333

Chap. 8.] Newsham’s Engines.

After referring to a number of machines erected by him in London andits vicinity, Mr. Fowke concludes with a table of prices of fire-engines,the smallest being o£14 and the largest =£60. Newsham’s circular is ob-viously designed to counteract the elfect of Fowke’s.

“ Richard Newsham, of Cloth Fair, London , engineer, makes the mostuseful, substantial, and convenient engines for quenching fires, which carriescontinual streams with great force. He hath play’d several of them beforehis majesty, and the nobility, at St. James’s, with so general an approba-tion, that the largest was at the same time ordered for the use of thatroyal palace. And as a further encouragement (to prevent others frommaking the same sort, or any imitation thereof) his majesty has since beengraciously pleas’d to grant him his second letters patent, for the better se-curing his property in this, and several other inventions for raising waterfrom any depth, to any height required.

“ The largest engine will go through a passage about three foot wide, inromplete working Order, without taking off or putting on any thing : andmay be worked with ten men in the said passage. One man can quicklyand with ease, move the largest size about, in the compass it Stands in:and is to be play’d without rocking, upon any uneven ground, with handsand feet, or hands only, which cannot be parallel’d by any other sort what-soever. There is conveniency for above twenty men to apply their fullstrength, and yet reserve both ends of the cistern clear from incumbrance,that others at the same time may be pouring in water, which drains through,large copper strainers. The staves that are fixed through the leavers,along the sides of the engine, for the men to work by, though very light,as alternate motions with quick returns require; yet will not spring andlose time the least: but the staves of such engines as are wrought at theends of the cistern, will spring or break, if they be of such a length as isnecessary for a large engine, when a considerable power is apply’d : andcannot be fix’d fast, because they must at all times be taken out beforethat engine can go through a passage. The playing two streams at once,do neither issue a greater quantity of water, nor is it new, or so useful,there having been of the like sort at the steel-yard, and other places, thirtyor forty years; and the water being divided, the distance and force areaccordingly lessen’d thereby.

“ Those who pretend to make the forcers work in the barreis, with a per-pendicular stroke, without rack, wheels, chains, crank, pully, or the like,by any kind of contrived leavers, or circular motion whatsoever, with lessfriction, than if guided and work’d by wheel and chains, (which of allmethods is the best,) do only discover their ignorance ; they may as rea-sonably argue, that a great weight can be dragg’d upon a sledge, with aslittle strength, as if drawn upon wheels.

“ As to the treddles, on which the men work with their feet, there is nomethod so powerful, with the like velocity or quickness, and more naturaland safe for the men. Great attempts have been made to exceed, but noneyet could equal this sort; the fifth size of which hath play’d above thegrasshopper upon the Royal Exchange ; which is upwards of fifty-fiveyards high, and this in the presence of many thousand spectators.

“ Those with suction feed themselves with water from a canal, pond,well, &c. or out of their own cisterns, by the turn of a cock, without in-terrupting the stream. They are far less liable to disorder, much moredurable in all their parts, than any extant, and play off large quantities ofwater to a great distance, either from the engine, or a leather pipe, orpipes of any length reqhir’d ; (the screws all fitting each other.) This thecumbersome squirting engines, which take up four times more room, can-