IRLF 
 
 hi? 
 
 
A 
 
< ifc 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 *r 
 
37 
 
THE 
 
 MARQUIS OF WORCESTER'S 
 
 CENTURY 
 
 OF 
 
 INVENTIONS 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 AN APPENDIX; 
 
 CONTAINING AN 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRE-ENGINE FOR RAISING WATER ; 
 
 WHICH INVENTION 
 
 ORIGINATED FROM THE ABOVE WORK. 
 
 BY JOHN BUBBLE. 
 
 NEWCASTLE: 
 
 PRINTED BY S. HODGSON, UNION-STREET. 
 
 1813. 
 
W(o5 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 JL O the original edition of this little work, here pre- 
 sented to the public, we stand indebted for the Fire- 
 Engine, the most valuable machine ever yet invented for 
 the purpose of draining mines ; and which may, without 
 much impropriety, be called the primum mobile of the 
 coal-trade. 
 
 The first, and only edition of this work, being extreme- 
 ly scarce, on account of the bulk of the impression being 
 made a burnt-offering to the disingenuous principles and 
 sinister views of Captain Savery, who zoanted to pirate 
 the invention ; yet the few copies still remaining, with the 
 greatest certainty point out the MAROUIS OF WORCES- 
 TER to have been the original author of that incompara- 
 ble machine, the Fire-Engine; to whose memory, there- 
 fore, not only the gentlemen of the coal-trade, but the 
 zvhole nation, owe a tribute of gratitude for his great 
 mechanical acumen and sagacity ; more especially at this 
 time, when nine collieries out often in the northern coun- 
 ties could not be wrought zvithout these machines : And 
 the editor hopes to stand excused, at the bar of the public, 
 for offering a new edition of a work to winch so much is 
 owing. 
 
 M368102 
 
IV 
 
 'Tis curious enough to observe by what slozv gradations 
 this machine has arrived at its present state; the most 
 capital improvements hitherto made thereon arising more 
 from accidental occurrences and mere chance, than being 
 the result of philosophical theory : But as the principles 
 of mechanics are now more generally understood, than 
 they were fifty or sixty years ago, we may hope soon to see 
 the FIRE-ENGINE in a more improved state. The very 
 great depths to which winnings are now extended, and the 
 large quantities of water required to be drawn, urge the 
 necessity of the most careful scrutiny into the philosophi- 
 cal principles, and the structure and combination of the 
 several component parts of this machine, in order to its 
 being constructed with powers adequate to the desired 
 effect, 'and at a fair and regular expence. 
 
 Kyo, near Lanchester, June 18, 1778. 
 
CENTURY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NAMES AND SCANTLINGS 
 
 OF SUCH 
 
 INVENTIONS, 
 
 As at present I can call to mind to have tried and per- 
 fected ; which (my former notes being lost) I have, at 
 the instance of a powerful friend, endeavoured, now in 
 the year 1655, to set these down in such a way as may 
 sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in practice. 
 
 ARTIS ET NATURAE PROLES. 
 
 LONDON; 
 
 PRINTED BY J. GRISMOND, IN THE YEAH 
 1663. 
 
 M368103 
 
TO THE 
 
 KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 &CIR E meum nihil est, nisi me scire hoc sciat alter., saith 
 the poet, and I most justly in order to your Majesty, 
 whose satisfaction is my happiness, and whom to serve 
 is my only aime, placing therein my summitm bonum in 
 this world : Be therefore pleased to cast your gracious 
 eve over this summary collection, and then to pick and 
 choose. I confess, I made it but for the superficial 
 satisfaction of a friend's curiosity, according as it is 
 set downe; and if it might now serve to give aime to 
 your Majesty how to make use of my poor endeavours, 
 it would crown my thoughts, who am neither covetous 
 nor ambitious, but of deserving your Majesty's favour 
 upon my own cost and charges; yet, according to the 
 old English proverb, It is a poor dog riot zcorth whistling 
 after. Let but your Majesty approve, and I will effec- 
 tually perform to the height of my undertaking : 
 Vouchsafe but to command, and with my life and for- 
 tune I shall chearfully obey; and maugre envy, igno- 
 rance, and malice, ever appear 
 
 Your Majesty's passionately-devoted, 
 
 Or otherwise disinterested Subject 
 and Servant, 
 
 WORCESTER. 
 
TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. THE LORDS SPIRITUAL 
 AND TEMPORAL; 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, AND BURGESSES OF 
 THE HON. HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Now assembled in Parliament. 
 
 MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, 
 
 J3 E not startled if I address to all and every of yon, 
 this Century of summary heads of wonderful things, 
 even after the dedication of them to his most excellent 
 Majesty, since it is with his most gracious and particu- 
 lar consent, as well as indeed no ways derogating from 
 my duty to his sacred self, but rather in further order 
 into it, since your Lordships, who are his great council, 
 and you, gentlemen, his whole kingdom's representa- 
 tives (most worthy welcome unto him), may fitly re- 
 ceive into your wise and serious considerations, what 
 doth or may publicly concern both his Majesty and his 
 tender-beloved people. 
 
 Pardon me, if I say, my Lords and Gentlemen, that 
 it is jointly your parts to digest to his hand these 
 ensuing particulars, fitting them to his palate, and 
 
ordering how to reduce them into practice, in a way 
 useful and beneficial both to his Majesty and his king- 
 dom. 
 
 Neither do I esteem it less proper for me to present 
 them to you in order to his Majesty's service, than it is 
 to give into the hands of a faithful and provident 
 steward whatsoever dainties and provisions are intend- 
 ed for the master's diet; the knowing and faithful 
 steward being best able to make use thereof to his 
 master's contentment and greatest profit, keeping for 
 the morrow whatever should be overplus or needless 
 for the present day, or at least to save something else 
 in lieu thereof. In a word, my Lords and Gentlemen, 
 I humbly conceive this simile not improper, since you 
 are his Majesty's provident stewards, into whose hands 
 I commit myself, with all properties fit to obey you ; 
 that is to say, with an heart harbouring no ambition, 
 but an endless aim to serve my king and country : 
 And if my endeavours prove effectual, (as I am confi- 
 dent they will) his Majesty shall not only become rich, 
 but his people likewise, as treasures unto him ; and his 
 peerless Majesty, our king, shall become both beloved 
 at home, and feared abroad ; deeming the riches of a 
 king to consist in the plenty enjoyed by his people. 
 
 And the way to render him to be feared abroad, is to 
 content his people at home, who then with heart and 
 hand are ready to assist him ; and whatsoever God 
 blesseth me with, to contribute towards the increase of 
 his revenues in any considerable way, I desire it may 
 be employed to the use of his people; that is, for the 
 taking off such taxes or burthens from them as they 
 
chiefly groan under, and by a temporary necessity only 
 imposed on them ; which being thus supplied will cer- 
 tainly best content the king, and satisfie his people; 
 which, I dare say, is the continual tend of all your in- 
 defatigable pains, and the perfect demonstrations of 
 your zeal to his Majesty, and an evidence that the 
 kingdom's trust is justly and deservedly reposed in you. 
 And if ever Parliament acquitted themselves thereof, it 
 is this of yours, composed of most deserving persons ; 
 qualified, I say, with your affection to your prince, and 
 with a tenderness to his people; with a bountiful heart 
 towards him, yet a frugality in their behalfs. 
 
