel, with a parallel
ratchet and click to fix precisely opposite the touchhole to be
inflamed. The gun must then be loaded by a graduated ramrod,
the powder of each charge being brought opposite its proper
touchhole. After the first discharge, the cock must be moved
back one tooth of the ratchet, and this motion continued till
the whole are exploded, each hole being covered successively by
a plate attached to the lock.
No. 60 is evidently performed by filling a cylindrical flask,
made the same size as the barrel, with the required number of
charges and afterwards forcing the whole of them into the barrel.
Nos. 61 and 67 may be performed by filling a flask previously
made to fit the breech of the musket, and forcing forward each
successive charge by a screw or lever, in the same manner as the
charging is effected in a magazine air-gun.
No. LIX.
Another way, as fast and effectual, but more proper for carabines.
_Vide_ Article LVIII.
No. LX.
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 a dozen shots, as soon as one pleaseth,
proportionably.
_Vide_ Article LVIII.
No. LXI.
A third way, and particularly for muskets, without taking them from
their rests to charge or prime, to a like execution, and as fast as
the flask, the musket containing but one charge at a time.
_Vide_ Article LVIII.
No. LXII.
A way for a harquebuss, a crock, or ship musket, six upon a
carriage, shooting with such expedition, as, without danger, one
may charge, level, and discharge them sixty times in a minute of an
hour, two or three together.
_Vide_ Article LVIII.
No. LXIII.
A sixth way, most excellent for _sakers_, differing from the other,
yet as swift.
_Vide_ Article LVIII.
No. LXIV.
A seventh, tried and approved before the late king (of ever blessed
memory), and an hundred lords and commons, in a cannon of eight
inches and half a quarter, to shoot bullets of sixty-four pounds
weight, and twenty-four pounds of powder, 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 oil discoloured that was first anointed and used between
the barrel thereof, and the engine having never in it, nor within
six foot, but one charge at a time.
_Vide_ Article XXIX.
No. LXV.
A way that one man, in the cabin, may govern a whole side of ship
muskets, to the number (if need require) of two or three thousand
shots.
NOTE.
The plan of this and the following Articles, though not of much
practical utility, may yet be acted upon with a certainty of
success. The powder may be ignited by the means of a powerful
electrifying machine made to communicate with each separate
piece, and the charging must be performed by conducting wires or
rods made to act upon the magazine lever described in Article
LVIII.
Since writing the above, an article has appeared on the subject
in one of the French Journals, of which the following is a
translation: At two o'clock in the afternoon M. Bouche made an
experiment in the _Jardin des Plantes_ at Paris, to try the
effect of electricity applied to gun batteries. Instead of
guns he had fixed about one hundred rockets on long sticks,
disposed in the garden. The rockets were all connected by an
iron wire, and the same spark produced a spontaneous explosion.
The concourse of people was very great, the weather being
remarkably fine. This new invention is not intended to increase
the destructive powers of those formidable weapons; but it is
expected to afford the means of using them without exposing
gunners to the fire of the enemy.
No. LXVI.
A way, that against the several avenues to a fort or castle, one man
may charge fifty cannons, playing and stopping when he pleaseth,
though out of sight of the cannon.
_Vide_ last Article.
No. LXVII.
A rare way likewise for muskettoons, fastened to the pommel of the
saddle, so that a common trooper cannot miss to charge them, with
twenty or thirty bullets at a time, even in full career.
NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.
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.
No. LXVIII.
An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by
drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be, as the philosopher
calleth it, _infra 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, stopping and screwing
up the broken end, as also the touchhole; and making a constant
fire under it, within twenty-four hours it burst and made a great
crack: 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, have seen the water run like a constant fountain stream,
forty feet high; one vessel of water, rarefied by fire, driveth 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 refill 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
turning the said cocks.
NOTE.
_Vide_ Article C., to which is prefixed a brief historical and
descriptive account of that stupendous machine, the Steam-engine.
No. LXIX.
A way how a little triangle and screwed key shall be capable and
strong enough to bolt and unbolt, round about a great chest, an
hundred bolts through fifty staples, two in each, with a direct
contrary motion, and as many more from both sides and ends, and at
the self-same time shall fasten it to the place, beyond a man's
natural strength to take it away; and, in one and the same turn,
both locketh and openeth it.
NOTE.
This invention, with its two following modifications, is
evidently intended to operate on the principle of applying a
screw for the purpose of forcing the _lock bolt_, in lieu of
using the handle of the key as a lever for that purpose. That
this plan might be applied to locks generally, there can be no
doubt, and by a similar contrivance the large keys at present in
use for outer doors, iron chests, &c. might be advantageously
reduced to the size described by the noble author. By employing
the escutcheon mentioned in No. LXXII. these locks would be
equally safe and much more simple than those in common use. For
the latter part of the Article, any ingenious smith may make a
lock with an hundred bolts; and to fasten it to the place, the
power of a screw key is abundantly sufficient to force an iron
bar through a staple previously fixed in the floor.
No. LXX.
A key, with a rose-turning pipe, and two roses pierced through
endwise; together with several handsomely contrived wards, which may
likewise do the same effects.
No. LXXI.
A key, perfectly square, with a screw turning within it, and more
conceited than either of the rest, and no heavier than the triangle
screwed key, and doth the same effects.
No. LXXII.
An escutcheon, to be placed before any of these locks with these
properties.
1. The owner (though a woman) may, with her delicate hand, vary
the ways of coming to open the lock ten millions of times,
beyond the knowledge of the smith that made it, or of me who
invented it.
2. If a stranger open it, it setteth an alarm a going, which
the stranger cannot stop from running out; and, besides, though
none should be within hearing, yet it catcheth his hand, as a
trap doth a fox; and though far from maiming him, yet it leaveth
such a mark behind it, as will discover him if suspected; the
escutcheon, or lock, plainly shewing what money he hath taken
out of the box, to a farthing, and how many times opened since
the owner had been at it.
NOTE.
The two principal properties of this escutcheon may be readily
contrived; and the first of them has, in fact, been already
applied to a very ingenious padlock, invented by Mr. Marshall,
and for which the Society of Arts voted him a reward of ten
guineas. In Mr. M.'s escutcheon the letters or figures commonly
used in the ring padlock allow an almost endless variety of
changes, and the owner may in one minute alter the arrangement
in such a manner that even the maker would experience as
much difficulty to open it, as an entire stranger to its
construction. To render the combination of letters variable, the
characters must not be engraved upon the outside of the rollers
themselves, but upon a thin brass hoop made to fit on its outer
surface; and a spring fastened to the roller, and pressing
upon the inside of the hoop, will cause a sufficient degree of
friction to make them move together.
The other part of this invention is equally simple with the
preceding. An alarum, such as is attached to a clock, may easily
be wound up prior to closing the box; and the lid provided with
a chamfered bolt or staple, capable of effecting its discharge
when the box is opened.
To register the amount of money taken from the box, it will
be necessary either to place each distinct piece of money in
separate divisions, or to put a number together in one deep
recess capable of admitting but one piece to pass at a time. As
the pieces are shaken out, they will in their passage raise a
lever capable of moving a wheel one division in the passage of
each piece.
The Bank of England have a method somewhat similar for
registering the number of notes worked from the printing press
of that establishment.
No. LXXIII.
A transmittable gallery over any ditch or breach in a town-wall,
with a blind and parapet, cannon proof.
No. LXXIV.
A door, whereof the turning of a key, with the help and motion of
the handle, makes the hinges to be of either side, and to open
either inward or outward, as one is to enter or to go out, or to
open in half.
NOTE.
By making the handle act on a lever communicating with the
hinges, they may be raised from their sockets on the required
side; and to open in half, it is merely necessary to joint them
in the centre.
No. LXXV.
How a tape or riband-weaver may set down a whole discourse, without
knowing a letter, or interweaving any thing suspicious of other
secret than a new-fashioned riband.
NOTE.
The evident analogy between this Article and No. XXXIII. will
be apparent on the slightest view, and in general principle it
is similar to Nos. XXXIV. XXXV., &c. It may be performed either
by making the stitches of a given length, varying the distance
to distinguish the different letters of the alphabet; or, by
any arbitrary shape which may be previously agreed upon by the
parties corresponding. These arrangements being made, the silk
weaver will have nothing more to do, than set his loom to the
required pattern.
No. LXXVI.
How to write in the dark, as straight as by day or candle-light.
NOTE.
Two planes of ebony of equal length and breadth, similar to the
parallel ruler, and joined at each end by racks, the side of
which being graduated to the width of the line intended will
serve as a certain guide, and by the use of this instrument a
blind person may write with the greatest accuracy. If ivory
tablets or a slate is used, a fine wire drawn with a steel point
may be readily felt by the point of the pencil.
No. LXXVII.
How to make a man to fly: which I have tried with a little boy of
ten years old, in a barn, from one end to the other, on a hay-mow.
NOTE.
Innumerable are the schemes that have been proposed by the
learned at different periods, to enable man to support himself
in the air by the means of artificial wings, &c. and some,
indeed, of these ingenious contrivances have formed the labours
of the most distinguished mechanical geniuses, which are
recorded in the early annals of science.
Bacon, and an Italian priest named Francisco Lana, endeavoured
to accomplish it by means of two thin hollow globes, exhausted
of air, which being considerably lighter than that fluid, were
intended to sustain a chair suspended to their lower extremity,
and on which the aeronaut might be seated. But Dr. Hook, in a
work published some time after the _Prodromo_ of Lana, plainly
showed the fallacy of the attempt, though without in the least
attempting to deny the possibility of eventually effecting this
object.
