Deep well turned inside out. Mysterious well of initiation. Pump conversions. fire crane

A well with spiral walls seems to go to an inaccessible depth and is called the Inverted Tower or the Well of Initiation. Many tourists, going on a trip to Portugal, put themselves visiting the palace complex in a mandatory schedule.

Once this place was an ordinary estate with classical buildings owned by a baroness, but at the end of the 19th century, the property was bought by millionaire Carvalho Monteiro, who got rich selling Brazilian coffee and decided to settle in Portugal. There he acquired the Quinta da Regaleira estate in order to turn it into a completely unusual example of Masonic architecture for ordinary people.

The palace itself, the chapel and household buildings did not differ in anything remarkable, but many gloomy tunnels ran through the territory, connecting buildings, a pond, and artificial grottoes. Monteiro was a Freemason, and therefore everything that surrounded him endowed with a certain symbolism with deep meaning.

For example, the tunnel system symbolized the boundary between darkness and light, between heat and cold. And a person descending into these tunnels had to be aware of this transition, feel it on his body, see with his eyes, feel it.

The system of tunnels, it must be said, was confusing and resembled a labyrinth, because some passages ended in nothing and one could get lost inside.

But still, the most unusual of all that exists on the territory of the complex is the so-called inverted tower or well of Initiation. That's where the deep meaning just rolls over.

It is believed that it was in this well that the Masons could accept a newcomer into their ranks, giving him a number of tasks and forcing him to go through the “9 circles of hell”, which, in fact, depict flights of stairs encircling a 30-meter-deep well in a spiral.

The well is not so easy to find on the territory, because it was skillfully hidden under mossy stones, which seemed to have been lying here all their lives. Being 5 meters from the entrance, tourists may not understand that they are standing next to the main attraction. If you look inside the well, then, indeed, associations with a tower come to mind, which they turned inside out and stuck into the ground.

At the very bottom on the floor you can see the famous Templar cross, but here it is framed by an eight-pointed star, on one of the walls you can see a triangle - a classic sign of Freemasonry. And having gone down the stairs to the bottom, you find yourself in front of the entrance to the tunnel, which, as we remember, is a labyrinth - go and get out into the light.

It is noteworthy that Carvalho Monteneiro also built a tomb for himself, all decorated with symbols, but it is unlocked only with the key that could open the palace on this estate and Monteneiro's house in the capital.

© G.Altov. "Pionerskaya Pravda", 11/18/1980. - C.4.
TURN INSIDE OUT

Once Nasreddin was asked: "What is the best way to build a mosque?" Nasreddin replied: "We must dig a deep and narrow well, and then turn it inside out ..." In the theory of invention, this technique is called inversion ("do the opposite").

Recall the problem of replacing burnt-out lamps on tall poles. Instead of lifting the fitter up, it's easier to lower the lamp down. To do this, the lamp (together with the protective glass) must be suspended on a cable passing inside the tubular column. "If the lamp has burned out, the fitter will come up, lower the lamp, change the lamp and raise the lamp again," writes a girl from Saraktash, Orenburg Region. The correct answers were sent by schoolchildren from the city of Barnaul, the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region. A schoolboy from Chelyabinsk proposes to make a lamp with six hairs: one burns out, the other turns on automatically. Here, however, a technical contradiction arises: it will really be necessary to change the lamp six times less often, but the cost of such a lamp (with automatic equipment) will increase ten times, no less ... A schoolboy from the city of Evpatoria writes: "We need a small helicopter ... "A technical contradiction again! The gain will be much less than the cost: a helicopter (even a small one) will cost a lot...

When solving inventive problems, be aware of technical contradictions. It is necessary not only to obtain this or that result, but also to achieve it by simple and cheap means.

DROPLETS OF LIGHT

In the previous issue there was a problem about checking souvenir samovars. Filling the samovar with water tinted with black paint, the inspectors watched to see if a dark drop was leaking somewhere ... But you might not notice it. It is necessary to organize the check differently. But how?