 Go on, therefore, chearfully, my Lords and Gentle- 
 men, and not only our gracious king, but the King of 
 Kings will reward you, the prayers of the people will 
 attend you, and his Majesty will, with thankful arms, 
 embrace you. And be pleased to make use of me and 
 my endeavours to enrich them, not myself; such being 
 my only request unto you, spare me not in what your 
 wisdoms shall find me useful, who do esteem myself, 
 not only by the act of the water-commanding engine, 
 (which so chearfully you have past) sufficiently reward- 
 ed, but likewise with courage enabled to do ten times 
 more for the future ; and my debts being paid, and a 
 competency to live according to my birth and quality 
 settled, the rest shall I dedicate to the service of our 
 king and country, by your disposals; and esteem me 
 not the more, or rather any more, by what is past, but 
 what is to come ; professing really from my heart, that 
 my intentions are to outgo the six or seven hundred 
 thousand pounds already sacrificed, if countenanced 
 
8 
 
 and encouraged by you ; ingenuously confessing, that 
 the melancholy which hath lately seized upon me (the 
 cause whereof none of you but may easily guess) hath, 
 I dare say, retarded more advantages to the public ser- 
 vice, than modesty will permit me to utter : And now 
 revived by your promising favours, I shall infallibly be 
 enabled thereunto in the experiments extant, and com- 
 prized under these heads, practicable with my direc- 
 tions, by the unparalleled workman, both for trust and 
 skill, Caspar Kaltofs hand, who hath been these five 
 and thirty years as in a school under me employed, and 
 still at my disposal, in a place by my great expenses 
 made fit for public service, yet lately like to be taken 
 from me, and consequently from the service of king and 
 kingdom, without the least regard of above ten thousand 
 pounds expended by me, and through my zeal to the 
 common good ; my zeal, I say, a field large enough 
 for you, rny Lords and Gentlemen, to work upon. 
 
 The treasures buried under these heads, both for war, 
 peace, and pleasure, being inexhaustible ; I beseech you 
 pardon me, if I say so ; it seems a vanity, but compre- 
 hends a truth ; since no good spring but becomes the 
 more plentiful by how much more it is drawn : and the 
 spinner to weave his web is never stinted, but further 
 enforced. 
 
 The more then that you shall be pleased to make use 
 of my inventions, the more inventive shall you ever find 
 me; one invention begetting still another, and more 
 and more improving my ability to serve my king and 
 you ; and as to my heartiness therein, there needs no 
 addition, nor to my readiness a spur. And therefore, 
 
9 
 
 my Lords and Gentlemen, be pleased to begin, and 
 desist not from commending me till I flag in my obe- 
 dience and endeavours to serve my king and country : 
 
 For certainly yon U find me breathless first f expire, 
 Before my hands grow weary, or my legs do tire. 
 
 Yet abstracting from any interest of my own, but as 
 a fellow-subject and compatriot will I ever labour in 
 the vineyard, most heartily and readily obeying the 
 least summons from you, by putting faithfully in exe- 
 cution, what your judgments shall think fit to pitch 
 upon amongst this Century of experiences, perhaps 
 dearly purchased by me, but now frankly and gratis 
 offered to you. Since my heart, methinks, cannot be 
 satisfied in serving my king and country, if it should 
 cost them any thing; as I confess when I had the 
 honour to be near so obliging a master as his late 
 Majesty, of happy memory, who never refused me his 
 ear to any reasonable motion ; and as for unreasonable 
 ones, or such as were not fitting for him to grant, I 
 would rather to have died a thousand deaths, than ever 
 to have made any one unto him. 
 
 Yet whatever I was so happy as to obtain for any 
 deserving person, my pains, breath, and interest im- 
 ployed therein satisfied me not, unless I likewise satis- 
 fied the fees; but that was in my golden age. 
 
 And even now, though my ability and means are 
 shortened, the world knows why my heart remains still 
 the same; and be you pleased, my Lords and Gentle- 
 men, to rest most assured, that the very complacency 
 
 c 
 
10 
 
 that I shall take in the executing your commands, shall 
 be unto me a sufficient and an abundantly-satisfactory 
 reward. 
 
 Vouchsafe, therefore, to dispose freely of me, and 
 whatever lieth in my power to perform: First, in order 
 to his Majesty's service; secondly, for the good and 
 advantage of the kingdom ; thirdly, to all your satis- 
 factions, for particular profit and pleasure to your indi- 
 vidual selves ; professing, that in all and each of the 
 three respects, I will ever demean myself as it best 
 becomes, 
 
 My Lords and Gentlemen, 
 Your most passionately-bent fellow-subject in 
 
 his Majesty's service, 
 Compatriot for the public good and 
 
 advantage, 
 
 And a most humble servant to all and every 
 of you, 
 
 WORCESTER, 
 
A 
 
 CENTURY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NAMES AND SCANTLINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 INVENTIONS 
 
 BY ME ALREADY PRACTISED. 
 
 I. 
 
 SEVERAL sorts of seals, some shewing by screws, 
 others by gages, fastening or unfastening all the marks 
 at once; others by additional points and imaginary 
 places, proportional to ordinary escocheons and seals at 
 arms, and each way palpably and punctually setting 
 down (yet private from all others, but the owner, and 
 by his assent) the day of the moneth, the day of the 
 week, the moneth of the year, the year of our Lord, 
 the names of the witnesses, and the individual place 
 where any thing was sealed, though in ton thousand 
 several places, together with the very number of lines 
 contained in the contract, whereby falsification may 
 
 c o 
 
12 
 
 be discovered, and manifestly proved, being upon good 
 grounds suspected. 
 
 Upon any of these seals a man may keep accompts 
 of receipts and disbursements from one farthing to an 
 hundred millions, punctually shewing each pound, 
 shilling, penny, or farthing. 
 
 By these seals likewise any letter, though but writ- 
 ten in English, may be read and understood in eight 
 several languages, and in English itself to clean con- 
 trary and different sense, unknown to any but the cor- 
 respondent, and not to be read or understood by him 
 neither, if opened before it arrive unto him; so that 
 neither threats, nor hopes of reward, can make him 
 reveal the secret, the letter having been intercepted, 
 and first opened by the enemy. 
 
 II. How ten thousand persons may use those seals 
 to all and every of the purposes aforesaid, and yet keep 
 their secrets from any but whom they please. 
 
 III. A cypher and character so contrived, that one 
 line, without returns- and circumflexes, stands for each 
 and every of the 4 letters ; and as ready to be made 
 for the one letter as the other. 
 
 IV. This invention refined, and so abbreviated, that 
 a point onely sheweth distinctly and significantly any 
 of the 24 letters; and these very points to be made 
 with two pens, so that no time will be lost, but as one 
 finger riseth the other may make the following letter, 
 never clogging the memory with several figures for 
 
13 
 
 words, and combination of letters; which with ease, 
 and void of confusion, are thus speedily and punctually, 
 letter for letter, set down by naked and not multiplied 
 points. And nothing can be less than a point, the 
 mathematical definition of being cujus pars nulla. And 
 of a motion no swifter imaginable than semiquavers or 
 relishes, yet applicable to this manner of writing. 
 
 V. A way by a circular motion, either along a rule 
 or ring-wise, to vary any alphabet, even this of points, 
 so that the self- same point individually placed, without 
 the least additional mark, or variation of place, shall 
 stand for all the 24 letters, and not for the same letter 
 twice in ten sheets writing; yet as easily and certainly 
 read and known as if it stood but for one and the self- 
 same letter constantly signified. 
 
 VI. How at a window, far as eye can discover 
 black from white, a man may hold discourse with his 
 correspondent, without noise made or notice taken; 
 being, according to occasion given and means afforded, 
 ex re nata, and no need of provision beforehand; 
 though much better if foreseen, and means prepared 
 for it, and a premeditated course taken by mutual con- 
 sent of parties. 
 
 VII. A way to do it by night as well as by day, 
 though as dark as pitch is black. 
 
 VIII. A way how to level and shoot cannon by 
 night as well as by day, and as directly; without a 
 
14 
 
 platform or measures taken by day, yet by a plain and 
 infallible rule. 
 
 IX. An engine, portable in one's pockets, which 
 may be carried and fastened on the inside of the great- 
 est ship, tanquam aliud agens, ?md at any appointed 
 minute, though a week after, either of day or night, it 
 shall irrecoverably sink that ship. 
 
 X. -A way, from a mile off, to dive and fasten a like 
 engine to any ship, so as it may punctually work the 
 same effect, either for time or execution. 
 
