[A portable Bridge.] The great painter, Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452, and who died at 67 years of age in 1520, was a man of singularly inventive talent. Among his other projects, he declares:—“I have the means of constructing light bridges, easy of carriage, and equally adapted to pursue or escape an enemy, secure from fire; and as easy to remove as to replace; and also the means of destroying those of the enemy.” See an interesting Memoir of him by J. W. Brown. 12mo. 1828.

Bourne’s 94th Device promises, “How you may make a bridge upon a sudden, that a whole army of men and their carriages may pass over any river or haven, if that it be of not too great breadth.”—See his Inventions or Devices, 1578.

Sir Hugh Plat, in his “Jewel House of Art and Nature,” 1653, shows, in article No. 22, “How to erect or build over any brook, or small river, a cheap and wooden bridge of 40 or 50 feet in length, without fastening any timber work within the water.”

29.

A portable Fortification able to contain five hundred fighting men, and yet[3] in six hours time may[4] be set up, and made Cannon-proof, upon the side of a River or Pass, with Cannon mounted upon it, and as complete as a regular Fortification, with Half-moons and Counterscarps.

[A moveable Fortification.] Vegetius, in “De re militari,” 1535, offers many similar schemes but less ambitious than the present one; which is, after all, little if any more than an extension and improvement on what had previously been more or less practised.

In his “Naturæ simia seu technica,” dated 1618, Robert Fludd, at page 421, gives a folio engraving of a triangular fort, with six pieces of cannon and three gunners. It appears to be on wheels, and is pushed along by a beam running on three wheels, having four horses yoked to it; literally the cart before the horse.

30.

A way in one nights time to raise a Bulwork twenty or thirty foot high, Cannon-proof, and Cannon mounted upon it, with men to overlook, command and batter a Towne; for though it contain but four Pieces, they shall be able to discharge two hundred Bullets each hour.

[A Rising Bulwork.] Grose, in his “Military Antiquities,” Vol. I. Page 355, notices a moveable tower, the use of which was revived by the Royalists in their attack on Gloucester, during the Civil War.

In 1644, Edmond Felton, gentleman, published a pamphlet entitled, “Engins invented to save blood and moneys;” the nature of which he “discovered unto the Committee for the fortifications of the City of London.” The Honourable Major General Skippon attested in respect of it, that the engine “was of three tiers of ten muskets in a tier, to shoot arrows withal.” The inventor satisfied the Committee, “how an engine will secure the foot from the horse, and the soldiers from musket shot, which engine in fair ways two men may manage at pleasure.”

He complains of a piracy of his invention, observing, “There was about twenty of the said engines made at Oxford, and from thence carried to Gloucester, to go up to the walls. And had not his Excellency the Earl of Essex so happily arrived to raise the siege as he did, it was reported by some of the army, the city was in great fear to be taken thereby; most of which said engines the besiegers burnt, because they should not be taken.”

In the second volume of “Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis: a collection of scarce and curious tracts, by John Washbourn, jun. Gloucester. 4to. 1825,” there is a reprint of “Corbet’s Historicall relation of the Military Government of Gloucester, 1645,” which contains this passage: “Wherefore besides their mine and battery, they framed great store of those unperfect and troublesome engines to assault the lower parts of the city. Those engines ran upon wheels, with planks musket-proof placed on the axle-tree, with holes for musket-shot and a bridge before it, the end whereof (the wheels falling into the ditch) was to rest upon our breast works.” Page 54.

And in the reprint of “A briefe and exact diurnall of the siege before Gloucester, by John Dorney, Esquire, 1643,” we meet with the following:—“Munday, September 4. We understood likewise that the enemy had by the direction of that Jesuitticall Doctor Chillingworth, provided great store of engines after the manner of the Romane Testudines cum Pluteis, with which they intended to have assaulted the parts of the city, between the south and west gates. These engines ran upon cart wheeles, with a blinde of plankes musquet proofe, and holes for foure musquetiers to play out of, placed upon the axeltree to defend the musquetiers and those that thrust it forward, and carrying a bridge before it; the wheeles were to fall into the ditch, and the end of the bridge to rest upon our brest-workes, so making severall compleat bridges to enter the city. After the raising of the siege, we tooke all these engines, and brought them into the towne.”—Page 225.

