THROUGH SWEDEN. 
J 33 
juftice are now held, near the church of Riderfholm, a cabinet of 
models, or repofitory of machines, the moft complete colle&ion 
of the kind that I have ever feen or heard of. The models re¬ 
late: either to new inventions, or to improvements in machinery; 
they are kept in a fpacious room, and arranged in a very proper 
and elegant manner. Among the models for rural oeconomy you 
obferve different kinds of mills, inftruments for fowing grain, for 
fhearing or cutting, and gathering the crop, and alfo for threfhing 
it; hydraulic machines, ftoves ufed in the mines, and pumps, 
with their apparatus and mode of working them. It may feem 
fcarcely credible, even almoft miraculous, yet it is neverthelefs 
true, that the Swedes have invented a mechanical overfeer, one 
who performs more faithfully, diligently, indefatigably, accurately, 
and more equitably to both parties, the employers and employed, 
the duties of fuperintendant of workmen. A confiderable part 
of the labour in the mines confifts in working the pumps, there¬ 
fore a clock has been invented for marking the number of ftrokes 
given by the pumpers ; hence the precife proportion of work they 
have performed is eafily afcertained. Here too are models of 
light-houfes, and various methods of making fignals to navigators ; 
a chair in which a perfon may conveniently move himfelf from 
one place to another; an inftrument which fhews the line of di¬ 
rection taken by a ball when difcharged from a cannon or mortar: 
but it would be endlefs to enumerate all the ingenious contrivances 
that may be furveyed in this curious depofitory. They are many 
of them the w T orks of the celebrated engineer and mechanic Pol<- 
theim. 
