218
Pumps in the 16 th Century.
[Book II.
of that instrument. It has no valve orclack, but appears to be a modification ofthe one used in the old bilge pump, whichwas sometimes compared to a ‘ gunner’ssponge.’
There are numerous proofs in old au-thors, that pumps were common in weih inthe 15th Century, since they are mentionedin the early part of the following one, asthings in ordinary. In 1546, they wereused to some extent in those of London .In the ‘Practice of the New and old Phi-sicke,’ by Conrad G-esner, (who died in1565) translated by George Baker, ‘one ofthe Queene’s maiesties chiefe chirurgians inordinary,’ and dedicated to Elizabeth, (Lon.black letter, 1599,) is a description of aFlorentine distilling apparatus, to which aportable pump was attached; the latter isdescribed as “an instrument which is soformed that the water by sucking is forced to rise up and run forth, as thelike practice is often used in pits of water or welles.” Folio 215. The cele-brated mathematician, neeromancer, and alchymist, Dr. John Dee , whowas frequently eonsulted by queen Elizabeth, had a pump in the well be-longing to his house. In Beroaid’s commentary on the 44th proposition ofBesson, (the chain of pots) he observes that it “ opere Sans intermission entirant l’eau de tout puits facilement sans pompes .” a Sarpi, who first dis-covered the valves of the veins, compared them to those of a pump,‘opening to let the blood pass, but shutting to prevent its return.’
But pumps had not wholly, in the 16th Century, superseded the oldmode of raising water with buckets in European cities. At that time agreat portion of the Wells were open—of this, numberless intimationsmight be found. Thus in Italy , the poet Aurelli, who was made gover-nor of a city by Leo X. was murdered by the inhabitants on account of histyranny, and bis body with that of his mule thrown into a well. In Lon don , it was not tili the latter part of the following Century that the chainand pulley disappeared. This is evident from the following enactment ofthe common council of that city the year after the great fire. (1667) “Andfor the effectual supplying the engines and squirts with water, pumps areto be placed in all wells:” b —a proof that many were open and the waterraised in buckets.
Pumps are also described in old works on husbandry, gardening, &c.from which it appears that they were often used to raise water for irriga-tion. In the ‘Systema Agriculturas, being the mystery of Husbandry discovered and laid open,’ Lon. 1675, directions are given respeeting va-rious modes of making and working them; and it is particularly di-rected that the rods be made of such a length as to permit the suckers or*'upper boxes’ to descend at every stroke below the surface of the waterin the well; this it is observed, ‘ saves much trouble.’ The same remarkaccompanies an account of windmills for watering land [pumps dnvenby them] in the old ‘Dictionarum Rusticum.’
In the mines of Hungary pumps were early introduced, bttt at whatperiod is uncertain. It is not improbable that those described by Agri-
a Theatre des Instrumens, 1579. b Maitland’s History of London, p. 297.
No. 87. A. D. 1511.