 XI. How to prevent and safeguard any ship from 
 such an attempt by day or night. 
 
 XII. A way to make a ship not possible to be sunk 
 though shot an hundred times betwixt wind and water 
 by cannon, and should she lose a whole plank, yet in 
 half an hour's time should be made as fit to sail as 
 before. 
 
 XIII. How to make such false decks as in a 
 moment should kill and take prisoners as many as 
 should board the ship, without blowing the decks up, 
 or destroying them from being reducible, and in a 
 quarter of an hour's time should recover their former 
 shape, and to be made fit for any employment without 
 discovering the secret. 
 
 XIV. How to bring a force to weigh up an anchor. 
 
15 
 
 or to do any forcible exploit in the narrowest or lowest 
 room in any ship; where few hands shall do the work 
 of many; and many hands applicable to the same 
 foree, some standing, others sitting, and by virtue of 
 their several helps, a great force augmented in a little 
 room, as effectual as if there were sufficient space to 
 go about with an axle-tree, and work far from the 
 centre. 
 
 XV. A way how to make a boat work itself against 
 wind and tide, yea both without the help of man or 
 beast; yet so that the wind or tide, though directly 
 opposite, shall force the ship or boat against itself; arid 
 in no point of the compass, but it shall be as effectual 
 as if the wind were in the pupp, or the stream actually 
 with the course it is to steer, according to which the 
 oars shall row, and necessary motions work and move 
 towards the desired port or point of the compass. 
 
 XVI. How to make a sea-castle or fortification 
 cannon-proof, and capable of a thousand men, yet sail- 
 able at pleasure to defend a passage, or in an hour's 
 time to divide itself into three ships as fit and trimm'd 
 to sail as before : And even whilst it is a fort or castle 
 they shall be unanimously steered, and effectually be 
 driven by an indifferent strong wind. 
 
 XVII. How to make upon the Thames a floating 
 garden of pleasure, with trees, flowers, banqueting- 
 houses, and fountains, stews for all kind of fishes, a 
 reserve for snow to keep wine in, delicate bathing 
 
16 
 
 places, and the like ; with music made with mills ; and 
 all in the midst of the stream, where it is most rapid. 
 
 XVIII. An artificial fountain, to be turned like an 
 hour-glass by a child in the twinkling of an eye, it 
 holding great quantity of water, and of force sufficient 
 to make snow, ice, and thunder, with a chirping and 
 singing of birds, and shewing of several shapes and 
 effects usual to fountains of pleasure. 
 
 XIX. A little engine within a coach, whereby a 
 child may stop it, and secure all persons within it, and 
 the coachman himself, though the horses be never so 
 unruly in a full career; a child being sufficiently capa- 
 ble to loosen them in what posture soever they should 
 have put themselves, turning never so short ; for a child 
 can do it in the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 XX. How to bring up water balance-wise, so that 
 as little weight or force as will turn a balance will be- 
 only needful, more than the weight of the water within 
 the buckets, which counterpoised empty themselves one 
 into the other, the uppermost yielding its water (how 
 great a quantity soever it holds) at the self-same time 
 the lowermost taketh it in, though it be an hundred 
 fathom high. 
 
 XXL How to raise water constantly with two 
 buckets only, day and night, without any other force 
 than its own motion, using not so much as any force, 
 wheel, or sucker, nor more pullies than one, on which 
 
17 
 
 the cord or chain rolleth with a bucket fastened at each 
 end. This, I confess, I have seen and learned of the 
 great mathematician Claudius his studies at Rome, he 
 having made a present thereof unto a cardinal ; and I 
 desire not to own any other men's inventions, but if I 
 set down any, to nominate likewise the inventor. 
 
 XXII. To make a river in a garden to ebb and 
 flow constantly, though twenty foot over, with a child's 
 force, in some private room or place out of sight, and a 
 competent distance from it. 
 
 XXIII. To set a clock in a castle, the water filling 
 the trenches about it; it shall shew by ebbing and 
 flowing, the hours, minutes, and seconds, and all the 
 comprehensive motions of the heavens, and counterli- 
 bation of the earth according to Copernicus. 
 
 XXIV. How to increase the strength of a spring 
 to such an height, as to shoot bumbasses and bullets of 
 an hundred pound weight a steeple- height, and a quar- 
 ter of a mile off and more, stonebow-wise, admirable 
 for fireworks and astonishing of besieged cities, when, 
 without warning given by noise, they find themselves 
 so forcibly and dangerously surprised. 
 
 XXV. How to make a weight that cannot take up 
 an hundred pound, and yet shall take up two hundred 
 pound, and at the self-same distance from the centre ; 
 and so proportionably to millions of pounds. 
 
18 
 
 XXVI. To false weight as well, and as forcibly, 
 with the drawing back of the lever, as with the thrust- 
 ing it forward ; and by that means to lose no time in 
 motion or strength. This I saw in the arsenal at 
 Venice. 
 
 XXVII. A way to remove to and fro huge weights 
 with a most inconsiderable strength, from place to 
 place. For example, ten tunne with ten pounds, and 
 less; the said ten pounds not to fall lower than it makes 
 the ten tunne to advance or retreat upon a level. 
 
 XXVIII. A bridge, portable in a cart with six 
 horses, which in a few hours time may be placed over 
 a river half a mile broad, whereon may with much ex- 
 pedition be transported horse, foot, and cannon. 
 
 XXIX. A portable fortification, able to contain 
 rive hundred fighting men, and yet in six hours time 
 may be set up, and made cannon-proof, upon the side 
 of a river or pass, with cannon mounted upon it, and as 
 compleat as a regular fortification, and with half-moons 
 and counterscraps. 
 
 XXX. A way, in one night's time, to raise a bul- 
 wark twenty or thirty foot high, cannon-proof, and 
 cannon mounted upon it, with men to overlook, com- 
 mand, and batter a town ; for though it contain but 
 four pieces, they shall be able to discharge two hund- 
 red bullets each hour. 
 
19 
 
 XXXI. A way how safely and speedily to make an 
 approach to a castle or town-wall, and over the very 
 ditch, at noon-day. 
 
 XXXII. How to compose an universal character, 
 methodical and easy to be written, yet intelligible in 
 any language; so that if an Englishman write it in 
 English, a Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, Irish, Welch, 
 being scholars ; yea, Grecian or Ilebntian shall as per- 
 fectly understand it in their own tongue, as if they 
 were perfect English, distinguishing the verbs from the 
 nouns, the numbers, tenses, and cases, as properly ex- 
 pressed in their own language, as if it was written in 
 English. 
 
 XXXIII. To write with a needle and thread, 
 white, or any colour upon white, or any other colour, 
 so that one stitch shall significantly shew any letter, 
 and as readily and as easily shew the one letter as the 
 other, and fit for any language. 
 
 XXXIV. -To write by a knotted silk string, so that 
 every knot shall signify any letter, with a comma, full- 
 point, or interrogation, and as legible as with pen and 
 ink upon white paper. 
 
 XXXV. The like by the fringe of glove?. 
 XXXVI. By stringing of bracelets. 
 XXXVIL By pinked gloves. 
 
20 
 XXXVIII. By holes in the bottom of a sieve. 
 
 XXXIX. By a lattin or plate Ian thorn. 
 XL. By the smell. 
 XLI. By the taste. 
 
 XLIL By the touch. 
 
 By these three senses as perfectly, distinctly, and un- 
 confusedly, yea, as readily as by the sight. 
 
 XL III. How to vary each of these, so that ten 
 thousand may know them, and yet keep the under- 
 standing part from any but their correspondent. 
 
 XLIV. 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 
 breast-plate commonly of carbine-proof, with prime, 
 powder, and firelock, undiscoverable to a stranger's 
 hand. 
 
 XLV. How to light a fire and a candle at what 
 hour of the night one awaketh, without rising or put- 
 ting one's hand out of bed. And the same thing be- 
 comes a serviceable pistol at pleasure ; yet by a strang- 
 er not knowing the secret, seemeth but a dexterous 
 tinder-box. 
 