In the first volume of this work there is a note on the two preceding passages, in which the editor observes:—“The plan of these machines was borrowed from the ancients. Various contrivances of this kind were also employed in the middle ages, before and for a considerable time after the invention of fire-arms. Sometimes they used them for undermining the walls. At the siege of Ribadavia in Spain, during the reign of Richard II. similar moveable machines were used. See Froissart, viii. c. 26. Such an engine is also mentioned by the Marquis of Worcester in his Century of Inventions.”

31.

A way how safely and speedily to make an approach to a Castle or Town-wall, and over the very Ditch at Noon-day.

[An approaching Blinde.] Vegetius, in “De re militari,” 1535, depicts and describes several kinds of these ancient military blinds, screens, and other contrivances and machines for protecting the attacking party. At page 15 he shows a ponderous advancing screen or shield on four wheels, and at two pages further a side view of the same, covering a large body of soldiers. Some have raised, hinged platforms, to be lowered for crossing a ditch.

Grose says:—“The cattus, cat-house, gattus or cat, was a covered shed, occasionally fixed on wheels, and used for covering soldiers employed in filling up the ditch, &c.”—Military Antiquities, 4to. 1801.

32.

How to compose an universal Character methodical and easie to be written, yet intelligible in any Language; so that if an English-man write it in English, a French-man,[5] Italian, Spaniard, Irish,[6] Welsh,[7] being Scholars; yea, Grecian or Hebritian shall as perfectly understand it in their owne Tongue, as if they were perfect[8] English, distinguishing the Verbs from the Nouns, the Numbers, Tenses and Cases as properly expressed in their own Language as it was written in English.

[An universall Character.] In 1668, the Royal Society ordered the printing of “An Essay towards a real Character, and a philosophical language; by John Wilkins, D. D. Dean of Ripon, and F. R. S.,” folio. It is dedicated to the president, William Lord Viscount Brouncker, and consists of a treatise of 454 pages, to which is appended a dictionary of 155 pages. The very extent of such a work is almost fatal to its acceptance, and we must admit that it is questionable whether, with all its learning and ingenuity, it affords a single hint calculated to promote the intended object.

In relation to this subject, the reader, desirous of enlarged information, could not do better than consult the recently published “Lectures on the Science of Language,” by Professor Max Müller, M. A.

It would be highly interesting to possess any clue whatever to the ideas of the Marquis on this subject. He was so truthful in his statements, that he must have made a considerable advance in the discovery of means for obtaining the end proposed, although he may have over-estimated its application, according to our judgment.

Of early publications on this topic we would especially notice, “Le Caractère universel, par lequel toutes Nations peuvent comprendre les conceptions l’une de l’autre en lisant par une escriture commune, à toutes leur propre langage maternelle. Par Cave Beck. M. A.” London, 1657, 12mo. Also “Joh. J. Becheri Spirensis character, pro Notitia Linguarum Universali.” Francfort, 1661. And “Ars signorum, vulgo character universalis et lingua philosophica,” by Georgius Dalgarno: a small 12mo. volume in Latin. 1661.

A system of a universal alphabet has been recently proposed for telegraphic purposes, by means of which it is believed all the sounds of the human speech may be recorded and transmitted; mastering all the sounds which the human voice is capable of uttering in any language. The proposed scheme is even said to have been severely tested by many eminent linguists. It is to be hoped that the announced discovery will be found to realize all it promises, and remunerate the ingenious inventor.

33.

To write with a Needle and Thred, white, or any[9] colour upon white, or[1] any other[2] colour, so that one stitch shall significantly shew any letter, and as readily and[3] as easily shew the one letter as the other, and fit for any Language.

[A Needle-alphabet.]

34.

To write by a knotted Silk string, so that every knot shall signifie any letter with Comma, Full point, or Interrogation, and as legible as with Pen and Ink upon white Paper.

[A knotted String-alphabet.]

35.

The like, by the fringe of Gloves.

[A Fringe-alphabet.]

36.

By stringing of Bracelets.

[A Bracelet-alphabet.]

37.

By Pinck’d Gloves.

[A Pinck’d Glove-alphabet.]

38.

By holes in the bottom of a Sieve.

