150 An Account of a new Improvement in Fire Engines. But to give you a more extended conception of the principles I go upon, which should be thoroughly underflood previous to every thing elfe, I range them under four heads. The first, Dilatation, Condensation, (which Mr. Savery undertood) and Elafticity. The fecond, the contrivances and difpofition of the feveral veffels, with their proportions; which Mr. Savery never found time to enter into ; and therefore, as the event proved, miffed of the proper effects. Thirdly, the knowledge of the cohefion, adhesion, and ftrength in the materials, neceffary to relift fuch or such an action of fire; which will give a force of 10, 20, 100, 3 or 4000, or as many millions; thofe extremes must be known in order to be able to c mbine the active and paffive powers with the refifting bodies. There are particulars which Mr. Savery never once entered into. Laftly, the fabrication neceffary to put the above recited particulars in practice beides contrivances to give them the different forms fuitable to the various effects required. And this must be attended with difficulties, which none can conceive without a thorough underftanding of fuch worke, which was far from being the cafe of Capt. Savery. I am far from depreciating workmen : I know they have their share of knowledge: I have ever found them far from being obftinate and ftupid as many are apt to represent them: 'tis true fome artificers will almoft laugh at your raw inventors who apply to them to have their undigested thoughts put in practice, which makes thefe wou'd-be knowing ones fo much out of humour, as to abuse the mechanicks with indecent epithets. As to what the Reviewer fays, relative to the loss of fteam in the common engines, he is much in the right, fince it has been calculated that the dilatation of water by fire is as 14,000 to 1, and the effect in thofe engines but about 3000. Speaking afterwards of the prodigious and amazing force of the fame, he adds, that copper will be strong enough to withstand it, but it will be found perhaps inadequate on account of the joints; and thoje who have seen a Small one of this kind worked, will probably be of the fame opinion. I fhall only obferve, that if he will pleafe to reflect on the force given by gun-powder with bove three times lefs dilatability than'water converted into Feb. 6, Your most humble fervant, 1768. P. S. The Reviewer fays, thofe who bave feen a fmall engine worked, will be of his opinion. Now, whereas of the machines I have made, the least raised 36 gallons, and fome 70, 90, and 120 ; and thofe at Chelfea but 20 or 22, and that at York Buildings 48; I must think differently from him as to the magnitude of mine. If it be a great building that invirons engines that conftitutes largenefs, mine indeed has none, and make but an inconfiderable figure: but if raising much more water in proportion to the quantity of fire than others is of confequence, in that refpect mine may be faid to be large. Mr. URBAN, A Correfpondent of yours obferves, p. 104 of the Mag. for March laft, that he faw a very uncommon Crow, in colour like a hawk, and that he took it to be of the rook kind. I remember, Sir, that in your Magazine for 1754, p. 305, mention is made of a pied rook; and it is remarked there in a note, that the like birds are frequently feen near Salisbury, between Clarendon Park and Langford. Two or three years ago faw one myself in Staffordshire; and the famous John Toland speaks of his having feen ravens with fome white in their wings. Toland's works, i. 138. See alfo p. 141. Hence then it appears, I that these anomalies in nature are not unfrequent, and the calling them anomalies feems to be fufficiently accounting for them; for I am of opinion, that the bird in queftion, which it seems was Defcription of a furprifing Rabit. f in colour like a hawk, was one of these flackered crows, but of a dingy hue. However, Sir, this folution is more probable than that which is offered by your correfpondent, who afks, " As there is an enmity between the two birds, [the hawk and the rook] might not [the colour] be by a fudden fright, at the time of incubation, from a hawk?" Now, Sir, I fuppofe, and I believe you will agree with me, that these anomalous birds are of this party-colour from their infancy. But it feems impoffible, that the bird in the egg fhould be affected by the approach of any hawk; and, I prefume, as impoffible that any fright the dams, when fitting, might receive, fhould operate upon the egg. We read indeed of violent fears having altered the colour of a man's hair, which may feem fomething fimilar to a change of colour in a bird's feathers, and therefore allowing,, which is admitting perhaps more than needs, that the plumage of the brooding dam, might poffibly be yaried by a fudden and violent fright; yet that the egg fhould partake of the alteration, and should fuffer by the incident, is not at all credible, fince it is well known, that what the egg receives from the dam, at the time of the incubation, is nothing more than a proper degree of a duly continued warmth. This is clear, from the foreign method of hatching eggs in ovens. I am, Sir, Mr. URBAN, S your Magazine is a kind of re A gifter of things rare and curious, I have inclofed an account of an animal formerly fhewn in London, the remembrance of which, in my opinion, deferves to be preferved. The animal I mean was in shape like a large rabbit, but it was wonderfully provided againft the feverity of the cold of the northern climates, from whence the owner faid it came; its furr was longer and thicker than the rabbits of this climate; and the bottoms of its feet ware covered with a kind of natural fock of foft warm furr, which enclofed its claws, and wrapt them, as it were, one by one, into a foft web, to preferve them from the cold impreffions of the ice or fnow; but the most wonderful and moft effential deftin&tion that characterised this animal was, the contrivance to fesure its head from the cold; this was 151 by a kind of hood which took its rife from the fhoulder near its neck, and came forwards towards its head, covered both within and without like a muff, with a fine warm downy like fubftance, into which it could by turning put its head, effectually fhelter it from the feverity of the cold.. This animal, at the time it was fhewn, which, if my memory does not fail me, was about the year 1738, excited the curiofity of all the naturalifts about town to examine it, among whom was Sir Hans Sloane, who was fo much pleafed with it, that he wrote to