We received letters with various proposals. Many solutions are close to the correct answer.

“We need to put out the light, and insert an electric light bulb inside the samovar,” writes
student from st. Parafyanovo, Vitebsk region - The light will penetrate through the holes. "The same decision was sent from the city of Frunze, the city of Dalnegorsk, guys from the 4th detachment of the Ocher special school, from the village of Zvezdny, Irkutsk region, from the village of Tyutyunnitsa, Chernihiv region. The proposal, in general, But souvenir samovars are small, there is a pipe inside the case, so it is not so easy to put a lamp inside.

"We need to pour luminous sea water into samovars," suggests a student from Tyumen. Great idea! But sea water glows thanks to special microorganisms, and they may not survive long-term storage. "In ordinary water," writes a schoolgirl from the village of Polazna, Perm Region, "we must put phosphorus." Phosphorus is insoluble in water and is highly toxic. The most valuable thing in the girl's proposal is not the mention of phosphorus, but the idea that luminous water must be obtained artificially. "Use luminous paints," suggests a schoolgirl from the city of Roshal, Moscow Region. And schoolchildren from Moscow clarify: "Luminescent paints." Right! They should be used for control. Good answers were also sent from the village. Pump station of the Azerbaijan SSR, Uyar, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kirovo-Chepetsk, Chu, Dzhambul Region, Voskresensk, Moscow Region. and other guys. And for the first time this invention was made by employees of the Institute of Physics of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Only they checked not souvenir samovars, but more complex units of refrigeration machines.

August is coming to an end, marked by three Spas, summing up the fruitful year, in which water and wells occupy a special place. The First Savior, Wet, is associated with the miraculous effect of water, the Third Savior - with the time of cleansing the wells.

It is customary to put and consecrate wells on the First Savior: August is the hottest month, when the water reaches a minimum, then it’s time to put and clean the wells. In all religions, wells were considered a sacred place. In Christianity, holy springs are places of pilgrimage and special arrangements; miraculous and healing power comes from them.

The well is associated with the human soul, which should be protected and kept clean; with the entrance to the other world; with infinity and mystery, with depth and paradise; with a native home and the unity of people. Finally, with eroticism, where the well symbolizes the female vagina, and the closed well symbolizes virginity. There were legends and fairy tales, parables and sayings, poems and poems about wells. Here, for example, is a parable from Athos monks:

“The man was digging a well. Dug ten meters - no water. Stopped digging. Started digging elsewhere. Digging, digging - everything is dry again. I left this place and left completely. And another man came to his first well. He sees that the well is deep, but there is no water. Went down into it. I dug three meters and water came out. I was very glad. If you want to enter the depths of the heart, you need to go to the end, making efforts only for this, leaving everything else.

And this is an example of a legend: in the Slovak city of Trencin there is a castle standing on a high mountain. There is a well in it, which got its name from the legend that exists here. Once the owner of this castle, having won a victory over the Turks, brought many prisoners from the campaign, and among them - the beautiful Fatima. After some time, the bridegroom of the beauty came to the castle and began to ask the owner of the castle to release the prisoners and his beloved, for which he offered a large ransom and exchange of prisoners.

The owner gave everyone except Fatima, setting a condition for Omar: he will give her if he gets water. Omar worked for three years and, finally, at a depth of 79 meters, he found precious moisture. So a well appeared in the castle, which made it impregnable, and Omar got his beloved. So the dug out source received the name "Well of Beloved".

In deep wells the water is cold
And the colder it is, the cleaner it is.
The careless shepherd gets drunk from a puddle
And in a puddle he will water his flock,
But the good one will lower the tub into the well,
The rope will be tied tighter to the rope.
A priceless diamond dropped in the night
A slave seeks by the light of a penny candle,
But he looks vigilantly along the dusty roads,
He holds a dry palm with a ladle,
Protecting fire from wind and darkness -
And know: he will return to the halls with a diamond.
(Ivan Bunin, 1915 to the poet)

In ancient Russia, on the day of the winter solstice (at Christmas), girls often wondered: they looked into the wells to see the groom or made small wells from sticks, locked them with a key and said: “Narrowed, mummers, come water the horse, ask me for a key,” they put him under the pillow.

