Excerpt from Hydraulic Machinery, Past and Present: A Lecture Delivered to the London and Suburban Railway Officials' Association, on the 10th January, 1880 In the year 1 582 Peter Maurice, a German engineer, proposed to erect a similar machine in London, for supplying water to the houses. The Lord Mayor and Common Council were so pleased with the proposal that they granted the use of one of the arches of the London Bridge of that time, in which to place the machinery. It consisted of a series of force pumps 7 inches in diameter and 30 inches stroke, worked by an undershot water-wheel turned by the currentduring the rise and fall of the tide, raising the water to aheight of 120 feet. This machinery was repaired and extended from timsto time until it was finally removed in 1822, after it had long done good service to the citizens of London. A most elaborate pumping arrangement of this description was erected in 1862 on the Seine near Paris. It consisted of 14 large undershot water-wheels working 250 pumps at various elevations, raising the water to a total height of 530 feet. The water was lifted in stages, the higher pumps being worked by cranks and chains led from the water-wheels. This machinery was in use over a hundred years, but had many alterations tried, and was never satisfactory, owing to the great mistake of not doing all the work at one lift by having smaller pumps and stronger pipes. Finally falling into decay, it was replaced by order of Napoleon with a steam pumping engine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.