354 '^^ ^ff*'^^ of water on machinery i^ Oct. Vj, 



powers that are familiar to him to other purposes 

 than those to which he has seen them applied. In 

 proof of this, I have only to observe, that the follow- 

 ing contrivance for raising a great weight, by means 

 of a very small current of water, has been known to 

 every student of physics for more th^n a century 

 past, and has never, that I have heard of, Jjeea once 

 employed for the purpose of turning machinery, or 

 mill work of any kind ; though it is perfectly well 

 calculated to obviate all the difficulties above stated, 

 and to give to -w^tex, falling frsm a great height, all 

 the effect of which it is susceptible as a moving 

 power. 



Let asmall wheel A, fig. 2. be fixed so as to turn up- 

 on a pivot at the height of the fall of water D, C ; and 

 another wheel, exactly similar to it B, at the level of 

 the bottom, from whence the water has a free exit ; 

 and let an endlefs chain be pafsed over these two 

 wheels, to which is fixed a number of buckets in the 

 position indicated in the figure. In this way no limits 

 can be set to the length of the chain. Let the fall be fiftj 

 feet or a hundred, or five hundred feet if you will, there 

 is nothing impofsible in thus connecting the whole, 

 and of thus deriving the full benefit of the entire weight 

 of the whole water, without any diminution : for not 

 one drop of water can be spilled in descending from 

 the highest to the lowest part of the apparatus. 



Let us, for the sake of illustration, suppose, tiiat a 

 stream of water could be commanded, so small as 

 that it ran only a pound weight in a second of time, 

 having a fall of fifty feet, and that the whole of this 

 water was received into the bucket at the top, so as^ 

 by its gravity, to produce a rotatory motion of such 