Bishop Wilkins, who was also a disciple of the flying system,
describes a species of land-sailing vessels or chariots, which
were then commonly used in China: and it is rather a curious
fact that a German Count, possessing as much of modesty as the
generality of foreign mechanics, has lately given to the public,
as his own, an invention which has been known in Europe, and
occasionally employed in Asia, for the last four hundred years.
But of all the plans that have hitherto been devised, those only
which have mechanic power as their basis appear to have any
chance of success. This may be considered as an unerring _datum_
to guide the future experimentalist, the certainty of which
is fully demonstrated by a comparison of the powers of the
human frame with those of the feathered tribe: for it has been
calculated by an ingenious anatomist, that the muscles which
move the wings downwards in a bird in many instances, constitute
not less than the sixth part of the weight of the whole body;
while those of a man are not one hundredth part so large. By the
use of springs, however, wound to a certain degree of tension,
prior to embarking upon the intended expedition, and acting
upon cranks working the wings, the same power as that possessed
by the feathered race may be obtained, and the springs may be
readily made to draw more than fifty times their weight. By
this means a whalebone, or other light carriage, may be raised,
though it would be but for a short time, as it would not be in
the power of the aëronaut to wind the springs so quick as the
machine would require.
From this, then, it will be seen that, to produce the effect
necessary for this species of navigation, it is only requisite
to have a first mover, which will produce more power, in a given
time, in proportion to its weight, than the animal system of
muscles.
High pressure steam-engines have been made to operate by
expansion only, and they, it appears, might be constructed so
as to be light enough for this purpose. In that case, however,
it will be evident that the usual plan of a large boiler must
be given up, and the principle of injecting a proper charge of
water into a series of tubes, forming the cavity of the fire,
must be adopted in lieu of it.
The following estimate will show the probable weight of such an
engine with its charge for one hour.
lbs.
The engine itself, from 90 to 100
Weight of inflamed coals in a }
cavity presenting about 4 feet } 25
surface of tube }
Supply of coal for 1 hour 6
Water for ditto, allowing steam }
of one atmosphere to be 1/1800 } 32
the specific gravity of water }
---
163
---
It may at first view appear superfluous to inquire further
relative to a first mover for aërial navigation; but lightness
is of so much value in this instance, that it is proper to
notice the probability that exists of using the expansion of air
by the sudden combustion of inflammable powders or fluids with
great advantage. The French have experimentally shown the great
power produced by igniting inflammable fluids in close vessels;
and several years ago, an engine was made in this country to
work in a similar manner, by the inflammation of spirit of tar.
It appears that eighty drops of this fluid raised eight hundred
weight to the height of 22 inches; hence a one-horse power may
consume from 10 to 12 pounds per hour, and the engine itself
need not exceed 50 pounds weight.
Probably a much cheaper engine of this sort might be produced
by gas-light apparatus, and by firing the inflammable air
generated, with a due portion of common air, under a piston.
Upon some of these principles it is perfectly clear that force
can be obtained by a much lighter apparatus than the muscles of
animals or birds, and therefore in such proportion may aërial
vehicles be loaded with inactive matter. Even the high pressure
steam-engine doing the work of six men, and only weighing
equal to one, will readily raise five men into the air, but by
increasing the magnitude of the engine ten, fifty; or even five
hundred men may equally well be conveyed.
Having rendered the accomplishment of this object probable upon
the general view of the subject, it will now be necessary to
point out the principles of the art itself. The whole problem
is confined within these limits, viz. To make a surface support
a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of
the surrounding atmosphere.
Many experiments have been made upon the direct resistance of
air by Mr. Robins, Mr. Rouse, Mr. Edgeworth, Mr. Smeaton, and
others. The result of Mr. Smeaton's experiments and observations
was, that a surface of one square foot met with a resistance of
one pound, when it travelled perpendicularly to itself through
air at a velocity of 21 feet per second.
Having ascertained this point, had our tables of angular
resistance been complete, the size of the surface necessary for
any given weight would easily have been determined. Theory,
which gives the resistance of a surface opposed to the same
current in different angles, to be as the squares of the sine
of the angle of incidence, is of no use in this case; as it
appears, from the experiments of the French Academy, that in
acute angles, the resistance varies much more nearly to the
direct ratio of the sines, than as the squares of the sines
of the angles of incidence. The flight of birds will prove to
an attentive observer, that, with a concave wing apparently
parallel to the horizontal path of the bird, the same support,
and of course resistance, is obtained. And hence it appears
that, under extremely acute angles with concave surfaces, the
resistance is nearly similar in them all.
Six degrees was the most acute angle, the resistance of
which was determined by the valuable experiments of the
French Academy; and it gave 4/10 of the resistance, which the
same surface would have received from the same current when
perpendicular to itself. Hence then a superficial foot, forming
an angle of six degrees with the horizon, would, if carried
forward horizontally (as a bird in the act of skimming) with a
velocity of 23·6 feet per second, receive a pressure of 4/10 of
a pound perpendicular to itself. And if we allow the resistance
to increase as the square of the velocity, at 27·3 feet per
second it would receive a pressure of one pound.
The flight of the _corvus frugilegus_, or rook, during any part
of which it can skim at pleasure, is (from an average of many
observations) about 34·5 feet per second. The concavity of the
wing may account for the greater resistance here received, than
the experiments upon plain surfaces would indicate.
The angle made use of in the crow's wing is much more acute
than six degrees: but in the observations that will be grounded
upon these data, it may safely be stated that every foot of
such curved surface, as will be used in aërial navigation, will
receive a resistance of one pound, perpendicular to itself, when
carried through the air in an angle of six degrees with the line
of its path, at a velocity of about 34 or 35 feet per second.
The next object is to apply what has been advanced to the theory
of aërial navigation; and the following description will convey
a just idea of the best method of effecting it. Suppose a sail
to be made of thin cloth, of a firm texture, containing two
hundred square feet; and that the weight of the man and the
apparatus is 200 pounds. Then if the wind blow with a velocity
of 35 feet per second, in a certain direction, at the same time
that a cord in that direction sustains a tension of 21 lbs.
from being fixed to the machine, the whole apparatus will be
suspended in the air. But it is perfectly indifferent whether
the wind blow against the plane, or the plane be propelled by
any means against the air with an unequal velocity. Hence, if
this machine were drawn forward by the cord under a tension of
21 lbs. and with a velocity of 35 feet per second, the whole
would be suspended in an horizontal path. Now, if, instead of
this cord, any other propelling power were generated in the
same direction, and with the same intensity, an equivalent
effect would be produced, and aërial navigation accomplished.
_Vide Bishop Wilkins's Math. Magic.--Hook's Philosophical
Collections.--Sir G. Cayley on Aërial Navigation._
No. LXXVIII.
A watch to go constantly, and yet needs no other winding from the
first setting on the cord or chain, unless it be broken, requiring
no other care from one than to be now and then consulted with,
concerning the hour of the day or night; and if it be laid by a week
together, it will not err much; but the oftener looked upon, the
more exact it showeth the time of the day or night.
NOTE.
For a pocket watch it will be necessary to employ a small
balance, with a nut attached to its axis and communicating with
the fusee, the continued vibration of which will, by winding the
watch, give it nearly all the advantages of a perpetual prime
mover. Should the time-piece be placed in a fixed case it will
require a communication between the joint of the door and the
fusee, and this may likewise be readily applied to the case of a
hunting watch.
Mr. Gout's _pedometer_ not only marks the time, but the number
of paces passed over from one place to another: this is
accomplished by means of a chain or string passing to the leg
of the wearer, or to the wheel of a chariot, which is made to
advance the index hand one division at each elevation of the
foot: thus, on the same dial, exhibiting, at one view, both time
and distance. The same pedometer will, by a proper application
to the saddle, ascertain every pace a horse takes, and it may be
made to change its performance in a second, should the horse in
the course of measuring go from one pace to another.
No. LXXIX.
A way to lock all the boxes of a cabinet (though never so many) at
one time, which were, by particular keys appropriated to each lock,
opened severally, and independent the one of the other, as much as
concerneth the opening of them, and by these means cannot be left
open unawares.
NOTE.
This suggestion, which is both ingenious and useful, might be
advantageously adopted in every description of cabinet or chest
now in use; it may be performed either by cranks and wires, or
by sliding bolts and levers communicating with each lock: the
latter way, though attended with greater expense, is by far the
most durable.
Another and more simple mode offers itself in the use of a
series of spring locks, which may be closed by the pressure of
the lid, unconnected with any other mechanism.
No. LXXX.
How to make a pistol barrel no thicker than a shilling, and yet able
to endure a musket proof of powder and bullet.
NOTE.
It requires no great share of ingenuity to accomplish this
object, as an examination of modern fire-arms will fully
testify; many pocket pistols that are manufactured at the
present period, being at least as thin as those described by the
noble author.
No. LXXXI.
A comb-conveyance carrying of letters without suspicion, the head
being opened with a needle screw, drawing a spring towards one; the
comb being made but after an usual form, carried in one's pocket.
NOTE.
A pocket comb and portable spoon, as described in this and the
following article, with double sides to conceal any letter,
paper, &c. are too simple to need a particular description.
No. LXXXII.
A knife, spoon, or fork, in an usual portable case, may have the
like conveyances in their handles.
No. LXXXIII.
A rasping-mill for hartshorn, whereby a child may do the work of
half-a-dozen men, commonly taken up with that work.
NOTE.
A variety of engines have been invented for this purpose, many
of which are capable of effecting the saving of labour described
by the Marquis, as at that period (1663) the process was usually
effected by rubbing the horn or ivory over a common iron grater.
