CHAPTER I.

TEMPLE TRICKS OF THE GREEKS. PUPPET SHOWS AMONG THE GREEKS. The ancients, especially the Greeks, were very fond of theatrical representations; but, as M. Magnin has remarked in his “_Origines du Théâtre Moderne_,” public representations were very expensive, and for that reason very rare. Moreover, those who were not in a condition of freedom were excluded from them; and, finally, all cities could not have a large theater and provide for the expenses that it carried with it. It became necessary, then, for every-day needs, for all conditions and for all places, that there should be comedians of an inferior order, charged with the duty of offering continuously and inexpensively the emotions of the drama to all classes of inhabitants. Formerly, as to-day, there were seen, wandering from village to village, menageries, puppet shows, fortune tellers, jugglers, and performers of tricks of all kinds. These prestidigitateurs even obtained at times such celebrity that history has preserved their names for us--at least of two of them, Euclides and Theodosius, to whom statues were erected by their contemporaries. One of these was put up at Athens, in the Theater of Bacchus, alongside of that of the great writer of tragedy, Æschylus, and the other at the Theater of the Istiaians, holding in the hand a small ball. The grammarian Athenæus, who reports these facts in his “Banquet of the Sages,” profits by the occasion to deplore the taste of the Athenians, who preferred the inventions of mechanics to the culture of mind, and histrions to philosophers. He adds with vexation that Diophites of Locris passed down to posterity simply because he came one day to Thebes, wearing around his body bladders filled with wine and milk, and so arranged that he could spurt at will one of these liquids in apparently drawing it from his mouth. What would Athenæus say if he knew that it was through him alone that the name of this histrion had come down to us? Philo of Byzantium, and Heron of Alexandria, to whom we always have to have recourse when we desire accurate information as to the mechanic arts of antiquity, both composed treatises on puppet shows. That of Philo is lost, but Heron’s treatise has been preserved to us, and has recently been translated in part by M. Victor Prou. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE SHRINE OF BACCHUS. FROM AN OLD PRINT.] According to the Greek engineer, there were several kinds of puppet shows. The oldest and simplest consisted of a small stationary case, isolated on every side, in which the stage was closed by doors that opened automatically several times to exhibit the different tableaux. The programme of the representation was generally as follows: The first tableau showed a head, painted on the back of the stage, which moved its eyes, and lowered and raised them alternately. The door having been closed, and then opened again, there was seen, instead of a head, a group of persons. Finally, the stage opened a third time to show a new group, and this finished the representation. There were, then, only three movements to be made--that of the doors, that of the eyes, and that of the change of background. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE SHRINE OF BACCHUS. MECHANISM FOR DELIVERING WINE AND MILK. FROM AN OLD PRINT.] [Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE SHRINE OF BACCHUS. SECTION SHOWING THE PROPELLING MECHANISM.] As such representations were often given on the stages of large theaters, a method was devised later on of causing the case to start from the scenes behind which it was hidden from the spectators, and of moving automatically to the front of the stage, where it exhibited in succession the different tableaux, after which it returned automatically behind the scenes. Here is one of the scenes indicated by Heron, entitled the “Triumph of Bacchus”: The movable case shows at its upper part a platform from which arises a cylindrical temple, the roof of which, supported by six columns, is conical, and surmounted by a figure of Victory with spread wings and holding a crown in her right hand. In the center of the temple Bacchus is seen standing, holding a thyrsus in his left hand and a cup in his right. At his feet lies a panther. In front of and behind the god, on the platform of the stage, are two altars provided with combustible material. Very near the columns, but external to them, there are Bacchantes placed in any posture that may be desired. All being thus prepared, says Heron, the automatic apparatus is set in motion. The theater then moves of itself to the spot selected, and there stops. Then the altar in front of Jupiter becomes lighted, and, at the same time, milk and water spurt from his thyrsus, while his cup pours wine over the panther. The four faces of the base become encircled with crowns, and, to the noise of drums and cymbals, the Bacchantes dance round about the temple. Soon, the noise having ceased, Victory on the top of the temple, and Bacchus within it, face about. The altar that was behind the god is now in front of him, and becomes lighted in its turn. Then occurs another outflow from the thyrsus and cup, and another round of the Bacchantes to the sound of drums and cymbals. The dance being finished, the theater returns to its former station. Thus ends the apotheosis. [Illustration: