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The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

Chapter 55: 51. A Vessel from which flowing Water may be stopped at pleasure.
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.

51. A Vessel from which flowing Water may be stopped at pleasure.

If a bowl stands upon a pedestal and has an open water-spout, the discharge shall suddenly cease, though there be no slide or tap attached to shut the spout. Let A B (fig. 51), be the bowl on the pedestal C: through the bottom of the bowl and the pedestal insert a tube, D E F, terminating in a spout; and at the handle of the vessel fix a bar, G H, against which another bar, K L, may move about the pin H: at the extremity K place a vertical bar, K M, moving about the pin K: to this bar let a box, N X, be attached at M, having weight, and large enough to inclose the tube D E F. When the bowl is full, if we depress the extremity L of the bar, the box N X will ascend, and, when this is raised, the water in the bowl will be carried out through the tube D E F: but if the extremity L be set free, the box will descend and encompass the tube D E F, and the air it contains, having no way of escape, will disconnect the liquid round the tube D E F, and prevent it from being further carried out through the mouth D. When we again depress the extremity L the spout will run as before.