94

The Swape.

[Book I.

suspended by cords from a triangulär frame, and worked as representedm tbe figure. By a sweeping movement, an expert laborer will throwup at each stroke, a quantity of water equal to tbe capacity of the shovel,although from its form, such a quantity could not be retained in it,

The Flash Wheel, is another contrivance to raise large quantities of wa-ter over moderate heights, being extensively used in draining wet lands,i particularly the fens of England. It is made just like the wheel of a steam-boat, and when put in rapid motion, generally by a windmill, it pushesthe water up an inclined shute, which is so curved, that the paddles maysweep close to it, and consequently drive the liquid before them. The‘back water’ thrown up by the paddle wheels of steam vessels is raisedin a somewhat similar manner.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Swape : Used in modern and ancient Egypt—Represented in sculptures at Thebes —-Alluded toby Herodotus and Marcellus—Described by Pliny—Picotah of India ; agility of the Hindoos in workingit. Chinese Swape—Similar to the machines employed in erecting the pyramids—The Swape, seen inParadise by Mahomet—Figure of one near the city of Magnesia—Anglo Saxon Swape—Formerly usedm English manufactories—Figures from the Nuremburgh Chronicle, Munster’s Cosmograpliy, and Bes-sernd Theatre des Instrumens. The Swape common in North and South America —Examples of its usein watering gardens—Figures of it, the oldest representations of any hydraulic machine—Mechanicalspecuiations of Ecclesiastics: Wilkins’ projects for aerial navigation—Mechanical and theological pur-suits combined in the middle ages—Gerbert—Dunstan—Bishops famous as Castle architects—Androides—Roode of gräce—Shrine of Becket—Speaking images—Chemical deceptions—Uluminated manuscripts.

Of machines for raising water, the Swape has been more extensivelyused in all ages, and by all nations, than any other. Like most im-plements for the same purpose, its application is confined within certainlimits; but these are such as to render it of gteneral Utility. The mentalor swinging basket, and the jantu, raise the liquid from two to threefeet only at a lift, while the swape elevates it from five to fifteen, and insome cases still higher. It is not, however, well adapted for greater eleva-tions; a circumstance which accounts for its not having been much usedin the weih of ancient cities—their depth rendered it inapplicable, as thegenerality of ours do at this day. In Egypt , this machine is named theShadoof, and in no country has it been more extensively employed. Inmodern days, more persons are there engaged in raising water by it andtbe mental, than are to be found in any other dass of Egyptian laborers.They raise the liquid at each lift about seven feet, and where it is re-quired higher, series of swapes are placed at proper distances aboveeach other, in a similar manner as the Hindoos arrange the jantu, andas shown in the figure, (No. 35.) The lowermost laborer empties hisvessel into a cavity or basin formed in the rock, or in soll rendered imper-vious to water, three or four feet above him, and into which the next oneplunges his bücket, who raises it into another, and so on tili it reaches therequired elevation. M. Jomard, a says it is not uneommon to see fromthirty to fifty shadoofs at one place, raising water one above another. AtEsne, he saw twenty-seven Ärabs on one tier of stages, working fourteen

Grande Description E. M. Tom. ii. Memoirs, Part 2, p. 780.