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. XVIII.

An artificial fountain, to be turned like an hour-glass, by a child, in the twinkling of an eye, it yet holding great quantities of water, and of force sufficient to make snow, ice, and thunder; with the chirping and singing of birds, and showing of several shapes and effects, usual to fountains of pleasure.

NOTE.

That a fountain may be made upon the principle of an hour-glass, and that when the upper division is exhausted, the lower may be elevated by a crank and lever, the fluid passing through the centre of its axis, we may easily conceive; but how a fountain of water can produce snow, ice, thunder, and the singing of birds, is a circumstance not easy to be comprehended.