PARADOXES OF NATURE 

 AND SCIENCE ^ 



a SJIffi | r PART L ' Y',,-".J *J If 



MECHANICAL PARADOXES. 



I. 



CARRIAGES AND OTHER MEANS OF TRANSPORT. 



i. A Carriage which on Level Ground is more 



easily drawn Loaded than Empty. 



WHEN travellers, returning from Japan, tell 

 us that the jinrikisha man will draw a passenger, 

 in his little carriage (see Plate I.), for a dis- 

 tance of forty miles or more in a day's journey, 

 the statement is now easy to accept, in view 

 of all we have lately learnt of the wonderful 

 endurance of the Japanese. When we are 

 told, further, that the jinrikisha man, even 

 if he were to earn nothing extra for the extra 

 work, would rather convey his passenger back 

 again than draw the carriage home empty, we 

 begin to suspect that we are listening to a 

 traveller's tale. 



The statement, however, is justified by 

 the mechanical facts. It is easier, on a level 



