Century of Invention#.

429

Chap. 6.]

drawn to the employment of steam by observing, while a jrrisoner in theTower, a pot-lid raised or thrown off by it. If this was the case, then nodependence can be placed on Worcester ’s assertion, that the whole Cen-tury was written in 1655; but there is no reason to question his veracityin this respect. On the contrary, the tradition is obviously a fable ; onethat has been applied to others as well as to him.

Althongh many of the devices in the Century appear at first sight ex-tremely absurd, and others impossible, yet every year is producing a Solu-tion of one or more of them. One half, at least, of the number have beenrealized; among which are telegraphs, floating baths, short-hand, combi-nation locks, keys, escutcheons and seals, rasping mills, candle-moulds,engines for deepening harbors and docks, contrivances for releasing unrulyhorses from carriages, torpedoes, diving apparatus, floating gardens, bücketengines, (see page 64 of this volume) universal lever, repeating guns andpistols, double water screws (p. 140 of this vol.) abacus, portable bridges,floating batteries &c. besides his applications of steam, which will be no-ticed more at large farther on.

It must not be supposed that Worcester was the first projector of everyproblem in the Century, although his Solutions may have been peculiar tohimself. The greater part may be found in the works of Porta, Fludd,Wilkins, and others of his predecessors and contemporaries; so that thecharges of absurdity brought against many of them are not attributable tohim alone. Indeed, the Century is in a great measure free from thosepuerile conceits that abound in old authors. a No. 3 he names “a one-linecypher,” that is, a character composed of a single line, which by its posi-tion was made to represent each and every letter of the alphabet. (Nowused in short-hand.) No. 4 is an improvement, and consists in substitutingpoints or dots in place of lines. No. 5, “ a way by circular motion, eitheralong a rule or ringwise, to vary any alphabet, even this of points,’* &c.Now these three Systems were explained and illustrated by diagrams indetail, twenty-two years before the publication of Worcester ’s book, by.Bishop Wilkins, in his “ Mercury, or secret and swift Messenger,” a tractprinted in 1641. The eleventh chapter treats “ of writing by inventedcharacters ”—“ how to express any sense either by lines, points or Jigures.”The last was by arranging the points or dots in the forms of circles,squares, triangles, &c. Wilkins speaks of the whole as an old device.Another problem in the Century is “ a universal character.” This hadbeen often attempted, and Wilkins wrote also upon it. Another, “ a water-ball,” to show the hour of the day. There were some singulär specimensof these clocks in Serviere’s museum, which was celebrated for its Col-lection of mechanical devices, and which doubtless Worcester had oftenvisited. (See page 285, and note foot of page 63.) The universal lever,No. 26 of the Century, he admits having seen at Yenice, and the bücketengine (No. 21) at Rome . It is probable he det-ived his “ imprisoningchair” from the same place; for there was in his time, as well as since, a

1 There is a singulär one in book xiv of Porta’s Magic, “ Of a bird which roasts it-self;” which, had Worcester mentioned, few would have credited without the explana-tion. “ Take a wren and spit it on a hazel stick, and lay it down before the fire, the twoends of the hazel spit being supported by something that is firm ; and you’Il see withadmiration the spit and the bird turn by little and little, without discontinuing, tili ’tisquite roasted.” This, says Ozanum, was first found out by Cardinal Paloti, at Rome .The motion may be accounted for on a similar prineiple as the rotation of glass tubeswhen supported at each end before a fire, and even when inclined against the fire-placewith one end on the hearth, viz. : the heat, being applied to one side only, causes thetubes to bend, and consequently to preponderate and thus turn round. See Phil. Trans,vol. xxx—Abridg. vol. x 551.