446 ADDENDA. 



ther to supply this lower level, in dry seasons, they have an engine 

 at Broadwaters, near Wednesbury, to raise the subterraneous water 

 of Wednesbury field into their lower leveL, 



The whole of this hydraulic machinery has, we suppose, cost 

 50,000. and probably pays 20 per cent, per annum, by enabling 

 the canal proprietors to do as. much extra business as will return 

 .flO^OO. per annum in tonnage. 



At the same place they have also some other curious powerful 

 machinery ; as 1st, "the Neptune and Vulcan," a floating engine, 

 which will pass through the locks to any part of the canal, and by 

 making a stark or bar of pile plank, connected with the engine 

 across the canal, will pump a mile, or any moderate length, of the 

 canal water in a few hours over the said bar, by which means any 

 foul part of the canal may be laid dry and cleansed out, and the 

 water restored without loss after the operation. The water is here 

 raised by paddles fixed in an horizontal shaft, working in a seg- 

 ment of an horizontal hollow cylinder, the paddles in successive 

 circular motion, scooping or lifting the water over the bar, and 

 raising it no more than is just necessary for its flowing off; by 

 which means no waste or loss of power is sustained, the surface 

 water requiring to be raised only a few inches, and that from the 

 bottom only the depth of the canal. The motion is effected by a 

 steam engine, and the machine requires no more attendance than a 

 canal boat, and is capable of raising the greatest quantity of water 

 to a small lift, of any machine ever constructed. 



2d, The Mud Chain Pump, a floating machine fixed to a canal 

 boat or barge, for cleansing the bottoms of canals or rivers, without 

 drawing off the water at all. A number of semicircular iron 

 buckets or scrapers, are fixed to a flattened iron chain, the chain 

 being circular or endless, and drawn round iron rollers at either 

 end, one end being higher and the other lower ; a circular motion 

 is impelled by a steam engine, and the scrapers in rotation, drawn 

 or forced along the canal bottom, fill their bucket ends at one 

 scoop ; circular holes in these buckets discharge the water, and 

 at the upper roller they are inverted, and discharge their contents 

 in rotation into the boat. The whole machine may be moored or 

 moved at pleasure, and is said to be capable of cleansing out 20 

 tons of mud in less than an hour, with the assistance of two or 

 three men : the machine is then floated to any convenient place to 

 discharge its contents. 