XLVI. 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. 
 
 XLVI I. 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 superfi- 
 cies of the water, the hour of the day or night, never 
 rising more out of the water than just to the minute it 
 sheweth of each quarter of the hour; and if by force 
 kept under the water, yet the time is not lost, but 
 recovered as soon as it is permitted to rise to the super- 
 ficies of the water. 
 
 XLVIII. A scrued ascent; instead of stairs, with 
 fit landing-places to the best chambers of each story, 
 with back-stairs within the noell of it, convenient for 
 servants to pass up and down to the inward rooms of 
 them, unseen and private. 
 
 XLIX. A portable engine, in way of a tobacco- 
 tongs, whereby a man may get over a wall, or get up 
 again being come down, rinding the coast proving un- 
 secure unto him. 
 
 L. A compleat light, portable ladder, which taken 
 out of one's pocket, may be by himself fastened an 
 hundred foot high to get up by from the ground. 
 
 LI. A rule of gradation, which with ease and 
 
method reduceth all things to a private correspon- 
 dence, most useful for secret intelligence. 
 
 LII. How to signify words, and a perfect discourse, 
 by jangling of bells of any parish church, or by any 
 musical instrument, within hearing, in a seeming way 
 of tuning it; or of an unskilful beginner. 
 
 LIII. A way how to make and hollow a water- 
 scrue as big and as long as one pleaseth, in an easy and 
 cheap way. 
 
 LIV. How to make a water-scrue tight, 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. 
 
 LV. A double water-scrue, the innermost to mount 
 the water, and the outermost for it to descend more in 
 number of threads, and consequently in quantity of 
 water, though much shorter than the innermost scrue, 
 by which the water ascendeth, a most extraordinary 
 help for the turning of the scrue to make the water 
 rise. 
 
 LVL To provide and make that all the weights of 
 the descending side of a wheel shall be perpetually fur- 
 ther from the centre than those of the mounting side, 
 and yet equal in number and heft to the one side as the 
 other. A most incredible thing, if not seen, but tried 
 before the late king (of blessed memory) in the tower 9 
 
23 
 
 by my directions, two extraordinary ambassadors ac- 
 companying his Majesty, and the duke of Richmond 
 and duke Hamilton, with most of the court attending 
 him. The wheel was 14 foot over, arid 40 weights of 
 50 pounds a-piece. Sir William Balfore, then lieute- 
 nant of the tower, can justify it, with several others. 
 They all saw, that no sooner these great weights passed 
 the diameter line of the lower side, but they hung a 
 foot further from the centre, nor no sooner passed the 
 diameter-line of the upper side, but they hung a foot 
 nearer. Be pleased to judge the consequence. 
 
 LVII. An ebbing and flowing water-work, in two 
 vessels, into either of which, the water standing at a 
 level, if a globe be cast in, instead of rising it presently 
 ebbeth, and so remaineth until a like globe be cast into 
 the other vessel, which the water is no sooner sensible 
 of, but that vessel presently ebbeth, and the other 
 floweth, and so continued! ebbing and flowing until 
 one or both of the globes be taken out, working some 
 little effect besides its own motion, without the help of 
 any man within sight or hearing: But if either of 
 these globes be taken out with ever so swift or easy a 
 motion, at the very instant the ebbing and flowing 
 ceaseth; for if during the ebbing you take out the 
 globe, the water of that vessel presently returneth to 
 flow, and never ebbeth after, until the globe be return- 
 ed into it, and then the motion beginneth as before. 
 
 LVIII. How to make a pistol discharge a dozen 
 times with one loading, and without so much as once 
 
24 
 
 new priming requisite, or to change it out of one hand 
 into the other, or stop one's horse. 
 
 LIX. Another way, as fast and effectual, but more 
 proper for carabines. 
 
 LX. A way, with a flask appropriated unto it, 
 which will furnish either pistol or carabine with a dozen 
 charges in three minutes time, to do the whole execu- 
 tion of a dozen shots, as soon as one pleaseth, propor- 
 tionably. 
 
 LXI. A third way, and particular for muskets, 
 without taking them from their rests to charge or 
 prime, to alike execution, and as fast as the flask, the 
 musket containing but one charge at a time. 
 
 LXII. A way for a harquebuss, a crock, or ship- 
 musket, six upon a carriage, shooting with such expe- 
 dition, as without danger, one may charge, level, and 
 discharge ihem sixty times in a minute of an hour, two 
 or three together. 
 
 LXII I. A sixth way, most excellent for sakers, 
 differing from the other, yet as swift. 
 
 LXIV. A seventh, tried and approved before the 
 late king (of ever- blessed memory), and an hundred 
 lords and commoners, in a cannon of 8 inches, half 
 quarter, to shoot bullets of 64 pounds weight, and 24 
 pounds of powder, twenty times in six minutes; so 
 
25 
 
 clear from danger, that after all were discharged, a 
 pound of butter did not melt, being laid upon the can- 
 non britch, nor the green oil discoloured that was first 
 anointed and used between the barrel thereof, and the 
 engine, having never in it, nor within six foot, but one 
 charge at a time. 
 
 LXV. A way that one man in the cabin may 
 govern the whole side of ship-musquets to the number 
 (if need require) of or 3000 shots. 
 
 LXVI. A way that against several avenues to a 
 fort or castle, one man may charge fifty cannons, play- 
 ing and stopping when he pleaseth, though out of sight 
 of the cannon. 
 
 LXVII. A rare way likewise for musquetoons 
 fastened to the pummel of the saddle, so that a com- 
 mon trooper cannot miss to charge them, with twenty 
 or thirty bullets at a time, even in full career. 
 
 When first I gave my thoughts to make guns shoot 
 often, I thought there had been but one oriely exqui- 
 >iie way inventible, yet by several trials, and much 
 charge, I have perfectly tried all these. 
 
 LXVII I. An admirable and most forcible way to 
 drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it up 
 upwards, for that must be, as the philosopher calleth it, 
 httra sphtcram acti-citatis, which is but at such a dis- 
 tance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be 
 strong enough ; for I have taken a piece of a whole 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three 
 quarters full of water, stopping and scruing up the 
 broken end, as also the touch-hole ; and making a con- 
 stant fire under it, within 24 hours it burst and made a 
 great crack : So that having a way to make my vessels, 
 so that they are strengthened by the force within them, 
 and the one to fill after the other. 1 have seen the 
 water run like a constant foun tame-stream forty foot 
 
 f 
 
 high, one vessel of water rarified by fire driveth up 
 forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work 
 is but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of water being 
 consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold 
 water, and so successively, the fire being tended and 
 kept constant, which the self-same person may likewise 
 abundantly perform in the interim between the neces- 
 sity of turning the said cocks. 
 
 LXIX. A way how a little triangle scrued key, not 
 weighing a shilling, shall be capable and strong enough 
 to bolt and unbolt round about a great chest, an hund- 
 red bolts through fifty staples, two in each, with a 
 direct contrary motion, and as many more from both 
 sides and ends, and at the self-same time shall fasten it 
 to a place beyond a man's natural strength to take it 
 away; and in one and the same turn both locketh and 
 openeth it. 
 
 LXX. A key with a rose-turning pipe, and two 
 roses pierced through endwise the bit thereof, with 
 several handsomely contrived wards, which may likewise 
 do the same effects. 
 
27 
 
 LXXI. A key perfectly square, with a scrue turn- 
 ing within it, and more conceited than any of the rest, 
 and no heavier than the triangle scrued key, and doth 
 the same effects. 
 
 LXXII. An escocheon to be placed before any of 
 these locks, with these properties: 
 
 1. The owner (though a woman) may, with her deli- 
 cate hand, vary the ways of coming to open the lock 
 ten millions of times, beyond the knowledge of the 
 smith that, made it, or of me who invented it. 
 
