101
Chap. 13.]
No. 42. Swape from Besson. 1568.
un des bouts l’autre hausse. Ces sortes de bascules sont les plus com-munes; on s’en sert pour elever des eaux. The last sentence is believedto be applicable to every part of Europe at the present time, perhapsequally so as at any former period.
We subjoin a description of oneproposed by James Besson, a French mechanician, 270 years ago, bywhich two buckets, one at each end,may be used. As the Vibration ofthe beam is ingeniously effected bya continuous rotary movement, afigure of it will be acceptable to theintelligent mechanic.
The lever is suspended at thecentre of its length, on a pin whichpasses through the lower part of theperpendicular post, the upper endof which is firmly secured to theframe and cross piece. A perpen-dicular shaft is placed immediatelyunder the lower end of the post andin the same vertical line with it. Theupper Journal of the shaft enters andturns in the end of the post, whileits lower one is received into a cavityin the block upon which it rests. This shaft forms the axis of an invertedcone of ffame-work—a section of which, resembling an hyperbolic curve,acts as it revolves on the under side of the swape, and imparts to it therequired movement. To lessen the friction, two long rollers are fixed toits under side, and upon these only does the curved edge of the cone act.The shaft may of course be turned by any motive power. In the figure,a horizontal water wheel is attached to the shaft, with oblique paddleswhich receive the impulse of the stream in which they are placed. Thisdevice may serve as an example of mechanical tact and resource in theearly partof the 16th Century, when practical mechanics began to be cul-tivated as a Science.
The swape is commonly used by the farmers on this continent, in thevicinity of whose dwellings it may be seen, more or less, from the St.Lawrence to the Mississippi . In some of the States, it still bears the oldEnglish name of the ‘ sweep’ as in Virginia —in others it is named the‘balance pole.’ It prevails in Mexico , Central America , Peru , Chili, andgenerally throughout the Southern continent. There is some uncertaintyrespecting its having been known here before the arrival of Europeans inthe 16th Century. See remarks on Ancient American Machines in thelast chapter of this book.
The swape appears to have been used in alltimes, for watering gardensin the east, as already observed of Asia Minor , it is there seen erected inalmost every one. No. 43 represents it employed in the gardens ofEgypt , during the sojourn of the Israelites in that country. The tree andplant are uniform hieroglyphical representations of gardens.
The labourer discharges the contents of his bücket into a wood-en trough or gutter, by which the water is conveyed to the plants;a mode still followed through all the east. To this application of theswape there is probably a reference in the prediction of Balaam , deliver-ad one hundred years qfter these figures were sculptured, ‘ he shall pour