FIG. 4.] We shall try to briefly indicate the processes which permitted of these different operations being performed, and which offer a much more general interest than one might at first sight be led to believe; for almost all of them had been employed in former times for producing the illusions to which ancient religions owed their power. There is a general belief among mechanicians that vehicles containing within themselves the means of their own propulsion are of comparatively recent origin; and the fact of the adhesion of the rims of their wheels to the earth or a supporting rail being sufficient to enable adequate power applied to the wheels to move the vehicle was a discovery of not earlier than the middle of the last century; but in this instance the writers on locomotive machines have not dived deep enough or stayed down long enough among the records of antiquity to discover the bottom facts in the history of such mechanisms. The first locomotive, or self-moving vehicle, of which we have any account was this invention of Heron of Alexandria. In his work just cited descriptive of automatic or self-moving machines, there is illustrated the mechanism by which the shrine of Bacchus, mounted upon three wheels concealed within its base, is moved. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of that part of the shrine below the canopy, and exhibits the propelling apparatus of this ancient locomotive machine. Within the base are seen two of the supporting wheels; the driving wheel nearest the eye having been removed. On the axle of the driving wheels was the drum, _b_, about which was wound the rope, _a_, which passed upward through the space on one side of the shrine and over the pulleys, _r r_, and was fastened to the ring, _c_, of the ponderous lead weight, _d_, which rested upon a quantity of dry, fine sand. The escape of this sand through a small hole in the middle of the floor of the compartment containing it allowed the lead weight, _d_, to gradually descend, and by pulling upon the cord, _a_, caused the shrine to move slowly forward in a straight line. [Illustration: FIG. 5.] Heron describes the method of arranging and proportioning the wheels in case it was desired that the shrine move in a circular path. He also shows how the shrine can be constructed to move in straight lines at right angles to each other. Fig. 4 shows the arrangement of the wheels for this purpose, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view, showing the screws by which the bearings of either set of wheels could be raised or lowered, so as to cause the shrine to move in the way proposed. Supposing the motive cords properly wound around vertical bobbins, instead of a horizontal one, and we have the half revolution of Bacchus and Victory, as well as the complete revolution of the Bacchantes. This is clearly shown in the engraving (Fig. 2). The successive lighting of the two altars, the flow of milk and wine, and the noise of drums and cymbals were likewise obtained by the aid of cords moved by counterpoises, and the lengths of which were graduated in such a way as to open and close orifices at the proper moment, by acting through traction on sliding valves which kept them closed. Small pieces of combustible material were piled up beforehand on the two altars, the bodies of which were of metal, and in the interior of which were hidden small lamps that were separated from the combustible by a metal plate which was drawn aside at the proper moment by a small chain. The flame, on traversing the orifice, thus communicated with the combustible. [Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE MARVELOUS STATUE OF CYBELE]. The milk and wine which flowed out at two different times through the thyrsus and cup of Bacchus came from a double reservoir hidden under the roof of the temple, over the orifices. The latter communicated, each of them, with one of the halves of the reservoir, through two tubes inserted in the columns of the small edifice. These tubes were prolonged under the floor of the stage, and extended upward to the hands of Bacchus. A key, manœuvred by cords, alternately opened and closed the orifices which gave passage to the two liquids. As for the noise of the drums and cymbals, that resulted from the falling of granules of lead, contained in an invisible box provided with an automatic sliding valve, upon an inclined tambourine, whence they rebounded against little cymbals in the interior of the base of the car. Finally, the crowns and garlands that suddenly made their appearance on the four faces of the base of the stage were hidden there in advance between the two walls surrounding the base. The space thus made for the crowns was closed beneath, along each face, by a horizontal trap moving on hinges that connected it with the inner wall of the base, but which was held temporarily stationary by means of a catch. The crowns were attached to the top of their compartment by cords that would have allowed them to fall to the level of the pedestal, had they not been supported by the traps. [Illustration: FIG. 7. MARVELOUS ALTAR (ACCORDING TO HERON)] At the desired moment the catch, which was controlled by a special cord, ceased to hold the trap, and the latter, falling vertically, gave passage to the festoons and crowns that small leaden weights