Chap. 12.]

Dutch Scoop.

93

the gutters are secured to a frame of wood which is suspended on a pin secured to a beam, so that by pulling the cords alternately the whole may be made to oscillate like a pendulum. Thus, when pulled to one side, one of the lowest gutters dips into water, and scoops up a portion of it, to facilitate which the end is curved; and as it rises, the liquid runs along to the farther end, and passing through the valve is retained till the motion is reversed, when it flows down to the next gutter, and passing through its valve, is again continued in the same manner to the next; entering at every oscillation the gutter above, till it reaches the highest; and from which it is discharged into a reservoir, over which the last one is made to project. A double set of gutters, as shown in the figure, was sometimes attached to the same frame, so that a continuous stream could be discharged into the reservoir. Machines like the above are more ingenious than useful. They do not appear to have ever been extensively used, although they are to be found in the works of several old writers on hydraulics. The one represented by the figure is described by Belidor as the invention of M. Morel, who raised water by it 15 or 16 feet. Similar machines were known in the preceding century. A pendulum for raising water is described at page 95, of the first volume of machines approved by the French Academy, and at page 205, is a "hydraulic machine" by A. De Courdemoy, similar to the one we have copied; except that square tubes were used instead of open gutters; they were also of equal length, and attached to a rectangular frame, but were suspended and worked in the same manner as No. 33.

A different mode of working these machines, was devised by an English engineer. Instead of suspending the frame like a pendulum, he made the lower part terminate in rockers like those of a cradle; these resting on a smooth horizontal plane, a slight impulse put the whole in motion. The lowest gutters at each oscillation dipped into the water, and raised a portion, as in the preceding figure.

No. 34. Dutch Scoop.

Among other simple devices, is the Dutch scoop, frequently used by that people in raising water over low dykes. It is a kind of box-shovel

94

The Swape.

[Book I. suspended by cords from a triangular frame, and worked as represented in the figure. By a sweeping movement, an expert laborer will throw up at each stroke, a quantity of water equal to the capacity of the shovel, although from its form, such a quantity could not be retained in it.

The Flash Wheel, is another contrivance to raise large quantities of water over moderate heights, being extensively used in draining wet lands, particularly the fens of England. It is made just like the wheel of a steamboat, and when put in rapid motion, generally by a windmill, it pushes the water up an inclined shute, which is so curved, that the paddles may sweep close to it, and consequently drive the liquid before them. The 'back water' thrown up by the paddle wheels of steam vessels is raised in a somewhat similar manner.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SWAPE: Used in modern and ancient Egypt-Represented in sculptures at Thebes-Alluded to by Herodotus and Marcellus-Described by Pliny-Picotah of India; agility of the Hindoos in working it. Chinese Swape-Similar to the machines employed in erecting the pyramids-The Swape, seen in Paradise by Mahomet-Figure of one near the city of Magnesia-Anglo Saxon Swape-Formerly used in English manufactories-Figures from the Nuremburgh Chronicle, Munster's Cosmography, and Besson's Theatre des Instrumens. The Swape common in North and South America-Examples of its use in watering gardens-Figures of it, the oldest representations of any hydraulic machine-Mechanical speculations of Ecclesiastics: Wilkins' projects for aerial navigation-Mechanical and theological pursuits combined in the middle ages-Gerbert-Dunstan-Bishops famous as Castle architects-AndroidesRoode of grace-Shrine of Becket-Speaking images-Chemical deceptions-Illuminated manuscripts.

