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time of Moses —hence it frequently happened, that after returning totheir homes imbued with the ‘ wisdom of Egypt, ’ philosophers were con-sidered by their countrymen as the authors of doctrines, discoveries andmachines, which they had acquired a knowledge of as pupils abroad. Itis not therefore impossible, that that which occurred to Thaies and Pyth agoras , Lycurgus and Solon, Plato and many others, may also have hap-pened to Archimedes with respect to this machine. It has been supposedthat the screw was employed in Egypt ages before he visited that country;of this, however, there is no direct proof; perhaps an examination of theimmense mass of sculptures in the temples, and toinbs of Thebes and Beni-Hassan, &c. may yet bring to light facts illustrative of the use of this andother machines for the same purpose in very remote times. Its ancientnarne of Egyptian screw indicates its origin.
The silence of Vitruvius respecting its origin, if Archimedes was theinventor, is singulär; for through the whole of his work he appears stu-dious to record the names of inventors. He was Contemporary withDiodorus , and had therefore equal opportunities of ascertaining its history,while from his profession, and the nature of his work, a more perfect ac-count of it would be expected from him than from the other. TheRoman architect had indeed every inducement, (except such as were un-worthy of him,) to record the name of the Prince of Ancient Mathemati-cians as its author, if such he knew him to be. The reputation of Ar chimedes ; his splendid discoveries; his famous defence ofhis native city;his melancholy death ; the interest which Marcellus took in his fate; theerection of his tomb by that General; and its discovery by Cicero amidstthorns and rubbish, one hundred and forty years after his death, and in thelifetime of Vitruvius —induce us to believe that, as a candid philosopherand admirer of learned men, and of Archimedes himself, (B. i, Chap. 1.)he would certainly have awarded to the latter the honor of its invention,if he believed him entitled to it, either from the testimony of ancient wri-ters, or from traditional report.
But if this machine was not invented by him, to whom then is theWorld indebted for it? We reply—if it really be not more ancient thanthe Ptolemaic era—to a Grecian philosopher of Samos, who was Contem-porary with Archimedes . Some readers will recollect that when PtolemyEvergetes, the son and successor of Philadelphus, departed on a dangerousexpedition, the success of which, according to Rollin, was foretold byDaniel, (xi,. 7, 9,) his wife Berenice, influenced by a principle of Supersti-tion, that at one time was universal, vowed to sacrifice her greatest Orna-ment, the hair of her head, to the Goddess Venus, if he was successfuland restored to her in safety. Upon his victorious return, she cut off herlocks and dedicated them in that temple which Philadelphus had foundedin honor of her mother Arsinoe ; the dome of which temple was intend-ed to have been lined with loadstone, that the iron Statue of Arsinoe mightbe suspended in the air; but the death both of Dinocrates the architect,and Philadelphus, prevented the completion of a buildingthat would haverivalled the most perfect of all human productions ; a work, which proba-bly gave rise to the Story of the Suspension of Mahomet’s coffin.“'
a That metallic substances have been actually suspended without any tangiblesupporlappears from Poncet, to whose travels in Abyssinia we referred in the last chapter. Hedeclares that he beheld in a monastery in that country, a golden staff about four feetlong, thus suspended in the air ; and to detect any deccption he desired permission toexamine it closely, to ascertain whether there was not some invisible prop or support.“ To talte away all doubt (he says) I passed my cane over it and under it, and on allsides, and found that this staff of gold did truly hang of itself in. the air.’’ Ed. Encyc .Vol. xiii, p. 4C.