Human Industry, Chapter 3
CAP. III.
foreign, Of sundry Machins, and Artificial Motions.
GOd framed the world by Geometry (as we may say) that is,Wisd. 7, 10 foreign Plutarch Sympos. l. 8. q. 2. with wonderful Art; he did all things in Number, Weight, and Measure. Aristotle calls him foreign, The great Engineer of the world, that tacked this rare Systeme of heaven and earth together, tackt the Center to the Sphears, and made the whole Frame to move in a wonderful order from its first creation to this day. The earth is a rare piece of his Staticks, being hanged upon nothing, as Job saith, Job 26. 7. it hangs in the very Center and middle of the world, like a Ball in the Ayr, but fixt and immovable, being evenly ballanced and counterpoized with its own weight:Ov. Met. l. 1. Ponderibus librata suis. So those pendulous Mountains (the Clouds) whose ballancings that great Philosopher Job admired, Job 37. 16. and those fiery Mountains (the Comets) are Gods Isorropica, and some admirable parcels and pieces of his Mathematiques. But the whole Machin of the world being taken in the entire frame and fabrick of it, is a greater wonder then all other wonders in the world,De Civit. l. 11. as St Augustine gives his judgement. This is a kinde of an Automaton or Engine that moves of it self, much like a great Clock with wheels and poyzes, and counterpoyzes, that is alwaies in motion, though no body moves it.
For I cannot believe that the Angels (those glorious creatures) are tyed to the heavenly bodies (like dogs in a wheel) to give them motion, but that that great Engineer which made them, gave them a seeing or motion at first, that continues to this day, and will continue so long as the Sun and Moon endureth.
As the great world is an Automaton, so is the little world (man) a sort of a selfmoving Engine, that performs its several motions by certain Springs, and Wheels, and Chords that are acted by one secret principle of all motions, to wit, the heart and spirits therein contained, and which are from thence dispersed through the whole frame of the work.
Mens agitat molem, & parvo se corpore miscet.
Now it is observed, that the wit of man by a diligent and attentive perusal of the world and himself, hath framed sundry useful Machins and artificial motions, after those patterns, after the frame and model of those two primary Automata that God himself made. A Mill was first made after the pattern of a man's mouth,foreign. as Seneca tells us in his ninth Epistle; An Organ pipe had its pattern from mans weazand, which is inspired with the Lungs, and many other Inventions have been hinted unto us from the Organs of mans body, and the actions performed by them.
For Engineers, such as were expert in the practical part of the Mathematiques, these were the most renowned in ancient times. Archimedes of Syracuse, Architas of Tarentum, Severinus Boetius of Rome, Proclus, Heron, and Ctesibius, both of Alexandria, of later times, Regiomontanus of Norimberg, Simon Stevinus of lower Germany, Cornelius van Drebble his Countryman, whom we mentioned before, Athanasius Kircher by birth a German, but living (of late) in Rome, and Marinus Marsennus, a Frier of Paris. These were Magi and Thaumaturgi Mathematici wonder-workers, or such as performed marvellous feats by their great skill in Mathematical Sciences.
Cassiodorus a grave learned man, and Secretary to Theodorick King of the Goths, gives this character of the abovenamed Boetius in a certain Letter written unto him: You know (saith he) the secrets of Nature, and can work wonders by your Art, Mettals do bellow and make a noise: Diomedes cast in brass, sounds his Trumpet louder; Here the brazen serpent hisses, and there artificial Birds (that had no voice) sing melodiously; yet these are but trivial things to relate of him, who can imitate the motions of the heavens here on earth.
All art…ficial motions (generally) are performed by Ayr, or by Water, and so all Engins, at least such as move of themselves, are (or may be) divided in spiritalia & Aquatica. Heron of Alexandria writ books de spiritalibus Machinis, or wind motions or machins moved with the ayr or wind: and Paptista Porta hath some thing de pneumaticis experimentis, or wind-motions, in his fifth book of Natural Magick, and Marinus Mersennus hath written Phaenomena pneumatica. I will here produce some instances or examples of both kindes, and first of pneumatic or wind motions.
