Music produced by Eolipiles.

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Chap. 3.]

ing on the hearth and heated by the fire, close to which they were placed,the vapor rushed through the orifice and drove the smoke before it; andat the same time induced a current of atmospheric air to follow in thesame direction. Sometimes those designed for this purpose had a handleor bail to suspend them over the fire, as No. 183. As several ancientdomestic customs still prevail in Italy , and numerous culinary and otherimplements found in Herculaneum and Pompeii are similar to those nowused, it might be supposed that some relics of eolipiles and their useswould be still met with in that country. The supposition has been veri-fied ; for we are informed that these instruments are, or were in theseventeenth Century, “ commonly made use of in Italy to eure smoakychimneys, for being hung over the fire, the blast arising from them carriesup the loitering smoke along with it”—and again, “ an eolipile has beensometimes placed in a chimney where it can be heated, the vapor of whichserves to drive the smoke up the chimney.” This application of steam,it will be perceived, is similar to that lately adopted to increase the draftof chimneys of locomotive carriages.

Rivius mentions anothe'r use of eolipiles. He says some were madeof gold, silver and other costly metals, and were filled with scentedwater, “ to cause a pleasant temperature, to refresh the spirit and rejoicethe heart, not only of the healthy but also of the sick.” He observesthat they were used for these purposes in the halls and chambers of thewealthy. Rhenanus, an old German writer, who died in 1547, euumera-ting the treasures belonging to the ancient church at Mentz, mentionseolipiles in the form of “ silver cranes, in the belly of which was put fire”and which gave out “ a sweete savour of perfumes by the open beake.”Seneca has observed that perfumes were sometimes disseminated in theamphitheatres, by being mixed with boiling water, so that the odor roseand was diffused by the steam. We learn from Shakespeare that perfum-ing rooms was common in his time, the neglect of cleanliness renderingsuch operations necessary. It is probable that he refers to the same pro-cess as that mentioned by Rivius. “ Being entertained for a perfumer,as I ■was smoking a room.” “ Much ado about Nothing, ” Act 1, Scene 3.

Eolipiles were also employed to produce music. By adapting trum-pets, Hutes, clarionets, and other wind instruments to the neck or orificeof one, they were sounded as by currents of air. This application ofeolipiles is probably coeval with their invention. It is indeed only aVariation of the supposed musical apparatus of the Memnonian Statue,and of the devices described by Heron. All the old writers on eolipilesmention it. Fludd figures a variety of instruments sounded by currentsof steam; and Rivius, after noticing the use of eolipiles for blowing firesand fumigating rooms, observes “they are also made to produce music,the steam passing through reeds or organ pipes, so as to cause astonish-ment in those who have no idea of such wonderful operations.” Gerbertapplied eolipiles in place of bellows to Sound an organ at Rheims in thetenth Century ; and the Instrument according to William of Malmsburywas extant two hundred years afterwards. (Düring the middle ages,the churchmen were the only organ makers; and even so late as thesixteenth Century, they retained the manufacture chiefly in their ownhands : in the household book of Henry VIII . mention is made of twopayments of ten pounds each to John, or “ Sir John, the organ maker,”of whom the editor says, ‘ it is almost certain that he was a priest.’)

The preceding notice of eolipiles is due to them as the trüe germ ofmodern steam engines, for such they were, whether the latter be consider-edas devices for raising water only, or as machines to move others. We

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