water-tight by means of a proper cement.* The 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 pump, would compress the pipe, so that it It is here seen that pipes not so new an invention as of the made of sail-cloth are 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 verbesserung 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 employed; 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 μέρη, αντι σωλήνων, βοων εντερα παραφέροντα ύδωρ εις ύψος. τουτων ασκοί πληρεις ύδατος παρατίθενται και θλιβομενοι αναφέρουσι. In partibus autem quæ exposita 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. 504799 In 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.* 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. Ekon. 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.* INDIG O. Ir 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 Waarenkunde, Part iv. N° 4. Persian Gulf, and partly by land to Babylon, or through Arabia and up the Red Sea to Egypt, from which it was transported to Europe. Considering this long carriage, as the article was not obtained, according to the Italian expression, a drittura, that is, in a direct manner, it needs excite no surprise that our knowledge, in regard to its real country and the manner of preparing it, should be exceedingly uncertain and imperfect. Is it astonishing that articles, always obtained through Arabia, should be considered as productions of that country; and that many commodities which were the work of art, should be given out to be productions of nature? For more than a hundred years the Dutch purchased from the Saxons cobalt, and smalt made from it, and sold them again in India; and the Indians knew as little where and in what manner the Dutch obtained them, as the Saxons did the people who were the ultimate purchasers and consumers. The real nature of indigo was not generally known in Europe till the Europeans procured it from the first hand; yet long after that period, and even in the letters-patent obtained on the 23d of December 1705, by the proprietors of the mines in the principality of Halberstadt and the county of Reinstein, indigo was classed among minerals on account of which works were suffered to be erected; but this only proves the individual ignorance of the undertakers, and also of their superiors, when they read what |