De Spiritalibus Machinis, Or WIND-MOTIONS.
OF this kinde (I conceive) was that Wooden Dove of Architas, which he made to fly in the Ayr, which was by the means of Ayr pent or inclosed within, which in the motion being somthing rarified, kept it up aloft, and with some wheels contrived in the concavity thereof, did set it forward; so Aulus Gellius gives us some hint of the contrivance of it;No…t. Att▪ l. 10. c. 1…. Ita erat librament is suspensum, & …urâ spiritûs inclusa, & occulta consitum, &c. Julius Scaliger understood the feat full well (it seems) for he professeth the skill to make the like with a wet finger, as we say. By the same art did Regiomontanus make a wooden Eagle to fly from Norimberg to meet the Emperour on his way thither;Exercit. contra Cardan. 326. and when it met him, it hovered over his head with a Tonick motion, and then returned along with him the same way that it came. The Iron Fly was the like device, made by the same Regiomontanus, which springing from under his hand, would fly round about the room with a humming noise, and then return back under his hand again.
Simon Stevinius a Dutchman, made a chariot to go with sails, which was as swift almost as the wind that drove it; for it would carry eight or nine persons from Scheveling in Holland to Putten in two hours, which was the space of forty miles and upwards.
Monsieur Peyresc a learned Antiquary of France, made a journey to see it, and was in it, and did use ever after to mention it with wonder, as Glassendus tells us in his life: It was made in fashion of a boat with four wheels, two sails, and a stern. Grotius hath excellent Poems in commendation of that Invention, two of the concisest I thought good to insert here,
In currus veliferos.
Ventivolam Typhis deduxit in aequora navem?
Jupiter in terras, aethereám que domum
In terrestre solum virtus Stevinia, nam nec
Typhy tuum fuerit, nec Jovis istud opus.
Aliud in eosdem.
Hactenus immensum Batavi percurrimus aequor,
Oceani nobis invia nulla via est.
Nerea C…ttorum soboles consumpsimus omnes…. Mare.
Jam nihil est ultrà, velificatur humus.
Translated
Typhis to Sea the first Ship brought, and Jove
To heaven, where Argo now a star doth move:
But first by Land in Ships Stevinius went:
For that, nor Jove, nor Typhis did invent.
Another.
The va… Sea hitherto the Dutch have sa…led
Search'd every Coast, found each point, and prevailed;
The Ocean's all made pervious by their hand,
Now nothing more is left, they sayl by land.
We read that in China and the Island of the Philippines, there are the like devices, as Boterus relates in Politia Illustrium; and Hondius in his Map of China hath a type thereof; so that now we sail on the land, and on the water, and under the water too; and an ingenious Gentleman of this Nation talks of sayling in the Ayr too (in a flying Coach) which he conceives to be feasib…e, and promises some attempt that way.
Cael…us Rhodiginus relates, that the Aegyptians had made some Statues of their Gods, both to walk of themselves, and also to utter some words articulately: For their motion, it must be ascribed to some wheels and springs within, like the contrivances of Daedalus his Statues, and Vulcan's Tripodes: But for their voice or speech, it must be ascribed unto some Ayr forced up through some pipes placed in the heads and mouth of … Statues. So we must conceive of the artificial Lions that roared like the natural ones; and the artificial Birds that imitated the voices and tunes of real Birds, which Luit-Prandus saw at Constantinople in the Emperours palace, when he was sent thither upon an Embassie from Berengarius King of the Lombards, Anno Dom. 950. as the said Luit-Prandus relates in the sixth book of his History. Such was that Statue of Albertus magnus which spake to Tho. Aquinas, and that brazen head of Roger Bacon a Carmelite Frier of Oxford, and perhaps that Image that Sir Richard Baker saith was made by Necromancy in the time of Richard the second, and not long before the Parliament that wrought Wonders, as Histories speak; which Image uttered at an hour appointed these words, The head shall be cut off, the head shall be lift aloft. the feet shall be lift up above the head: Sir Richard Baker in the life of Rich. 2.