No. LXXXIV.
An instrument whereby persons, ignorant in arithmetic, may perfectly
observe numeration and subtraction of all sums and fractions.
NOTE.
Sir Samuel Morland has published a detailed account of two
instruments of this kind in a tract entitled, _The Description
and Use of two Arithmetic Instruments_, &c.--London, 1673. The
Roman _Abacus_ and Chinese _Swan-pan_ are also instruments of a
like description.
The _Abacus_ was variously contrived; that chiefly used in
European countries was made by drawing any number of parallel
lines at pleasure, at a distance from each other, equal to
twice the diameter of a _calculus_ or counter. This placed on
the lowest line, signified 1; on the second, 10; on the third,
100; on the fourth, 1000; on the fifth, 10,000; and so on. In
the spaces between the lines, the same counters signified half
of what they represented on the next superior line; viz. in the
space between the first and second lines, 5; between the second
and third, 50; between the third and fourth, 500; and so on. The
abacus was also divided cross-wise into _areolæ_, and by this
means subtractions were performed. The calculating instrument of
Mr. Babbage is however much superior to any other contrivance
yet suggested.
No. LXXXV.
A little ball, made in the shape of a plum or pear, which, being
dexterously conveyed or forced into a body's mouth, shall presently
shoot forth such, and so many bolts of each side and at both ends
as, without the owner's key, can neither be opened nor filed off,
being made of tempered steel, and as effectually locked as an iron
chest.
NOTE.
The steel fangs with which this instrument is furnished must,
like the bolt of a common latch, be chamfered from the point,
so that, on its being inserted within the teeth, the bolts
will instantaneously spring out; and no power short of the key
previously made to fit the wards of the lock will suffice to
free those who are thus ensnared. This is evidently one of those
discoveries which, though practicable in itself, appears better
calculated for swelling the catalogue of the noble Author's
inventions, than for any beneficial result likely to accrue to
the public from its discovery.
No. LXXXVI.
A chair made _à-la-mode_, and yet a stranger, being persuaded to sit
down in it, shall have immediately his arms and thighs locked up,
beyond his own power to loosen them.
NOTE.
Chairs of this description are stated to have been employed
by the monks in the darker ages of Christianity; and were
originally designed for the purpose of entrapping those who,
possessing more courage, or less of prudence than their
neighbours, ventured to penetrate the mysteries of papal
seclusion. They were formed like a common arm-chair, and
provided with two levers at the extremity of the arms; and
the same number were fixed immediately below the seat. These,
on pressing the cushion, were immediately discharged like a
man-trap: four powerful springs acting on the levers for that
purpose; and so firmly will the occupant of a chair of this
description be fixed, that it will take the united force of
four or five persons to free the prisoner. A similar chair was
exhibited at the _Villa Borghese_, Rome, in 1644--"They shew'd
us also a chayre w^{ch} catches any who sitts downe in it so as
not to be able to stir out, by certaine springs concealed in the
armes and back thereoff which at sitting downe surprizes a man
on the suddaine, locking him in by the armes or thighs, after a
true tretcherous Italian guise."--Vide _Evelyn's Memoirs_, vol.
i. p. 107.
No. LXXXVII.
A brass mould to cast candles, in which a man may make five hundred
dozen in a day, and add an ingredient to the tallow, which will make
it cheaper, and yet so that the candles shall look whiter and last
longer.
NOTE.
The usual method of dipping _store candles_ is subject to many
objections, though the expense attendant on casting those called
_moulds_ has hitherto been an impediment to their general
manufacture. A more simple method now offers itself, which is
equally advantageous and economical. A quantity of drawn tubes
being first cut into the given lengths, metal collars must then
be soldered on the extremity of each length, with an orifice of
sufficient size to allow the tallow and wick to pass through the
whole series of tubes. They must then be connected together by
a screw cut in each alternate end, and the whole, thus formed,
passed through a steam pipe of sufficient size to prevent the
tallow chilling in its passage through the moulds. When cold,
each joint of the mould must be separately unscrewed and the
candles separated by a sharp knife.
A means of purifying the tallow, and as such, of rendering the
candles whiter and more durable, likewise suggests itself in
the following simple process. The vat, or copper, containing
the melted tallow, must be provided with a shower bath placed
immediately over the surface, to which must be attached a
reservoir of cold water: this, by the action of a lever, may be
thrown through the grating of the bath, and falling upon the
tallow, will, in its passage, carry to the bottom of the vat
the whole of the carbonised animal matter and other impurities
with which it is charged. After allowing a few minutes for the
lighter fluid to rise, the water may then be drawn off, by a
cock placed at the bottom of the vat for that purpose, and the
same process repeated till the tallow is fit for use.
No. LXXXVIII.
An engine, without the least noise, knock, or use of fire, to coin
and stamp 100lbs. in an hour, by one man.
NOTE.
Antoine Boucher appears to have been the first engraver who used
the fly-press for the multiplying of metallic impressions from
an engraved matrix. This ingenious mechanic was employed by
Henry the Second of France, and the first money was struck with
it in that kingdom about the middle of the sixteenth century;
it was soon however laid aside on account of the great expense
attendant on its use, and the old method of striking with the
hammer was again resorted to. Queen Elizabeth also had milled
money coined in England about the same period; but it did not
continue for more than ten years; and it was not till 1662, that
the screw press was finally established in the mint of this
kingdom. The accelerated motion of a screw, although possessing
many advantages over the old method, does not appear fully to
answer the above description, as the noise attendant on its use
is certainly very considerable; it is probable therefore, that
the hydrostatic press, or a powerful lever worked by a crank,
was intended by the noble author as a substitute for this useful
machine.
It appears probable that the insertion of this Article
originated in an ignorance of the plan formerly proposed by
Boucher, which appears of all others best adapted for the
purpose of coining with rapidity, and which was not at that
period acted upon in England; on the discovery of which the
following Article was substituted by the noble author; and
appeared in the first printed edition of the _Century_.
No. LXXXVIII.
How to make a brazen or stone head, in the midst of a great field or
garden, so artificial and natural, that though a man speak never so
softly, and even whispers into the ear thereof, it will presently
open its mouth, and resolve the question in French, Latin, Welsh,
Irish, or English, in good terms, uttering it out of his mouth, and
then shut it until the next question be asked.
NOTE.
Albertus Magnus, a celebrated philosopher of the thirteenth
century, is said to have constructed an _automaton_ which not
only performed all the apparent motions of life, but absolutely
answered questions. It is recorded of Thomas Aquinas, that,
having accidentally seen the head, he was so terrified that he
broke it in pieces, upon which Albert exclaimed: _Periit opus
triginta annorum_! Though this appears one of the earliest
instances of a speaking automaton constructed by one of the
laity, there is no doubt but that the method of conveying
answers to various interrogatories, by the agency of concealed
pipes or a speaking trumpet, was practised at a very early
period. That the impostor Alexander, however, caused his
Æsculapius to speak in this manner is expressly related by
Lucan. He took, says this author, instead of a pipe, the gullet
of a crane, and transmitted the voice through it to the mouth of
the statue. But the invention of the _invisible girl_, which may
be considered as an improvement on the oracular responses of the
darker ages, infinitely surpassed any of those hitherto recorded.
This very ingenious apparatus was publicly exhibited both at
Bristol and in London for a considerable period, during which
time no discovery was made of its internal mechanism; and it
is probable that its construction would have remained a secret
to all but the exhibitors, but for the ingenuity of Mr. (now
Professor) Millington, who, in a course of Lectures delivered
in the winter of 1806, explained the manner in which it was
performed.
The _visible_ part of the apparatus connected with the
_invisible girl_ was thus constructed: first a mahogany frame
resembling a bedstead, having at the corners four upright posts
about five feet high, was united by a cross-rail near the top,
and two or more cross-rails near the bottom, to strengthen
the frame, which was about four feet square. The frame thus
constructed was placed upon the floor, and to the top of each
of the four pillars were attached as many strong bent brass
wires converging towards the top, where they were secured by a
crown and other ornaments. From these wires a hollow copper ball
was suspended by slight ribbons, so as to cut off all possible
communication with the frame. The globe thus supported was
supposed to contain the invisible being, as the voice apparently
proceeded from the interior of it: and for this purpose, it was
equipped with four trumpets, placed round it in a horizontal
direction, and at right angles to each other; the trumpet
mouths coming to within about half an inch of the respective
cross-rails of the frame surrounding them.
When a question was proposed, it was asked from any side of
the frame, and spoken into one of the trumpets, and an answer
immediately proceeded from the whole of them, so loud as to
be distinctly heard by the inquirer, and yet so distant and
feeble, that it appeared as if coming from a very diminutive
being. In this the whole of the artifice consisted; and the
variations were so contrived that the answer might be returned
in several languages, a kiss might be returned, the breath
producing the voice was felt, and songs were sung, accompanied
by the piano-forte, &c. To produce this illusion, the sound was
conveyed by a tube, in a manner similar to the old and well
known contrivance of the _speaking bust_; the invisible girl
only differing in one circumstance; that an artificial echo
was produced by means of the trumpets and hollow globe, in
consequence of which the sound was completely reversed.
