618
Siphons from Heran’s Spiritalia.
[Book V.
had undergone. This change does not seem to have affected the c-olor,for not tili he tasted, of it was the presiding officer himself sensible of itsbeing wine. “ When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that wasmade wine,” he “ knew not whence it was, but the servants that drew thewater knew.”
No. 235 probably was designed to represent one of Pharaoh ’s butlersengaged in that part of his duty which required him to draw and mix theking’s drink. Such officers formed part of large establishments amongthe ancients, and so they do in modern times. Switzer, speaking of smallsiphons observes, “ the Insinuation of air is such that wine will not alwayskeep on its regulär ascent, without the butler puts his mouth sometimes toit, to give it a new suction.”
One of the modes by which Ctesibius applied siphons to clepsydras,will be found figured in a subsequent chapter.
Were the old philosophers of Egypt acquainted with the principle onwhich the siphon acts ? Doubtless they were, eise they could never havediversified its form and adapted it with such admirable ingenuity to thegreat variety of purposes both open and concealed, which we know theydid. In connection with hydromancy it was made to play an importantpart. Magical goblets were often nothing eise than modifications of siphons;and from the Spiritalia we learn that they formed the basis of more com-plex and imposing apparatus. The tricks connected with the glass tombof Belus, and the miraculous vases in the temple of Bacchus probablydepended upon siphons ; and most writers on the vocal statue of Memnon have introduced them as essential parts of the supposed machinery ; imi-tating in this respect the apparatus described by Heron for producingmysterious sounds from the figures of men, birds, &c.
Heron is more diffuse on the subject of siphons than any other writer,Upwards of twenty problems in his Spiritalia relate to or are illustrratedby them ; and from him we learn that these instruments were in his timeemployed on a large scale in draining and irrigating land, viz. by transfer-ring water over hills from one valley to another. This use of the siphonwas probably quite as common under the Pharaohs as under the Ptolemies ;for Heron does not intimate that it was novel in his time any more thanthe instrament itself.
No. 237. No. 238. No. 239. No, 24ol
eiid;
[JUliaU
n umimr i^