Gornelius van Drebble that rare Artist we spake of) made a kinde of an Organ that would make excellent Symphony of its self, being placed in the open Ayr and clear Sun, without any fingering of an Organist; which was (as we conceive) by the means of Ayr inclosed, and the strictures of the beams rarifying the same; for in a shady place it would yeild no Musick but where the Sun-beams could play upon it, as we read of Memnons Statue that would make some kinde of Harmony when the Sun did beat upon it; whereof we speak more hereafter.
At Dantzick a City of Prussia, Mr Morison, an ingenious traveller of this Nation, saw a Mill which (without help of hands) did Sawe boards, having an iron wheel, which did not only drive the sawe, but also did hook in, and turn the boards unto the Sawe. Dr John Dee makes mention of the like which he had …een at Prague in his preface to Euclide; but whether the Mill moved by wind or water, they do not mention: We heard of the like device set up in Kent here in England, and some other places.
Archimedes his Sphear was some pneumatical Engine, that moved of it self by means of some inclosed Spirits, as appears by that Verse of Claudian in the description of it.
Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus Astris.
There are certain Aeolii Sclopi, or wind-muskets that some have devised to shoot bullets withal, without powder, or any thing else, but wind comprest into the bore thereof, or injected with a spring (as boys use to shoot pellets with Elderguns, by breathing air into them) which will shoot with as great force as powder.
Aeoliae pilae (which by contraction they call Aeolipiles) are also of this kinde, which are little things made of brass or copper in the form of a ball, or pear, or bellows (but concave) with a little small hole; these being filled with water (which they do by heating them in the fire,Baptista Porta l. 8. Mag. Nat. then throwing them into water) and then being set near the fire, the water rarifies into air, the air being scanted of room bursts out with great violence, and for a long season. They are used by Chymists to blow their coals with, as I have heard, and by some others to excite heat for melting of glass and mettals, and are called by some the Philosophical bellows.
A spit may be turned as Cardan shews, without the help of weights or hands, by the motion of ayr rarified by the fire, and ascending up the chimney, only a pair of …ails must be placed in that part of the chimney where it begins to be narrow, and a wheel below, to the Axis whereof the spit-line must be tyed; the ayr so ascending will turn the wheel, and the wheel the spit, as long as there is any fire in the chimney.
De AQVATICIS MACHINIS, Of WATER MOTIONS.
OUr ordinary Water mills that move by the force of water, are an excellent invention, if we consider the various implements that belong unto them, and with how little labour they are kept up to perform their work, when they are once set in order.
I will shew you (saith Rodulph Prince of Camerino to the Duke of Anjou) two stones that do excel all in your Cabinet, and shewed him two Millstones. These cost but ten florins, said he, and they bring two hundred florins yearly. But the Mill called the Basacle at Thelous in France, Itiner. Gallo Belgis a Machin of more then common art, as Abraham Golnitz (that saw it) tells us; It is a thing worth your seeing (saith he) for there is not such another in all France: So is that at Dantzick in Prussia, which hath eighteen rooms, and brings a gold gulden of profit every hour to the publique Treasury, saith Mr. Morison in his Travels.
At the Mint of Segovia in Spain, there is an Engine that moves by water so artificially made, that one part of it distendeth an Ingot of gold into that bredth and thickness as is requisite to make coyn of; it delivereth the plate that it hath wrought unto another that printeth the figure of the coyn upon it, and from thence it is turned over to another that cutteth it (according to the print) in due shape and weight; and lastly, the several pieces fall into a reserve in another room, where the Officer (whose charge it is) findeth treasure ready coyned, as a noble and learned Gentleman of this Nation in his Treatise of Bodies relates.Sir K. D.
The Italians make rare devices by the motions of water; In the Duke of Florence his garden at Pratolino, is the picture of Pan sitting on a stool with a wreathed pipe in his hand, and Syrinx beckning unto him to play on his pipe: Pan putting away his stool and standing up, plays on his pipe; this done, he looks on his Mistris, as if he expected thanks from her, takes his stool again, and sits down with a sad countenance.