then drew along with all the quickness necessary. Two points here are specially worthy of attracting our attention, and these are the flow of wine or milk from the statue of Bacchus, and the spontaneous lighting of the altar. These, in fact, were the two illusions that were most admired in ancient times, and there were several processes of performing them. Father Kircher possessed in his museum an apparatus which he describes in “_Œdipus Ægyptiacus_” (t. ii., p. 333), and which probably came from some ancient Egyptian temple as shown in Fig. 6. It consisted of a hollow hemispherical dome, supported by four columns, and placed over the statue of the goddess of many breasts. To two of these columns were adapted movable brackets, at whose extremities there were fixed lamps. The hemisphere was hermetically closed underneath by a metal plate. The small altar which supported the statue, and which was filled with milk, communicated with the interior of the statue by a tube reaching nearly to the bottom. The altar likewise communicated with the hollow dome by a tube having a double bend. At the moment of the sacrifice the two lamps were lighted and the brackets turned so that the flames should come in contact with and heat the bottom of the dome. The air contained in the latter, being dilated, passed through the tube X M and pressed on the milk contained in the altar, and caused it to rise through the straight tube into the interior of the statue as high as the breasts. A series of small conduits, into which the principal tube divided, carried the liquid to the breasts, whence it spurted out, to the great admiration of the spectators, who cried out at the miracle. The sacrifice being ended, the lamps were put out, and the milk ceased to flow. Heron of Alexandria describes in his “Pneumatics” several analogous apparatus. Here is one of them. (M. de Rochas translates the Greek text literally.) “To construct an altar in such a way that, when a fire is lighted thereon, the statues at the side of it shall make libations (Fig. 7). “Let there be a pedestal, Α Β Γ Δ, on which are placed statues, and an altar, Ε Ζ Η, closed on every side. The pedestal should also be hermetically closed, but is connected with the altar through a central tube. It is traversed likewise by the tube, _e_ Λ (in the interior of the statue to the right), not far from the bottom, which terminates in a cup held by the statue, _e_. Water is poured into the pedestal through a hole, Μ, which is afterward corked up. [Illustration: FIG. 8.--MARVELOUS ALTAR (ACCORDING TO HERON).] “If, then, a fire be lighted on the altar, the internal air will be dilated, and will enter the pedestal and drive out the water contained in it. But the latter, having no other exit than the tube, _e_ Λ, will rise into the cup, and so the statue will make a libation. This will last as long as the fire does. On extinguishing the fire the libation ceases, and occurs anew as often as the fire is relighted. “It is necessary that the tube through which the heat is to introduce itself shall be wider in the middle; and it is necessary, in fact, that the heat, or rather that the draught that it produces, shall accumulate in an inflation, in order to have more effect.” According to Father Kircher, an author whom he calls Bitho reports that there was at Saïs a temple of Minerva in which there was an altar on which, when a fire was lighted, Dionysius and Artemis (Bacchus and Diana) poured milk and wine, while a dragon hissed. It is easy to conceive of the modification to be introduced into the apparatus above described by Heron, in order to cause the outflow of milk from one side and of wine from the other. After having indicated it, Father Kircher adds: “It is thus that Bacchus and Diana appeared to pour, one of them wine, and the other milk, and that the dragon seemed to applaud their action by hisses. As the people who were present at the spectacle did not see what was going on within, it is not astonishing that they believed it due to divine intervention. We know, in fact, that Osiris or Bacchus was considered as the discoverer of the vine and of milk; that Iris was the genius of the waters of the Nile; and that the Serpent, or good genius, was the first cause of all these things. Since, moreover, sacrifices had to be made to the gods in order to obtain benefits, the flow of milk, wine, or water, as well as the hissing of the serpent, when the sacrificial flame was lighted, appeared to demonstrate clearly the existence of the gods.” In another analogous apparatus of Heron’s, it is steam that performs the _rôle_ that we have just seen played by dilated air. But the ancients do not appear to have perceived the essential difference, as regards motive power, that exists between these two agents; indeed, their preferences were wholly for air, although the effects produced were not very great. We might cite several small machines of this sort, but we shall confine ourselves to one example that has some relation to our subject. This also is borrowed from Heron’s “Pneumatics.” (Fig. 8.) “Fire being lighted on an altar, figures will appear to execute a round dance. The altars should be transparent, and of glass or horn. From the fireplace there starts a tube which runs to the base of the altar, where it revolves on a pivot, while its upper part