114
Noria with Pots.
[Book I
sels. The figure No. 49, is taken from the Grande Description of Egypt .Plate 3, Tom. 2, E. M. It was sketched from one near Rosetta, which raisedthe water nine feet. The liquid enters through openings in the rim, andis discharged from those on the sides. The arrow shows the direotion inwhich it moves. The section of part of the rim, will render the internalconstruction obvious. Mr. P. S. Girard, author of the Memoir on theAgriculture of the Egyptians, says they are extensively used in the Delta ,the cog wheels being very rudely formed.
The tympanum may be considered as a wheel with hollow spokes,while the noria, as above constructed, is one with hollow felloes, atermbywhich it is designated in French authors: ‘ Roue a jante creuses,’ anamevery expressive, and one which, in the absence of Information respectingthe construction of this machine, might enable a mechanic to make it.
In various parts of Asia , Greece , Turkey , Spain , &c. Earthenwarejars or pots, are secured to the rim or side of the wheel, as in No. 50.Every farm and garden in Catalonia , says Arthur Yoang, has such a ma-chine to raise water for the purpose of irrigating the soil. They are pro-pelled by horses, oxen, mules, and sometimes by men. In Spain , thenoria has remained unaltered from remote times. It is there still moved
by means of a device whichprobably gave rise to toothedwheels.
In,the axle of the noria are in-serted two, (and sometimes four)strong sticks -which cross each oth-er at right angles, forming armsor spokes. The part of the shaftin which these are fixed, extendsnearly to the centre of the path,round which the animal walks ; andcontiguous to it, is the verticalshaft to which the yoke or beamis attached: the bottom of this shafthas spokes inserted into it similarto the former, and which take holdof them in succession, and therebykeep the wheel or noria in rota-tion. See No. 50. This rüde con-trivance is common through allthe east, and is in all probabilityidentical with those of the earlyages; in other words, the primitiveSubstitute of the modern cogwheel.
In Besson’s ‘ Theatre Des Instrumens’ is an ingenious device by whicha horizontal shaft with four spokes, as in the last figure, can impart motionto a vertical one, at any distance from the centre, and thereby answer thepurpose of a number of wheels and pinions in modifying the velocity ofthe machinery, according to the work it has to perform, or to an increaseor diminution of the motive force employed. On the horizontal shaft,(which is turned by a crank,) is a sliding socket to which the spokes aresecured. The vertical shaft has also a similar socket, which is raised andlowered by means of a screw, and to it, arms and spokes are well secur-ed. These are arranged in the form of a flat cone ; so that by adjustmgthe sockets, the spokes in the horizontal shaft can be made to take hold