In the invisible girl the orifice of the tube was in one of
the handrails just opposite the mouth of one of the trumpets,
the opening being concealed by reeds and other mouldings; the
tube itself, which was about half an inch in diameter, ran
through half the handrail, then down one of the corner posts,
and from thence under the floor till it reached a large deal
case almost similar to an inverted funnel, along the side of
which it rose till it came nearly into contact with the ear of
the confederate, who with a piano-forte, &c. was concealed in
this case. Any question asked by a voice directed into one of
the trumpets was immediately reflected back from the concave
interior surface of the globe to the orifice of the tube, along
which it was conveyed so as to be distinctly heard by the person
in the deal case, who returned the requisite answer, which
appeared to come precisely from the interior of the globe. A
small hole closed with glass was likewise left through the deal
case and side wall of the apartment, by means of which the
concealed person had an opportunity of observing and commenting
upon any circumstance which occurred in the room.
No. LXXXIX.
White silk, knotted in the fingers of a pair of white gloves, and so
contrived without suspicion, that, playing at _primero_ at cards,
one may, without clogging his memory, keep reckoning of all sixes,
sevens, and aces, which he hath discarded, and without foul play.
NOTE.
That sliding knots or rings may be formed on the fringe of silk
or other gloves, by which means a reckoning can be kept, may
easily be conceived; but it is scarcely too much to aver that
an undue advantage taken of an opponent, even at cards, savours
very much of foul play, if not absolute cheating.
No. XC.
A most dexterous dicing-box, with holes transparent, after the usual
fashion, with a device so dexterous, that with a knock of it against
the table, the four good dice are fastened, and it looseneth four
false dice, made fit for this purpose.
NOTE.
There are few who profess the science of cheating at cards or
dice, or to be encouragers of those who do; and it may fairly be
conceded that there are not two periods in our regal annals, in
which this detestable meanness had become fashionable enough to
sanction a nobleman in inscribing to the King and his Parliament
a method by which it might be advantageously effected.
No. XCI.
An artificial horse, with saddle and caparisons fit for running at
the ring, on which a man being mounted, with his lance in his hand,
he can at pleasure make him start, and swiftly to run his career,
using the decent posture with _bon grace_, may take the ring as
handsomely, and running as swiftly as if he rode upon a barbe.
NOTE.
Any person who is acquainted with the various automaton figures
that have been constructed by those celebrated mechanics,
Vaucanson, Kempelen, and Maelzel, will readily admit the
possibility of making a horse of this description; nor should
we too readily undervalue those mechanical pursuits, which,
though not of any immediate national advantage, have formed the
employment of one of the greatest potentates of modern Europe.[7]
[7] CHARLES V., after his abdication, retired to the monastery
of St. Justus, in Estramadura, where he amused himself, during
the latter period of his life, in the making of automatons, in
which he was assisted by a very ingenious artist named
Turriano.
The most celebrated of the modern automata were those made by
Vaucanson, and which are thus described by Beckman:--
"One of them, which represented a flute-player sitting,
performed twelve tunes, and, as we are assured, by wind issuing
from its mouth into a German flute, the holes of which it opened
and shut with its fingers."
"The second was a standing figure, which in like manner played
on the Provençal shepherd's pipe, which it held in its left
hand, and with the right beat upon a drum."
"The third was a duck, of the natural size, which moved its
wings, exhibited all the gestures of that animal, quacked like
a duck, drank water, ate corn, and then, after a little time,
let drop behind it something that resembled the excrement of a
duck."[8]
[8] History of Inventions, vol. iii. p. 326.
Of these automata, or rather _androides_, the flute-player of
Vaucanson is the only one of which a correct description has
been preserved; a particular account of its mechanism having
been published in the Memoirs of the French Academy. The figure
was about five feet six inches high, and was placed upon an
elevated square pedestal. The air entered the body by three
separate pipes, into which it was conveyed by nine pairs of
bellows, which expanded and contracted in regular succession,
by means of an axis of steel turned by the machine. The three
tubes, which conveyed the air from the bellows, after passing
through the lower extremities of the figure, united at the
chest; and ascending from thence to the mouth, passed through
two artificial lips. Within the cavity of the mouth was a small
moveable tongue, which by its motion at proper intervals,
admitted or intercepted the air in its passage to the flute. The
fingers, lips, and tongue derived their specific movements from
a steel cylinder turned by clockwork. The cylinder was divided
into fifteen equal parts, which by means of pegs, pressing
upon a like number of levers, caused the other extremities to
ascend. Seven of these levers directed the fingers, having rods
and chains fixed to their ascending extremities; which, being
attached to the fingers, made them to ascend in proportion
as the other extremity was pressed down by the motion of the
cylinders, and _vice versa_. Three of the levers served to
regulate the ingress of the air, being so contrived as to open
and shut, by means of valves, the communication between the lips
and reservoir, so that more or less strength might be given, and
a higher or lower note produced as occasion required.
The lips were directed by four similar levers; one of which
opened them to give the air a freer passage; another contracted
them; a third drew them backward, and the fourth pushed them
forward. The remaining lever was employed in the direction
of the tongue, which by its motion shut or opened the mouth
of the flute. The varied and successive motions performed by
this ingenious androides, were regulated by a contrivance no
less simple than efficacious. The axis of the steel cylinder or
barrel was terminated by an endless screw composed of twelve
threads, above which was placed a small arm of copper, with
a steel stud made to fit the threads of the worm, which, by
its vertical motion, was continually pushed forward. Hence,
if a lever was moved, by a peg placed on the cylinder, in any
one revolution, it could not be moved by the same peg in the
succeeding revolution in consequence of the lateral motion
communicated by the worm. By this means the size of the barrel
was considerably reduced; and the statue not only poured forth a
varied selection of instrumental harmony, but exhibited all the
evolutions of the most graceful performer.
No. XCII.
A screw, made like a water-screw, but the bottom made of iron-plate
spadewise, which, at the side of a boat, emptieth the mud of a pond,
or raiseth gravel.
NOTE.
The Archimedean screw, though hitherto only applied to the
raising of water, appears to be equally applicable to many
other purposes; as the procuring of sand from pits, taking dry
goods of small dimensions from carts or barges, clearing rivers,
&c. though in that case it will be necessary to make the lower
end of the machine in a conical form, gradually increasing the
size of the orifice from the point to its upper extremity, in
order to prevent the materials from clogging the screw, which
would otherwise occur.
The _dredging machine_ worked by a steam-engine, and employed in
the Thames for a similar purpose, is well known.
No. XCIII.
An engine, whereby one man may take out of the water a ship of five
hundred tons, so that it may be caulked, trimmed, and repaired,
without need of the usual way of stocks, and as easily let it down
again.
NOTE.
Beckman, in his History of Inventions, says, that a machine
of this description was invented by a citizen of Amsterdam,
in the year 1690, and was by him called the _water camel_. It
consisted of two half ships, and on the deck of each were placed
horizontal windlasses from which proceeded ropes made to pass
under the keel of the vessel intended to be raised. The two
sides of the camel having been sunk by the admission of water,
the ropes were drawn tight, and the pumps being put in motion,
the vessel was gradually raised to the surface. It appears
to have been principally employed in crossing the bar of the
Zuyderzee.
No. XCIV.
A little engine, portable in one's pocket, which placed to any door,
without any noise, but on crack, openeth any door or gate.
NOTE.
The simple engine called a _Jack_, used for the purpose of
raising great weights, with small manual exertion, appears to
be admirably calculated for this purpose; and its even uniform
motion is evidently described by the noble author.
Ramelli has also given a description of several very curious
instruments for the same purpose. Vide _Artificiose Machini_, p.
255, &c.
No. XCV.
A double cross-bow, neat, handsome, and strong, to shoot two arrows,
either together, or one after the other so immediately, that a deer
cannot run two steps, but, if he miss of one arrow, he may be
reached with the other, whether the deer run forward, sideward, or
start backward.
NOTE.
The cross-bow, though long since superseded in point of general
utility by the invention of fire-arms, might still be found a
useful auxiliary in the sports of the field, and as such, it
has been thought advisable to notice what appears to be the
plan on which this instrument must be constructed. To fire two
arrows in immediate succession, it will be necessary either
to attach a second bow to the under side of the stock, which,
after discharging one arrow, may immediately be reversed, and
the second fired. Or, where a bow of sufficient length is used,
the string may communicate the required degree of impetus to
two arrows in succession, a stud being previously prepared for
its reception, about half-way down the stock, from which it may
readily be liberated for the second discharge.
No. XCVI.
A way to make a sea-bank so firm and geometrically strong, that a
stream can have no power over it; excellent likewise to save the
pillar of a bridge, being far cheaper and stronger than stone walls.
NOTE.
The _break-water_ erected by Mr. Rennie at Plymouth is, in its
results, precisely what the noble author has here described. The
plan of its construction is this: a mass of stone in blocks, of
about three feet in diameter, is thrown promiscuously into the
sea, and left to find their own base, the extremity of which is
generally about seventy yards. This sea-wall has been carried
about eight hundred fathoms in length, and the total expense
attendant on its erection is estimated at £1,150,000. In 1766,
Mr. Smeaton also applied loose stones to strengthen the middle
piers of London bridge, which was the means of preserving
that venerable structure from the almost certain ruin which
threatened it.
But the most economical sea-bank yet constructed was executed at
Rye, in 1804, under the superintendence of the Rev. Daniel Pape,
curate of that place.
The dam or bank was formed in its lower part in two parallel
ridges close to each other, like the double roof of a house,
which were covered over, first with straw, and then with hazel
faggots about thirteen feet long; and the whole was then pinned
down with piles, which were united to each other at their heads
by pieces put across the direction of the faggots. When this
bank was completed, Mr. Pape formed another bank, on the top
of the preceding, by filling up the interval between the two
ridges, and covering the whole in the manner above described.
All this was accomplished in one tide, and when completed it
fully answered the purpose for which it was intended.
