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The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

Chapter 43: 39. Wine flowing from a Vessel may be arrested on the Introduction of Water, but, when the Supply of Water ceases, the Wine flows again.
By of Alexandria Hero
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About This Book

A systematic practical handbook of machines and demonstrations that uses air, steam, heat, and water to produce mechanical effects. The text gives clear descriptions, construction details, and diagrams for siphons, valves, pumps, fountains, jets, self‑acting mechanisms, and ritual or theatrical contrivances driven by pressure and temperature changes. Explanations focus on the mechanical principles behind pneumatic and hydraulic behaviors and on ways to control flow and timing, with numbered propositions that pair instructional steps with illustrative figures for building and operating each apparatus.

39. Wine flowing from a Vessel may be arrested on the Introduction of Water, but, when the Supply of Water ceases, the Wine flows again.

If there be a vessel containing wine, and provided with three spouts, wine shall flow through the middle of the three; and, when water is poured in, the stream of wine shall cease, and water shall flow through the other two; again, when the stream of water ceases, wine shall flow through the middle spout: and this shall take place as often as we pour in water. Let A B (fig. 39), be a vessel, the neck of which is closed by the partition C D, and having a spout, E, at the bottom. Let two tubes, F G H, K L M, terminating in spouts, pass through the partition and project above it; and round the projecting parts place other tubes, N, X, covered with lids at the top and extending to the partition except a passage for the water. Another tube, P, reaching nearly up to the partition, communicates with F G H. Having first closed the spout E, fill the vessel A B with wine through an orifice, Q, which must be carefully closed afterwards. When E is set free it will be found that wine flows through it, for air enters from without into the void created, through the orifice H and the tube P. Now, if we pour water upon the partition C D, it will be carried out through the tubes F G H, K L M; but, as the air has no means of entering the vessel A B, the wine will cease to flow until all the water has escaped, when the air finds an entrance again and the wine flows. Instead of the tube P, another tube, R S, may be used, piercing through the partition, about which another, T U, must lie, like the tubes N and X, but higher than those, so that R S may rise above the lip of the vessel. The same result will follow.