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 32 



\VHEEI WHEEL-WORK. 



millwright, the son of the well known inventor of 

 the thrashing-machine. Mr Meikle gave a model 

 of a wheel of his own and his father's invention, of 

 an entirely new construction. This wheel is so 

 exceedingly simple, and acts in a manner so etfsy, 

 natural, and uniform, tluit a common observer is 

 apt to undervalue the invention ; hut persons skilled 

 in mechanics view nmrliinrry with a very different 

 eye, for to them simplicity is the first recommenda- 

 tion a machine can possets. Accordingly, upon see- 

 ing the model set to work, Mr Whitworth.with that 

 candour and liberality of mind which generally ac- 

 company genius and knowledge, not only gave it 

 the greatest praise, but declared that, for the pur- 

 pose required, it was superior to what had been re- 

 commended by himself, and advised it to be adopted 

 without hesitation. 



The water-wheel at Blair-Drummond is twenty- 

 eight feet in diameter and ten feet broad. It is 

 driven by water operating on the float-boards, in 

 the same way as an ordinary mill- water. At the 

 extremities of the radii, or arms, of the wheel, im- 

 mediately within the float-boards and circumference, 

 is fixed a double row of buckets, as they have been 

 called, borrowing a word from the Persian wheel, 

 to which the part of the present machine has no re- 

 semblance, which are more like a section of Louvre 

 boards, or Venetian blinds, or a set of scales, open- 

 ing upwards when at the bottom of the circumfer- 

 ence, and downwards when at the top. These re- 

 ceive two streams of water, which are poured into 

 them within the circumference, when below, which 

 water they discharge when they ascend, and are 

 inverted by the revolution of the wheel into a 

 trough or cistern so placed as to receive it above. 

 By this means a level is gained of seventeen feet, 

 which is sufficient to make the water run to the 

 surface of the moss. The water is conveyed' from 

 the cistern of the wheel to the moss for 354 yards 

 below ground, in wooden pipes hooped with iron, 

 eighteen inches in diameter within ; and afterwards 

 rises from the pipes into an open aqueduct above 

 1400 yards in length, and elevated from eight to 

 ten feet above the level of the adjacent grounds. 



The wheel makes nearly four revolutions in a 

 minute, in which time it discharges into the cistern 

 forty hogsheads of water, and it is capable of lifting 

 no less than sixty hogsheads in a minute ; but the 

 pipes will not admit such a quantity of water, nor 

 would it be safe or expedient to drive the machine 

 with a force sufficient to raise so great a quantity. 

 It is probable that the first idea of this machine 

 was derived from the Persian wheel ; but its supe- 

 riority in many respects is so conspicuous as to en- 

 title it to little less praise than the first invention. 

 The wheel was completed and at work in October, 

 1782, and the total expense exceeded 1000. It 

 has been twice rebuilt. The tenants voluntarily 

 agreed to pay interest on whatever sum it might 

 cost ; but their generous landlord relieved them at 

 once from their engagement. 



The details of the Blair-Drummond wheel are 

 thus given in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. xviii. A 

 is a sluice through which is admitted the water that 

 moves the wheel ; B. two sluices through which is 

 admitted the water raised by the wheel , C, a part 

 of one of two wooden troughs and an aperture in 

 the wall, through which the above water is con- 

 veyed into the buckets ; the other trough is hid by 

 two stone walls that support the wheel ; DD, buc- 

 kets, of- which eighty are arranged on each side of 

 the arms of the wheel, in all 160; EE, a cistern", 



into which the water raised by the bucket* is dis. 

 charged ; F, wooden barrel pipes, through which 



the water descends from flic cistern under ground. 

 The cistern of the Bhiir-Drummond wheel, at 



seen from above, shows the two troughs into which 

 the buckets empty themselves g g; the space 

 through which the water flows to the barrel pipes 

 / ; the place where the arms of the wheel move f, 

 and where the float hoards and buckets descend It. 



The buckets are filled from two side troughs /, 

 which communicate with the head of water which 

 drives the wheel, as seen at E in the first figure. 



WHEEL AND AXLE. See Mechanics. 



WHEEL-WORK. When an end to be ac- 

 complished, in mechanics, cannot be attained with 

 convenience by the simple wheel and axle (see 

 Mechanics), it frequently becomes necessary to trans- 

 mit the effect of the power to the resistance, through 

 a system of wheels and axles acting upon each other. 

 As the wheel and axle is only a modification of the 

 lever, so a system of such machines, acting one upon 

 another, is only another form of the compound lever. 

 In complex wheel-work, the power is applied to 

 the circumference of the first wheel, which trans- 

 mits its effect to the circumference of the second 

 wheel, which again transfers the effect to the cir- 

 cumference of the second axle, which acts upon the 

 circumference of the third wheel, and this, in the 

 same way, transmits the effect to the circumference 

 of the third axle, and thus the transmission of the 

 force is continued until it has arrived at the ciroum- 