 2. If a stranger open it, it setteth an alarm a-going, 
 which the stranger cannot stop from running out; and 
 besides, though- none should be within hearing, yet it 
 catcheth his hand, as a trap doth a fox; and though 
 far from maiming him, yet it leaveth such a mark behind 
 it, as will discover him if suspected ; the escocheon or 
 lock plainly shewing what monies he hath taken out 
 of the box to a farthing, and how many times opened 
 since the owner had been in it. 
 
 LXXIII. A transrnittable gallery over any ditch 
 or breach in a town-wall, with blind and parapet can- 
 non-proof. 
 
 LXXIV. A door, whereof the turning of a key, 
 with the help and motion of the handle, makes the 
 hinges to be of either side, and to open either inward 
 or outward, as one is to enter or go out, or Jo open in 
 half. 
 
28 
 
 LXXV. How a tape or ribbon-weaver may set 
 down a whole discourse, without knowing a letter, or 
 interweaving any thing suspicions of other secret than 
 a new-fashioned ribbon. 
 
 LXXVI. How to write in the dark as streight as 
 by day or candle-light. 
 
 LXXVII. -How to make a man fly; which I have 
 tried with a little boy of ten years old, in a barn, from 
 one end to the other, on a hay-mow. 
 
 LXXVII I. A watch to go constantly, and yet 
 needs no other winding from the first setting on the 
 cord or chain, unless it be broken, requiring no other 
 care from one than to be now and then consulted with 
 concerning the hour of the day or night; and if it be 
 laid by a week together, it will not erre much, but the 
 oftener looked upon, the more exact it sheweth the 
 time of the day or night. 
 
 LXXIX. A way to lock all the boxes of a cabinet 
 (though never so many) at one time, which were by 
 particular keys appropriated to each lock, opened seve- 
 rally, and independent the one of the other, as much as 
 concerneth the opening of them, and by these means 
 cannot be left opened unawares. 
 
 LXXX. How to make a pistol barrel no thicker 
 than a shilling, and yet able to endure a musquet-proof 
 of powder and bullet. 
 
29 
 
 LXXXI. A combe-conveyance carrying of letters 
 without suspicion, the head being opened with a needle- 
 scrue, drawing a spring towards them ; the combe being 
 made but after an usual form carried in one's pocket. 
 
 LXXXI I. A knife-spoon or fork, in an usual por- 
 table case, may have the like conveyances in their han- 
 dles. 
 
 LXXXIIL A rasping-mill for harts-horn, whereby 
 a child may do the work of half a dozen men, common- 
 ly taken up with that work. 
 
 LXXXIV. An instrument whereby persons igno- 
 rant in arithmetic may perfectly observe numeration 
 and subtractions of all sums and fractions. 
 
 LXXXV. A little ball made in the shape of plumb 
 or pear, being dexterously conveyed or forced into a 
 body's mouth, shall presently shoot forth such and so 
 many bolts of each side, and at both ends, as without 
 the owner's key can neither be opened or filed off, being 
 made of tempered steel, and as effectually locked as an 
 iron-chest, 
 
 LXXXVI. A chair made a-la-mode, and yet a 
 stranger being persuaded to sit down in't, shall have 
 immediately his arms and thighs locked up beyond his 
 own power to loosen them. 
 
 LXXXVII. A brass mold to cast candles, in which 
 
30 
 
 a man may make 500 dozen in a day, and add an in- 
 gredient to the tallow which will make it cheaper, and 
 yet so that the candles shall look whiter, and last 
 longer. 
 
 LXXXVIII. How to make a brazen or stone 
 head, in the midst of a great field or garden, so artifi- 
 cial and natural, that though a man speak never so 
 softly, and even whispers in the ear thereof, it will pre- 
 sently open its mouth, and resolve the question in 
 French, Latin, Welch, Irish, or English, in good terms 
 uttering it out of its mouth, and then shut it until the 
 next question be asked. 
 
 LXXXIX. White silk knotted in the fingers of a 
 pair of white gloves, and so contrived without suspi- 
 cion, that playing atprimero at cards, one may, with- 
 out clogging his memory, keep reckoning of all sixes, 
 sevens, and aces, which he hath discarded. 
 
 XC. A most dexterous dicing box, with holes 
 transparent, after the usual fashion, with a device so 
 dexterous, that with a knock of it against the table the 
 four good dice are fastened, and it looseth four false 
 dice made fit for his purpose. 
 
 XCI. An artificial horse, with saddle, and capari- 
 sons fit for running at the ring, on which a man being 
 mounted with his lance in his hand, he can at pleasure 
 make him start, and swiftly to run his career, using the 
 decent posture with bon grace, may take the ring as 
 
31 
 
 handsomely, and running as swiftly as if he rode upon 
 a barbe. 
 
 XCII. A scrue made like a \vater-scrue, but the 
 bottom made of iron-plate, spade-wise, which at the 
 side of a boat emptieth the mud of a pond, or raiseth 
 the gravel. 
 
 XCIII. An engine whereby one man may take out 
 of the water a ship of 500 tun, so that it may be calk- 
 ed, trimmed, and repaired, without need of the usual 
 way of stocks, and as easily let it down again. 
 
 XCIV. A little engine, portable in one's pocket, 
 which placed to any door, without any noise but one 
 crack, openeth any door or gate. 
 
 XCV. A double cross-bow, neat, handsome, and 
 strong, to shoot two arrows, either together or one 
 after the other, so immediately that a deer cannot run 
 two steps but if he miss of one arrow, he may be 
 reached by the other, whether the deer run forward, 
 sideward, or start backward. 
 
 XCVI. A way to make a sea bank so firm and 
 geometrically strong, that a stream can have no power 
 over it ; excellent likewise to save the pillar of a bridge, 
 being far cheaper than stone walls, 
 
 XCVf I. An instrument whereby an ignorant per- 
 son may take any thing in perspective, as justly, and 
 more than the skilfullest painter can do by his eye. 
 
32 
 
 XCVIII. An engine, so contrived, that working 
 the primum mobile forward or backward, upward or 
 downward, circularly or cornerwise, to and fro, streight, 
 upright or downright, yet the pretended operation con- 
 tinueth, and advanceth, none of the motions above- 
 mentioned, hindering, much less stopping the others ; 
 but unanimously, and with harmony agreeing, they all 
 augment and contribute strength unto the intended work 
 and operation : And therefore I call this a semi-omnipo- 
 tent engine, and do intend that a model thereof be 
 buried with me. 
 
 XCIX. How to make one pound weight to raise 
 an hundred as high as one pound falleth, and yet the 
 hundred pound descending doth what nothing less than 
 one hundred pound can effect. 
 
 C. Upon so potent a help as these two last men- 
 tioned inventions, a water-work is, by many years 
 experience and labour, so advantageously by me con- 
 trived, that a child's force bringeth up an hundred foot 
 high an incredible quantity of water, even two foot 
 diameter, so naturally, that the work will not be heard 
 into the next room; and with so great ease and geo- 
 metrical symmetry, that though it work day and night 
 from one end of the year to the other, it will not re- 
 quire forty shillings reparation to the whole engine, nor 
 hinder ones day work. And I may boldly call it The 
 most stupendous zoork in the zvhole world: Not only 
 with little charge to drain all sorts of mines, and furnish 
 cities with water, though never so high seated, as well 
 to keep theuj sweet, running through several streets, 
 
33 
 
 and so performing the work of scavengers, as well as 
 furnishing the inhabitants with sufficient water for 
 their private occasions; but likewise supplying rivers 
 with sufficient to maintaine and make them portable 
 from town to town, and for the bettering of lands all 
 the way it runs; with many more advantageous, and 
 yet greater effects of profit, admiration, and conse- 
 quence. So that deservedly I deem this invention to 
 crown my labours, to reward my expences, and make 
 my thoughts acquiesce in way of further inventions : 
 This making up the whole century, and preventing any 
 further trouble to the reader for the present, meaning 
 to leave to posterity a book, wherein under each of 
 these heads the means to put in execution and visible 
 trial all and every of these inventions, with the shape 
 and form of all things belonging to them, shall be 
 printed by brass plates. 
 