Or machines for raising water, the Swape has been more extensively used in all ages, and by all nations, than any other. Like most implements for the same purpose, its application is confined within certain limits; but these are such as to render it of general utility. The méntal or swinging basket, and the jantu, raise the liquid from two to three feet only at a lift, while the swape elevates it from five to fifteen, and in some cases still higher. It is not, however, well adapted for greater elevations; a circumstance which accounts for its not having been much used in the wells of ancient cities-their depth rendered it inapplicable, as the generality of ours do at this day. In Egypt, this machine is named the Shadoof, and in no country has it been more extensively employed. In modern days, more persons are there engaged in raising water by it and the méntal, than are to be found in any other class of Egyptian laborers. They raise the liquid at each lift about seven feet, and where it is required higher, series of swapes are placed at proper distances above each other, in a similar manner as the Hindoos arrange the jantu, and as shown in the figure, (No. 35.) The lowermost laborer empties his vessel into a cavity or basin formed in the rock, or in soil rendered impervious to water, three or four feet above him, and into which the next one plunges his bucket, who raises it into another, and so on till it reaches the required elevation. M. Jomard, says it is not uncommon to see from thirty to fifty shadoofs at one place, raising water one above another. At Esne, he saw twenty-seven Arabs on one tier of stages, working fourteen

a Grande Description. E. M. Tom. ii. Memoirs, Part 2, p. 780.

Chap. 13.]

Ancient Egyptian Swape.

95

double swapes, i. e. two on each frame, the bucket of one descending as the other rises. They were relieved every hour, so that fifty-four men were required to keep the machines constantly in motion. The overseer or task-master measured the time by the sun, and sometimes by a simple clepsydra or water-clock.

It is impossible to pass up the Nile in certain states of the river, without being surprised at the myriads of these levers, and at their unceasing movements; for by relays of men, they are often worked without intermission, both night and day. In Upper Egypt especially, where from the elevation of the banks they are more necessary, and of course more numerous, the spectacle is animating in a high degree, and cannot but recall to reflecting minds similar scenes in the very same places in past ages, when the population was greatly more dense than at present, and the country furnished grain for surrounding nations. In some parts, the banks appear alive with men raising water by swapes and the effect is rendered still more impressive by the songs and measured chantings of the laborers, and the incessant groans and creakings of the machines themselves. To the ancient custom of singing while raising water, there is an evident allusion in Isaiah, xii, 3: Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

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The Arabs have a tradition that the shadoof was used in the times of the Pharaohs, and a proof that such was the fact, has recently been furnished by Mr. Wilkinson, (Vol. ii, 5,) who found the remains of one in an ancient tomb at Thebes; in addition to which they are represented in sculptures which date from 1532 to 1550 B. C. a period extending beyond the Exodus. No. 36 represents it as used at that remote period for the irrigation of land.

No.36. An Egyptian in the time of Moses raising water by the swape. From sculptures at Thebes.

96

96

Swape used by the Romans.

[Book I.

It appears to have formed one of a series, designed to raise water over the elevation feebly portrayed in the back ground, in precisely the same way that is now common in Egypt and in the east, and as shown in No. 35. The remark of a traveler that a Chinese seemed to him an antediluvian renewed," might with equal propriety, be applied to a modern Arab raising water by this implement from the Nile; and the figure, No. 36, might be taken as a probably correct representation of an antediluvian laborer engaged in the same employment. On comparing the last two cuts, the former having been sketched by Mr. Wilkinson, from life, but three years ago; and the latter copied from sculptures that have been executed upwards of three thousand years, we see at once, that the swape has undergone as little change in Egypt, since the times of the Pharaohs, as the costume, if such it may be called, of the laborers themselves; in other words both remain the same. The discovery of this implement among the sculptures of ancient Egypt tends to corroborate our views respecting the antiquity of other machines for the same purpose, and which like it are still in common use in the east. It also admonishes us not to reject as improbable or fabulous, current oriental traditions; since they are, as in the case of this machine, often, if not generally, founded in truth.