Wells carry a deep metaphysical meaning, personifying a connection with the other worlds, with the world of the dead, with the underworld, with the past, since wells are sources of not only life, but also death. In folklore, you can find a lot of horror stories where a well looks like a grave, in which terrible monsters live, taking life from those who decide to go down to the bottom.

In the Chinese Book of Changes, the well is a symbol of the union of "I" with the subconscious, in the Jewish tradition - wisdom and the Torah itself, in Islam - the entire Muslim civilization originates from the Zemzem well, located in Mecca. According to legend, this well arose magically from the kick of Ishmael, who was thrown on this place by Hagar, who was expelled by Abraham and Sarah.

All pilgrims collect water from this holy well at the end of the Hajj in order to distribute it to their relatives and use it to heal ailments. In the same way, Christians draw water from holy springs to heal and sanctify themselves and their homes. There is a parable in the east: in order to build a minaret, it is necessary to turn a deep well inside out.

The miraculous properties attributed to wells make them a place of fateful meetings. For example, in the Bible, Eleazar, Abraham's messenger to his father's house to find a bride for his son Isaac, meets Isaac's future wife Rebekah at the well. Then Rachel and Jacob find their beloved at the well. And Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman about living water, also at the well,

and the Annunciation for the first time, according to legend, the Virgin Mary learns at the well, and Joseph's brothers threw him into a dry well. In a word, a well is a multi-valued metaphysical and sacred symbol: life and death, the underworld and the subconscious, penetration into the depths of mystery and the source of sacred knowledge.

I thought how can I be with the soul
From mine, not so big:
Whether to close the soul with a castle,
So that I can reasonably
For a drop, a drop of moisture to take
From the dark treasury depths
And sparingly give moisture
A little bit of poetry, a little bit of love!
And to me such a secret
Saved for a hundred long years.

The well was dug a long time ago
The whole bottom is lined with stone,
But the log cabin crumbled and rotted
And the bottom was covered with viscous silt.
Nettles have grown all around
And the very entrance was shut up by a spider.
Breaking down the spider's home
A rotten log house touching slightly,
I put the bucket down there
Where the water glistened dimly.
And scooped up - and was not happy:
Some kind of decay, some kind of stench.

I asked the old man:
- Why did such a well rot?
- And how not to rot him, son,
Though it is in place and deep,
Yes, from which year
People no longer draw.
He is filled with good moisture,
But he is alive as long as the people drink. -
And I realized that he is true,
Great life law:
Who is filled with good moisture,
He is alive as long as the people drink.

And if your spring is bright,
Let him not be so big
You are at the source of the spring
Do not hang from the people of the castle.
Do not conceal spiritual moisture,
But draw deeper and sip!
And saving life days
You don't drive yourself away
No inspiration, no love
But draw deeper and live!
(V. Soloukhin. Well. Excerpt)

April willow silver on red rods.
Here is a full bucket of vowels, a bucket of consonants.
The window of the well is wide open in the underground cold,
And there, to tears, someone is glad to me - how sweet it is drunk! ..

How sweet it is drunk in the depths, where there is a sob of joy,
And trembling in a dripping string, and drops of glances,
When the bucket with the inside of the well kisses
And every rib of logs is sung, drunk.

The soul of the well breathes mist, it tears,
Each layer of water is mirrored, faces are pouring there.
There are no mirrors in the underworld, a well is mirrored,
Where the abyss draws vocals, getting better with a bucket ...
(Yunna Moritz. Well)

In the 8th century, one of the largest and most mysterious wells in the world was built in India.

