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Chap. 5.] Lord Bacon's Project for raising Water fröm Miltes.

his household was a mining engineer, and celebrated for the invention orconstruction of hydraulic engines, viz. “ Mr. Thomas Bushell, one of hislordship’s menial servants ; a man skilful in discovering and opening ofmines, and famous for his curious water-works in Oxfordshire , by whichhe imitated rain, hail, the rainbow, thunder and lightning.” a This wasprobably the same individual who is mentioned in some biographies as“ Master of the Royal Mines in Wales, ” under Charles I.

That the application of steam to drain mines and impart motion to ma-chinery had begun to excite attention in England before the death of Ba­ con , (in 1626) is very obvious. Of this there are several indications ;and within four years of his demise, a patent was granted for a method ofdischarging water “ from low pitts hy fireP Then he was acquaintedwith the writings of Porta, and consequently with the apparatus No. 187.No experiment or fact of the kind illustrated by this could have escapedhim, even if he had not been engaged in the project of recovering floodedmines; and he was, to say the least, as likely as any other man of his ageto perceive the adaptation of such an apparatus as No. 187 for raising wa-ter, and also to apply it. We hear of no such uses of steam in Englandbefore his time, but soon after his death they make their appearance with-out any one very distinctly to claim them. It may however be said, ifBacon raised water by steam, Bushell, his engineer, would most likelyhave done the same after the death of the chancellor, and proofs of thisfact might be obtained from an examination of the water-works of thelatter. Had we any account of these, the question most likely could besettled; but almost the only information we have respecting the maehinesand labors of Bushell is contained in the extract above, and there is butone particular from which any thing respecting their construction can beinferred, viz .—hail is said to have been prodüced by them. How thiswas done we know not; possibly by admitting high steam into a closevessel, from which water mixed with airb was expelled with a velocitysufficient to produce ice, somewhat in the same manner as the Operation isperformed by compressed air in the pressure engine described at page 362.The same thing was done by others Who we knoW did experiment onsteam, and who performed the Operation without the aid of a great fall ofwater. The Marquis of Worcester makes it the subject of the 18th pro-position of his “ Century of Inventions,” in a fountain which he says achild could invert. And a Century before, Cornelius Drebble “ madecertain machines which prodüced rain, hail and lightning, as naturally asif these effects proceeded from the sky.”

But whether Lord Bacon used steam or not—and it must be admittedthat there is no direct evidence that he did—it is interesting to know thathis great mind was bent to the subject of raising water on the most ex-tensive scale, and this too at the time when steam first begän to be propo-sed for that purpose in England. On this account, if on no other, are hislabors entitled to notice here. c

" Account of Lord Bacon’s Works, p. 19.

b Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Burnett, in his Letters from Italy , noticing the water-worksatFrescati, observes, “the mixture of wind with the water and the thunder and stortnsthat thismaketh, is noble.” 3d edition, Rotterdam, 1687, p.245.

c Lord Bacon seems to have been greatly interested in mining and in the reduction,componnding and working of metals. In his treatise on the Advancement of Learninghe divides natural phiiosophy into the mine and furnace, and philosophers into pioneersand smiths, ordiggers and hammerers; the former being engaged in the inquisition ofcanses, and the latter in the production of effects. In his “ Physiological Remains,” wefind the saving of fuel thus noticed under the head of “ Experiments for Profit“ Build-ing of chimneys, furnaces and ovens, to give out heat with less wood.”

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