530 Discharging Water above its Source by Siphons. [Book V. sents two atmospheric pumps placed one above the other, and the lowest one raised it from "24 to 30 feet," and the upper one may raise it from thence 24 or 30 feet" higher. The "Forcible Movements," it will be remembered, was published about thirty years before the discovery of atmospheric pressure. Contrivances for discharging water from the highest part of siphons have often been proposed. They are to be met with in several old authors, and the principle of most of them may be found in the Spiritalia. They are however seldom employed, because circumstances on which they depend rarely occur; and other devices are preferable even under those circumstances. A descriptive account of a few of them may interest some machinists, and be serviceable to others, viz: by preventing them from expending their energies in devising similar things. Indeed in this respect books which contain accounts only of the best machines are not always the most useful to inventors. In whatever department of the arts these men exercise their talents they are almost certain to fall at one time or another on old devices, which appear to them both new and equal to similar plans in common use. Books therefore which describe rejected and antiquated contrivances are not so worthless as some persons imagine. One plan to raise water by a siphon consists in enlarging or swelling it out at or near the bend, or what amounts to the same thing, connecting the legs to an air-tight vessel; and when this becomes filled the communication between it and the legs is cut off by valves or cocks, and the contents drawn off. When this is done the vessel remains filled with air, which if admitted into the legs would stop the action of the siphon. It must therefore, in order to expel the air, be filled with some liquid to replace that drawn out. Suppose a siphon of this kind be designed to raise water for the supply of a dwelling, in or near which the vessel is placed, it may then be refilled with refuse or impure water, which on adjusting the cocks will pass down the discharging leg. Then after a short time elapses, the vessel will again be filled with fresh water, which may be again exchanged for the same quantity of impure. In locations where river, salt, or any other water can thus be exchanged for fresh, and it is desirable to do so, such devices are applicable. (In breweries, distilleries, &c. the descent of one liquid may thus be made to raise another.) It should however be observed that an equal quantity must be given for that received, and it must descend rather more than the latter rises. But when circumstances allow these conditions to be fulfilled, the apparatus is not always to be depended upon; air insinuates itself through the minutest imperfections in the pipes and cocks, and often deranges the whole. One of these siphons is described in Nicholson's Journal, 4to. vol. iv, and in vol. ii, of Gregory's Mechanics. Another in the Bibliotheque Phisico-Economique, which is copied in vol. x, of the Repertory of Arts, 2d series. Another is figured in Art and Nature, A. D. 1633, with two close reservoirs at the top; and Porta, in cap. 3, book xix, of his Magic, describes another, with the close vessel on the top of a tower: the discharging leg is described as terminating in another close vessel of the same size as the one above, and furnished with a cock and funnel through which to fill it, and another cock to discharge the contents: this charging vessel from his description appears to have been placed on the ground a little below the spring and then emptied--if so, the apparatus could not act. He does not appear to have been aware of the necessity of the contents of the lower vessel being discharged from the orifice of a pipe as much below as the receiving vessel on the tower was above the spring. The device (which he probably imperfectly copied from some older author) Chap. 6.] Ram Siphon. 531 would then be the same as the siphon for raising water which Gravesande has figured in the second volume of his Philosophy, p. 39, plate 74. The best of these devices are not only subject to derangement by the wear of the cocks and valves, and want of care in opening and closing them at the proper times, but they require almost as much attendance as would suffice to raise the water directly from the spring. On this account various contrivances have been proposed to render them self-acting. An ingenious device of this kind may be seen in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1747, p. 582. It is named a "lifting siphon." Water from a spring is received into an open cistern, from the bottom of which a pipe descends to a perpendicular depth of 33 feet. The bore of this pipe is closed and opened by two stop-cocks, one at its lower end and the other near the upper, or just below its junction with the cistern. A close vessel to receive the water raised is to be fixed at any required elevation, not exceeding 30 feet above the cistern; and from its bottom a pipe descends to within two inches of the bottom of the cistern. This pipe constitutes the short leg of the siphon, and its upper orifice is covered by a valve to prevent the water that ascends through it from returning. From the top of the close vessel a small or exhausting pipe proceeds down to the one beneath the cistern and is connected to it below the upper cock. Thus united they may be considered as the long leg of the siphon, although water only descends through the lower branch and air through the upper one. The apparatus for alternately opening and closing the cocks (upon which the action of the machine depends) is somewhat similar in principle to that represented at page 354. A bucket containing water is the prime mover; a rope attached to it is passed twice round two rollers, and a counterpoise is suspended from the other end of the rope. When the bucket is partly filled it preponderates, and when it