 In Bonum Publicum, 
 
 ET 
 Ad majorem DEI Gloria m. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 SEALS abundantly significant 
 
 Private and particular to each owner - 
 
 A one-line cypher -------- 
 
 Reduced to a point ------- 
 
 Varied significantly to all the 24 letters 
 
 A mute and perfect discourse by colours 
 
 To hold the same by night 
 
 To level cannons by night ------ 
 
 A ship-destroying engine 
 
 How to be fastened from aloof and under water 
 
 How to prevent both 
 
 An unsinkable ship 
 
 False destroying decks 
 
 Multiplied strength in little room .... 
 
 A boat driving against wind and tide 
 
 A sea-sailing fort _..--.- 
 
 A pleasant floating garden 
 
 An hour-glass fountain ------ 
 
 A coach-saving engine ------- 
 
 A balance water-work ------ 20 
 
 A bucket fountain - - - - - - - 21 
 
 An ebbing and flowing river - 
 
 An ebbing and flowing castle clock - - - - - 23 
 
 A strength increasing spring 24 
 
 A double drawing engine for weights - - . - - 25 
 
 A to and fro lever ..----- 26 
 
 A most easy level draught - - - - - - 27 
 
 A portable bridge 28 
 
 F 2 
 
36 
 
 A moveable fortification 29 
 
 A rising bulwark ---.-.. 30 
 
 An approaching blinde - - - - . . . 3 j 
 
 An universal character 32 
 
 A needle alphabet ....... 33 
 
 A knotted string alphabet -.--.. 34 
 
 A fringe alphabet ---35 
 
 A bracelet alphabet -----.. 35 
 
 A pinck'd glove alphabet - - - * . _ 37 
 
 A sieve alphabet ....... 38 
 
 A lanthorn alphabet .......39 
 
 An alphabet by the smell ----.. 40 
 
 taste ...... 41 
 
 touch --...- 42 
 
 A variation of all and each of these - .... 43 
 
 A key pistol -----... 44 
 
 A most conceited tinder-box ...... 45 
 
 An artificial bird ----... 45 
 
 An hour water ball - - - - . . . 47 
 
 A scrued ascent of stairs ...... 43 
 
 Tobacco tongs engine -..-...49 
 
 Pocket ladder ........ 50 
 
 Rule of gradation 51 
 
 A mystical jangling of bells ...... 52 
 
 Hollowing of a water-scrue ...... 53 
 
 Transparent water-scrue ...... 54 
 
 Double water-scrue -- 55 
 
 An advantageous change of centres .... 55 
 
 A constant water-flowing and ebbing motion ... 57 
 
 An often discharging pistol 58 
 
 Especial way for carabines ...... 59 
 
 Flask charger ----._.. go 
 
 Way for muskets - - - - - - - - 61 
 
 Way for a harquebus, a crock ..... 62 
 
 For sakers and minyons - - - - - - 63 
 
 For the biggest cannon - ..... 64 
 
37 
 
 For a whole side of ship musquets .... 65 
 
 For guarding several avenues to a town .... 66 
 For musquetoons on horseback ..... 67 
 
 Fire water-work ....-..-68 
 
 Triangle key 69 
 
 Rose key -- 7O 
 
 Square key, with a turning scrue - .... 71 
 
 An escocheon for all locks - - - - - - 72 
 
 Transmittable gallery 73 
 
 Conceited door ........74 
 
 A discourse woven in tape or ribbon - - - - 75 
 
 To write in the dark - 76 
 
 Flying man 77 
 
 A continually-going watch ...... 73 
 
 A total locking of cabinet boxes ..... 79 
 
 Light pistol barrels .......go 
 
 Comb-conveyance for letters ..... 81 
 
 A knife, spoon, or fork conveyance - - - - - 82 
 
 Rasping mill ........ 83 
 
 Arithmetical instrument - - - - - - - 84 
 
 Untoothsome pear ....... 35 
 
 Imprisoning chair - 86 
 
 Candle mould ........ 87 
 
 Brazen head ---.-....88 
 
 Primero gloves - - . ~ - . - . 89 
 
 Dicing box ....... ..90 
 
 Artificial ring horse ----... 91 
 
 Gravel engine ........92 
 
 Ship-raising engine ....... 93 
 
 Pocket engine to open any door - - . - - 94 
 Double cross bow ....... 95 
 
 Way for sea banks ....... -96 
 
 Perspective instrument ._.... 97 
 
 Semi-omnipotent engine .-.-...98 
 A most admirable way to raise weights ... 99 
 
 A stupendous water-work - - - - - -100 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 
 
 OP THE 
 
 FIRE-ENGINE 
 
 FOB 
 
 RAISING WATER. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 THAT the great force of steam was known to the 
 antients, appears from VITRUVIUS, who in his Archi- 
 tect. Lib. I. Cap. 6, teaches " parvulo aolipila specta- 
 culo de immanibus ventorum nature rationibus judicari 
 posse censuit" But the first, I think, who endeavoured 
 to bring this matter to the test of experiment, was our 
 countryman, the great Lord VERULAM, who, in a work 
 entitled Impetus Philosophici, col. 705, records the fol- 
 lowing experiment : 
 
 " Sumsit phialam vitream, qu& fortasse nnciam unam 
 capiebat, cujus collum labro latiore reverse erat instruc- 
 tunij eamque dimidiam aqua replevitj et pondus ejus et 
 (KjutR contents bilance expendit, dein vesicam, qua circi- 
 ter pintam coutinebat, recentem, oleoque bene obturatam, 
 ad osphialecjilo cerato fortiter alligavit, et phialam super 
 carbones candentes collocavit ; aqua non ita mullo post 
 bullire c&pit, et paulatim vesicam ex omni parte suffiavit, 
 fereque ad rupturam extendit, quod cum jieret, statim 
 vitrum ab igne remotum et super tapetum positumfuit, ne 
 repentmo J rigor e disrumperetur; turn in summo vesica 
 acu foramen aperuitj per quod vapor subito erumpebat. 
 Postea vesicam prorsus a phiala removit, et ejus ilerum 
 pondus quasivit, reperitque duorum denanorum pondu* 
 
aquam amasisse ; inde collegit, vaporem, qui vesicam imple- 
 bat, denariorum duorum ponderi gquipollere, ipsumque 
 vaporem aqua ad corpus aqua rationem octogecuplam 
 habuisse." 
 
 Now, although the above related experiment was so 
 circumstanced as to afford no very accurate result, either 
 with respect to the quantity of water thrown off in 
 steam, or the expansive force of the steam generated ; 
 yet it is highly probable that it might be, in some de- 
 gree, productive of one of the most lucky thoughts 
 that ever entered the human mind : I mean that 
 thought of raising water by the force of steam; which 
 undoubtedly occurred first to that most ingenious 
 nobleman the MARQUIS of WORCESTER. 
 
 This suggestion will appear the more reasonable 
 when we consider, that the sage experimenter, the 
 great LORD VERULAM, (after having laid the most 
 permanent foundations for philosophical experiments) 
 died 1626; which was only 29 years prior to 1655, 
 when, the Marquis tells us, he had acquired a know- 
 ledge of all the inventions contained in his work; and 
 that, consequently, there can be no doubt of the Mar- 
 quis having read his Lordship's works, which, at that 
 time, would most certainly make a great deal of noise 
 in the world, and be of a cast entirely compatible with, 
 the bent of the Marquis's genius. 
 
 As the date of the Century of Inventions, &c. leaves 
 no room to doubt of the Marquis being the only per- 
 son to whom posterity stands indebted for the original 
 hint of the Fire-Engine, we shall therefore proceed 
 to give such accounts thereof as the best authors 
 
43 
 
 furnish us with; and first, we shall transcribe Switze^s 
 account, as given in his Hydrost. and Hydraul. printed 
 at London in 1 729- 
 
 MR. STEPHEN SWITZER'S Account of the Invention of 
 
 the FIRE-ENGINE ; from his Hydrost. and Hydraul. 
 
