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[Book III.

Old German Engines.

any position required. The iron frame to which the box or female partof the screw is attached, is raade fast to the cylinder ; and it is through aprojecting piece on the end of this frame that the bolt is passed. Bythese means, any elevation could be given to the nozzle, and the syringecould be secured by passing the bolt through the piece just mentioned,and through the corresponding holes m the Straps. When a lateral changein the jet was required, the whole machine was moved by a man at theend of the pole, as in the figure. To the frame, jointed feet were attach-ed, which were let down when the engine was at work. The womenrepresented (one only is given in our figure) reminds us of a remark byFosbroke: “ In the middle ages during fires women used to fetch waterin brazen pails to assist.” Considering the age when this engine wasdevised and the objects intended to be accomplished by it, it certainlyhas the ment of ingenuity as well as originality. Beroald says of it:“ Ceste noble invention est si souvent requise, pour esteindre les grandfeux desquels on ne peut approcher; que sans faute eile merite d’estreplus au long, et plus ouvertement expliquee, afin qu’elle soit mieux en-tendue.” It will be obvious to every practical mechanic that engines ofthis kind, of large dimensions, must have been at best but poor affairs. Tomake the piston work sufficiently accurate and tight, and to keep it so,must have been a work of no small difficulty.

A correspondent, in a late number of the Lon. Mechanics’ Magazine,vol. Xxx , has communicated a very imperfect figure of this engine to that-work, extracted from an English book, published in 1590, entitled “ ATreatise named Lucarsolace, divided into four books, which in partare collected out of diverse authors, diverse languages, and in partdevised by Cyprian Lucar, Gentleman.” London : 1590. It is veryobvious that Lucar copied the engine in question from Besson’s work,which was published in 1579, but was authorized to be printed in 1568;and which Besson’s death then prevented. The following extract fromLucar’s book is not without interest. “And here at the end of this chapterI will set before your eyes a type of a, ‘ squirt’ which hath been de-vised to cast much water upon a burning house, wishing a like squirt andplenty of water to be alwaies in a readinesse where fire may do harme; forthis kind of squirt may be made to holde an hoggeshed of water, or if youwill, a greater quantity thereof, and may be so placed on his frame, thatwith ease and a smal strength, it sahl be mounted, imbased or turned toany one side, right against any fired marke, and made to squirt out thewater upon the fire that is to be quenched.”

The Germans were proverbially in advance of the rest of Europe inthe 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, in almost every department of the arts.“ The excellency of these people [observes Heylin in his Cosmography]lieth in the mechanic part of learning, as being eminent for many mathe-matical experiments, stränge water-works, medicinal extractions, chemistry,the art of printing, and inventions of like noble nature, to the no less be-nefit than admiration of the world.” As early as A. D. 1518, some kindof fire-engines were used in Augsburg , being mentioned in the buildingaccounts of that city. They were named “ Instruments for fires,” and“ water syringes useful at fires.” Their particular construction is unknown;büt from a remark in the accounts respecting wheels and poles, they aresupposed to have been placed on carriages : they were probably largesyringes and mounted like the one represented in the last figure.

The oldest pump engines of modern times were certainly made in Ger-many, and about the close of the 16th or beginning of the next Century.The first one noticed by Beckman is that of Hautsch, which the Jesuit