revolves in a tube fixed to the fireplace. To the tube there should be adjusted other tubes (horizontal) in communication with it, which cross each other at right angles, and which are bent in opposite directions at their extremities. There is likewise fixed to it a disk upon which are attached figures which form a round. When the fire of the altar is lighted, the air, becoming heated, will pass into the tube; but being driven from the latter, it will pass through the small bent tubes and ... cause the tube as well as the figures to revolve.” Father Kircher, who had at his disposal either many documents that we are not acquainted with, or else a very lively imagination, alleges (_Œdip. Æg._, t. ii., p. 338) that King Menes took much delight in seeing such figures revolve. Nor are the examples of holy fireplaces that kindled spontaneously wanting in antiquity. Pliny (_Hist. Nat._, ii., 7) and Horace (_Serm. Sat._, v.) tell us that this phenomenon occurred in the temple of Gnatia, and Solin (ch. v.) says that it was observed likewise on an altar near Agrigentum. Athenæus (_Deipn._, i., 15) says that the celebrated prestidigitateur, Cratisthenes of Phlius, pupil of another celebrated prestidigitateur named Xenophon, knew the art of preparing a fire which lighted spontaneously. Pausanias tells us that in a city of Lydia, whose inhabitants, having fallen under the yoke of the Persians, had embraced the religion of the Magi, “there exists an altar upon which there are ashes which, in color, resemble no other. The priest puts wood on the altar, and invokes I know not what god by harangues taken from a book written in a barbarous tongue unknown to the Greeks, when the wood soon lights of itself without fire, and the flame from it is very clear.” The secret, or rather one of the secrets of the Magi, has been revealed to us by one of the Fathers of the Church (St. Hippolytus, it is thought), who has left, in a work entitled _Philosophumena_, which is designed to refute the doctrines of the pagans, a chapter on the illusions of their priests. According to him, the altars on which this miracle took place contained, instead of ashes, calcined lime and a large quantity of incense reduced to powder; and this would explain the unusual color of the ashes observed by Pausanias. The process, moreover, is excellent; for it is only necessary to throw a little water on the lime, with certain precautions, to develop a heat capable of setting on fire incense or any other material that is more readily combustible, such as sulphur and phosphorus. The same author points out still another means, and this consists in hiding fire-brands in small bells that were afterward covered with shavings, the latter having previously been covered with a composition made of naphtha and bitumen (Greek fire). As may be seen, a very small movement sufficed to bring about combustion. THE MACHINERY OF THE TEMPLES. A. Rich, in his “Dictionary of Roman and Grecian Antiquities,” relates, under the word _adytum_, that many ancient temples possessed chambers that were known only to the priests, and that served for the production of their mysteries. He was enabled to visit a perfectly preserved one of these at Alba, on Lake Fucino, in the ruins of a temple in which it had been formed under the _apsis_, that is to say, under the large semicircular niche which usually held the image of the god at the extreme end of the edifice. “One part of this chamber,” says he, “is sunk beneath the pavement of the principal part of the temple (_cella_), and the other rises above it. The latter, then, must have appeared to the worshippers assembled in the temple merely like a base that occupied the lower portion of the _apsis_, and that was designed to hold in an elevated position the statue of the divinity whose name was borne by the edifice. This sanctuary, moreover, had no door or visible communication that opened into the body of the temple. Entrance therein was effected through a hidden door in an inclosure of walls at the rear end of the building. It was through this that the priests introduced themselves and their machines without being seen or recognized. But there is one remarkable fact, and one which proves without question the purpose of the _adytum_, and that is, that we find therein a number of tubes or hollow conduits which form a communication between this compartment and the interior of the temple, which end at the different parts of the walls of the _cella_, and which thus allowed a voice to make itself heard at any place in the temple, while the person and the place whence the sound emanated remained hidden.” [Illustration: APPARATUS FOR SOUNDING A TRUMPET WHEN THE DOOR OF A TEMPLE WAS OPENED.] Sometimes the _adytum_ was simply a chamber situated behind the _apsis_, as in a small edifice which was still in existence at Rome in the sixteenth century, and a description of which has been left to us by Labbacco, an architect of that epoch. Colonel Fain tells us that he himself has visited an ancient temple in Syria, in the interior of all the walls of which there had been formed narrow passages through which a man could make a tour of the building without being seen. In the temple of Ceres, at Eleusis, the pavement of the _cella_ is rough and much lower than the level of the adjacent portico; and, moreover, the side