There is a strange building in the small town of Abaneri, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The locals call it Chand Baori. It is one of the deepest step wells in India. Today's researchers have not decided why such a complex stone structure was built, because it is possible to get water from the depths easier, and Chand Baori looks more like a palace than a well.

It has the shape of a square and is surrounded by compound terraces, with an entrance on the north side. On the southern, eastern and western sides, double rows of steps are carved on each tier. On the north side, steps lead to multi-story pavilions at the rear of the structure.

In two special niches, you can find images of the goddess Durga and the god Ganesha. And according to the fragments of the surviving sculptures and frescoes covering the walls and vaults of the galleries, it can be assumed that the main patron of Chand Baori is the god Vishnu.

The giant stone funnel of this masterpiece of architecture consists of 13 tiers connected by 3500 stone steps. There are versions that this design helped to collect rainwater in the well, and on stone terraces and steps, local residents found shelter on hot days, because the air temperature in the well is always 5-6 degrees lower than on the surface.

Legend has it that Chand Baori was erected overnight by a raja named Chand, a Rajput demon from the Chahmana dynasty, who ruled the ancient city of Abbha-Nagari (or Abaneri) in the VTII-IX centuries AD.

Is it so? Looking at this structure, it is difficult to get rid of the thought that it could not have done without the intervention of higher powers. Or maybe this is one of the mysterious, scattered around our planet pyramids? Just turned inside out and thus hidden from the descendants of an ancient mighty civilization. Who knows ... Publishing house of the Central Committee of the Komsomol "Young Guard"
1946

CHAPTER SIX WEREWOLF INVENTIONS

THE WHEEL IS RAGED

Once Khoja Nasreddin and a friend ended up in the city of Konya.

Travelers were very struck by the high, thin minarets, which are many in this city. Friend asks:

I don't understand how they are built.

It's simpler than simple, - the crafty Khoja answers. - They dig a deep well and turn it inside out.

The man wanted to joke, said nonsense and did not know that the truth came out. Of course, towers are not made from wells. But there were such examples in the history of great inventions that the minaret and the Khodja well involuntarily come to mind.

There is a familiar, well-known thing for a long time. They look at it from an unusual side, turn it inside out, and suddenly a powerful invention appears.

In the southern regions, where cultured people lived in ancient times, there was not enough water for crops, so it was necessary to irrigate the fields artificially, supplying water from rivers. For this, water-lifting wheels have long been used.

They put a large wooden wheel with buckets around the rim into the river. The wheel was turned by oxen and men, and the ladles, one by one, scooped up water, rose up and, one after another, overturned into a trough fixed at the top. And from the gutter, the water flowed by gravity along the irrigation ditches.

People worked day and night, turning the water-lifting wheels in the sweat of their brows. On one river there was an unusually stubborn wheel. The river was fast and turbulent, under the water the ladles went against the current, and the water, hitting the ladles, dragged them back. Pushing with the last of his strength, the man turned the handle, raking the buckets against the current. Exhausted, he released the handle. And then the wheel went berserk. It turned itself. In vain the man caught with his hands, trying to grab the handle.

The hell with two! The wheel was throwing him away. The wheel turned like crazy, but no more water was raised. It went in the opposite direction, and the ladles went upside down.

And, probably, the man prayed to the water gods that they would reason with the wheel, take it into their hands, and make it work again. Or maybe he didn't pray to his gods.

It was this man who was, perhaps, the great inventor who first saw the engine in the enraged water-lifting wheel.

“The wheel turns by itself,” flashed in his head, “So much the better! I’ll attach a few more ladles to it. Yes, so that they scoop up water and drag it up, as the wheel rotates. Then the wheel itself will raise water!”

He did just that. ; And the wheel behind him began to do his hard work.

There was no need for oxen, no donkeys, no need to twist the tight handle. The river worked by itself, it itself raised all the water, and the water murmured, splashed and gurgled in the gutter.