Mufcovy, from whence the owner faid it came, to know if these animals were natives of that country, and to learn more of their history than the owner could tell him. His letter was directed to Profeffor Ammon, of the university of St. Petersburg, and the answer he received in return was in fubftance as follows: I cannot hear of any thing like the furprizing provifion against the cold in the rabbit you mention, in the rabbits of this country; of which we have but two forts in all the great Mufcovite empire; the one is found only in Dauria, beyond the like Baikel, on the fand banks of the rivers Onon, Ingoda, Ago, and is called by the natives Tolai, which in that language is a hare. This fpecies is much larger than the European rabbit, and has a much longer tail---The other fort is found through all Tartary, from Aftracan to the bay of Kam fchatka, and likewife towards Perecop and Otchakoff; this kind of rabbit, if it may be fo called, is not bigger than a common fquirrel; its fore legs are at least five times that length: the tail is as long, fometimes longer, than the whole body, rough and almoft naked, except at the extremity where it is bufny; the colour of the animal is reddith on the back and whitish on the belly. It has fuch a fpring with its hinder feet that, when purfaed, it will jump twenty feat and more, and then tand still and jump again, and fo continue to do till it reaches its hole. Its berrying like a rabbit feems the only reafon for claffing this animal among that fpecies. It feeds on greens, and is a very pretty neat creature to look at. The Tfcheremiffes, Morduans, Asjack Tartars, and natives of Cafan and Siberia, cloath themfelves with fkins during the winter; the Laplanders do the fame, and they ornament their habits with 152 Profeffor Ammon's Account of Tartar Priests. with the furrs of this little animal. I have feen a habit confifting of one skin only, bordered and enriched with others of finall beats and birds, that exceeded for variety and how all the fine filkwork of the Chinese. The priests of the Tongufe Tartars have a very particular cloak enriched in this manner. It is but fhort, and reaches only to their knees; but it is grouped together in a very grotefque and horri ble manner; the head-piece is the skin of a goat peculiar to the country, with the horns on it; the back-part is embroidered with the ftrangeft, uglieft, and most frightful figures thofe cunning wizzards can invent; here and there feveral finall bells and pieces of iron beaten into a variety of odd fhapes, are interfperfed with the dried heads and tails of different fmall animals, among which the animal just mention'd is always one. On fome of thefe conjuring cloaks there are feveral large and flat pieces of brass, with Chinese characters upon them, faftened with ftrings; and the borders are adorned with fox-tails of various colours, and a great many whole ins of fmall animals, as fables, fquirrels, and the like, all hanging loosely and fantaftically patched together: in fhort, they are the most horrible vestments that any fort of priests ever wore or could invent; but however ftrange they may appear to others, the priests who use them make them turn to good account. When one of their tribe wants to know the iffue of future undertakings, he confults his prieft, who commonly excufes himself as not being equal to the question, without the affistance of fome fpirit: if the perfon is anxi us about the event, and defires to call up the infernal power, the priest demands a prefent for him that he may rife in good humour; this being made, he puts on bis cloak, enters his tent, and begins his incantations, which at firft is in a flow and folemn tone; but in a little time he shakes his gown, raifes his yoice, roars aloud, and with horrid yellings gives notice to the perfon, who ftands trembling without, that the infernal fpirit is in prefence with him, that he is in great wrath; and that he must increase his offering, or the moft terrible vengeance will enfue. When the offering i made and the fpirit appeafed, he anfwers to all the que ftions propofed to him by the priest, and then departs; but the great perfection of the prieftcraft is here worth notice, During the whole of this tranfactions hetween the priest and the fpirit nonę dare enter the tent; and tho' it be open and all the contortions of the priest vifible, yet the fpirit with whom he holds converfation, can only be feen by himSign'd AMMON. felf." Reading this account to Sir Charles Wager, he took notice of the fimilarity of this practice among the Indians of South America, and told two inftances of their art of conjuration, which are not a little furprising; one, of his own knowledge, as he lay under the ifle of Pines, near Carthagena, fame native Indians, after confulting their prieft, came on board him, and after the ufual civilities had paffed on both fides, the Indians told him, that in eight days a warlike vessel would arrive there; which as it was an unfrequented port, Sir Charles did not pay much regard to; but exact to the time, a vessel did arrive, which proved to be a pyrate. The other inftance he learnt from Capt. Lewis, in the East India Company's fervice, who having an English child to bring over; an Indian woman was entrusted with the care of it on board, who having con fulted her pricft before she embarked, concerning the fuccefs of the voyage, received for answer, "That it would be attended with many dangers; that the fhip would be difabled; that the would be obliged to feek a ftrange port; be in danger of being loft; and that the crew would narrowly escape with their lives." All which accordingly came to pafs in the course of the voyage, the ship loft her rudder, was obliged to put into Ma dagascar to refit, where the crew meeting with fome pyrates, who, under the thew of friendship, carried on a plot with the natives to fecure the hip and cargo, very providentially escaped the fnare, by a difcovery made of it by a pyrate at the point of death, just before the plot was ready for execution confequence of this difcovery they immediately put to fea, which they had no fooner done, than the fhore was covered with favages and pyrates, who made figns of rage and revenge at their dif appointment. In If thefe particulars are worth inferting, you may illuftrate profeffor Ammon's account of the little rabbit of Mufcovey, by a cut of the animal, which you will find in Edwards's rare collecti on, under the name of GERBUA, which I think will be an acceptable prefent to the public, and am Sir, Yours, &c. C. P. |