There is also the Statue of a Landress beating a buck, and turning the clothes up and down with her hand, and the battled or wherewith she beats them in the water. There is the Statue of Fame, loudly sounding her Trumpet; The picture of a Toad creeping to and fro, and a Dragon bowing down to drink water, and then vomiting it up, with divers other knacks of wonder and delight, as Mr Morison relates.
At Tybur or Tivoli near Rome, in the Gardens of Hyppolitus d' Este Cardinal of Ferrara, there are the pictures of sundry Birds on the tops of Trees, which by Hydraulic art and secret conveyances of water through the trunks and branches of the Trees, are made to sing and clap their wings, but at the picture of an Owl appearing suddenly out of a Bush, they are all mute and silent, as Schottus in his Itinerary of Italy. It was the work of Claudius Gallus, as Possevin informs in l. 15. of his Biblioth. select. c. 1.
There are in sundry places of Italy and elsewhere, certain Organa Hyaraulica, that is, Organs that make good Musick of themselves, only by forcing the water up the p…pes, and by the collision of the Ayr and Water therein: The lower part of the pipes are placed in the water (as Petrus Victorius describes them) which water being forced up with a scrue, or such device, doth inspire the pipes, as well as the wind that is made with a bellows. Among the water-works in the Duke of Florence his garden, there was an Hydraulic Organ that with the turning of a cock would make sweet harmony, as Mr Morison relates; the invention is ancient, for Ammianus Marcellinus makes mention of one l. 14. and Claudian describes one thus in his Poem de consulatu Mallii Theodori.
Et qui magna levi detrudit murmura tactu
Innumer as voces segetis moderatus Aë nae
Intonat erranti digito, penitus que …rabali
Vecte, laborantes in carmina concitat undas.
Which invention is by some ascribed to Ctesibius, an ingenious Artist of Alexandria, by others to Archimedes of Syracuse, as Tertullian writes, of which he speaks thus, Specta potentissimam Archimedis munificentiam (scilicet) Organum Hydraulicum, tot membra, tot compagines, tot partes, tot itinera vecum, tot compendia sonorum, tot commercia Nodorum, tot acies tibiarum, & una moles erant.
In those Roman spectacles or publick shews exhibited by the Roman Emperours, we read of divers rare devices, and artificial motions, some whereof may not improperly be inserted in this place.
There were Amphitheaters both at Rome and Verona, and elsewhere,Insana… Moles. which were prodigious piles, both for magnificence of cost, and inventions of Art; whole groves of great Trees (with green branches) were brought and planted upon the sandy Theater, and therein a thousand Estridges, a thousand wilde Boar…, and a thousand Stags put in for the people to hunt. This Forrest being removed, they would on a sudden overflow all with a deep Sea, fraught with Sea monsters, and strange Fishes; then might you see a Fleet of tall Ships ready rigged and appointed, to represent a Sea-fight: then all the water was let out again, and Gladiators or Fencers fight, where the Gallies stood but even now; which things are expressed in verse by Juvenal in his third Satyr thus:
—Quoties nos descendentis Arenae
Vidimus in partes, ruptâ que voragine terra
Emersisse feras & iisdem saepe latebris
Aurea cum Croceo creverunt Arbuta libro?
Nec solum nobis Sylvestria cernere monstra
Contigit, Aequoreos ego cum certantibus Ursis
Spectavi vitulos & equorum nomine dignū
Sed deforme pecus—
Translated by H. V.
How oft have we beheld wilde Beasts appear
From broken gulfs of earth, upon some part
Of sand that did not sink? How often there
And thence did golden boughs ore saffron'd start?
Nor only saw we monsters of the wood,
But I have seen Sea-Calves whom Bears withstood;
And such a kinde of Beast as might be named
A horse, but in most foul proportion framed.
Somtimes they caused a steep mountain to rise in the midst of the Amphitheater, covered with fruitful Trees, with streams and fountains of water gushing out: somtimes a tall Ship would float up and down of its self, which splitting asunder, would disgorge five or six hundred beasts to be baited, then vanish away: somtimes odoriferous waters would spout out to bedew the people, and refresh them with the scent; sometimes they would represent the Fable of Orpheus, and then the Trees must move up and down, as the Poets fame they did when Orpheus played on his Harp.