walls exhibit apertures and vertical and horizontal grooves whose purpose it is difficult to divine, but which served, perhaps, for the establishing of a movable flooring like that spoken of by Philostratus in the “Life of Apollonius” (lib. iii., ch. v.). “The sages of India,” says he, “led Apollonius toward the temple of their god, singing hymns on the way, and forming a sacred procession. The earth, which they strike in cadence with their staves, moves like an agitated sea, and raises them to a height of nearly two paces, and then settles again and assumes its former level.” The statues of the gods, when they were of large dimensions, possessed cavities which the priests entered through hidden passages, in order to deliver oracles (Theodoret, _Hist. Eccl._, vol. xxii.). We read in Pausanias (_Arcadica_, lib. viii., ch. xvi.) that at Jerusalem the tomb of a woman of the country, named Helen, had a door made of marble like the rest of the monument, and that this door opened of itself on a certain day of the year, and at a certain hour, by means of a machine, and closed again some time afterward. “At any other time,” adds he, “had you desired to open it, you had sooner broken it.” According to Pliny (xxxvi. 14), the gates of the labyrinth of Thebes were so constituted that when they were opened they emitted a noise like that of thunder. Heron, in his “Pneumatics,” gives us an explanation of some of these prodigies. Our first engraving is sufficiently clear to permit of dispensing with a reproduction of the Greek engineer’s text in this place. It will be seen that when the door is opened, a system of cords, guide-pulleys, and rods pushes into a vessel of water a hemisphere, to the upper part of which a trumpet is fixed. The air compressed by the water escapes through the instrument and causes it to make a sound. [Illustration: MECHANISM FOR OPENING AND CLOSING THE DOORS WHEN A FIRE WAS LIGHTED UPON THE ALTAR.] Our second and third engravings are likewise borrowed from Heron. The altar is hollow, as shown at E, in second engraving. When fire is lighted thereon, the air contained in the interior dilates and presses against the water with which the globe situated beneath is filled. This water then runs through a bent tube into a sort of pail suspended from a cord that passes over a pulley, and afterward separates into two parts, and winds around two cylinders movable upon pivots, and forming a prolongation of the axes around which the doors revolve. Around the same cylinders are wound in opposite directions two other cords, which likewise unite into a single one before passing over a pulley, and then hang vertically in order to hold a counterpoise. [Illustration: TEMPLE WHOSE DOORS OPENED WHEN A FIRE WAS LIGHTED UPON THE ALTAR.] It is clear that, when the water from the globe enters the pail, the weight of the latter will be thereby increased, and that it will descend and draw on the cord, which has been wound around the cylinders in such a way as to cause the doors to open when it is drawn in this direction. The doors are afterward closed again as follows: The bent tube that puts the globe and pail in communication forms a siphon whose longer arm enters the globe. When the fire is extinguished upon the altar, the air contained in the latter and in the globe becomes cooled and diminished in volume. The water in the pail is then drawn into the globe, and the siphon, being thus naturally primed, operates until all the water in the pail has passed over into the globe. In measure as the pail lightens, it rises under the influence of the counterpoise; and the latter, in its descent, closes the doors through the intermedium of the cords wound around the cylinder. Heron says that mercury was sometimes used instead of water on account of its being heavier. INVENTION IN 1889 A.D. _VS._ INVENTION B.C. At the railway stations, ferry houses, and even upon the street corners, there may be found in almost every city and village in the United States automatic vending machines, which, for a nickel, or more or less, will deliver the various goods which they are adapted to sell. The purchaser may procure a newspaper and a cigar to smoke, or, if averse to the use of the weed, he may secure a tablet of chewing-gum or a package of sweets. If entertainment is desired, it may be found in the “nickel-in-the-slot” phonograph. In Europe and America machines of this class are provided for dealing out portable liquors; bouquets are also furnished in a similar way; and if you desire to know how much you have increased in weight since yesterday, all that need be done is to mount the platform of the nickel-in-the-slot scales, and drop in your coin, and the thing is done. One of the latest achievements in this line is the automatic photographic apparatus, which takes your picture for a nickel, while you wait. The craze has even gone so far as to apply the principle to the distribution of perfumery. In the railway stations and ferry houses may be found machines which, for a penny, will dole out a drop or two of liquid which passes for perfumery, and which, in many cases, serves as a thin mask for bodily uncleanliness. These various devices, and many others which we might mention, are regarded as very clever inventions, and have certainly proved successful in many cases in a pecuniary sense. The