550

head—Tts Ancient Uses.

[Book V.

The old Regal, a diminutive species of organ, still used in some partsof Europe , was sometimes acted on by water ; at least so it would seemfrom a remark of Lord Bacon in his Sylva. Speaking of music, he par-ticularizes the tones from the percussion of metals, as in bells—of air, asin the voice while singing, in whistles, Organs, and stringed instruments—“ and of water, as in the nightingale pipes of regalls, or Organs, and otherhydraulics, which the ancients had, and Nero did so much esteeme, butare now lost.”—-Cent, ii, 102.

CHAPTER IX.

Sheet Lead: Lead early known—Roman pig lead—Ancient uses of lead—Leaden and iron coffins—Casting sheet lead—Solder—Leaden books—Roofs covered with lead—Invention of rolled lead—Leadsheathing. Leaden Pipes: Of great antiquity—Made from sheet lead by the Romans—Ordinance ofJustinian—Leaden pipes in Spain in the ninth Century—Damascus —Leather pipes—Modern iron pipes—Invention of cast leaden pipes—Another plan in France —Joiuts united without solder—Invention ofdrawn leaden pipes—Burr’s mode of making leaden pipes—Antiquity of window lead—Water injuredby passing through leaden pipes-rTinned pipes. Valves: Their antiquity and variety—Nuremberg engineers. Cocks: Of great variety and materials in anoieut times—Horapolio—Cocks attached to thelaver of brass and the brazen sea—Also to golden and silver cisterns in the temple at Delphi—Found inJapanese baths—Figure of an ancient bronze cock—Superior in its construction to modern ones—Cockfrom a Roman fountain—Numbers found at Pompeii —Silver pipes and cocks in Roman baths—Goldenand silver pipes and cocks in Peruvian baths—Sliding cocks by the author. Water-Closets . Ofancient date — Common in the, East. Traps for drains, &c,

A pew subordinate inventions, but such as are of some importance inpractical hydraulics have been reserved for this chapter, viz : sheet lead,pipes, valves and cocks, water-closets and traps.

Lead was probably worked before any other metal. Its ores aboundin most countries, and frequently reach to the surface ; they are easilyreduced ; the metal fuses at a low temperature ; it is soft and exceedinglyplastic. Lead is mentioned as common at the time of the Exodus. Itwas among the spoils taken by the Israelites from the Midianites, andarticles made of it were ordered to be melted up. The Phenicians ex-ported tiri and lead from Britain . Both are enumerated in the graphicaccount of the commerce of Tyre, in the 27th chapter of Ezekiel. TheRomans worked lead mines in France , Spain and Britain ; Pliny says,those in the former countries were deep and the metal procured withdifficulty; but in Britain it was abundant, and “ runneth ebb in the upper-most coat of the ground.” Several Roman mining tools and pigs of leadhave been found in England. In 1741, two pigs were dug up in York-shire. Their form was similar to that in which the Missouri lead is cast,but more than twice the weight. Each weighed 150 lb. and was inscribedin raised letters with the name of the reigning emperor, Domitian. —(Phil.Trans. Abrid. ix, 420.)

The uses to which lead was put by the ancients were much the same asat present. The fishermen of Egypt sunk their nets with it just as oursdo. A portion of a net with “ sinkers” attached is preserved in the BerlinMuseum. Leaden statues are ancient. There. was one of Mamurius atRome . They probably preceded those of bronze, and perhaps formedpart of the spoil of the Midianites mentioned above. The Romans hadleaden coffins ; a device adopted more or less in all ages. Double leaden