The Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester / from the Original MS., with Historical and Explanatory Notes and a Biographical Memoir

by Marquis of Edward Somerset Worcester

No. LV.

A double water-screw, the innermost to mount the water, and the outermost for it to descend more in number of threads, and consequently in quantity of water, though much shorter than the innermost screw, by which the water ascendeth, a most extraordinary help for the turning of the screw to make the water rise.

NOTE.

This appears one of those extraordinary slight of hand discoveries in which the noble author is too apt to indulge; and though we may readily admit that two water-screws may be most advantageously employed in turning of any water-wheel, where an abundant supply is found at the top of the machine, it yet requires a greater share of penetration than we choose to take credit for, to discover how a larger quantity of water can descend than has been previously raised, or, if so, how the machine could be at all applied to the raising of water.