[A Sieve-alphabet.]

39.

By a Lattin or[4] Plate Lanthorn.[5]

[A Lanthorn-alphabet.]

40.

By the Smell.

41.

By the Taste.

42.

By the Touch.

By these three Senses as perfectly, distinctly and unconfusedly, yea as readily as by the sight.

[An alphabet by the—Smell; Taste; Touch.]

43.

How to vary each of these, so that ten thousand may know them, and yet[6] keep the understanding part from any but their Correspondent.

[A variation of all and each of these.] We have here ten Alphabets, concluding with a variation on each, which, had it been given, would have at least increased the number to twenty, but that was by no means the limit. Cipher Alphabets are the least interesting portion of the “Century;” we imagine we trace in them some of the Marquis’s earliest studies, and fancy that later in life they were retained from fond recollections of the past.

These secret methods of corresponding are no longer of any service, and have no interest beyond what may attach to them in connection with the history of short-hand writing, wherein the object is rather dispatch than secrecy. Among early writers on the art of Senigraphy, and Stenography, are Bright, 1588, Bales 1590, Arnold Bostius, Trithemius 1600, Willis 1618, Dix 1633, Wilkins 1641, Cartwright 1652, Rich 1654, Falconer (“The Art of Secret Information,”) 1685, with others.

John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan of considerable eminence, born 1445, and who died in 1515, wrote “De Occultis Literarium Notis, Libri quinque,” Argent. 1608, octavo, in which he gives no less than 180 different methods of secret writing.

The learned and ingenious Bishop Wilkins in 1641, published his “Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger.”

Of line alphabets he says—“Who would mistrust any private news or treachery to lie hid in a thread, wherein there was nothing to be discerned, but sundry confused knots or other the like marks?” It is, however, easily effected by each party having like tablets marked at top with the alphabet, and having hooks down each side for the passing and holding of a thread worked backwards and forwards, in which action it is to have a knot made on it for the desired letter above; making altogether words and sentences.

Chapter 6, is on “Secret writing with the common letters, by changing of their places.”

In chapter 11, “Of writing by invented characters,” he says: “There have been some other inventions of writing by points, or lines, or figures.”

Chapter 13 is, “concerning an universal character that may be legible to all nations and languages,” concluding with observations on “The benefit and possibility of this.”

In chapter 17, we are told “of secret and swift informations by the species of sound.” Among others he names “Bells,” as a species which “may be a sufficient means, whereby to communicate the thoughts;” and in chapter 18, he treats “concerning a language that may consist only of tunes and musical notes, without any articulate sound.” And lastly, in chapter 20, we have “Of informations by significatory fires and smokes.”

Among the “variations” the sense of Seeing may be employed, as proposed by Sir Hugh Plat in his “Jewel House of Art and Nature,” 1653, in which he describes “How to speak by signs only without uttering of any word”—using the fingers and motions with them and the hands, which he calls a “conceited alphabet.”—Page 38.

Those who are curious in such matters, may see more at large in Dr. W. Hooper’s Rational Recreations, ed. 1794, 8vo. different methods of writing in cipher, commencing at p. 143, of 1st Vol.—thus:—

To communicate intelligence by a pack of piquet cards.—The musical dial.—The corresponding spaces.—The musical cipher.—Rules for deciphering.—Example of a cipher written in arbitrary characters, and the words separate from each other.—Visual correspondence; and, Correspondence by bells.

44.

To make a Key of a Chamber door, which to your sight hath its Wards and Rose-pipe but Paper-thick, and yet at pleasure in a minute of an hour shall become a perfect Pistol, capable to shoot through a Brest-plate commonly of Carabine-proof, with Prime, Powder and Firelock, undiscoverable in a strangers hand.

[A Key-Pistol.] This mere piece of ingenuity, so pleasing to certain mechanics in working out mechanical trinkets, might be effected by causing the removal of the key handle to expose a sufficiently strong pistol barrel, while the “rose pipe but paper thick” would answer to receive, and perform the office of retaining the key handle securely, by which to hold it while firing this key-pistol. The next part of the contrivance would be, to make the “wards” serve to conceal the pistol pan, cock, &c. The description is well calculated to mislead the reader, under the impression that the barrel itself is “but paper-thick.”