No. XCVII.
An instrument, whereby an ignorant person may take any thing in
perspective, as justly, and more so than the most skilful painter
can do by the eye.
NOTE.
Vitruvius is the first author who directly treats on this
branch of the fine arts, though there can be no doubt but the
ancients fully understood its most essential rules, which they
must have practised at a very early period in the decoration of
their theatres. Vitruvius, in the _proem_ to his seventh book,
informs us, that Agatharchus of Athens noticed the subject,
when preparing a tragic scene for a play exhibited by Æschylus:
but the principles of the art were more distinctly taught by
Democritus and Anaxagoras, the disciples of the former painter.
Pietro del Borgo, early in the fourteenth century, constructed a
very ingenious machine, which was afterwards employed by Albert
Durer for the above purpose. It consisted of a transparent
tablet, through which the object being viewed from a small
aperture, the artist contrived to trace the images which the
various rays of light emitted from them would make upon it.
Mr. Ferguson has also described a machine for this purpose, the
invention of which he ascribes to Dr. Bevis. But the most simple
and efficient instrument yet discovered for large objects is
the camera obscura and camera lucida; both of which fully answer
the description given by the noble author.
No. XCVIII.
An engine, so contrived, that working the _primum mobile_ forward
or backward, upward or downward, circularly or cornerwise, to and
fro, straight, upright or downright, yet the pretended operation
continueth and advanceth; none of the motions above mentioned,
hindering, much less stopping the other; but unanimously, and
with harmony agreeing, they all augment and contribute strength
unto the intended work and operation; and therefore I call this a
_semi-omnipotent engine_, and do intend that a model thereof be
buried with me.
No. XCIX.
How to make one pound weight to raise an hundred as high as one
pound falleth, and yet the hundred pounds descending doth what
nothing less than one hundred pounds can effect.
No. C.
Upon so potent a help as these two last mentioned inventions,
a water-work is, by many years' experience and labour, so
advantageously by me contrived, that a child's force bringeth up, an
hundred feet high, an incredible quantity of water, even two feet
diameter. And I may boldly call it, _the most stupendous work in
the whole world_: not only with little charge to drain all sorts of
mines, and furnish cities with water, though never so high seated,
as well to keep them sweet, running through several streets, and
so performing the work of scavengers, as well as furnishing the
inhabitants with sufficient water for their private occasions: but
likewise supplying the rivers with sufficient to maintain and make
navigable from town to town, and for the bettering of lands all the
way it runs; with many more advantageous, and yet greater effects of
profit, admiration, and consequence: so that deservedly I deem this
invention to crown my labours, to reward my expenses, and make my
thoughts acquiesce in way of further inventions. This making up the
whole Century, and preventing any further trouble to the reader for
the present, meaning to leave to posterity a book, wherein, under
each of these heads, the means to put in execution and visible trial
all and every of these inventions, with the shape and form of all
things belonging to them, shall be printed by brass plates.--Besides
many omitted, and some of three sorts willingly not set down, as not
fit to be divulged, lest ill use may be made thereof, but to show
that such things are also within my knowledge, I will here in myne
owne cypher sett down one of each, not to be concealed when duty and
affection obligeth me.
_In bonum publicum, et ad majorem Dei gloriam._
NOTE.
The three last inventions may justly be considered as the most
important of the whole "Century," and when united with the 68th
article, they appear to suggest nearly all the data essential
for the construction of a modern steam-engine. The noble
author has furnished us with what he calls a "definition" of
this engine; and although it is written in the same vague and
empirical style, which characterises a large portion of his
Inventions, it may yet be considered as affording additional
proofs of the above important fact.
The Marquis's "definition" is exceedingly rare, as the only copy
known to be extant is preserved in the British Museum.--It is
printed on a single sheet without date, and appears to have been
written for the purpose of procuring subscriptions in aid of a
Water Company, then about to be established.
"A stupendous, or a water-commanding engine, boundless for
height, or quantity, requiring no external, nor even additional
help or force to be set, or continued in motion, but what
intrinsically is afforded from its own operation, nor yet
the twentieth part thereof. And the engine consisteth of the
following particulars:--
'A perfect counterpoise, for what quantity soever of water.
'A perfect countervail, for what height soever it is to be
brought unto.
'A _primum mobile_, commanding both height and quantity,
regulator-wise.
'A vicegerent or countervail, supplying the place, and
performing the full force of man, wind, beast, or mill.
'A helm or stern, with bit and reins, wherewith any child may
guide, order, and control the whole operation.
'A particular magazine for water, according to the intended
quantity, or height of water.
'An aqueduct, capable of any intended quantity or height of
water.
'A place for the original fountain or river to run into, and
naturally of its own accord incorporate itself with the rising
water, and at the very bottom of the aqueduct, though never so
big or high.
'By divine providence, and heavenly inspiration, this is my
stupendous water-commanding engine, boundless for height and
quantity.
'Whosoever is master of weight, is master of force; whosoever is
master of water, is master of both: and consequently to him all
forcible actions and atchievements are easie.'"
It may now be adviseable to trace the history of the steam-engine
through some of its earlier modifications; and we shall find that,
although the present form of this stupendous machine almost deserves
the title of an invention, yet that many steps have been taken,
and much labour and much ingenuity expended, before it was brought
to that point from which the more modern improvements may be said
to have begun. And whilst we admire the genius of those who have
perfected the application of a mighty power, let us not refuse the
tribute of praise to those, who first pointed out that such a power
existed.
[Illustration]
The first apparatus of this description, of which any authentic
account has been preserved, was suggested by Hero of Alexandria,
and consisted of a vessel F in which steam was generated by the
application of external heat. The ball G was supplied with the
elastic vapour thus procured, by means of the bent pipe E B, a steam
tight joint being provided for that purpose. Two tubes bent to a
right angle at A and D, are the only parts open to the air, and as
the steam rushes out from very minute apertures, a rotatory motion
is produced. An account of this apparatus is preserved in Hero's
_Spiritalia_, published by the Jesuits in 1693; and a copy of this
highly curious work, with a Latin translation prefixed, is now in
the Library of the London Institution.
A modification of Hero's apparatus is represented beneath: It was
constructed by Mr. Styles for the use of the Editor in his public
lectures. The circular tube _a_ is in this case supported by the
upright pillar _c d_; and the flame of alcohol in the trough _b_, by
generating high pressure steam, which rushes from the apertures _e_,
produces a rotatory motion.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Brancas's revolving apparatus, as will be seen by reference to
the diagram in the preceding page, was still more simple than
that contrived by Hero. A copper vessel filled with water, (in
the original figure made in the form of an ornamental head,) was
furnished with a pipe _c_, through which the steam was propelled,
and striking against the vanes of the float wheel _d_, readily gave
motion to a pestle and mortar, which was employed in the alchemist's
laboratory.
The only work in which a description of this engine has been
preserved, was published in 1629; it is exceedingly rare, and the
above diagram is engraved from a copy in the possession of Major
Colby.
A slight examination of the principle upon which this simple
apparatus is constructed, will shew that no very considerable
force could have been obtained; as the steam passing through the
atmosphere in its passage to the wheel, must, to a certain extent at
least, be converted into water.
After the publication of the work by Brancas, more than thirty years
elapsed ere the publication of the Marquis's "Century" recalled
the attention of the scientific world to this important subject;
and this invention, which he states as having been completely
carried into effect, was evidently very different from that of his
predecessors.
It is said that the Marquis, while confined in the Tower of
London, was preparing some food in his apartment, and the
cover of the vessel, having been closely fitted, was, by the
expansion of the steam, suddenly forced off and driven up the
chimney. This circumstance attracting his attention, led him to
a train of thought, which terminated in the completion of his
"water-commanding engine."[9] Of the Marquis's invention no record
has been preserved beyond the articles to which we have already
alluded in the present work: and in the absence of other data, the
Editor readily introduces Professor Millington's design for an
engine on similar principles; and which, with a few alterations,
might be made available for the purposes recommended by our author.
[9] _Vide_ Historical and Descriptive Account of the Steam-engine,
by C. F. Partington, p. 6.
[Illustration]
In this diagram, _q_ represents a strong and close vessel or boiler
to contain water, set in brick work like a common copper, with a
fire-place _r_ underneath it, having a chimney _s_. The boiler thus
constructed, is intended to afford the means of producing steam: and
if we conceive two casks or strong hollow vessels of any form to be
placed under the surface of the water, near the boiler, as at _t_
and _v_, and that each of these vessels has a valve opening into it
in its lower part as _u_ _u_, and two pipes _w_ _w_, proceeding from
the upper part of the vessels to the top of the steam boiler _q_,
while two other pipes _x_ _x_ proceed from the lower parts of these
vessels into a cistern _y_, forty feet above the level of the water;
an apparatus thus constructed will nearly form the water-commanding
engine, for if the vessels _t_ and _v_ are both filled with water
by the valves _u_ _u_, and the cock _z_ be opened after the steam
has accumulated in the boiler, the elastic fluid thus generated will
instantly rush down into the vessel _t_, and when the surface of the
water is heated expel the whole of its contents up the pipe _a x_,
into the cistern _y_, where it will be retained by a valve opening
upwards in any part of that pipe, as at _a_. This done, the cock _z_
must be shut, and after permitting the steam to accumulate for a
short time, that at _b_ must be opened, and the steam will rush into
the vessel _v_ and perform a similar office, _c_ being the valve to
prevent the return of the water. When the steam is shut off from the
vessel _t_, the elastic fluid which had previously been introduced
to expel the water, will be condensed by the cold media round it,
and thus a vacuum will be produced in the vessel _t_, consequently
a part of the water in which it is immersed will rush into it by the
valve _u_, and occupy the whole internal cavity, thus putting it
in a state of preparation for a second opening of the cock _z_, by
which its contents will be again discharged into the cistern _y_,
and so of the two vessels alternately; for while _v_ is emptying,
_t_ will be filling, and vice versâ, which agrees with the Marquis's
account when he says, "that the man is but to turn two cocks, that
one vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force," &c.
