CHAPTER XI.

HYDRAULICS.

Old as the Thirst of Man.--Prehistoric Inventions.--China.-- Pliny’s Record.--Egyptian, Carthaginian, Greek and Roman Water Works.--“Pneumatics of Hero.”--Overshot, Undershot, and Breast Wheels, Ancient.--Screw of Archimedes.--Frontinus, a Roman Inspector.--1593, Servière Invents the Rotary Pump.--1586, Stevinus of Holland, Father of the Elementary Science.--Galileo, Torricelli, Pascal, and Sir Isaac Newton in the Seventeenth Century.--Bernoulli, D’Alembert, Euler, Abbé Bossut, Venturi, and Eylewein in the Eighteenth.--Water Distribution then Originated.--Peter Maurice and the London Bridge Pumps.--La Hire’s Double Acting Pump.--Dr. John Allen and David Ramsey of England.--Franklin’s Force Pump.--Water Ram of Whitehurst and Montgolfier.--Nineteenth Century Opens with Bramah’s Pumps.-- Water and Steam.--Pumps the Strong Hands of Hydraulics.--Review of Past Inventions: Pascal’s Paradox.--Turbines of Forneyron.-- Power of Niagara and Turbines there.--Jonval’s.--Euler’s Old Centrifugal Pumps Revived.--Massachusetts and Appold Systems.-- Lowlands of Holland, Marshes of Italy, Swamps of Florida, Drained.--Injectors.--Giffard.--Intensifiers.--Hydraulicising.-- Hydraulic Jack and Cleopatra’s Needle.--Flow of Cold Metal.-- Lead Pipe Made, and Cold Steel Stretched by Water Pressure.-- Cotton Presses, Sir Wm. Armstrong’s Inventions.--Tweddle and Sir Wm. Fairbairn.--Water Motors.--Baths and Closets.--Results of Modern Improvements.--Germ Theory and Filters. 164