of these pumps was to raise 250,000 gallons in a minute, and 

 to discliarge the contents only ten times in a minute. The 

 waste of material and power struck him as excessive, and on 

 the spur of the moment he declared that, with the fan working 

 in Mr. Sim's neighbouring foundry at Eedruth, he would under- 

 take to pump up more water than could be done by all that 

 immense apparatus in preparation. His friends disputed the 

 possibility of its being so applied. He thought over it, and 

 convinced himself that it could be done. He explained his 

 views to some of his engineering friends. They disputed them, 

 and would not be convinced. Stimulated by this opposition 

 and incredulity, he completed his plans, read a paper on the 

 subject at the meeting of the British Association in Birmingham, 

 and exhibited his pump in operation at the Exhibition in 1851. 

 Had Mr. Appold chosen to patent his discovery he might have 

 realised a large fortune from it, but, with characteristic liberality, 

 he presented it to the nation. The beauty and simphcity, power 

 and economy, of the contrivance have carried all before it, and 

 pumps on this principle are now gradually spreading over the 

 whole world.* 



* Mr. Appold's mechanical genius applies itself with equal success to the most 

 trifling household contrivance as to the most important plans of engineering. 

 The Society profited from this in a trifle — which, however, may be repeated, in 

 illustration of the readiness and fertility of his resources. On one occasion when 

 he visited the Garden, one of the large panes of plate-glass in the heavy front 

 doors at the entrance had just been broken. The day had been stormy, and 

 the wind catching one of the doors, which had been left open by a visitor, 

 slammed it to with such violence that the glass-pane was shattered in pieces. 

 The same misfortune had happened before, and the precautions taken to 

 prevent its recurrence having proved insufficient, Mr. Appold found the officers 

 l>U2zling over the problem of how to prevent an open door slamming-to. He at 

 once .solved the problem for them. A bellows, inside a box, was placed over 



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