The above suggestion for an engine capable of raising water may be
still further improved by adding a suction pipe to the valves _u_
_u_, and the pressure of the atmosphere will increase the working
power of the engine more than thirty feet: and should a less height
be required, the forcing pipe may be shortened in a proportionate
degree: indeed this fact was attended to by the next person who
claims the honour of having invented the steam-engine, to which it
may now be adviseable to direct the reader's attention.
[Illustration]
The engine suggested by Savery for the purpose of raising water,
consisted of a boiler _a_ furnished with a safety valve _v_. The
steam-vessel _r_ was connected with the well H, by a suction pipe
_n_; and when water was to be raised the vessel _r_ was filled
with steam, which rushing in, soon expelled the air: when that was
completely effected, the communication with the boiler was closed,
and the steam condensed, which diminishing its bulk, formed a
vacuous space within the vessel; the pressure of atmosphere then
operating upon the surface of the water in the well, drove it up the
pipe. In this form of the apparatus, the inventor was seldom able to
raise water more than thirty feet: and when a greater altitude was
required, it was effected by the impellent force of high pressure
steam. This was accomplished by the ascending pipe _k_, which was
sometimes carried sixty feet higher than the steam-vessel _s_; and
a reference to the great expansive force of steam will show that
this operation must be attended with considerable danger. After
condensing the steam and filling the vessel _r_ with water, a new
supply of steam was then introduced, which pressing on the surface
of the water, drove it up the pipe _k_; and it will be evident
that the pressure on the internal surface of the boiler must be
proportioned to the height of the column of water thus raised by the
steam.
The principal objection to this form of the engine arises from the
great consumption of fuel, a considerable portion of the caloric
employed in the generation of the steam being absorbed in heating
the new surface of cold water last raised from the well; and where
great heights are required, there appears no mode of completely
obviating this objection. Should it, however, be required merely
to raise water about thirty feet, there are few contrivances more
economical or better adapted for general use.
While speaking of Savery's apparatus it may be adviseable to
notice the very ingenious adaptation of the same principle to
the construction of a _gas engine_, by Mr. Brown. In the latter
case a vacuum is formed by the introduction of an inflamed jet of
carburetted hydrogen gas, which consumes the oxygen, and rarefies
the nitrogen, by the increase of temperature which ensues. The
vacuum thus produced is much more perfect than would at first view
have been supposed, from the nature of the process resorted to by
the patentee; but the economy of employing carburetted hydrogen
gas as a substitute for condensible vapour is still somewhat
problematic.[10]
[10] Since writing the above, the Editor has seen a report on Mr.
Brown's engine by Professor Millington, in which it is distinctly
stated that the apparatus is fully adapted to the purpose for which
it is intended.
To more fully understand the nature of Mr. Brown's engine, it may be
better to revert to a diagram, which will sufficiently explain its
general principles.
[Illustration]
In the above view, the cylinders _c_ and _d_, are the vessels in
which a vacuum is alternately effected; _g i g_ and _h j h_ are
two pipes, leading into the lower cylinders _x_ _x_, shewn in the
next page, from which the water rises along those pipes to fill the
vacuum cylinders alternately. The water thus supplied is discharged
through the pipes B into the tank or trough _z_, where it falls upon
the overshot water-wheel, and, by the rotatory motion thus produced,
gives power to such machinery as may be connected to it. The
water runs from the wheel along a case surrounding the lower half,
into a reservoir _v_, from which the lower cylinders _x_ _x_, are
alternately supplied.
The gas is supplied to the cylinders by the pipes _k_ _k_ _k_, which
must be, of course, attached to a gasometer, or some other reservoir
of gas. The gas also passes along the small pipe _l_ _l_ (which
communicates also with the gasometer), and being lighted at both
ends of that pipe, is kept constantly burning in order to ignite the
gas within the cylinders.
The gas being admitted along the pipe _k_, the flame from the pipe
_l_ is now freely communicated to the gas in the cylinder, through
the orifice, by the opening of the sliding valve _s_, which is
raised by the arm _r_, lifted by the rod _o_ by means of the beam.
The water in the reservoir _v_ passing down one of the pipes _w_,
into one of the lower cylinders _x_, causes the float _y_ in that
cylinder to rise, and, pushing up the rod _o_, raises the end _b_ of
the beam, which, of course, draws up with it the cap _f_, and forces
down the cap _e_ of the other cylinder _c_.
[Illustration]
The _alternate_ action of each cylinder is produced by chains
and rods, attached to a glass or iron vessel _p_, more than half
filled with mercury, and turning upon a pivot; each end receives
its movements of elevation and depression from the rise and fall
of the projecting arms _q_, by the action of the beam above; the
mercury within flowing to the lower end, giving an impetus, and thus
regulating the supply of gas to the cylinders, and the movement
of the slide in the trough _v_. By this action the water from the
reservoir flows down the pipe _w_, into the vessel _x_, and produces
the elevation of the float _y_ and the rod _n_, and raises the cap
_e_ by the ascent of the beam at _a_.
The motion thus produced in one part of the machinery, operates upon
the corresponding parts on the other side, and hence a corresponding
motion is obtained: the slider in the trough _v_, moved by the
action of the mercurial tube _p_, being removed from its position,
allows the water to fall into the other pipe _w_; and, as it
ascends, suffers the float _y_ to descend, and rising into the main
cylinder, then lifts again the beam at _b_, and its connexions, and
forces down the cap _e_ on the top of the other cylinder.
When the vacuum is produced in the cylinders, the air must be
admitted to allow the water to be discharged, and the caps to be
raised: this is effected by a sliding valve in the air-pipe _m_
_m_, acted upon by chains _t_ _t_, attached to the floats in the
reservoir, and as motion is given to them, the valve is made to
fly backwards and forwards, so as to allow the free admission of
atmospheric air.
Chains _u_ _u_, with suspended weights, open the cocks in the pipe
_k_ _k_, and produce the alternate flow of the gas, and regulate and
modify its supply. In the pipes _g_ _i_ _g_, and _h_ _j_ _h_, are
clacks to prevent the return of the water, when the air is admitted
into the cylinders.
A piston may be worked as is above described, with the machinery
attached; but it may also be worked in a distinct vessel so as to
communicate with several cylinders, and, consequently, several
pistons may work at the same time, the air and vacuum valves being
opened and closed by similar means to those adapted to work the
induction and eduction valves of steam-engines.
The atmospheric engine comes next in order, and its claim to
practical utility is of a very early date.
[Illustration]
The cylinder _b_, is in this engine placed over a boiler _n_,
and if we suppose the piston _p_ made to fit air-tight, it will
be evident, that it must be driven up by the action of the steam
beneath, should a sufficient supply of heat be applied; when this
is effected, the condensible vapour may be reduced to its original
bulk, by the introduction of water from the cistern _i_. In the
working engine however, the ascent of the piston is effected by the
action of the lever _e g_, acting on the fulcrum _f_. To the end
_g_ of this lever or working beam is attached the pump-rod _h_, and
it will be evident that whenever that preponderates over the piston
_p_, that the latter must be drawn up. On the readmission of the
steam, a new supply of condensing water is introduced by turning
the cock _l_, and the pressure of the atmosphere above the piston
being unbalanced by any resistance beneath, the end _e_ is again
depressed, and the pump-rod again elevated. The pipe _g_ is employed
to carry off the condensing water, which would otherwise accumulate
within the cylinder; and the small forcing pump, with its rod _v s_,
supplies the condensing cistern _i_, by the pipe _t_.
At the beginning of the last century, the atmospheric engine
had made considerable progress in the mining districts, and in
1718, the patentees agreed to erect an engine for the owners of a
colliery, in the county of Durham, where several hundred horses had
previously been employed. Mr. Henry Beighton, who was engaged as
an agent in this concern, materially improved the engine by making
it self-acting, and divesting it of nearly all the complicated
machinery, which had been previously employed for that purpose.
A very simple and at the same time ingenious mode of illustrating
the operations of an atmospheric steam-engine will be found in the
annexed apparatus, suggested by Professor Brande, and employed in
his lectures at the London Institution.
[Illustration]
The glass tube and bulb _b_ is shewn with its piston _a_, the rod
being hollow and closed by a screw _c_. If steam be generated by
the spirit lamp _d_, the air will speedily be expelled, and after
this is effected, the screw _c_ may be closed, and a working stroke
produced by artificial condensation.
We come now to a new and distinct era in the history of this
important invention, and in noticing the labours of Mr. Watt, we
may almost speak of his engine as the gigantic offspring of a hand
giving birth to an automaton, no less powerful than that of the
fabled enchanters of the olden time.
Mr. Watt's first great improvement in the engine of Newcomen may
be best understood by reference to the annexed diagram, in which
_a_ represents the cylinder, and _b_ its plug or piston made to fit
air-tight. The pipe _d_ is furnished with a stop-cock, by means of
which the elastic vapour is occasionally admitted.--A similar pipe,
furnished with a stop-cock at _f_, passes from the other side of
the cylinder, and enters the vessel _g_; _e_ being the reservoir to
contain water.
