Montgolfier’s Ram.

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Chap. 1.

out with the liquid from the lateral pipes. Notwithstanding the advan-tages derived from such an apparatus, under circumstances similar tothose indicated by the figure, lt does not appear to have elicited the at-tention of engineers, nor does Whitehurst himself seem to have been awareof its adaptation as a Substitute for forcing pumps, in locations where thewater drawn from the cock was not required, or could not be used. Hadhe pursued the subject, it is probable the idea of opening and closing thecock (by means of the water that escaped) with sorne such apparatus asfigured in No. 160, Would have occurred to him, and then his machinebeing made self-acting, would haVe been applicable in a thousand loca-tions. But these additions were not made, and the consequence was, thatthe invention was ndglected, and but for the one next to be described, itwould most likely have passed into oblivion, like the steam machines ofBranca, Kircher, and Decaus, tili called forth by the application of thesame principle in more recent devices.

Whenever vßß peruse accounts of the labors of ingenious men, in searchof new discöveries in Science or the arts, sympathy leads us to rejoice attheir success and to grieve at their failure : like the readers of a wellwritten novel who enter into the views, feelings and hopes of the hero ;realize his disappointments, partake of his pleasures, and become interestedin his fate; hence something like regret comes over us, when an indus-trious experimenter, led by his researches to the verge of an importantdiscovery, is, by some circumstance diverted (perhaps temporarily) fromit; and a more fortunate or more sagacious rival Steps in and bears off theprize from his grasp—a prize, which a few Steps more would have puthim in possession of. Thus Whitehurst with the water-ram, like Papinwith the steam-engine, discontinued his researches at the most interestingpoint—‘at the very turning of the tide that would have carried him to thegoal ; and hence the fruit of both their labors has contributed but to en-hanee the glory of their successors.

The Belier hydrauliqUe of Montgolfter was invented m 1796. (Its au-thorwas a French paper maker, and the same gentleman who, in conjunc-tion with his brother, invented balloons in 1782.) Although it is on theprinciple of Whitehurst’s machine, its invention is believed to have beenentirely independent of the latter. But if it were even admitted thatMontgolfier was acquainted with what Whitehurst had done, still he has,by his improvements, made the ram entirely his own. He found it acomparatively useless device, and he rendered it one of the most efficient—it was neglected or forgotten, and he not only revived it, but gave it apermanent place among hydraulic machines, and actually made it themost interesting of them all. It was, previous to his time, but an embryo;when, like another Prometheus, he not only wrought it into shape andbeauty, but imparted to it, as it were, a principle of life, that rendered itsmovements self-acting ; for it requires neither the attendance of man, norany thing eise, to keep it in play, but the momenturn of the water it isemployed to elevate. Like the Organization of animal life, and the me-ehanism by which the blood circulates, the pulsations of this admirablemachine incessantly continue day and night, for months and years; whilenothing but a deficiency of the liquid, or defects in the apparatus can in-duce it to stop. It is, compared to Whitehurst’s, what the steam-engineof Watt, is to that of Savary or Newcomern

Montgolfier positively denied having borrowed the idea from any one—he claimed the invention as wholly his own, and there is no reason what-ever to question his veracity. The same discöveries have often been, andstill are, made in the same and in distant countries, independently of each

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