is emptied the counterpoise prevails; hence an alternating movement is imparted to the rollers and to the plugs of the two cocks, as the shanks of these constitute the axles of the rollers. A plan for making siphons of this description self-acting by means of four vessels placed one over the other, and each provided with a siphon by which its contents may be discharged, was proposed by Mr. Wm. Close, in Nicholson's Journal before referred to. B No. 270. Ram siphon. M. Hachette has combined the ram of Montgolfier with the siphon, in order to discharge water from the apex of the latter see the annexed figure. A the short leg and R the long or discharging one. The upper end of each terminates in a close chamber within which two valves attached to a perpendicular rod are made to work. The upper valve closes an opening in the horizontal partition that separates the interior of the chamber from the air-vessel and jet pipe above. The seat of the lower valve is at the orifice of R. The distance between the valves is such that when one is closed the other is open. Their movements are produced as in the ram; a coiled spring keeps the upper one closed till the momentum of the fluid in passing through the siphon 532 Fountains and Jets d'eau. [Book V. shuts the lower one. The lower end of R is furnished with a cock, and that of A with a valve opening outwards, for the purpose of charging the siphon through an opening at B. When in operation, the water after running a little while acquires sufficient momentum to shut the lower valve, upon which a portion rushes into the air-vessel and escapes in a jet; the spring then closes the upper valve, and the fluid descends through R till the lower valve is again closed and another jet produced. CHAPTER VII. FOUNTAINS: Variety of their forms, ornaments and accompaniments-Landscape gardeners-Curious fountains from Decaus-Fountains in old Rome-Water issuing from statues-Fountains in PompeiiAutomaton trumpeter-Fountains by John of Bologna and M. Angelo-Old fountains in Nuremberg, Augsburg and Brussels-Shakespeare, Drayton and Spencer quoted-Fountains of Alcinous-The younger Pliny's account of fountains in the gardens of his Tuscan villa-Eating in gardens-Alluded to in Solomon's Song-Cato the Censor-Singular fountains in Italy-Fountains described by Marco Paulo and other old writers-Predilection for artificial trees in fountains-Perfumed and musical fountains-Fountains within public and private buildings-Enormous cost of perfumed waters at Roman feasts-Lucan quoted-Introduction of fountains into modern theatres and churches recommended— Fountains in the apartments of Eastern princes-Water conveyed through pipes by the ancients into fields for the use of their cattle-Three and four-way cocks. ARTIFICIAL fountains and jets d'eau are of extreme antiquity: although they were not (like natural ones) objects of worship among the ancients, they were at least held in great estimation, and unusual care was often taken in designing and decorating them. Indeed no other hydraulic devices have ever been so greatly and so variously enriched with ornament. The pipes of supply were concealed in columns, &c. and their orifices wrought into numerous emblematic figures, (see page 119,) while the basins that received the fluid were generally of polished marble. Sometimes the pipes terminated in statues of men, women, children, animals, birds, fishes, vases, gods, goddesses, &c. From them the fluid spouted high in the air, or was discharged directly into receivers, or broken in its descent by intervening objects: oftentimes it was made to flow over the rim of a vase, to issue from others that seemed to have been accidentally overturned, and not infrequently the figure of a female poured it from a pitcher. From the facility of applying water as a motive agent another feature was added. Various automata were put in motion by mechanism concealed in the base or pedestal from which the fluid issued-figures of men en blew trumpets and played on organs, and automaton birds warbled forth notes on adjacent trees. (Such devices are described by Heron.) All the senses were often gratified at these fountains; the sultry atmosphere was cooled and rendered grateful to the feeling-the sparkling liquid quenched the thirst-sight was gratified in contemplating the design and execution of the whole, and noticing the ever-changing forms assumed by the moving fluid-the pleasure derived from the sound of falling water has ever been noticed by poets-and not to forget the sense of smelling, in those fountains that were designed only to moderate the temperature of the air, the water was often perfumed. Chap. 7.] Fountains in Decaus-others in Rome. 533 The taste of old landscape gardeners for fountains and cascades, serpentine streams, and other "pieces of water-works" although derived from the East, had its origin in nature. "Even as Paradise itself (says Switzer) must have been deemed an immodelled and imperfect plan, had it not been watered by the same Omnicient hand which first made it, so our gardens and fields, the nearest epitomy and resemblance to that happy place which is to be met with here below, cannot be said to be any way perfect, or capable of subsisting without it." These men contemplating the world as a garden endeavored to copy it in miniature. They constructed lawns for deer and reared diminutive forests for game-they formed lakes and stocked them with fish-walks were made on the margin of brooks, torrents fell from artificial mountains, and tiny streams wound their way through labyrinths of reeds and of sedge. Springs were seen bursting out of rocks rudely piled up, as if thrown together by nature, while aquatic birds sported in basins below. But they went further, for ascending jets were thrown up so as to resemble bundles of reeds, others were crested like wheat sheafs, or branched out like trees. Sometimes the streams were directed so as to form avenues and alcoves, as of