Chap. 9.] Cast Leaden Pipes—First Articles of Cast- Iron in England. 553

and nymphasa as you shall think fit,” &c. Constantinople has for agesbeen supplied with water through leaden pipes. The Sou-terazi or watertowers, are mere contrivances to facilitate the ascent and descent of thefluid through pipes.

Leaden pipes have been uninterruptedly employed in some or other ofEuropean cities since the fall of the empire. In the middle of the ninthCentury water was conveyed by them to supply Cordorva, in Spain , underthe Caliph Abdulrahman II. who also caused that city to be paved. Thisis the oldest pavement on record in modern cities. Benjamin of Tudela ,who visited Damascus in the 12th Century, says, the river Pharpar (see2 Kings, chap. v,) slideth by and watereth the gardens; “ but Äbana ismore familiär and entereth the citie, yea, by helpe of art in conduits [pipes]visiteth their private houses.”—(Purchas’ Pilgrim.)

The ancient inhabitants of the island Arados ingeniously obtained freshwater from the bottom of the sea. They sunk down over the spring alarge bell of lead, to the upper part of which was attached a pipe of leatherthat conveyed the fluid to the surface.—(Pliny , v, 31.)

Some of the Roman earthenware pipes were made to screw into eachother. Old leaden pipes laid, A. D. 1236, to supply London , are men-tioned at page 294. Most modern pipes of large bore are now madeof cast iron. The. largest sizes now laying to supply this city, are ninefeet in length, three feet internal diameter, and weigh from 3500 to 3800pounds.

The first improvement on the ancient mode of making leaden pipes wasmatured in England in 1539. It consisted in Casting them complete inshort lengths, in molds placed in a perpendicular position. After a numberwere cast, they were United to each other in a separate mold, by pouringhot metal over the ends until they run together. The device for “ burn-ing” or melting the ends was exceedingly ingenious, and such pipes arestill made to some extent in Europe . . In the 30th year of Henry VIII .(observes Baker in his Chronicles of the Kings of England,) “ the mannerof Casting pipes of lead for conveyance of water under ground withoutusing of soder, was first invented by Robert Brocke, clerk, one of thekmg’s chaplains, a profitable invention ; for by this, two men and a boywill do more in one day, then could have been done before by many menin many days. Robert Cooper, goldsmith, was the first that made theinstruments and put this invention in practice.”—(Edit. of 1665, p. 317.)

Five years afterwards, Ralph Hage and Peter Bawde made the firstarticles of cast iron in England.—(Ibid.)

In the reign of Henry IV. of France, a native of St. Germain, devisedanother mode of Casting pipes and burning them together. The mold wasused in a horizontal position, and the metal poured in at one end. Whena pipe was cast, it was not drawn entirely out of the mold, but one or twoinches were left near the spout where the metal entered, so that whenanother length was cast, the hot metal running over the end of the pre-vious pipe fused it, and both became as one. The tube was then drawnnearly out and another one cast and United to it in like manner, and soon tili any required length was attained.—(See Planche, vii. L’Art duPlombier in Arts et Metieres.)

Sometimes pipes formed of sheet lead have their seams United by“ burning.” A Strip of pasteboard is packed against the inside of theseara, and the tube (if small) filled with sand ; the edges are then meltedwith a soldering iron, and the deficiency made up with a bar of lead, inthe same way as when a bar of solder is used. The old mode of burningthese seams was by pouring hot lead upon them, and generally a projec-

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