WEREWOLF CARS

Often, designers deliberately used water-lifting machines upside down in order to obtain a variety of water engines. Successfully turned out with the Archimedean screw. This water-lifting machine was invented by the greatest mechanic of antiquity, Archimedes. It looks a bit like a modern meat grinder, one end immersed in water. A spiral screw rotates in the pipe and drives water upwards, just like meat is being chased in a meat grinder.

Subsequently, the Archimedean screw was turned into a water turbine. On the contrary, they began to drive water through the pipe, and the screw spun, like the wings of a mill under the pressure of the wind. It turned out to be an excellent water turbine, which works well even with a small water pressure. |

At the dawn of electrical engineering, dynamos and electric motors were improved separately. It was believed that these are completely different machines and each needs its own special approach. But at the World Exhibition in Paris, a worker accidentally connected wires from a working dynamo to another that was not working. And that dynamo that was not working suddenly started spinning.

Since then, it has been understood that a dynamo and an electric motor are one and the same, that a dynamo can be made to spin if current is put into it, and an electric motor can be made to give current if it is turned. Some dispute the coincidence of this discovery. It is said that scientists discovered this through experiments and theoretical reasoning.

Be that as it may, the fact remains. Since they discovered that the dynamo and the electric motor are werewolf machines and one of them easily turns into the other, they began to improve them together, like one machine.

We are taught from childhood: a desk is a desk, a house is a house, a notebook is a notebook. But not everything is so simple in the world. A water-lifting wheel is at the same time an engine, an Archimedean screw is at the same time a turbine, a dynamo is at the same time an electric motor. It's like two souls live in a car. And happy is the inventor who will unravel the werewolf in the car and make him work for the benefit of people.

PUMP CONVERSION. STRAW

Amazing transformations of the air pump!

A picture from an old book: two people are pumping air out of a barrel. The work is difficult. The piston rests and does not climb out of the cylinder. The air in the barrel is very rarefied, and the outside pressure drives the piston inward. If you let go of the rope, the piston, breaking off, will hit the bottom of the cylinder.

At the end of the 17th century, at the same time, several scientists living in various countries sunk into the heads of the idea to adapt the stubborn piston of an air pump as an engine. It can be seen that people were strongly pressed by the need for extra strength, if the same, such an unusual thought comes to several heads hundreds of kilometers from each other at once. Yes, and the idea is, at first glance, unimportant.

How much can a piston do in a short single stroke from the top to the bottom of the cylinder. Yes, and what is the use of this move! Before that, you have to forcefully pull the piston back, it's the same as starting and lowering a spring. It can be seen that they changed their minds a lot, tried and discarded a lot of people before they converged on the air pump piston. Apparently, there was nothing else for people to do.

In those days, large ships were built for distant wanderings, cannons rumbled on the battlefields. Firearms have been widely used. Everything required metal. One must imagine what it meant for a medieval person - an artisan - to receive, for example, such orders. In March-April 1652, the British government ordered the immediate production of 335 cannons, and in December of the same year announced that it needed another 1,500 iron cannons, with a total weight of 2,230 tons, 117,000 artillery shells, 5,000 hand grenades. Immediately!

And agents traveled all over the country, knocking on the doors of all the masters. But it was impossible to meet such an unexpected and such a colossal demand. It is easy to say, get and give 2,230 tons of iron, if the entire annual production of iron in England at that time barely reached 20,000 tons! Coal was needed to smelt iron. It was mined in mines. The mines were filled with water. The water was pumped out.

Well, if right there, at the mine, a river flowed. Then the pumps were driven by water wheels. Well, what if there was no river? Not necessarily coal where the river is! Then the horses worked. It used to be that five hundred horses worked in the mine for pumping, and yet there was not enough power.

Cheap power was badly needed. Primarily for pumping water. That is why the scientists clutched at straws, at the stubborn piston of the air pump, in several hands at once, in different parts.