45.

How to light a Fire and a Candle at what hour of the night one awaketh, without rising or putting ones hand out of the bed. And the same thing[7] becomes[8] a serviceable Pistol at pleasure; yet by a stranger, not knowing the secret, seemeth but a dexterous Tinder-box.

[A most conceited Tinder-box.] The following note from “Humane Industry,” 1661, appears highly suggestive of such an instrument, although the Marquis’s invention is more elaborate. “Andrew Alciat the great Civilian of France, had a kind of Clock in his chamber, that should awake him at any hour of the night that he determined, and when it struck the determined hour, it struck fire likewise out of a flint, which fell among tinder, to light him a candle: it was the invention of one Caravagio of Sienna in Italy.”

46.

How to make an artificial Bird to fly which way and as long as one pleaseth, by or against the wind, sometimes chirping, other times hovering, still tending the way it is designed for.

[An artificial Bird.] The third article in his list of a portion of his inventions supplies a different reading, thus: “By this (his ‘quint-essence of motion’) I can make an artificial bird to fly which way, and as long as I please.” [Appendix A.]

The Marquis, not to be behind the curious and ingenious men of ancient times, has here and in article No. 18, emulated John Muller of Nuremberg, better known as Regiomontanus, who was born in 1436. He is celebrated for this species of rara avis; a self-moving and flying eagle, and an iron fly have afforded much matter for romantic and no doubt exaggerated accounts of their performances; the one flying a good way in the open air and returning; the other flying from the philosopher round a table and coming back to his hand. He evinced a genius of the first order as a great inventor, and also as a promoter of the advancement of science.

In Ramelli’s great work on various machines, folio, 1588, the 187th figure offers a detailed representation of a handsomely furnished apartment, in which a large carved sideboard sustains a gigantic vase containing a flowering shrub, in the branches of which six birds appear in the act of singing. The vase being a sectional drawing, various pipes can be seen, also the performer behind, who is blowing through a single pipe into the body of the vase.

But the highly popular work of Hero of Alexandria promulgated several similar schemes. He shows how to make an artificial bird sing by flowing water, or alternately sing and be silent. See Mr. Woodcroft’s handsome edition of Hero’s Pneumatics, 4to. 1851.

William Bourne, also, in his “Inventions or Devices,” 1578, treats of “birds of wood or metal made by art to fly,” and of others, “to sing sweetly at certain hours appointed.”

Bate, in his “Mysteries of Nature and Art,” 1635, treats, at page 24, “How to make that a bird sitting on a basis, shall make a noise, and drink out of a cup of water, being held to the mouth of it;” and further, “Advice whereby several voices of birds chirping may be heard.”

So again Isaac De Caus, in his “Rare Inventions of Water Works,” folio, 1659, at page 20, gives instructions—“To counterfeit the voice of small birds by means of water and air.” And in Plate XIV. “To represent divers birds which shall sing diversly when an owl turns towards them; and when the said owl turns back again they shall cease their singing.”

These later examples show that the Marquis was neither altogether original nor singular in attempting improvements in these automatic toys, which from the time of Hero of Alexandria were accounted sufficiently wonderful evidence of mechanical ingenuity to attract the serious attention of even the most talented engineers of the last century. Of such mechanical achievements of the ingenious a full account may be read in Montucla’s edition of Ozanam’s “Mathematical Recreations.”

Volant automata, as he calls them, did not escape the attentive consideration of Bishop Wilkins, and he says enough on this class of mechanical curiosities to have stimulated the mechanical ingenuity of even a less enthusiastic inventor than the Marquis of Worcester, as of the wooden dove of Archytas, and the wooden eagle and iron fly of Regiomontanus.

The Marquis, if he ever perused the little treatise just quoted, would be keenly alive to the truthfulness of the remark that—“it is none of the meanest discouragements, that any strange inventions are so generally derided by common opinion, being esteemed only as the dreams of a melancholy and distempered fancy; for that saying of Virgil,

“Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen,” &c.

“hath been an old censure applied unto such as ventured upon any strange or incredible attempt.”—See Math. Magick, 1648, p. 198.