 Vol. ll.p. 325. 
 
 " Amongst the several engines which have been 
 contrived for the raising of water for the supply of 
 houses and gardens, none has been more justly surpris- 
 ing than that of raising water by fire ; the particular 
 contrivance, and sole invention of a gentleman, with 
 whom I had the honour long since to be well acquaint- 
 ed; I mean the ingenious Captain Savery, sometime 
 since deceased, but then a most noted engineer, and 
 one of the commissioners of the sick and wounded. 
 
 "This gentleman's thoughts (as appears by a pre- 
 face of his to a little book, entitled The Miners Friend) 
 were always employed in hydrostatics or hydraulics, or 
 in the improvement of water-works ; and the first hint 
 from which it was said he took this engine, was from a 
 tobacco pipe, which he immersed to wash or cool it, as 
 is sometimes done; he discovered by the rarefaction of 
 the air in the tube, by the heat or steam of the water 
 and the gravitation or impulse of the exterior air, that 
 the water was made to spring through the tube of the 
 pipe in a wonderful, surprising manner; tho' others 
 say, that the learned Marquis of Worcester, in his Cen- 
 tury of Inventions, (which book I have not seen) see 
 Obs. 68, gave the first hint for this raising water by 
 fire. 
 
 G 2 
 
44 
 
 " It was a considerable time before this curious per- 
 son, who has been so great an honour to his country, 
 could (as he himself tells us) bring this design to per- 
 fection, on account of the auckwardness of the work- 
 men, who were necessarily to be employed in the affair; 
 but at last he conquered all difficulties, and procured a 
 recommendation of it from the Royal Society, in Tran- 
 sact. No. 252, and soon after a patent from the crown, 
 for the sole making this engine; and I have heard him 
 say myself, that the very first time he played it, was in 
 a potter's house at Lambeth, where, tho' it was a small 
 engine, yet it forced its way through the roof, and 
 struck up the tiles in a manner that surprised all the 
 spectators. 
 
 "About the year 1699, he wrote a small pamphlet 
 or treatise concerning this engine which I have just 
 now mentioned; wherein he has exhibited a draught 
 of it, as also a particular description of its uses." 
 
 Next follows Dr. Desagulier's Account, from his 
 Course of Experimental Philosophy: London, printed 
 1744. 
 
 "In the latter end of King Charles the Second's 
 reign, the Marquis of Worcester published a book, call- 
 ed A Century of Inventions, (printed at London in 1663) 
 which he described, as having already put some of 
 them in execution, and proposing others as practicable 
 and beneficial; for which he wanted encouragement 
 from the legislature. Several were only hints, and some 
 things he was mistaken in ; but one of his proposals in 
 which he is most explicit, is that of raising water by 
 
the force of fire, turning water into steam to press up 
 great quantities of cold water. The words of the Mar- 
 quis, No. 68, are as follow : 
 
 " An admirable and most forcible way to drive up 
 water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for 
 that must be as the philosopher calleth it, intra sphaeram 
 activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this 
 way hath no bounder if the vessels be strong enough ; for 
 I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end 
 was burst, and filed it three quarters full of water, stop- 
 ping and serving up the broken end, as also the touch- 
 hole; and making a constant fire under it, within 24 
 hours it burst and made a great crack : So that having a 
 way to make my vessels, so that they are strengthened by 
 the force within them, and the one to fill after the other, 
 I have seen the water run like a constant fountain-stream 
 forty foot high, one vessel of water rarified by fire driveth 
 up forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work 
 is but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of water being 
 consumed, another begins to force and re-fill with cold 
 water, and so successively, the fire being tended and kept 
 constant, which the self-same person may likewise abun- 
 dantly perform in the interim between the necessity of 
 turning the said cocks" 
 
 "CAPTAIN SAVERY, having read the Marquis of 
 Worcester's book, was the first who put in practice the 
 raising water by fire, which he proposed for the drain- 
 ing of mines. His engine is described in Harris's 
 Lexicon, (see the word ENGINE) which being compar- 
 ed with the Marquis of Worcester's description, will 
 easily appear to have been taken from him ; though 
 
46 
 
 Captain Savery denied it, and the better to conceal the 
 matter, bought up all the Marquis of Worcester's books 
 that he could purchase in Pater-noster-row, and else- 
 where, and burn'd 'em in the presence of the gentleman, 
 his friend, who told me this. He said that he found 
 out the power of steam by chance, and invented the 
 following story to persuade the people to believe it, 
 viz. That having drank a flask of Florence at a tavern, 
 and thrown the empty flask upon the fire, he called for 
 a bason of water to wash his hands, and perceiving 
 that the little wine left in the flask had filled up the 
 flask with steam, he took the flask by the neck, and 
 plunged the mouth of it under the surface of the water 
 in the bason, and the water of the bason was immedia- 
 tely driven up into the flask by the pressure of the air. 
 Now he never made such an experiment then, nor de- 
 signedly afterwards, which I thus prove : 
 
 " I made the experiment purposely with about half 
 a glass of wine left in the flask, which I laid upon the 
 fire till it boiled into steam; then putting on a thick 
 glove to prevent the neck of the flask from burning 
 me, I plunged the mouth of the flask under the water 
 that filled a bason ; but the pressure of the atmosphere 
 was so strong, that it beat the flask out of my hand 
 with violence, and threw it up to the ceiling. As this 
 must also have happened to Captain Savery, if ever he 
 had made the experiment, he would not have failed to 
 have told such a remarkable incident which would have 
 embellished his story. 
 
 "CAPTAIN SAVERY made a great many experi- 
 ments to bring this machine to perfection, and did erect 
 
47 
 
 several, which raised water very well for gentlemen's 
 seats ; but could not succeed for mines, or supplying 
 towns, where the water was to be raised very high and 
 in great quantities ; for then the steam required being 
 boiled up to such a strength, as to be ready to tear all 
 the vessels to pieces. The heat which is sufficient to 
 boil water will produce steam whose spring is of the 
 same strength as common air; but that steam by the 
 removal of the atmosphere and letting it return to 
 press, is only capable of bringing the water up to a 
 little above 30 foot; but for every 32 foot that the 
 water is to be raised higher, the steam must be so many 
 times stronger than the air : For example, if it is to be 
 forced up 90 or 100 foot higher than the receivers, 
 where the steam acts upon it, the steam must be three 
 or four times stronger than the common air ; and a 
 great deal stronger than that (perhaps six times stronger) 
 upon the following account : The hot steam striking 
 upon the surface of cold water in the receivers, conden- 
 ses itself, and thereby becomes uneffectual, till the sur- 
 face of the water and a small depth of it is warm enough 
 not to condense any more steam ; and then (and not 
 before) the water yields to the pressure of the spring of 
 the steam to make it rise. I have known Captain Sa- 
 very at Yor/j-buildings, make steam eight or ten times 
 stronger than common air ; and then its heat was so 
 great, that it would melt common soft solder; and its 
 strength so great as to blow open several of the joints 
 of his machine : so that he was forced to be at the 
 pains and charge to have all his joints soldered with 
 spelter or hard solder. 
 
48 
 
 " These discouragements stopped the progress and 
 improvement of this engine, till Mr Newcomen, an iron- 
 monger, and John Cawley, a glazier, living at Dart- 
 mouth, brought it to the present form in which it is 
 now vised, and has been near these 30 years. 
 
 " Tho' his method differs much from Captain Sa- 
 verys, and the force of the engine is quite different ; yet 
 it is wrought by the same power, viz. the expansion of 
 water into steam ; and that power is raised by fire." 
 
 From the ANNOTATIONS to his 12th LECTURE. 
 
 A more, particular Account of the Inventors or Improvers 
 of the several Parts of the Fire-Engine. 
 
