網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

In the Crystal Palace, we saw, also, the ingenious machine for folding envelopes. The German printers, who, in 1466, set up their press in Rome, astonished the Pope by telling him, a few years afterwards, how much paper they had consumed in printing their stock of books. "Your Holiness would wonder," said they, "where we get all the rags." We now consume infinitely more paper in a year, in this country, in the single article of covers for our letters-upwards of three hundred millions passing annually through the postoffice.

We saw in the Crystal Palace books printed in America and Australia-countries of which the existence was not known when Westminster Abbey was a printing office.

The Bishop of Angers, in 1470, gave forty gold crowns for a copy of the second Bible printed in Mentz. We saw in the Exhibition copies of the Sacred Scriptures printed in nearly one hundred and fifty different tongues, many of them to be had by purchasers for a few pence, and of which more than twenty-five millions have been distributed by the Bible Society of this country all over the globe.

Thus, in that magnificent display of the genius and industry of man, we beheld the dependence of one art upon another, and how every new development of human ingenuity brings others in its train. The locomotive was there and its offspring, Delarue's machine for supplying the penny post. So, also, paper, the herald of the printing press, was there; and not only paper in sheets, but in those endless webs which feed the insatiate appetite of the printing machine-without which webs, and without which machine, it would be impossible to produce the required acres of print which society now demands.

When facts like these are presented to our minds, there is little danger that we should underrate the importance of the press. Our peril lies in another direction. We are more likely to regard it

with superstitious veneration. We should remember
that the press has, in itself, no character of good or
evil-that it is nothing more than a mere instrument,
of which the motive power is the human mind. It
is the servant of the wise, the virtuous, and the good;
and also of the corrupt, the ignorant, and the
wicked. If we would purify and elevate the press-
if we would preserve its freedom and extend its use-
fulness-we must have an educated, intelligent, and
religious people. The signs of the times are porten-
tous. We stand here, on the western verge of the
Old World, in the only country, on this side the
Atlantic ocean, in which the press is really free—
the only country in which a man may utter, in
speech or in print, whatever an honest man should
wish to utter the only country in which the aspira-
tion of the illustrious Milton is granted-" Give me
the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely ac-
cording to concience, above all other liberties." This
liberty we enjoy through the courage and sacrifices
of our forefathers. It is written for their glory that
they won this freedom for us. Let it not be written
for our shame that we lost it for those who came
after us.
We hold a sacred charge-which is not,
perhaps, so safe in our keeping as some of us
imagine. Be it the office of every lover of his
country and his kind to nurture a love of learning,
literature, and liberty-to inspire his fellow-country-
men with a sense of their duties as well as their
privileges; and may we be ever found, individually
and as a people,

With hearts resolved and hands prepared
The blessings we enjoy to guard.

ANCIENT & MODERN WELL-SINKING

AND

EARTH-BORING INSTRUMENTS;

BY DAVID CHADWICK, Esq., Assoo. INST. C. E.

[Read before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.]

SYNOPSIS.

Wella mentioned in the Bible-Roman wells and methods of discovering water-Archimedes' screw for raising water Ancient force pump-Artesian wells in China-Modern wellsinking in England-Deep wells - Well-boring machinery — Patents and modern improvements.

In endeavouring to treat this important subject within the brief limits allowed by the regulations of the Society, I purpose to consider,

1st. The wells mentioned in the Bible, and those of various countries in ancient times, and the supposed methods of their construction. 2nd. The wells of modern times, and the mode of their construction, and the introduction of Artesian wells.

3rd. The recent improvements in the art of wellsinking and earth-boring, and the instruments and machinery employed for that purpose. Wherever human beings have congregated, one of the first considerations has been to obtain a supply of water, and the sites fixed upon for encampments, villages, or towns, have invariably been places favourably situated for that purpose.

The existence of wells, and the digging of wells, are frequently alluded to in the Bible. In Genesis c. xxi, v. 19, Hagar is said to have found "a well of water" in the wilderness of Beer-sheba; and at verses 25 and 30, Abraham is recorded to have reproved Abimelech because his servants had violently taken away a well of water; and, it is said, Abraham gave to Abimelech seven ewe lambs as a witness unto him that he had digged the well at the place which he called Beer-sheba. In Genesis c. xxiv, v. 13, 14, 19, Abraham's servant is stated to have stood by the well from which the daughters of the men of the city came to draw water, and from amongst whom he choose Rebekah for a wife for Isaac, the son of Abraham his master. In Genesis, c. xxvi, v. 18, it is said "And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham." Again, v. 19, "And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water," and he called the name of the well Esek; they digged other wells and called them Sitnah, and Rehoboth; and they built another well at Beer-sheba, where Isaac pitched his tent and built an altar.

When the Israelites went out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea, and were continuing their journey in the wilderness, they were three days without water, and murmured unto Moses; and we find that immediately afterwards, Exodus, c. xv, v. 27, "They came to Elim where were twelve wells of water."

1

In Numbers, c. xxi, v. 16, 17, and 18, we find that the Israelites having come to Beer, the well whereof the Lord spoke unto Moses, they sung this song, "Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: the princes digged the well; the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the law-giver with their staves.”

In Deuteronomy, c. vi, v. 11, we read that amongst the good things which Moses promised to the children of Israel, if obedient to the law, were "wells which they digged not." In Samuel 2nd book, c. xvii, v. 18, it is said that Jonathan and Ahimaaz, when pursued by Absalom's servants, hid themselves in a well in the court of a man's house at Bahurim. And in the same book, c. xxiii, v, 15 and 16, it is said that David wanted water, and three of his mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem.

In Kings, 2nd book, c. iii, v. 19-25, it is recorded that Elisha commanded the Israelites to smite every fenced city of the Moabites, and stop all the wells of water; and in Chronicles, 2nd book, c. xxvi, v. 10, that Uzziah built towers at Jerusalem, and in the desert," and digged many wells."

In the 84th Psalm, v. 6, A well in the "valley of Baca" is referred to; wells are also referred to in Proverbs, c. v, v. 15-in Isaiah, c. xii, v. 3; and in various places in the New Testament, frequent allusions are made to wells.

In the Gospel of St. John, c. iv, v. 6, it is said. that when Jesus came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, He rested at Jacob's well, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And when a woman of Samaria came to draw water, Jesus asked her to give him drink, and made known himself unto her.

Although the building and digging of wells are so frequently alluded to in the Bible, no particular record of their mode of construction is preserved; but we may fairly assume that they were dug by hand labour, and frequently built round with bricks, and that they were not carried to any extraordinary depth. Jacob's well, above referred to, is said to have been 75 feet deep. The means of drawing the water would appear to be by letting down a vessel into the well by the hand, or by a rope and pulley,

« 上一頁繼續 »