chrystal, which when the sun shone produced a magical effect. Even hedges and borders of gardens were imitated. "The hedge of water (says Evelyn) in forme of lattice-worke which the fontanier caused to ascend out of the earth by degrees exceedingly pleased and surprised me." Giving the reins still more to their imaginations, these artists were hurried into singular puerilities. They made the fluid to spout from the sides of ships, the mouths of birds, and other incongruous figures. Swarms of heathen deities were also pressed into their service; and not content with a Triton blowing water through his shell, or Neptune pouring it from an urn, figures of the latter were made to rise from the bottom of deep basins, and drawn by spouting dolphins and accompanied with Amphitrite and a legion of sea nymphs, sailed over his fluid domains to allay the tempest that called him up! Old treatises on water-works are full of such things. In "Art and Nature," Neptune is figured "riding on a whale, out of whose nostrils, as also out of Neptune's trident the water may bee made to spin thorow small pin holes." Other devices consisted of "divers forms and shapes of birds, beasts, or fishes; dragons, swans, whales, flowers, and such like pretty conceits, having very small pin holes thorow them for the water to spin out at." The 15th and 16th plates of Decaus' Forcible Movements represent the mechanism of " an engin by which Galatea is drawn upon the water by two dolphins, going in a right line and returning of herself, while a Cyclope plaies upon a flajolet." And the 17th and 18th plates shew Neptune drawn by sea horses, preceded and followed by Tritons, sailing round a rock on which Amphitrite is reposing, and from which water is gushing forth. Fountains for supplying the inhabitants of towns and cities are frequently mentioned in scripture, but it is difficult to discriminate between artificial ones and those that were natural. In the early history of Rome some are mentioned. The news of the victory obtained over the Tarquins and the people of Latium was conveyed in an incredibly short time by two young men, said to have been Castor and Pollux, who were met " at the fountain in the market-place," at which their horses foaming with sweat were drinking. (Plutarch in Paulus Æmilius.) Statues of Jupiter Pluvius, of the Egyptian god Canopus and others, were erected over fountains, the liquid issuing from different and sometimes from all parts of the bodies. On the day Julius Cæsar was assassinated, he was implored by Calphurnia in 534 Ancient and Modern Fountains. [Book V. consequence of a dream, to remain at home instead of meeting the sena tors according to appointment, a circumstance to which Shakespeare thus alludes: Decius. Most mighty Cæsar, let me know some cause, Cæsar. Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home; Pliny (xxxi, 2.) speaks of a fountain from which water ran "at many pipes." From excavations made at Pompeii, it appears that in almost every street there was a fountain, and that bronze statues, through which the water issued were common. Several have been found-four or five are boys of beautiful workmanship; the fluid issued from vases resting on their shoulders or held under their arms, and in some cases from masks. Paintings of elegant fountains, from which the water issued in perpendicular jets from vases, have also been discovered both at Herculaneum and Pompeii. A circumstance mentioned by Suetonius in his Life of Claudius, the successor of Caligula, although not directly related to this part of our subject, shows that Roman engineers were quite at home in devices analogous to those moving and musical statues, which two centuries ago were so common in European fountains. Previous to drawing off the waters of the lake Fucinus, the emperor exhibited a naval conflict, in which 19,000 criminals were engaged against each other in two fleets. An immense multitude of spectators attended. Claudius presided dressed in a coat of mail, and with him was Agrippina in a mantle of cloth of gold. When the two fleets were ready to engage, a Triton of silver rose up in the midst of the lake and sounded the charge. Of modern street fountains many curious ones are to be seen in Italy, France and Germany, while descriptions of others, no longer extant, may be found in Misson, Blainville, and other writers of the last century. Thirty folding plates, representing some of the most remarkable, are attached to Switzer's Hydrostatics. A colossal statue of Jupiter Pluvius, in a singular stooping position, was designed for a fountain at Tratolino, by John of Bologna. The extremities are of stone, but the trunk is formed of bricks overlaid with cement that has acquired the hardness of marble. A number of apartments are constructed within it-one in the head is lighted through the eye-balls, which serve as windows. To add to the extraordinary effect, a kind of crown is formed by little jetteux that drop on the shoulders and trickle down the figure, shedding a sort of supernatural lustre when irradiated by the sun. One hand of the figure rests on the rock as if to support itself, while the other is placed on the head of a lion, from the mouth of which the principal stream issues. A fountain designed by Michael Angelo is described by Sir Henry Wotton as 'a matchless pattern,' being 'the figure of a sturdy woman, washing and winding linen clothes; in which act she wrings out the water that made the fountain, which was a graceful and natural conceit in the artificer, implying this rule that all designs of this kind should be proper.' Of remarkable fountains at Nuremberg, Blainville has noticed several. Of one he observes, " Its basin is an octagon in the middle of which stands a large brass pillar; from its chapiters project six muzzles of lions, each of which spurts water into the air out of a twisted pipe. On the cornish are the six cardinal virtues, which squirt water from their breasts. On this |