of a stiff leathern pipe, having at the extremity a metal strainer, pierced with holes, to prevent the admission of dirt, and which is kept suspended above the mud by a round piece of cork. The forcing-pump drives the water thus drawn up through a leathern pipe into the engine, and renders the laborious conveyance of water by buckets unnecessary. At first, indeed, this machine was exceedingly simple. It consisted only of a leathern pipe screwed to the engine, the end of which widened into a bag supported near the reservoir, and kept open by means of a frame, while the labourers poured water into it from buckets. A pump, however, to answer this purpose was soon constructed by the Van der Heides, who named it a snake-pump. By its means they were able to convey the water from the distance of a thousand feet; but I can find no account of the manner in which it was made. From the figure, I am inclined to think that they used only one cylinder with a lever. Sometimes also they placed a portable pump in the water, which was thus drawn into a leathern hose connected with it, and conveyed to the engine. Every pipe or hose for conveying water in this manner they called a wasserschlange, watersnake, and this was not made of leather, like the hose furnished with a fire-pipe, but of sail-cloth. They announced, however, that it required a particular preparation, which consisted in making it The water-tight by means of a proper cement.* pipe also, through which the water is drawn up, must be stiffened and distended by means of metal rings, otherwise the external air, on the first stroke of the pump, would compress the pipe, so that it could admit no water. It is here seen that pipes made of sail-cloth are not so new an invention as many have supposed. That our present apparatus for conveying water to the fire-engine is much more ingenious, as well as convenient, must be allowed; but I would strongly recommend that in all cities there should be pumps, or running wells of water, to the spout of which, pipes having one end screwed to a fire-engine might be affixed. The van der Heides, among the advantages of their invention, stated, that this apparatus rendered it unnecessary to have leathern buckets, which are expensive, or at any rate lessened their number, as well as that of the workmen. From this account, the truth of which cannot be doubted, one may readily believe that engines with leathern hose, were certainly not invented by Gottfried Fuchs, director of the fire apparatus at Copenhagen, in the year 1697, as publicly announced in 1717, with the addition, that this invention was soon employed both in Holland and at Hamburgh.† * Page 5. Water-Slang, zynde een lange en buiggelyke buis, van zeker soort van doek hier toe bezonderlyk bereid, gemaakt. ↑ Breslauer Samlung 1717. Erster versuch Sept. p. 108. Paschii Inventa nov-antiqua, p. 668. W. G. Hesse Abhandlung zu verbęsserung der Feuersprutzen. Gotha 1778, 8vo. p. 7. Fuchs seems only to have made known the Dutch invention in Denmark, on occasion of the great fire which took place on the 19th of April 1689, at the Opera-house of Amalienburg, when the beautiful palace of that name, and more than three hundred and fifty persons, were consumed. At any rate, we are told in history that, in consequence of this calamity, an improvement was made in the fire-establishment by new regulations, issued on the 23d of July 1689, and that engines on the Dutch construction, which had been used more than twelve years at Amsterdam, were introduced.* Hose or pipes of this kind for conveying water were however not entirely unknown to the ancients. At least the architect Apollodorus says, in the passage already quoted, that to convey water to high places exposed to fiery darts, the gut of an ox, having a bag filled with water affixed to it, might be emyloyed; for on compressing the bag, the water would be forced up through the gut to the place of its destination. This was a conveyer of the simplest kind. Among the latest proposals for improving the hose is that of weaving one without a seam. In * Algemeine Welthistorie, vol. xxxiii. p. 631. + Poliorcet. pag. 32 : Κατα δε τα προκείμενα τοις πυροβόλοις μερη, αντι σωλήνων, βοων εντερα παραφέροντα ύδωρ εις ύψος. τουτων ασκοί πληρείς ύδατος παρατίθενται και θλιβομενοι αναφέρουσι. In partibus autem quæ expositæ sunt telis incendiariis, pro tubis, boum intestina habere oportet, quæ aquam in sublime deferant. Ante hæc intestina utres aqua pleni collocantur, qui pressi aquam sursum emittunt. 1720, some of this kind were made of hemp at Leipsic, by Beck, a lace-weaver, as we are told by Leupold, in his before-mentioned work on fireengines, which was printed the same year. After this they were made by Erke, a linen-weaver of Weimar; and at a later period they were made of linen at Dresden, and also in Silesia.* In England, Hegner and Ehrliholzer have a manufactory at Bethnal Green, near London, where they make water-tight hose without seams.† Some of the same kind are made by Mr. Mögling on his estate near Stutgard, on a loom of his own invention, and are now used in many towns of the duchy of Wirtemberg. I shall here remark, that Braun had a loom on which shirts could be wove without a seam, like those curious works of art sometimes brought from the East Indies, and of which he has given a full description with an engraving.§ In the last place, I shall observe that, notwithstanding the belief of the Turks in predestination, * Leipziger Intelligenzblatt, 1775, p. 345; and 1767, p. 69. Teutscher Merkur, 1783. + The environs of London, by Daniel Lysons. Lond. 17921796. Four parts, 4to. W. G. Rappolt über die Stärke rund gewebter seile, Tübingen 1795, 8vo. Physikal. Œkon. Bibliothek, xix. p. 258. § Vestitus sacerdotum Hebræorum. Amstel. 1701, 4to. i. p. 273. Much useful information in regard to various improvements in the apparatus for extinguishing fires may be found in Aug. Niemann Uebersicht der Sicherungsmittel gegen Feuersgefahren. Hamburg und Kiel, 1796, 8vo. See Physikal. Ekonom. Bibliothek, xix. p. 412. the use of fire-engines has been lately introduced at Constantinople, by Ibrahim Effendi.* INDIGO. It is more than probable that indigo, so early as the time of Dioscorides and Pliny, was brought to Europe, and employed there in dyeing and painting. This I shall endeavour to show; but under that name must be understood every kind of blue pigment, separated from plants by fermentation, and converted into a friable substance by desiccation; for those who should maintain that real indigo must be made from those plants named in the botanical system Indigofera tinctoria, would confine the subject within too narrow limits; as the substance which our merchants and dyers consider as real indigo is prepared, in different countries, from so great a number of plants, that they are not even varieties of the same species.† Before the American colonies were established, all the indigo employed in Europe came from the East Indies; and till the discovery of a passage round the Cape of Good Hope, it was conveyed, like other Indian productions, partly through the Busching's Erdbeschreibung, vol. ii. p. 673. + For the preparation I must refer to my Vorbereitung zur Waa renkunde, Part iv. No 4. |