60

Pulley and Buchet.

[Book I.

the case had the pulley been used. If such had been the custom, nei-ther the mendicant Telepheus, nor Diogenes the philosopher, would havecarried about with them, vessels for the purpose.

It is not easy to account for the partial rejection of the pulley by theü-reeks in raising water, when its introduction would have materially di-minished human labor. It certainly did not arise from ignorance of itsadvantages, as their constant application of it to other purposes, attests;and there is reason to believe, they adopted it to some extent in raisingwater from the holds of their ships, in common with the maritime peopleof Asia . It was indeed used in some of their wells, a but only to a limi-ted extent. The principal reason for not employing it in public Wells, wasprobably this—With it, a single person only could draw water at a time,while without it, numbers could lower and raise their vessels simulta-neously, without interfering with each other In the former case, alter-cations would be frequent and unavoidable; and the inconvenience ofnumbers of people waiting for water in warm climates a serious evil. Therieh, and those who had servants would always procure it, while the poorand such as had no leisure, would obtain it with difficulty. The large di-ameter of their wells and those of other nations, it would seem, was solelydesigned to accommodate several people at the same time. These rea-sons it is admitted, do not apply to the private wells and cisterns of theGreeks and Romans, in which the pulley might have been used ; butthose people followed the practice of older nations, and from the greatnumber of their slaves, (who drew the water) they had no inducement ordisposition to lessen their labor.

Ä bücket suspended over a pulley, is still extensively used in raisingwater from wells throughout the World. The Arabians use it at the wellZemzera ; the mouth of which, is “ surrounded by a brim of fine whitemarble five feet high, and ten feet in diameter; upon this the personsstand, who draw water in leathern buckets, attached to pulleys, an ironrailing being so placed as to prevent their falling in.” b

Apparates precisely similar to the figure in No. 11, are used by the Ja­ panese and other Asiatics . Montanus’ Japan . 294.

The pulley has but recently given place to pumps, in Workshops anddwellings, and in these only to a limited extent—being confined chiefly to afew cities in the United States and Europe . In France and England, it wasa common appendage to wells in the interior of houses, du ring the lastCentury ; and in such cases it is still extensively used throughout Spain ,Portugal and other parts of Europe . It is very common in this country,and also in South America .

But the grand advantage of the pulley in the early ages was this ;—byit the vertical direction in which men exerted their strength, could be di-rectly changed into a horizontal one, by which change, animals could beemployed in place of men. The wells of Asia , frequently varying fromtwo to three, and even four hundred feet in depth, obviously requiredmore than one person to raise the contents of an ordinary sized vessel: andwhere numbers of people depended on such wells, not merely to sup-ply their domestic wants, but for the purposes of Irrigation, the Substi-tution of animals in place of men, to raise water, became a matter almostof necessity, and was certainly adopted at a very early period. In em-ploying an ox for this purpose, the simplest way, and one which deviatedthe least from their accustomed method, was merely to attach the end ofthe rope to the yoke, after passing it over a pulley fixed sufficiently

Lardner’s Arts, &c i, 138.

b Cnchton’s Arabia. ii, 219.