Repserunt scopuli,Mart. Epig. 23. miranda que sylva cucurrit
Quale fuisse nemus creditur Hesperidum
Affuit immixtum pecudum genus omne ferarum
Et supra vatem multa pependit avis.
The Rocks did creep, vast Woods did strangely move,
Such ('tis believ'd) was the Hesperian Grove;
Wilde Beasts and tame profusely came to sight,
And ore the Poets head, birds did alight:
So Martial speaks of this representation by Domitian the Emperour, wherein those things were really performed on the Theater, which the Poets had but fabled, as he saith,
Quicquid fama canit donat arena tibi.
Which motions were performed per Machinamenta foreign, as Mr Farnaby conjectures in his Annotations, or by men placed in the hollows of the Trees and Rocks; but in this creeping Forrest there were beasts of all kinds among the trees, and birds on the tops of them, all attentively listning to the ravishing harmony that was made by some Musician that did personare the Thracian Lutinist.
In Rome there were versatilia Coenationum Laquearia, Epist. 90.as Seneca tells us, that is, certain dining chambers made with that art, as if they were moveable Scenes; for whilst the guests sate at Supper, they should be turned about to several rooms adorned with differing furnitures; at every new course of meat, they should be transported into a new chamber, they sitting still all the while in their seats, Sen. Ep. 20.
That Plicatilis domus, that portable Palace made of Wood by Henry the 8th, and carried over to France to that famous interview that he had with Francis the first, was a work of great magnificence and art, and much spoken of by forraign Writers, especially Paulus Jovius; and among our own, by my Lord of Cherbury in his History of that Prince, the model whereof was preserved, and was to be seen of late years (as he saith) in the Tower of London.
Of MEMNONS Statue.
MEMNON was a King of Egypt and in memory of him, there was a Colossus or mighty statue made of black marble*Called Basalius., and set up in that magnificent Temple of Serapis in Thebes.
It was made by the Theban Priests with such art and contrivance, that in the morning upon the striking of the beams of the Sun upon it, it made a kinde of Musick; it was so famous a piece, that men travelled from far to see it. Lucian the Sophister went to see that Miracle, as he calls it, as he relates in his Philopseudes; so did the Emperour Severus, as Spartianus tells us, and Germanicus, as Tacitus; and Strabo that judicious Geographer went to see it, and heard the Musick, and a great multitude of people at the same time with him; so did Apollonius of Tyana, as Philostratus relates.
This Colossus upon a certain earthquake that hapned, was broken in the middle, and yet it was as Musical as when it was whole, as Strabo affirms in the 10th of his Geography, and Juvenal Sat. 15: avers the same,
Dimidio Magicae resonant ubi Memnone chordae.
This matter need not seem fabulous or incredible (nor will not saith Natalis Comes) to any that understand the power of Art and humane Wit, and how expert the Theban Priests were in Astronomy, and all other Philosophical Sciences, see, Pliny hereof, l. 35. c. 7.
Ath. Kircher in his Oedipus, conceives it was a Telesme, Who li…t to kno… more of Telesmes and Talismanic Art, may read Mar…il. Ficinus de vitâ coelitus comparanda l. 3. c. 18. Joseph Scaliger l. 3. Epistola 226. a. and learned M. Gregory his Opuscula, cap. 8.or made by Talismanic * Art, and that the Divel was conjured within the hollow of it to perform that effect, because it continued for so long a time, namely to the time of Apollonius Tyanaeus, which from the first rearing of it was about eleven hundred years.
But yet he shews, that such a Musical statue may be made by Mathematical and natural contrivance upon the ground of rarefaction: magnam enim vim in natura rerum, rarefactionem obtinere, nemo ignorat, saith he, Tom. 2. O…d. Aegypt. where you may finde more examples of pneumatical devices among the AEgyptians in their Temples.