[Illustration]
If we now suppose the piston at the bottom of the cylinder, and
steam admitted by the pipe _d_, its expansive force will elevate
the piston, and when the air is expelled, the whole internal cavity
of the tube will be filled with condensible vapour. On closing
the steam-cock, and opening that connected with the vessel _g_, a
portion of the vapour will immediately expand itself, and coming
in contact with the cold sides of the vessel, a portion of its
heat must be absorbed by the water at _e_. A new portion of steam
then descends, and is also condensed, and indeed the same process
continues till the whole of the steam is drawn from the tube. A
vacuum being thus formed, the pressure of the atmosphere will
preponderate, and the piston rod be depressed to the bottom of
the tube. On closing the stop-cock _f_, a new supply of steam may
be admitted by the other pipe, and after raising the piston, the
process of condensation may be readily repeated.
The advantages that arise from this mode of forming a vacuum are
very considerable, not the least important of which, is a saving of
nearly half the fuel.
In the old engine, the condensing water must reduce the temperature
of the internal surface of the cylinder to that of the atmosphere,
before a vacuum could be produced, and when the condensing water
was applied more sparingly, the elastic vapour remaining in the
cylinder was found to materially reduce the pressure of the air
operating above. From this it will be seen that the great advantage
of Mr. Watt's apparatus consists in performing the condensation in
a separate vessel, so that the cylinder is always preserved at the
temperature of boiling water.
Having thus produced a vacuum without the intervention of condensing
water beneath the piston, Mr. Watt's next improvement consisted
in closing the top of the cylinder, so that the piston-rod worked
through an air-tight hole in the centre of the cap; and to ensure
the necessary pressure within the cylinder, steam with an elastic
force greater than that of the atmosphere was admitted above the
piston. The atmospheric engine of Newcomen was thus converted into a
steam-engine, and its power was easily regulated.
A cylinder and piston constructed on the most improved principles
may now be examined.
[Illustration]
In the annexed diagram, the cylinder A is furnished with a
steam-tight piston, the rod of which is supposed to be connected
with the working beam. B represents the pipe which admits the steam
from the boiler, the quantity being regulated by the throttle valve
_c_, and the elastic vapour is now passing through the box _d_ _d_,
so that it enters beneath the piston. At the same instant of time,
a communication is formed through the aperture _m_ _n_ to the pipe
_p_, which leads to the condenser. When the piston reaches the top
of the cylinder, the sliding bridge or valve has its direction
changed, so that the pipe _r_, and consequently the bottom of the
cylinder, is connected with the condenser, while a passage is opened
from the pipe _m_ _n_ to the steam box. Thus a communication is
alternately made between the top and bottom of the piston.
The slide-valve represented above is not invariably employed in
the double-acting engines, and we frequently find the annexed
contrivance resorted to, in some of the best engines.
[Illustration]
The pipe 14 represents the passage to the cylinder, and a
communication is now opened with the steam chamber _g_. The raised
valve is perforated and a similar valve beneath closed by the rod
which passes through it. On closing the valve _g_, the lower valve
_h_ is opened, and a free passage between the condensing pipe
beneath and the upper part of the cylinder is the result. If we now
suppose a similar double valve placed at the bottom of the cylinder,
it will easily be seen that an effect similar to that described in
the sliding valve will be produced.
The speed of the engine is regulated by a very ingenious contrivance
introduced by Mr. Watt, called the _governor_, and represented
beneath.
[Illustration]
The balls _i_ _i_ are supported by the bent levers _h_ _f_, and
as they are made to revolve with the fly wheel axis, by means of
a band passing round the pulley _c_, any increase in the speed of
the engine will cause the balls to diverge. The moment this takes
place, the shorter arm of the lever _n_ is depressed, and as the
extremity _l_ is connected with the steam-pipe by the throttle
valve, the supply of steam must of necessity be diminished, and the
speed of the engine reduced.
As the working power of the engine depends very materially on the
accurate fitting of the piston, it may be adviseable to examine some
of the modes of effecting this important object.
Mr. Smeaton, who greatly improved the atmospheric engine, coated the
under side of the piston with elm or beech planks about two inches
thick; the wooden bottom being screwed to the iron with a double
thickness of flannel and tar, to exclude the air between the iron
and the wood. By the adoption of this improvement, its property of
conducting heat was reduced, and the wood having been previously
jointed, with the grain radiating in all directions from the centre,
was not liable to expand by the heated steam. This piston was kept
air-tight by a small stream of water continually falling on its
upper surface; but in Mr. Watt's engine he was compelled to make
the piston fit tight without any other media than the oil that was
employed to lubricate it.
The piston is now cast with a projecting rim at bottom, which is
fitted as accurately as possible; the part above the rim being about
four inches less than the cylinder, thus leaving a circular groove
for the hemp which forms the packing. To keep this in its place, a
lid or cover is put over the top of the piston, with a projection
which enters into the circular groove for the packing, and pressing
upon it, the plate is forced down by screws, which work into the
body of the piston. By this means the packing is made to fill the
internal part of the cylinder with tolerable accuracy, and thus
prevents for a time any steam passing between the piston and the
cylinder. When, however, by continued working, the packing ceases to
fit, it occasions a waste of steam, to remedy which, the cylinder
cap must be removed, and as this is attended with a considerable
degree of trouble to the engine-man, it is seldom attended to till
a considerable loss of power has arisen. There are two improvements
on the piston, by which this inconvenience is to a certain extent
obviated.
In the first, by Mr. Woolfs, each of the screws is furnished with
a wheel or nut, and these are all connected together by means of a
central wheel, working loose upon the piston-rod in such a manner,
that if any one of the screws be turned, a similar motion is given
to the remainder.
[Illustration]
In a piston thus constructed, there is little difficulty in drawing
down the packing, by applying a key to the square head of the
projecting screw, employed to communicate with the rest: the
key-hole being afterwards closed by a cap.
The second contrivance is by Mr. Barton, a diagram of which,
accompanied by a piston as it is usually constructed, is shewn
beneath.
[Illustration]
In the first piston, the screws _i_ _i_ are made to compress the
packing _h_ _h_, by acting upon the plate _n_ _n_, the piston-rod
_r_ being firmly attached by the nut _c_.
In one of the modifications of _Barton's piston_, on the contrary,
the packing is dispensed with, as the flexible springs _t_ _t_ _t_
press upon the wedges _c_ _c_ _c_, and expand the intermediate
plates. A break-joint is readily formed, by making the series of
plates double; the second set of plates falling upon the spaces
which occur between the first row.
The action of the _high pressure_ engine depends upon the great
elastic force acquired by steam, when exposed to the action of heat
at very high temperatures.--It may indeed be considered as a return
to the principle of Brancas and the Marquis of Worcester, as in
this engine no condensing water is necessary; and it acts merely
by the elastic or repellant force of steam. In the high pressure
engine, the condenser is taken away; and the steam, instead of
being converted into water by artificial cold in a close vessel, is
allowed to escape into the atmosphere from one side of the piston,
while it is acting forcibly on the other.
The advantages of the high pressure engine over that used with a
condenser, are cheapness in construction, and a saving of the whole
expense attendant on procuring a sufficient supply of condensing
water, which in some cases is an object of considerable importance.
[Illustration]
In the annexed section, the piston _B_ passes through an air-tight
stuffing box, and the steam is entering beneath it, by the four-way
cock _E_. If we now suppose the piston at the top of the cylinder,
a new arrangement of the communicating pipe takes place, as the
steam which was beneath escapes, while a fresh supply enters above.
The four-way cock may be best explained by a section in the opposite
direction. Two pipes are seen at the lower extremity of the cock,
which communicate with the upper and under sides of the piston. The
aperture _D_ opens to the air, while the pipe _C_ serves for the
admission of steam from the boiler.
[Illustration]
We have now to notice the double cylinder engine constructed by
Woolfs, which will be found, by reference to the diagram in the
preceding page, to consist of a high pressure cylinder, connected
with a condensing apparatus.
A and B represent the two cylinders, in the larger of which the
steam is allowed to expand itself, after passing from the high
pressure cylinder B. The steam, which in the first instance is of
considerable elasticity, is admitted to the cylinder B, by the tube
and valve E, and entering the cylinder above its piston, impels it
to the bottom. When this is effected, a communication is opened
between the upper part of the cylinder B, and the under side of
the cylinder A. The communication between the cylinder B and the
steam-pipe E, is now reversed, and the steam is made to press on
the under side of the piston B, a communication being at the same
time formed between the upper part of the cylinder A, and the pipe
leading to the condenser which is seen beneath. So that if we
suppose the two pistons connected by means of their rods with one
end of an ordinary working beam, the upward and downward strokes of
each will be performed at the same time. We have hitherto considered
the steam as passing direct from the boiler to the cylinder B;
this, however, is in reality effected by a more circuitous route,
as it is in the first instance admitted to the steam-case of the
larger cylinder by the pipe C, and passing round a similar case,
encircling the cylinder B, it is then made to enter at E. The pipe
at D is merely intended to form a communication for carrying back to
the boiler any water that may be produced by condensation in the
steam-case, before the engine arrives at a proper temperature for
working.
Having thus briefly examined the nature of Mr. Woolf's engine, it
may now be advisable to revert to the boiler, by which he proposes
to generate steam of sufficient elasticity for the use of the
small cylinder, which requires elastic vapour of great expansive
force. The boiler, represented by the diagram beneath, consists of
a series of tubes, of cast-iron, connected by screw-bolts with the
under side of a larger vessel A A, communicating with the engine.
