Memoir of a mechanic Being a sketch of the life of Timothy Claxton . he admi-rable plan of a spiders web. The animal keepingwatch in the centre, how easy it was for him tostart in any direction, that an unlucky fly might getentanded in his net. I thouo;ht at the time thatthis would be an excellent plan for the streets of atown, with a watch tower in the centre, and a de- 142 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. pot for fire engines, together with a market, andother establishments requiring a central district might also have its fire engine. Bykeeping a good look-out of a night, the directiono
Memoir of a mechanic Being a sketch of the life of Timothy Claxton . he admi-rable plan of a spiders web. The animal keepingwatch in the centre, how easy it was for him tostart in any direction, that an unlucky fly might getentanded in his net. I thouo;ht at the time thatthis would be an excellent plan for the streets of atown, with a watch tower in the centre, and a de- 142 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. pot for fire engines, together with a market, andother establishments requiring a central district might also have its fire engine. Bykeeping a good look-out of a night, the directionof a fire might be quickly ascertained ; and an in-dex that swivelled round might point towards thefire; or the town might be divided into sections,and the number of the section where the fire was^presented alternately to all the radiating streets. NEW AIR ENGINE. The annexed figure is selected from among anumber of drawings of machines of this descrip-tion: some of them swing like a pendulum. Ihave set at work several models of various forms,on similar PERPETUAL MOTION. 143 In this machine there are two copper balls, eachhaving a tube open at the lower end, which termi-nates in a vessel of water. When one of the ballsis placed over the lamp, some of the air which itcontains is expelled, and escapes at the open end,and rises through the water. If the other ball beDOW brought over the lamp, the air will be rarifiedin that also, while a vacuum is forming in the the same time, the water rises in the tubeabove the level of the water in the vessel. Thiswill now preponderate, and bring the first ball overthe lamp again. The w^ater will now be drivenout of its tube by expanding the air, while theother tube is fiUing with water, to be broughtdown in its turn ; and so on alternately. PERPETUAL MOTION A PERPETUALNOTION. Mechanics seem to be as far from solving thequestion relative to a perpetual motion, as theywere two thousand years ago ; and yet many ofthem are sti
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