The Rev. Dr. Powell, in the last chapter of his “Humane Industry,” 1661, treats of various minute automata as—“Certain sports and extravagancies of art,” for which he offers an ingenious apology, observing: “As nature hath her ludicra, so art hath hers too; that is, some pretty knacks that are made, not so much for use, as to show subtilty of wit, being made de Gaieté de Cœur, and for pastime as it were; yet the workmanship and elegancy of these may justly deserve admiration;” concluding—“art, as well as nature, is never more wonderful than in smaller pieces.” After describing small chains, locks, chariots, ships, clocks, and insects, he remarks:—“though these knacks are but little useful, and take up more time than needed to be lost, yet they discover a marvellous pregnancy of wit in the artificers; and may be experimenta lucifera, if not frugifera hints of greater matters.”

It will not appear strange to find the inventor of the steam engine engaged toying with an artificial bird, an imprisoning chair, a brazen head, or a riding horse, when it is remembered that for a hundred years later such automata were highly prized by the nobility and gentry, and proved extemely lucrative to the public exhibitors of such mechanical imitations of life. M. Vaucanson’s inventions were of this chararcter, attracting admiring audiences among the learned and the vulgar, on the Continent and in England. A learned society received his communication in Paris, while in London it had the unquestionable honour of being translated by Dr. Desaguliers, who says in his preface, “In giving this paper an English dress, I am still acting in my province, which has been for many years to explain the works of art, as well as the phenomena of nature;” and his translation is given under the following elaborate title:—

“An account of the mechanism of an automaton or image playing on the German Flute: as it was presented in a memoire, to the gentlemen of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. By M. Vaucanson, Inventor and maker of the said machine. Together with a description of an artificial Duck, eating, drinking, macerating the food, &c. As also that of another image, no less wonderful than the first, playing on the tabor and pipe; as he has given an account of them since the memoir was written. Translated out of the French original, by J. T. Desaguliers, LL.D., F.R.S., Chaplain to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 4to. 1742.” [24 pages, and an engraved frontispiece.]

47.

To make a Ball of any metal, which thrown into a Pool or Pail of water shall presently rise from the bottom, and constantly shew by the superficies of the water the hour of the day or night, never rising more out of the water then just to the minute it sheweth of each quarter of the hour; and if by force kept under water, yet the time is not lost, but recovered as soon as it is permitted to rise to the superficies[9] of the water.

[An Hour Water-ball.] The 4th article of his selected list of his inventions supplies the following varied reading:—

“By these (his quintessence of Motion) I can make a ball of silver or gold, which thrown into a pail, or poole of water, shall arise again to the perfect hour of any day or night. The superficies of the water shall still show the hour distinctly; even the minutes, if I please.” See Appendix A.

Many curious specimens of these Horologies occur in the description of M. Grollier de Servière’s cabinet, published 1719.

48.

A scrued Ascent, instead of Stairs, with fit landing places to the best Chambers of each Story, with Back-stairs within the Noell[1] of it, convenient for Servants to pass up and down to the inward Rooms of them unseen and private.

[A scru’d ascent of Stairs.] This title does not strictly agree with the text, for there is a material difference between “a screwed ascent, instead of stairs,” and “a screwed ascent of stairs;” the former altogether dispenses with stairs, giving the idea of an inclined ascent without steps, such as is employed in the construction of the Observatory of Copenhagen; the width being sufficient and the ascent so gradual, that a carriage and four may easily be driven up to the top circular gallery.

According to this improvement there are “back-stairs within the noell,” that is, the Noel, Nowel, Noyau, or Newell, a term applied to the centre round which the stairs of a circular staircase wind, and which may be either a solid column, or an open space. Such stairs are said to be neweled.

The great labour and expense bestowed on some kinds of staircases is well exemplified by Evelyn in his tour of France, who describes going to Blois, in 1664, and seeing there a palace built by Francis the First, the staircase of which, consisting of 274 steps, is mentioned by Palladio; he notices it as a wonderful piece of work, from its construction having occupied 1800 workmen during twelve years. “The stayre-case (he says) is devised with four entries or ascents, which cross one another, so that though four persons meet, they never come in sight, but by small loopholes, till they land.”—Memoirs of John Evelyn, 2nd edit. 4to. vol. i. page 59.

49.