The upper boiler is furnished with four, and in some cases, with
five apertures; the first of which is intended for the admission
of water, to supply the waste which continually arises from
evaporation. The safety valves, man-hole, and water-pipe are also
shewn.
[Illustration]
The mode of setting this boiler is also of considerable importance,
as it is advisable to give a long and waving course to the chimney.
[Illustration]
A A still represents the principal boiler, while the figures 1, 2,
3, &c. indicate the passage of the flame and heated air; a section
of the chimney being shewn at O.
The steel-yard safety-valve which was employed in all the early
engines is simple, and the nature of its construction may readily be
understood. A represents a portion of the upper part of the boiler;
B the safety-valve or plug made to fit air-tight on the valve-seat
beneath; C the lever working on its axis at D, and furnished with a
moveable weight E, adjusted to balance the pressure of steam within
the boiler.
[Illustration]
When steam of great elasticity is required, the weight is placed at
the extremity of the lever, and as such, acts with greater force
on the safety-valve, than when removed to a point nearer to the
axis on which it revolves: so that should _low_ pressure steam, or
that which has a less expansive force, be required, it will only be
necessary to remove it nearer towards the axis on which it turns.
The lever and balance-ball safety valve already described, appear
but little calculated for those engines in which high pressure
steam is employed, as the engine-man, in an over anxious zeal for
the full performance of the machinery confided to his care, has
been frequently known to increase the internal pressure of a large
boiler many thousand pounds beyond the resistance to which it was
originally proved. To prevent a recurrence of those accidents, which
first drew the attention of the legislature to this important part
of the engine, it appears advisable to inclose the safety-valve in
an iron case, of which a section is annexed.
[Illustration]
The valve _B_ in this case rests upon a conical seat in the boiler
_A_, and is furnished with a series of small moveable plates
lettered _c_, which are employed to increase or diminish the entire
weight of the safety-valve, the whole being covered by the box _D_;
and as this is pierced with a number of small holes, the steam
readily escapes when the expansive force exceeds the resistance
offered by the loaded valve.
The patent _revolving wheel_ invented by Mr. Masterman, appears to
promise the best results of any rotatory engine yet invented, the
friction being much less than in any other apparatus in which steam
is employed as a prime mover. In this engine, Mr. Masterman proposes
to employ water, or the fluid metal mercury as the immediate agent,
which he effects by inclosing it in the tubular rim of a large
wheel, furnished with valves opening in one direction. This wheel,
as is shewn in the opposite diagram, is made to revolve on a hollow
axis connected with the steam boiler. The arms or spokes which
radiate from the axis are also hollow; and on the admission of
steam from the boiler, it is conducted through the arm immediately
opposite, and entering the rim of the wheel, comes in contact with,
and presses against the column of water beneath and the closed valve
above the arm. The water being previously heated to the boiling
point, no condensation ensues, but the whole weight of water, which
was previously balanced in two columns of equal height, is driven,
by the pressure of the steam, to the side opposite to that at
which the elastic vapour entered, and that side of the wheel will
necessarily preponderate. If this process be repeated, the steam
being allowed to blow through each radiating arm in succession, a
continuous rotatory motion will be produced. Should it be advisable
to employ steam of less elasticity, a condenser may be added, and
that too without materially increasing the expense.
[Illustration]
The application of steam-engines to the _propelling_ of _carriages_
on the public road, has hitherto been considered as a refinement
in mechanics, rather to be wished for than a matter of reasonable
expectation. The _locomotive_ engine was first employed for this
purpose by Messrs. Trevithick and Vivian, in 1802; and it found a
ready introduction to the mining districts where rail-roads are
general. In some cases, five, six, and even ten waggons laden with
coal are dragged up an inclined plane by means of these vehicles;
and of course impelled by a high pressure engine, from the utter
impossibility of carrying condensing water in a moveable vehicle.
An engine of four horses' power, employed by Mr. Blenkinsop,
impelled a carriage lightly loaded on a rail-road at the rate of ten
miles an hour, and when connected with thirty coal waggons, each
weighing more than three tons, its average rate was about one-third
of that pace.
When the locomotive engine was first tried, it was found difficult
to produce a sufficient degree of re-action between the wheels and
the tract road; so that the wheels turned round without propelling
the vehicle. This inconvenience was, however, obviated by Mr.
Blenkinsop, who, when he adopted the locomotive engine, took up
the common rails, on one side of the whole length of the road,
and replaced them by a series of racks, or rails, furnished with
large teeth. The impelling wheel of the engine was made to act in
these teeth, so that it continued to work in a rack which insured a
sufficient degree of re-action.
From the great weight of an ordinary _locomotive engine_ as well as
the construction of its impelling wheel, it must be evident that
the employment of this species of prime mover on the public roads
would be in the highest degree destructive; and as such that its
use will for some years to come be partially confined to the mining
districts, in which the greatest facilities are offered for its
general adoption. Indeed, we find in one neighbourhood alone, and
within a space of less than thirty square miles, more than twenty
miles of road admirably adapted for this species of conveyance; and
it is a well known fact, that there are many situations in which
iron rail-roads might be advantageously employed, in which it would
be quite impossible to open a navigable canal. In illustration
of the above fact, it may be proper to state, that a company,
with a large capital, is now forming for the express purpose of
facilitating the conveyance of goods by locomotive engines.
The mode of applying the steam-engine to the purposes of navigation
is equally simple with its employment in our manufactures.
It is generally supposed that the _steam-boat_ is of very recent
invention; on the contrary, however, the possibility of employing
steam as a prime mover in the propelling of vessels was suggested as
far back as the reign of Charles I.
In one of the old tracts preserved in the library of the London
Institution there is a very curious representation of a steam-boat,
constructed by an engineer of the name of Hulls. And this
individual, now so little known, was undoubtedly the first who
applied a steam-engine to the purpose of navigation.
To impel a vessel by this means, two paddle wheels, like those used
in an under-shot water-wheel, are connected by means of a long axis
and crank, with the working beam of the steam-engine; and if this
motion is not found sufficiently rapid, a wheel and pinion are
added, which, although it _decreases_ the effective power of the
engine, yet _increases_ the velocity of the paddle wheels.
To illustrate the great advantages possessed by the steam-engine,
even in its rudest state, over every other species of prime mover
yet enumerated, it may now be advisable to examine its effective
force when employed in the working of pumps. It has been found
that one hundred weight of coals burned in an engine on the old
construction, would raise at least _twenty thousand cubic feet_
of water twenty-four feet high; an engine with a twenty-four inch
cylinder doing the work of _seventy four horses_. An engine on Capt.
Savery's plan, constructed by Mr. Keir, has been found to raise
nearly _three millions_ of pounds of water, and Mr. Watt's engine,
upwards of _thirty millions_ of pounds the same height.
To the mining interests this valuable present of science to the
arts has been peculiarly acceptable; as a large portion of our now
most productive mineral districts must long ere this have been
abandoned, had not the steam-engine been employed as an active
auxiliary in those stupendous works. In the draining of fens and
marsh lands, this machine is in the highest degree valuable; and in
England, particularly, it might be rendered still more generally
useful. In practice it has been ascertained that an engine of
six-horse power will drain more than eight thousand acres, raising
the water six feet in height; whilst the cost of an engine for this
species of work, including the pumps, will not exceed seven hundred
pounds. This is more than ten windmills could perform, at an annual
expenditure of several hundred pounds; while, in the former case,
the outgoings will not exceed one hundred and fifty pounds per
annum. To the mariner also, the steam-engine offers advantages of
a no less important and novel nature than those which have already
been described. By its use he is enabled to traverse the waters both
against wind and tide, with nearly as much certainty, and, as the
machinery is now constructed, with much less danger, than by the
most eligible road conveyance. It too frequently, however, happens
that the faults of any new invention are unjustly magnified, while
its real advantages are seldom duly appreciated; and this axiom has
been fully verified, in the clamour so unjustly raised against the
application of the steam-engine to nautical purposes. Accidents are
now, however, but of rare occurrence; and it is more than probable,
that the great improvements which have been made in the boiler and
safety-valve will effectually secure these parts of the engine from
a recurrence of such tremendous explosions as characterised the
first introduction of steam navigation. And, lastly, the political
economist must hail with the most heartfelt gratification, the
introduction of so able and efficient a substitute for animal labour
as the steam-engine. For it has been calculated that there are at
least ten thousand of these machines at the present time at work in
Great Britain, performing a labour more than equal to that of two
hundred thousand horses, which, if fed in the ordinary way, would
require above one million acres of land for subsistence; and this is
capable of supplying the necessaries of life to more than fifteen
hundred thousand human beings.[11]
[11] _Vide_ Historical Account of the Steam-engine, by C. F.
Partington.
An ingenious foreigner, who lately visited England, has published an
estimate of the mechanical force set in action by the steam-engines
of this country.
He supposes that the _great pyramid_ of Egypt required for its
erection the labour of more than 10,000 men for 20 years:--but if
it were required again to raise the stones from the quarries, and
place them at their present height, the action of the steam-engines
of England, which are managed at most by 36,000 men, would be
sufficient to produce the same effect in 18 hours.
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY C. ROWORTH, BELL YARD,
TEMPLE BAR.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed.
The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
On pages 84 and 85 there are two items both of which are numbered
LXXXVIII. The table of contents reflects the same.
In the table of contents the following page numbers have been
changed to match the book:
Page lxxxii:
33. A Needle Alphabet--39 changed to 38
38. A Sieve Alphabet--ibid. changed to 41
Page lxxxiv:
79. A total locking of Cabinet Boxes--78 changed to 77
80. Light Pistol Barrels--ibid. changed to 78
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