Chap. 6.]

The Common Atmospheric Pump.

211

Cf H A P T E R VI,

The atmospheric pump supposed by somc persons to be of modern origin—Injustice towards the an»cients—Their knowledge of hydrodynamics—Absurdity of an alledged proof of their ignorance ofa simple principle of hydrostatics—Cömmon cylindrical pump—Its antiquity—Anciently known un-’der the name of a siphon—The antlia of the Greeks—Used as a ship pump by the Romans—Bilgepump—Portable pumps—Wooden pumps always used in ships—Description of some in tlie U. S. Navy —Ingenuity of sailors—Singular mode of making wooden pumps, from Dampier—Old draining pump—Pumps in public and private wells—In mines—Pump from Agricola, with figures of various boxes—Double pump formerly used in the mines of Germany , from Fludd’s works—The wooden pump not im»proved by the moderns—Its use eonfined chiefly to civilized States.

Some persons are unwilling to admit that the atmospheric pump wasknown to the ancients, and yet (hey are unable to prove its origin in latertimes or by more recent people, The passages in ancient authors in whichit is supposed to be mentioned or alluded to, are deemed inconclusive,because the terms by which it is designated were also applied to otherdevices.

To confine the knowledge of the ancients to such departments of thearts as are either expressly mentioned or referred to in Greek and Romanauthors, and to those, specimens of which have been preserved to ourtimes, is neither liberal nor just. Let us suppose Europe and the UnitedStates , in the course of future time, thrown back into barbarism, and allrecords perished, save a few fragments of the works of our drämatists,poets and historians;—and that after the lapse of some 1500 or 2500years these should be discovered—-and also some relics of our archi-tecture, pottery, and works in the metals : Now we should think thewriters of those days illiberal in the extreme, who should conclude thatwe Were ignorant of nearly all branches of Science and of the arts ; andof every machine which was not partimlarly mentioned or illustrated inthe former-—or of which specimens were not found among the latter.And yet something like this, has been the treatment which the ancientshave received at our hands.

It cannot however be denied, that remains of their works still extant,exhibit a degree of skill in architecture, sculptüre, metallurgy, pottery, en-graving, &c. which excels that of modern 1 artistsA And as regards theirknowledge of hydrodynamics—-let it be rernembered, that we are in-debted to them for canals, aqueducts, fountains, jets d’eau, syringes, for-cmg pumps, siphons, valves, air vessels, cocks, pipes of stone, earthen-ware, wood, of lead and copper: yet notwithstanding all these, and theirnumerous machines for raising and transferring water, and the immensequantities of tubes for conveying it, Which are found scattered over allAsia as well as Italy ' 5 ' and Greeee, it has been gravely asserted, that theywere ignorant of one of the elementary and most obvious principles of _

a It was reinarked by the late Mr. Wedgewood, who was' doübtless the most skilfulmanufacturer of poreelain in our own times, that the famous Barbarini Vase affordedevidence of an art of pottery among the ancients of which we are as yet ignorant,even of the rudiments. Edin. EnCyc . vol. ii, 203.

b The vast quantities of leaden pipes found at Pompeii induced the Neapolitan go-vernment to seil them as old metal. Pompeii , vol. i, 104.