A portable Engine, in way of a Tobacco-tongs, whereby a man may get over a wall, or get up again being come down, finding the coast proving[2] [3] unsecure unto him.

[A Tobacco-tongs Engine.] The designation here given, when published in 1663, was doubtless generally understood, but the smallness of the “engine,” its very nature, and not less, its long discontinuance of use, now renders the passage obscure. It so happens, however, that a scientific experiment, in which this humble instrument was employed by the Honourable Robert Boyle, has preserved, for our information in this matter, the true figure of the “tobacco-tongs.” In the 3rd Volume of Boyle’s Works, folio, published in 1744, is recorded his pneumatical experiments on the falling of bodies in vacuo. Treating of “New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air,” illustrated by the well-known experiment of dropping at the same time a guinea and a feather within an exhausted glass receiver, he says: “We so fastened a small pair of tobacco-tongs to the inside of the receiver’s brass cover, that by moving a turning key, we might by a string tied to one part of them open the tongs, which else their own spring would keep shut.”

In an illustrative engraved plate, accompanying his description, the fourth figure therein is designed to show the “tobacco-tongs,” which appear in the form of a figure of 8, as in the annexed diagram, where a, is the top or hand portion, being the largest oval, while the lower oval b, is not above one third its size, at which point this steel spring instrument was cut through, to form the tong or nippers. We imagine that a side view would be like the dotted figure c, d, where d, shows how the ends of these nippers were probably elongated a little, the more readily to take up and part with the tobacco or other material. The least pressure on the outside of the large oval, will extend the nippers b, d, which again close when such pressure is removed.

But there may have been another form of such tongs, like the letter X, or two such figures combined; and by increasing the series we should produce the instrument known as the lazy-tongs, which collapse into a very small space, yet will extend to a great distance.

50.

A complete light portable Ladder, which taken out of ones Pocket, may be by himself fastened an hundred foot[4] high to get up by from the ground.

[A Pocket-ladder.] There are many curious and ingenious designs for portable scaling ladders, offered by Vegetius in “De re militari,” 1535, but which would require to be very considerably modified to become pocketable; however, they occur in every variety at page 35, in short pieces, each with a screw at one end, and a socket at the other; at p. 59, as a neat rope ladder; at p. 113, on the principle of the lazy-tongs; and at p. 162, a method of connecting short poles is exhibited.

Robert Fludd, in the second book of his works, published in 1617 and 1618, folio, Page 384, gives a large copper-plate engraving of a very ingenious form of ladder. Each step is of wood, and the two sides of rope. The ingenuity of the invention consists in each step having a ferrule at one end, and the opposite end tapered sufficiently to fit into each ferrule of the adjoining step; by this means the whole can be put together like an ordinary fishing rod, and the top step terminating with a hook, it can easily be attached to any elevated place, and on pulling the pole, each part separates, falling at once into the form of a ladder with rope sides. Bourne’s 62nd Device, in his “Inventions, or Devices,” 1578, is—“How for to make a scaling ladder.”

Van Etten, 1653, gives for his 111th Problem, “To make a Ladder of Cords, which may be carried in ones pocket: by which one may easily mount up a wall, or tree alone.” It consists simply of two pulleys, with “a cord of an half inch thick (which may be of silk, because it is for the pocket),” having a staff at one end to sit upon. The author gravely concludes, “This secret is most excellent in warre, and for lovers, its supportablenesse avoids suspition.” See page 248.

Among Friar Bacon’s inventions, the following is recorded in the fourth chapter of his “Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature and Magick,” 12mo. published in 1659:—“It is possible to invent an Engine of a little bulk, yet of great efficacy, either to the depressing or elevation of the very greatest weight; which would be of much consequence in several accidents; for hereby a man may either ascend or descend any walls, delivering himself or comrades from prison; and this engine is only three fingers high and four broad.”

51.

A Rule of Gradation, which with ease and method reduceth all things to a private correspondence, most useful for secret Intelligence.

[A Rule of Gradation.] Probably some scheme which appeared to be capable of indefinite multiplication, the object of the secret correspondent always being to elude the utmost skill of an expert decipherer. Twenty-six lines of 26 letters of the alphabet each, would form a square; and supposing the letters placed in different order on each line, we might produce 26 linear alphabets, and 26 columnar alphabets; or change these by diagonal or other lines. These, and similar variations appear interminable, but it is questionable whether they would not delay rather than defy detection.