The swape seems to be alluded to by Herodotus, vi, 119, as used in Persia in his time. He observes that Darius, the father of Xerxes, sent some captives to a certain distance from Susa, and forty furlongs from a well, the contents of which were "drawn up with an engine, to which a kind of bucket is suspended, made of half a skin; it is then poured into one cistern and afterwards removed into a second." This appears to have been the shadoof of the Egyptians, as figured in No. 35, to which there is probably a reference also in Clio, 193, where he says the Assyrians irrigated their lands from the Euphrates "by manual labor and by hydraulic engines." Aristotle mentions the swape as in common use among the Greeks. Dr. Clarke says some of the wells of Greece were not deep, and pulleys were not used, only buckets with ropes of twisted herbs, and sometimes the water was raised by a 'huge lever, great stones being a counterpoise to the other end.' A circumstance connected with the overthrow of the Syracusans, and the death of Archimedes, in which the swape is referred to, may here be noticed. When the Roman vessels, at the siege of Syracuse were grappled by hooks and elevated in the air, by levers that projected over the walls of the city, their resemblance to vessels of water raised by the swape, was so striking, that Marcellus was wont to say, "Archimedes used his ships to draw water with." This remark of the Roman general clearly shows that the swape was very familiar to him and to his countrymen. But we are not left to circumstances like this to infer its use among the Romans. Pliny expressly mentions it among machines for raising water. As the passage is highly interesting, and as we shall have occasion to refer to it hereafter, it may as well be inserted here. It is in the fourth Chapter of the Nineteenth Book, "On Gardens:" "above all things there should be water at command, (if possible a river or brook running through it, but if neither can be obtained,) then they are to be watered with pit water, fed with springs; either drawn up by plain poles, hooks, and buckets; or forced by pumps and such like, going with the strength of wind enclosed, or else weighed up with swipes and cranes." Holland's Trans. "The peasants,

The Swape is extensively used over all Hindostan.

morning and evening draw water out of wells by buffaloes or oxen, or

Bishop Wilkins on the lever. Plutarch's life of Marcellus, Wrangham's notes.

Chap. 13.]

The Picotah.

97

else by a thwart post, poised with a sufficient weight at the extremity laid over one fixed in the earth; the water is drawn by a bucket of goat's skin."a In some districts, the Hindoos have a mode of working the Swape, which, so far as we know, is peculiar to themselves. In Patna it is common, and the machine when thus propelled, is named the Picotah.

the

"Near the well or tank, a piece of wood is fixed, forked at the top; in this fork another piece of wood is fixed to form a swape, which is formed by a peg, and steps cut out at the bottom, that who works the maperson chine may easily get up and down. Commonly, the lower part of the swape is the trunk of a tree; to the upper end is fixed a pole, at the end of which hangs a leather bucket. A man gets up the steps to the top of the swape, and supports himself by a bamboo screen erected by the sides of the machine." He plunges the bucket into the water, and draws it up by his weight; while another person stands ready to empty it. In the volume of plates to the Paris edition, 1806, of Sonnerat's Voyages, the machine is represented rather different from the above. The laborer alternately steps on and off the swape, from a ladder or stage of bamboos erected on one side of it See plate 23, Sonnerat.

The apparatus and mode of working it, is more fully described in the following extract from 'Shoberl's Hindostan in Miniature.' "By the side of the well a forked piece of wood, or even a stone, eight or ten feet high is fixed upright. In the fork, is fastened by means of a peg, a beam three times as long, which gradually tapers, and is furnished with steps like those of a ladder. To the extremity of this long beam, which is capable of moving up and down, is attached a pole, to the end of which is suspended a large leather bucket. The other end being the heaviest, when the machine is left to itself, the bucket hangs in the air at the height of twenty feet; but to make it descend, one man, and sometimes two, mount to the middle of the beam, and as they approach the bucket, it sinks to the bottom of the well, and fills itself with water. The men then move back to the opposite end, the bucket is raised, and another man empties it into a basin. This operation is performed with such celerity that the water never ceases running, and you can scarcely see the man moving along his beam; yet he is sometimes at the height of twenty feet, at others, touching the ground; and such is his confidence, that he laughs, sings, smokes, and eats in this apparently ticklish situation." Vol. iv, p. 22, 24. This mode of applying human effort, was early adopted in the working of pumps-a piston rod being attached to each end of the vibrating beam. Dr. Lardner, has inserted a figure of it in his popular

Fryer's Travels in India, 187.