25^ the effect cf water on machinery. 0£t. 17. 



sing the length of the lever P B to be four, and the 

 distance P/( o«f, the power of one pound weight, ap- 

 pended at B, will be as four, while that at a or 5 will 

 be only as one; so that one pound at B has an equal 

 force as four at a or t. By a similar mode of in- 

 vestigation, we ftiould find that the weights went on 

 in the same rate, from nothing at A or C, to six- 

 teen at B ; or, in other words, the aggregate po- 

 wer of the whole weights, if thus aj pended, would be 

 only one fourth part nearly, of what that whole ag- 

 gregate weight would be, if it could all be applied at 

 the point B only, and to no other part of the wheel. 



By this mode of reasoning we are led to perceive, that 

 if, instead of making the water fall down an inclined 

 plain, E B, as it is usual to make it act by its impetus^ 

 we fhouldlead it forward in the direction E A, till it 

 came to a, where it was emptied into a bucket, in or- 

 der to make the water act only by its dead weight, we 

 fhould still lose, in this way, a considerable part of the 

 pofsible power of the water, even if the buckets fhould 

 be so contrived as to lose none of it in the course of its 

 descent ; a circumstance that can never be obviated 

 where^ar^f/ buckets, of any construction, are employ- 

 ed upon a wheel of large diameter. This is so obvi- 

 ous as to require no illustration. Therefore, where 

 buckets are fixed upon the wheel, the difference of 

 power between buckets appended !at equal distances 

 from each other on the wheel, or of one bucket con- 

 stantly acting at C, equal in weight to the whole, be- 

 comes much greater than the proportion here afsign- 

 ed. 