 "About the year 1710, Thomas Newcomen, iron- 
 monger, and John Calley, glazier, of Dartmouth, in the 
 county of Southampton, (Anabaptists) made then several 
 experiments in private, and having brought it to work 
 with a piston, &c. in the latter end of the year 17 IK 
 made proposals to draw the water at Griff, in Warwick- 
 shire ; but their invention meeting not with reception, 
 in March following, thro* the acquaintance of Mr Pot- 
 ter, of Broomsgrove, in Worcestershire, they bargained 
 to draw water for Mr Back of Wolverhampton, where, 
 after a great many laborious attempts, they did make 
 the engine work ; but not being either philosophers to 
 understand the reasons, or mathematicians enough to 
 calculate the powers, and to proportion the parts, very 
 luckily by accident found what they sought for. They 
 were at a loss about the pumps, but being so near 
 'Birmingham, and having the assistance of so many 
 
49 
 
 admirable and ingenious workmen, they soon came to 
 the method of making the pump-valves, clacks, and 
 buckets; whereas they had but an imperfect notion of 
 them before. One thing is very remarkable; as they 
 at first were working, they were surprised to see the 
 engine go several strokes, and very quick together, 
 when after a search they found a hole in the piston, 
 which let the cold water in to condense the stearn in 
 the inside of the cylinder, whereas before they had 
 always done it on the outside. They used before to 
 work with a buoy in the cylinder inclosed in a pipe, 
 which buoy rose when the steam was strong, and open- 
 ed the injection, and made a stroke ; thereby they were 
 capable of only giving six, eight, or ten strokes in a 
 minute, 'till a boy, Humphrey Potter, who attended the 
 engine, added (what he called Scoggan) a catch, that a 
 beam (now called the Working Plug) always opened ; 
 and then it would go fifteen or sixteen strokes in a 
 minute. 
 
 " But this being perplexed with catches and strings, 
 Mr. Henry Beighton, in an engine he had built at 
 Newcastle on Tyne, in 1718, took them all away, the 
 beam itself simply supplying all much better. 
 
 " N. B. About the year 1717, / communicated to Mr. 
 Henry Beighton, the use of the steel-yard over the PUP- 
 PET CLACK, or safety-valve, which he applied to some 
 engines. 
 
 " The way of leathering the piston was found by ac- 
 cident about 1713; having then screwed a large piece 
 of leather to the piston, which turned up the sides of 
 the cylinder two or three inches ; in working it wore 
 
 H 
 
so 
 
 through, and cut that piece from the other, which fall- 
 ing flat on the piston, wrought with its edge to the 
 cylinder, and having 'been in a long time, was worn 
 very narrow; which heing taken out they had the 
 happy discovery, whereby they found that a bridle rein, 
 or even a soft thick piece of rope or match going 
 round, would make the piston air and water-tight. 
 
 " Mr. Beighton's account of an experiment which he 
 made on the fire-engine, to know what quantity of 
 steam a cubical inch of water produces, which I 
 thought very well worth mentioning here. 
 
 " I found by several experiments by a divided steel- 
 " yard on the puppet or safety-valve on the top of the 
 " boilers, at Griff" and Wassington, that when the elasti- 
 " city of steam was just lib. avoirdupoids on a square 
 " inch, it was sufficient to work the engine, and that 
 " about five pints in a minute would feed the boiler as 
 " fast as it consumed in boiling and steam for the cy- 
 " linder, 16 strokes in a minute. Griff cylinder held 
 " 113 gallons of steam every stroke, X by 16 strokes in 
 " a minute, = 1808 ale gallons ; so five pints of water 
 " produced 1808 gallons of steam, 38.2 cubic inches in 
 " one pint. Then 38.2 inches ; 1808 gallons : : 1 
 " inch : 47 gallons 3-10ths: Hence it appears 1 cubic 
 " inch of water by boiling till its elasticity is capable of 
 " overcoming about -^L of the atmosphere, will make 
 " 13,338 cubic inches of steam. 
 
 " By experiment I have found that out of the educ- 
 " tion-valve of a 32 inch cylinder, there comes out 1 
 " gallon each stroke; it is surprising how that steam, 
 " which is made of about 3 cubic inches of water, 
 
" should heat 1 gallon of cold water, so as to have it 
 " come out scalding hot, which it does, and the cylin- 
 " der in all its upper part is hut warm when the piston 
 " is down." 
 
 N. B. There seems to be an error in the above num- 
 ber of 38.2 cubic inches in a pint, it certainly should 
 be 35jj- ; which I thought proper enough to mention 
 here. 
 
 The above quotations, on account of the period of 
 time at which they were written, give the best histori- 
 cal account of the Fire-Engine now to be met with, 
 notwithstanding they differ in some circumstances ; 
 and all the other accounts that I have seen are only 
 mutilations thereof; for which reason I chose to give 
 them in the words of their own respective authors. 
 
 Much about the same period of time that Captain 
 Savery was going forward with his engine in England, 
 M. Papin, M. D. and Professor of Mathematics, at 
 Marbourg, was in hands with a similar invention ; for 
 in the preface to a small work entitled, Nouvelle maniere 
 d'elever I'Eaupar la Force da Feu, printed at Cassel in 
 1707, he relates, that he had in the year 1698 made a 
 great number of experiments, by order of his A. S. 
 Charles Landgrave, of Hesse, for Raising Water by the 
 Force of Fire; and which he had communicated to 
 many people, and among them to M. Leibnitz, who 
 informed him that he had also had the same thought. 
 
 Now although M. Papin arrogates to himself the 
 honour of having first made experiments on this sub- 
 ject, yet he does not say how, nor with whom the lucky 
 thought originated ; but acknowledges, that as a similar 
 
 H 2 
 
idea might have occurred to Captain Savery, as well 
 as to others, he ought also to be esteemed as one of the 
 first inventors. Mom. Papin afterwards tells us, that 
 he only wants to inform the world that the said Land- 
 grave of Hesse was the first person who had formed so 
 useful a design, and by whose order the first experi- 
 ments on that subject were made. 
 
 Whilst Mons. Papin laboured in Germany, and Cap- 
 tarn Savery in England, in bringing the action of fire 
 into use in the movement of machines, Mons. Amon- 
 tons was also engaged on the same subject in France; 
 as if the three nations in Europe, who had already made 
 the greatest progress in the sciences, had each furnished 
 a learned man to participate in the glory of so import- 
 ant a discovery. 
 
 The design of Mom. Amontons was a fire-wheel, 
 (moulin a feu) a draught of which, with its description, 
 may be seen in the Memoires de VAcadtmie Royale des 
 Sciences, annee 1699. But dying soon after, the world 
 was deprived of seeing his design reduced to practice. 
 
 As the machines of Mons. Papin were, in manage- 
 ment and effect, in no degree comparable with those 
 of Captain Savery, and as very little was done on the 
 subject by Mons. Amontons, the English nation is un- 
 doubtedly entitled to the honour of this most happy 
 discovery; and I shall conclude with a translation of 
 Mons. Belidor's account of this matter, from his AR- 
 CHITEC. HYDRAUL. Tome II. Livre IV. Chap. III. 
 " Although the Marquis of Worcester was the first in 
 England who mentioned, in intelligible terms, a machine 
 for raising water by means of fire, in a small tract. 
 
entitled A CENTURY OF INVENTIONS; yet we cannot 
 dispute Captain Savery to have been the first who exe- 
 cuted these sorts of machines in Great-Britain ; as is 
 attested by many letters wrote to me, on that occasion, 
 by the gentlemen of the Royal Society there ; in one of 
 which mention is also made of Mr. Newcomens having 
 contributed very much to bring it to its present perfec- 
 tion. Another proof that this machine took birth in 
 England, and that excels every thing of the kind that 
 hath been tried in France and Germany, is, that all the 
 fire-engines that have been constructed abroad, have 
 been executed by Englishmen" Thanks to Mom. Se- 
 lidor, for his impartiality; few foreigners ever giving 
 any applause to our nation, if there was the least reason 
 for arrogating it to their own. 
 
 FINJS. 
 
Newcastle: Printed by 
 S. Hodgson, Union-street. 
 
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