124

Roman Chain of Rots. [Book I,

forming feats of agility and strength, and by scientific exhibitions. Afterrovingthus for fifteen years, he determined to visitEgypt, ander the beliefthat he would make his fortune there by introducing machinery on the prin-ciple of the pump, as Substitutes for the noria and chain of pots, &c. InJune 1815, he landed at Alexandria, and after some delay was introdu-ced to Mahommed Ali, (the present Pasha,) who approved of his project,and in whose gardens at Soubra, three miles from Cairo , he constructedhis machine. But no sooner was it completed and put in Operation thanhe discovered in the Turkish and Arabic cultivators an unconquerable Op-position to its introduction. Indeed this result might have been anticipa-ted and, if we are not mistaken, they were right in preferring their ownsimple apparatus to an elaborate machine, of the principle of whose actionthey were utterly ignorant. Their rejection of it was looked upon as an-other example of superstitious adherence to the imperfect mechanism offormer ages; but under all the circumstances, it was, we believe, an etd-dence of the correctness of their judgment. Thus disappointed, hisbrightest hopes blasted, and his pecuniary resources all but exhausted—for he received no renumeration, either for the loss of his time or hismoney—he, with an energy of character deserving all praise, determinedto make the best of his misfortunes. He therefore turned his attentionto t'hat subject which necessarily occurs to every intelligent stranger inEgypt—its antiquities —and while the British Museum remains, and thecolossal head of young Memnon is preserved, the name of Belzoni willbe remembered and respected.

From the following description of the chain of pots by Vitruvius , it ap-

pears that the Romans made it of moredurable materials than either the an-cient or modernpeople of Asia . “Butif a place of still greater height (thancould be reached by the noria) is to besupplied ; on the same axis of a wheel,a double chain of iron is wound and letdown to the level of the bottom ; hav-ing brass buckets, each containing acongius (seven pints) hanging thereto,so that upon the turning of the wheel,the chain revolving round the axisraises the buckets to the top; whichwhen drawn upon the axis, become in-verted and pour into the reservoir thewater they have brought.” Book x,Cap. 9, Newton’s Trans. As no re-ference is made to the form of the ves-sels, by Vitruvius , we find themrepre-sented by translators in a variety ofshapes, as cylinders, cubes, truncatedcones, pyramids, as well as portions of,and combinatio'ns of them all. Someare left open at the top, and both withand without projecting lips in front, bywhich to shoot the contents over theedge of the reservoir as they pass thewheel or drum. Others are closed,and admit, and discharge the water through an orifice or short tube as re-presented. (No. 53.) From the separate figure of one of the vessels it

No. 53. Koni an Chain of Pots.