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Chap. 17.]
of drafts of engines, which are placed under the terms Budromia andHydrotechnema, &c. the first signifying the methods of raising water bybuckets; and the other by globes or figures of any regulär shape, fixedto a rope, which rope being fastened at each end, and passing through anelm or other pipe, which reaches from the bottom of a well to the heightto which the water is to be conveyed, brings up the water with it; butthese kind of engines being out of date, I shall pass over tbem.” a Belidor has described one that was used in the ship yards and docks at Marseilles ,which is represented in No. 66. The lower pulley was dispensed with ;and the face of the pallets or pistons, which were hemispheres of wood,were leathered. It was worked by two galley slaves, who were relievedevery hour.
SSli
Such appears to have been the general construction of the chain pumpm Europe , until an increasing intercourse with the Chinese led to the in-troduction of the machine as made by that people. The credit of thisis, we believe, due to the Duteh. From the peculiar location of Hollandwith regard to the sea, hydraulic engines have at all times been of toomuch importance to escape the examination of her intelligent travelers.But it perhaps will be said, there is no essential or very obvious distinctionbetween the old chain pump of Europe and that of China : admitting this,still there must have been something peculiar either in the construction ormode of working the latter, to have produced the superior results ascrib-ed to them ; and to have elicited the admiration of the Jesuits and all theearly travelers in China . No stronger proof of their superiority need beadduced, than the fact of their being carried. in the 17th Century fromChina to Manilla by the Spaniards, and to Batavia by the j DutchP Hencethey were previously unknown in those parts of Asia , as much so as inHolland and Spain . Navarrette mentions them with great praise : hethought there was not a better invention in the world to draw water fromWells and tanks. c And Gamelli (in 1695) describes them as machines,which, in his opinion, Chinese ingenuity alone could invent. d Montanusmentioned them as novel. He describes one as an “ engine made of foursquare plank, holdin g great störe of water, which with iron chains, they
’Hydrostaticks, 313. b Histoire Gbnerale, Tom. viii, 81. c Ibid. sibid, Tom. vii, 267.
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