last automatic vending machine alluded to is shown in our second engraving. The perfume reservoir is located in the upper portion of the vase; the tube communicating with the lower part of the reservoir extends through the side of the vase, and is closed at its upper end by a valve attached to one end of the lever, O. The other end of the lever, O, is connected by a rod with the lever, E, the longer arm of this lever being provided with a pan, R, for receiving coin, while the shorter arm of the lever is furnished with a weight for counterbalancing the pan and closing the valve. A curved piece of metal is arranged concentric with the path of the pan, R, and serves to retain the coin dropped into it through the slot in the top of the vase until the pan, R, is carried down beyond the end of the curved plate, when the coin is discharged into the lower part of the vase; the counterweight on the short arm of the lever then returns the lever to the point of starting and closes the valve, thus stopping the flow of the perfume. [Illustration: LUSTRAL WATER VESSEL DESCRIBED BY HERON ABOUT 100 B.C.] [Illustration: NOBLE’S AUTOMATIC PERFUME DISTRIBUTOR. PATENTED IN 1889.] This very clever device was patented by Mr. Lewis C. Noble, of Boston, Mass., on November 19, 1889. Our illustration is prepared directly from the patent drawings. This and other machines for analogous purposes are regarded as the peculiar product of our inventive age, but in turning back the pages of history, we find that in Egypt, something more than two thousand years ago, when a worshiper was about to enter the temple, he sprinkled himself with lustral water, taken from a vase near the entrance. The priests made the distribution of holy water a source of revenue by the employment of the automatic vending machine which is shown in our first engraving. This apparatus would not release a single drop of the purifying liquid until coin to the amount required had been deposited in the vase. A comparison of the ancient lustral water vase and the modern perfumery vending machine will show that they are substantially alike. The ancient machine has a lever, O, fulcrumed in the standard, N, and connected with the valve in the reservoir, H. The lever is furnished with the pan, R, for receiving the coins dropped through the slot, A, at the top of the vase. An enlarged view of the valve belonging to the vase is shown at the left of the engraving. The mechanism is almost identical with that shown in the modern device; in fact, this ancient vase, described by Heron more than two thousand years ago, is the prototype of all modern automatic vending machines, and simply serves as another proof of the truth of the saying, “There is nothing new under the sun.” It is a curious fact that this ancient invention escaped the notice of the Patent Office until long after patents were granted for the earlier automatic vending machines. It was only a comparatively short time ago that the Patent Office began to cite the vase of Heron as a reference. It was discovered in an ancient work on natural philosophy, and it is a matter of considerable interest to us now to know that this device was well-known to the Patent Office during the middle of this century. The vase of Heron is illustrated and described in a work on hydraulics and mechanics published in 1850 by Thomas Ewbank, who was at that time Commissioner of Patents. AN EGYPTIAN LUSTRAL WATER VESSEL. Two thousand years ago the Egyptian priests sold holy water to the faithful by a similar process to that which we have just described, although the apparatus did not partake of the nickel-in-the-slot character. Heron says of them, that there are placed in Egyptian sanctuaries, near the portico, movable bronze wheels which those who are entering cause to revolve “because brass passes for a purifier.” He says that it is expedient to arrange them in such a way that the rotation of the wheel will cause the flow of the lustral water. He describes the apparatus as follows: [Illustration: EGYPTIAN LUSTRAL WATER VESSEL.] “Let Α Β Γ Δ be a water vessel hidden behind the posts of the entrance doors. This vessel is pierced at the bottom with a hole, Ε, and under it there is fixed a tube, Ζ Η Θ Κ, having an aperture opposite the one in the bottom of the vessel. In this tube there is placed another one, Λ Μ, which is fixed to the former at Λ. This tube, Λ Μ, likewise contains an aperture, Π, in a line with the two preceding. Between these two tubes there is adapted a third, Ν Ξ Ο Ρ, movable by friction on each of them, and having an aperture, Σ, opposite Ε. “If these three holes be in a straight line, the water, when poured into the vessel, Α Β Γ Δ, will flow out through the tube, Λ Μ; but if the tube, Ν Ξ Ο Ρ, be turned in such a way as to displace the aperture, Σ, the flow will cease. It is only necessary, then, to so fix the wheel, Ν Ξ Ο Ρ, that, when made to revolve, the water shall flow.” This ingenious system of cocks having several ways was reproduced in the sixteenth century by Jacques Besson, in his “_Theatrum Instrumentorum et Machinarum_.” Besson applied it to a cask provided with compartments, which gave at will different liquors through the same orifice. Some years later, Denis Papin proposed it for high-pressure steam engines. Further improved, it has become the modern long D valve.