WATER. 



which deduft half the thicknefs of the rope, and it leaves 

 the proper radius for the roller or windlafs. A rope of the 

 proper fize for this purpofe will be about two inches and 

 a half in circumference, or rather more than three-quarters 

 of an inch in diameter ; hence the diameter of the barrel 

 will be l6|. If a fly-wheel is applied to the axis, it will 

 be an advantage to equalize the force which the man ap- 

 plies, becaufe fome pofitions of a crank or handle are lefs 

 favourable than others for the exertion of a man's ftrength. 

 It is moll advantageous to employ two buckets, and as the 

 rope for one unwinds whilll the other winds up, the weight 

 of the two buckets balance each other, and the man has only 

 the weight of the water to draw up. 



Bttgket-Machines for deep Wells. — When a machine to 

 draw water by buckets is made on a larger fcale, the windlafs 

 is placed perpendicularly, and levers applied to it at the lower 

 end, which may be aftuated either by men, or by horfes 

 walking round in a circle on the ground, and drawing or 

 pufhing the end of the lever ; in this way a powerful ma- 

 chine may be made, and if the depth is very confiderable, it 

 is a very good method. Many methods have been propofed 

 to make the buckets fill themfelves when at the bottom of 

 the well, and empty when at the top : the beft is to fufpend 

 the bucket in an iron loop or bow, like the handle of a pail, 

 but this (hould be made fo long, that the pins on which the 

 calk or bucket hangs, ftiall be but little above the centre of 

 gravity of the bucket when loaded with water ; in confe- 

 quence, when the bucket is drawn up to the top, one edge 

 of it is caught by a hook fixed on the edge of the ciftern 

 into which the water is to be delivered, and the bucket ftill 

 continuing to be drawn up whilft the hook detains one edge, 

 the bucket is thereby overturned, and its contents difcharged 

 into the refervoir. It is requifite for this plan, that the 

 bucket be made, by fome contrivance, to prefent itfelf 

 always in the fame direftion to the hook, fo that it will be 

 feized and overturned thereby : one method is to fix upright 

 pieces of wood or iron in the well on each fide of the bucket, 

 and the pivots on which the bucket is poifed projedl on 

 each fide beyond the iron loop on which the bucket hangs, 

 and enter into grooves formed in thefe pieces, fo as to be 

 guided in the afcent and defcent of the bucket. Another 

 method is to make the rope of the bucket double for fome 

 feet immediately above the bucket, that is, the rope divides 

 into two ends, each of which is made fall to the oppofite 

 fide of the iron loop in which the bucket is fufpended : the 

 rope is made to pafs through a narrow opening in a piece of 

 plank, which will admit the double rope to pafs freely, pro- 

 vided the bucket comes up in the required pofition ; but if 

 it does not, then the forked rope will be afted upon by the 

 fides of this narrow opening in fuch manner, as to turn the 

 bucket round to the required pofition. 



To make the bucket fill readily at the bottom of the well, 

 a fimple valve is made in the bottom, which opens upwards 

 and admits the water, but fhuts when the bucket is drawn 

 up out of the water. In the Tranfaftions of the Society of 

 Arts, vol. xii. is a defcription of a machine by Mr. Ruffe), 

 in which the bucket, when it is drawn up to the top of the 

 vrell, afts upon a lever, and caufes a moveable trough to run 

 acrofs the well beneath the bucket ; and then as the bucket 

 rifes higher, a trigger, which belongs to the valve in the 

 bottom of the bucket, is intercepted by a fixed piece of 

 wood, fo as to open the valve, and the water runs out of the 

 bucket into the moveable trough which conveys it into the 

 refervoir : when the bucket begins to defcend, it allows the 

 levers to return, and the moveable trough retreats from 

 beneath the bucket, and allows it to defcend again into the 

 well to bring up a frefli charge. The moveable trough is made 



10 



to run backwards or forwards over the mouth of the well, 

 by means of wheels or rollers, on which it is fupported, and 

 thefe wheels run upon pieces of wood laid acrofs the well. 



Indian Method of drawing Water by a leathern Bucket. — 

 Dr. Roxburgh of Calcutta has given us a defcription of a 

 method of raifing a large quantity of water from a deep 

 well by means of one or two buffaloes or bullocks, which 

 is in common ufe in many parts of Hindooftan, where the 

 wells are too deep for the lever. A pulley is erefted over 

 the well to receive a rope, which the animals draw by vralk- 

 ing along an horizontal path in order to elevate a large 

 bucket, and they return towards the well to lower it down : 

 the bucket is made of leather, like a long funnel, extended 

 at the top or mouth by a fquare frame of wood, or by a 

 hoop, and the lower end terminates in a fmall open tube, 

 which is flexible, and can be turned up ; in which cafe, if the 

 orifice of the tube is kept as high or higher than the mouth 

 of the bucket, no water can efcape through the tube, it is 

 in this condition that the bucket is drawn up full of water : 

 the end of the tube has a cord fattened to it, which is con- 

 dufted over a roller fixed on the edge of the trough into 

 which it is defirej to deliver the water, and which trough 

 muft be at leafl the length of the bucket beneath the great 

 pulley that is fixed over the well. The oppofite end of the 

 cord is tied to the great rope near the point where the 

 buffaloes draw, and the cord is of fuch length as to hold 

 the orifice of the tube rather above the mouth of the 

 bucket, until the tube is drawn up to the roller. When the 

 cord draws the tube over the roller, and leads its end into 

 the trough as the bucket continues to be drawn up, it is 

 raifed above the level of the trough, by which means the 

 whole of the water will make its efcape through the orifice 

 of the tube into the trough : when the bucket is let down 

 again, the flexible tube returns over the roller, and the cord 

 holds up its orifice above the top of the bucket. 



Defaguliers, in the fecond volume of Experimental 

 Philofophy, defcribes a very fimple contrivance to raife 

 water by a bucket ; which is this, to one end of a rope is 

 fixed a large bucket, having a valve in its bottom opening 

 upwards ; to the other end of the fame rope is faflened a 

 fquare board, fomething like the fcale-board of a balance, 

 but large enough for a man to Hand upright in it ; the cord 

 is made to pafs over two pulleys, each of about fifteen inches 

 diameter, and fixed in fuch manner, that as the bucket 

 defcends, the fcale afcends with equal velocity, and wee 

 •verfd. The fcale is made to run freely between four ver- 

 tical guide rods, pafTmg through holes at its four corners, 

 and when the bucket is lowered down into the lower water- 

 ciftern in order to fill with water, the fcale flands nearly 

 level with the horizontal plane of the upper refervoir to 

 which the water is to be raifed. When the bucket is full, 

 a man fteps into the fcale, and his weight, together with 

 that of the frame, exceeding the weight of the veffel and its 

 contained water, will give an afcending motion to the 

 bucket, and caufes the valve in its bottom to clofe. When 

 the bucket is raifed to the proper height, a hook which is 

 fixed at the edge of the upper refervoir catches into a hafp 

 at the fide of the bucket, and turns it over, to caufe it to 

 empty its water into the upper ciflern, or into a trough, 

 which conveys it where it is required : at this time the man 

 and the fcale have arrived at a platform, which prevents 

 their further defcent, and the man muft remain in the fcale 

 till he finds the bucket above is empty, when he fteps from 

 the fcale, and runs up a flight of flairs to the place from 

 which he defcended : the bucket in the mean while, being 

 fomevuhat heavier than the fcale, defcends again to the water, 

 and raifes the frame to its original pofition ; thus tlie work 



is 