PUMP CONVERSION. SNAIL

The Frenchman Denis Papin undertook to convert the air pump, turn it into an engine. At first, Papin acted, in today's opinion, in a ridiculous way. With great difficulty, he pumped out the air from the barrel, pulled the piston to the limit and forced it to drag the piston of the water pump by the rope during the return stroke. The result was absurd: it's like grabbing yourself over your head by the ear. It was much easier to drag the water pump piston straight.

It was necessary to contrive to obtain emptiness in the cylinder without the expenditure of human strength. I wrote a letter to a colleague asking for advice. There was a colleague a foreigner, but the stubborn piston did not give him rest. Receives Papen's written advice:

Load the cylinder like a cannon with gunpowder. Attach a wick to it. Push the piston all the way to the bottom, like a projectile. And then light the wick and see what happens.

Papen took charge as little as possible. The piston did not even fly out of the cylinder, it lingered at the very top. Papin sat down and waited.

The cylinder is cold. Hot gases cooled, compressed, decreased in volume. There was a void inside the cylinder.

The piston slowly climbed inward. The outside air drove him there.

The piston climbed inside, and if you tied a rope thrown over the block to it, it would pull the other piston of the water pump pumping out water into the load. Got the engine. But what!

After each shot and cooling, after each stroke of the piston, the cylinder had to be recharged: put a charge, set fire to the wick. When you have to work, attach an artillery crew to the car: "Load! Set it on fire! Fire!"

And if Papen lived in our time, he would definitely come up with something like a machine gun. But then the machine guns were far away. Papen himself understood that his car would not go too expensive, gunpowder cost.

Still, the first step was taken: without the expenditure of human strength, a void was obtained in the cylinder. How would you just get rid of reloading? How could one invent such an indestructible gunpowder, which, after an explosion, would again turn into gunpowder by itself in the same cylinder, and so on without end? The thought flashed: "Water!"

You heat the water - steam! Cool the steam - water again! Water, of course, is not gunpowder - it does not burn and cannot turn into steam by itself, it must be heated for this.

No problem! Papin took a cylinder that looked like a cooking pot, poured water into it and put it to boil on the stove. The piston was inserted into the cylinder. There was a small hole in the piston. The water boiled, and the steam expelled the air through a hole in the cylinder.

Papin plugged the hole with a stick and removed the cylinder from the stove. The steam cooled and settled as water droplets on the walls of the cylinder. There was a void inside. The piston climbed inward under the pressure of outside air, as in a powder machine.

When the cylinder cooled, the inside turned out to be water again. It was possible to heat the cylinder again. No reload!

Only worries that bring and remove the fire. Papin was overjoyed. Here it is - the engine! Fire car. Put it on the pumps - it will pump. No rivers, no horses, no wind, the only driving force here is fire. At least now drag it to the mine, make a fire. Heaps of coal lie around.

Tales are told about Papin's car. It is said that Papen built a steamboat and sailed on it on the Fulda River. And that the evil shipowners, out of envy, wrecked his ship.

But in fact, Papen did not have any steamer. And, of course, it couldn't be.

Papin's car was as slow as a snail.

Papen went to any lengths - kindled a huge fire, fanned the buzzing hot flame with furs. Nothing could stir up a lazy machine. All that Papin could achieve in his little model was to make the piston move at a speed of one stroke in one minute.

And if we were to make a large powerful machine capable of overpowering a mine pump, then perhaps it would take hours to heat and cool the cylinder in order to pump the piston of the mine pump just once.

It didn't work that way. Therefore, Papin's machine never worked anywhere in practice.

PUMP CONVERSION. FIRE CRANE

Many inventors improved Papin's machine, but the English blacksmith Newcomen achieved the greatest success fifteen years later.

Newcomen began to dig into the reasons for the slowness of the machine, and much of what seemed reasonable and expedient yesterday seemed to him unreasonable and senseless today.

What could be more awkward?

Boil water to immediately cool, cool to immediately boil again.

Like a comic pedestrian: two steps forward, one step back!

