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the settlers. Encouraged by these preparations, the success ofof the former tenants, and the prospect of a farther supply ofWater, 10 new tenants came forvi’ard in 1783, 18 more in 1784,and no less than 27 in 1785 ; making in all 55 tenants in threeyears, to whom 440 acres of the high moss were disposed of.
As the introduction of an additional supply of water was tobe a work both of nicety and expense, it was necessary to pro-ceed with judicious caution ; and several engineers were employ-ed to make surveys, plans, and projects of the modes in which itmight be accomplished. In one point they all agreed, that theproper source of the supply was from the river Teith; a la-gaand copious stream within a mile of the moss ; but various modeswere proposed for this purpose. To carry a stream by a cut orcanal from the river to the moss was found impracticable, as the.river was on too low a level. Mr Whitworth, an engineer ofgreat reputation, then employed in completing the Forth andClyde canal , gave a plan for a pumping machine, which he wasof opinion would answer the purpose. Soon afterwards, MrGeorge Meikle, * a skilful and ingenious miil-vvright, then re-siding in Alloa , gave in the model of a wheel for raising waterto any moderate desired height, entirely of a new construction,the joint invention of his father and himself. This machine is soexceedingly simple, and acts in a manner so easy, natural, anduniform, that a common observer is apt to undervalue the meritof the invention ; but, to skilful machinicians, simplicity -is tilegreatest recortlmendation a machine can possess : And, according-ly, on seeing the model at work, Mr Whitworth, with the ut-most candour and liberality, not only gave it the greatest praise,but declared it superior for the intended purpose to the machineproposed by himself, and recommended it to he adopted withouthesitation.
This machine consists of an undershot water-wheel of largediameter, the floats of which move in a close arc of masonry,'vliile on each rim a set of reversed buckets receive water, as thewheel revolves, from troughs placed expressly for the purpose,and deliver their water into a cistern aloft, on passing the sum-mit. The wheel is 28 feet diameter, and has eighty buckets oneach side of its rim. It makes nearly four revolutions in theminute, in which time it discharges 40 hogsheads of water. Byaccurate trials it was found capable of delivering 60 hogsheadsm the same period ; but the diameter of the pipes by which theWater is conveyed from the cistern to the canal, t6 be afterwardsmentioned, would not admit of conveying more than 40 hogs-heads. The stream which moves this wheel is detached from theTeith at the place where that river approaches nearest to the
* The son of the inventor of the thrashing-mill. Both he and his father are&cw dead.
VOL. II. D