A Repetition of Wilars de Honecort's Plan
This device was brought forth in 1831 in England, and illustrates what we say in the Introductory Essay to the effect of inventors working on the same plan in different parts of the earth and centuries apart.
We are unable to give the inventor's name. He was a correspondent to Mechanics' Magazine, and the description furnished by the inventor as published in Mechanics' Magazine, is as follows:
Description.—A A A is a ring of thin wood; B B B, several spokes, movable round the fixed points C C C, and only allowed to move one way by the construction of the openings D D D; E E E, heavy weights fixed to the ends of the spokes.
From the position in which the wheel is at present, it is evident that the weights on the right-hand side (1 and 2) acting at a greater distance from the center than those (4 and 5) on the other side, will cause that side to descend until the spoke 1 reaches the position 3, when it will exert no moving influence, but by which time the weight 8 will have fallen into the position 1, when a similar effect will take place, and so on with the rest.