52.

How to signifie words and a perfect Discourse by[5] jangling of[6] Bells of any Parish-Church, or by any Musical Instrument within hearing, in a seeming way of tuning it; or of an unskilful beginner.

[A mysticall jangling of Bells.] There occurs at page 185, of Van Etten’s Math. Recreat. 1653, among the several heads of Problem 84, “Of changes in Bells.” He inquires: “Is it not an admirable thing to consider how the skill of numbers doth easily furnish us with the knowledge of mysterious hidden things?” He says: “It is often debated—what number of changes there might be made in 5, 6, 7, 8, or more bells;” observing thereon, “that a childe which can but multiply one number by another, may easily resolve it.” Not only have we here a kindred subject discussed, but also in language very analogous to that employed by the Marquis, particularly in the use of the words “mysterious,” “admirable,” and “a child;” the latter being a favourite similitude.

53.

A way how to make hollow and cover a Water-scrue as big and as long as one pleaseth in an easie and cheap way.

[An hollowing of a Water-scrue.] This was probably no more than an ingenious piece of carpentry, to obtain an object which was then most likely of considerable importance. Three of his inventions refer to the Archimedian screw, so that the Marquis seems to have given the subject more than ordinary attention.

54.

How to make a Water-scrue tite, and yet transparent, and free from breaking; but so clear, that one may palpably see the water or any heavy thing how and why it is mounted by turning.

[A transparent Water-scrue.] This invention does not appear to be offered as one of any other use than for pleasure and instruction, to “see the water or any heavy thing, how and why it mounteth by turning.” Was it not by such models that he had early informed his own mind?

If the transparent covering was not to be glass or horn, the Marquis may have used the material proposed by Sir Hugh Plat in his “Jewel House of Art and Nature,” 1653, in which is given, at page 72, a recipe: “To make parchment clear and transparent to serve for divers purposes. This I commend, (he says) before oiled paper, because it is more lasting”—when employed for windows.

55.

A double Water-scrue, the innermost to mount the water, and the outermost for it to descend more in number of threds, and consequently in quantity of water, though much shorter then the innermost scrue, by which the water ascendeth, a most extraordinary help for the turning of the scrue to make the water rise.

[A double Water-scrue.] The arrangement of this simple invention is so clearly and amply set forth, that it is a wonder it could ever have been misunderstood; yet it so baffled Mr. Partington, that he classes it among “extraordinary sleight of hand discoveries.”

M. Pattu, a French engineer, in 1815, published his account of a double water-screw of this description which he had invented, capable of being applied in three different ways, the construction, however, in all being the same. In one arrangement, the enlarged end of the screw is about one-eighth part that of the entire length of the internal or lesser screw, and it surrounds the “innermost” screw, the spirals winding in a reversed direction. The top of the shorter or “outermost” screw may be on a level with a stream of water “for it to descend” therein, to promote “the turning of the screw” (of greater length and smaller diameter) “to make the water rise,” from a lower stream.

In a second application, the long screw may be used to propel the short one, to raise water a moderate height.

Or, thirdly, the enlargement may form the upper end, and be used to propel from above, instead of from below, as at first described.

56.

To provide and make that all the Weights of the descending side of a Wheel shall be perpetually further from the Centre, then those of the mounting side, and yet equal in number and heft to[7] the one side as the other. A most incredible thing, if not seen, but tried before the late king (of[8] blessed memory) in the Tower, by my directions, two Extraordinary Embassadors accompanying His Majesty, and the Duke of Richmond and Duke[9] Hamilton, with[1] most[2] of the Court, attending Him. The Wheel was 14. Foot[3] over, and 40. Weights of 50. pounds apiece. Sir William Balfore,[4][K] then Lieutenant of the Tower,[5] can justifie[6] it, with several others. They all saw, that no sooner these great Weights passed the Diameter-line of the lower[7] side, but they hung a foot further from the Centre, nor no sooner passed the Diameter-line of the upper[8] side, but they hung a foot nearer. Be pleased to judge the consequence.