68

The Windlass.

[Book I.

CHAPTER X.

The Windlass: Its origin unknown—Employed in raising water from welle, and ore from mines—Chinese windlass—Other iuventions of that people, as table forks, winnowing machines, &c. &c. Fu-see: Its application to raise water from wells—Its inventor not known. Wheel and pinion—Anglo-Saxon crane—Drum attached to the windlass roller, and turned by a rope: Used in Birmah, England,&c. Tread wheols: Used by the Ancients—Moved by men and various animals—Jacks—Horizontaltread wheels—Common wheel or capstan. Observations on the introduction of table forks into Europe.

THE WINDLASS.

Although it may never be known to whom tbe world is indebted forthe wi.ndlass, there are circumstances which point to tbe construction ofwells and raising of water from them, as among the first uses to which it,as well as the pulley, was applied. The windlass possesses an importantadvantage over the single pulley in lifting weights, or overcoming anyresistance; since the intensity of the force transmitted through it, canbe modified, either by varying the length of the crank, or the circum-ference of the roller on which the rope is coiled. Sometimes a singlevessel and rope, but more frequently two, are employed, as in the figure,No. 18.

*'A\I UVv

No. 18. Windlass. From Kircher 's Mundus Subterraneus.

The buckets are suspended from opposite sides of the roller, the ropewinding round it in different directions, so that, as one ascends, the otherdescends. Pliny, in his Natural History , xix, 4, mentions this machine asused by the Romans for raising water; and in the 36th book, cap. xv,when speaking of a canal for draining the marsh Fucinus, part of whichpassed through a mountain, he says the water which flowed in upon theworkmen was raised up “ with device of engines and windles.” As therewas not any apparatus attached to the public wells in Greek and Romancities, or if so, to a very limited extent, it is probable the windlass waschiefly used in the country, where its application to deep wells was per-haps as common as it is in other parts of the world at the present time.

It has always been used in raising ore and water from mines. Agricolahas given several figures of it as employed in tbose of Hungary , where