Mechanical Philosophy. 4'S 



!itEn, and Burns, of Great-Britain. To attempt an 

 ennmeration in detail of all the inventions, disco- 

 veries, and useful suggestions produced by these 

 several philosophers and artists, would swell this 

 account beyond all bounds. It is sufficient to say, 

 that although that part of the science ofhydrauhcs 

 which relates to mills, did not arrive at absolute 

 certainty and perfection in their hands; yet they 

 made so many successive additions to the know- 

 ledge of preceding theorists, that to each large 

 acknov/ledgments are due from the friends of 

 human improvement. Nor ought the still later 

 inquiries of our countrymen, Mr. Waring, on the 

 same subject, to be forgotten. His memoir on 

 the viaximum velocity of a wheel or other body, 

 moved by a given quantity of fluid, may be re- 

 garded as a singular monument of accurate and 

 successful investigation.^ The theory of mills y 

 which he deduces from his experiments and calcu- 

 lations, is said to correspond with fact, to a de- 

 gree greatly beyond all other attempts.'^ 



The various improvements which the last cen- 

 tury produced in the construction ot pumps, are 

 also worthy of notice. Since the doctrine of the 

 pressure of the atmosphere has been reduced to a 

 regular system, and the general laws of moving 

 fluids have been better understood, several advant- 

 ages in the formation and management of this 

 class of engines naturally followed. Those who 

 most distinguished themselves during the century, 

 by inventions, or laborious investigations, on this 

 subject, are Messrs. Hadley, Desaguliers, Ras- 

 kins, and Beighton, of Great-Britain, Messrs, J. 

 and D. Bernoulli, and Wirtz, of Switzerland, 



g See Trans. Amer. Philos. Society, vol. iii, 



h Mr. Waring was an obscure character, a native and resident of Phi- 

 Udelphia. He belonged to the Society of Friends, and taught a school in 

 that city. Though little knovi^n, he was a real philosopher. He died of 

 ^Jie pestilence which raged in that city in 1793. 