It became clear to Newcomen that the water must be heated once and for all and then not cooled. It is necessary to constantly boil water somewhere in a special vessel and from there take steam for the cylinder. He did just that.

Water is boiled in a special cauldron. Through a narrow tube with a tap, steam is let into the cylinder. When the steam displaces the air, a fountain of cold water is injected into the cylinder. The steam cools quickly and settles on the walls. A void forms in the cylinder, and external pressure drives the piston deeper.

The fountain appeared in the car from one problem. In those days, they did not know how to properly fit the piston to the cylinder, and steam whistled through the gap. To stop the napa leak. Newcomen poured a layer of water over the piston. And the car suddenly perked up. The piston began to climb faster into the cylinder. Cold water seeped into the steam, the steam thickened faster, and a void formed in the cylinder faster. This was instantly noticed by Newcomen, who clung to every opportunity to speed up the machine. He deliberately began to inject a water fountain into the car, and the jet of water whipping in the cylinder lashed the car like a whip.

From the piston of Newcomen's machine, a chain rises to a swinging crossbar, similar to a well crane. A chain hangs from the other end of the crane to the piston of the water pump. The crane pulls out the piston like a bucket from a well.

The machine works like this. The driver stands at the taps and lets steam into the cylinder alternately, then a fountain of cold water. The work is childish, and the machine works like an elephant. One Newcomen machine replaced fifty pumping horses. Newcomen rendered a great service to the coal miners.

Hot flames blazed in the furnaces, day and night, heavy rockers slowly swayed over the pumps. And one coal miner assured his family that he could not sleep peacefully if he did not hear the clanging of chains and the sniffling of fire cranes working in the mines.

PUMP CONVERSION. THE PARABLE OF HUMFRY POTTER

Children's work - to turn the taps in the steam engine. That's what they gave it to the kids. They tell how one boy accidentally improved the steam engine. They even call the name of this little chick - Humphrey Potter. He was tired of standing for hours at the car, not daring to take his eyes off the taps for even a minute. Comrades frolic nearby. Enviably. I want to play around with them myself.

Potter took the strings and tied them with one end to the faucet handles, and the other to the rocker. When the rocker was lowered, one string was pulled and closed the faucet. When the rocker was raised, another string was pulled, and the tap opened.

He attached strings and ran to play pranks, and the machine began to work itself in his absence. Until then, man had been an essential part of the machine. And since then, the machine began to do without a person. So, they say, inadvertently, the Newcomen machine was improved. Here, they say, what a curiosity - a lazy boy, but he made an important invention! Entire books have been written about Humphrey Potter's invention.

But the latest researchers are suspicious of this story. They say that the automatic control of cranes was invented by Bayton, an excellent specialist, a serious inventor. And the story of Humphrey Potter was invented by Bayton's enemies to prevent him from taking out a patent. They needed to prove that the device was not new and had already been used before Bayton. So they made up a parable about a boy who perfected a steam engine.

PUMP CONVERSION. MODEL

Newcomen's machine for sixty years in a row served faithfully in the mines, diligently pumping out water. This continued until the training model of this machine was repaired by the mechanic of Glasgow University, the Englishman James Watt. And Watt was so carried away by a small model that he devoted his whole life to improving steam engines and became famous in this matter as a great inventor. Watt's passion was born for a reason. In those days, they began to scold Newcomen's car, and the further, the more strongly they scolded it.

Have mercy! - the breeders were indignant. - This is a breakthrough, not a car - it consumes so much fuel!

Judge for yourself, fifty horses had to be kept with a different car, and they barely had time to bring firewood. Of the thousands of logs that disappeared into the firebox, at most six slots for future use. The heat from six fields turned into useful work. The rest of the heat was wasted.

And the sizes! For a car in some thirty forces, you need a whole house! Speed? Here the breeders finally waved their hands. Ten pump lifts per minute - is that work ?!

In those days, a wide variety of high-speed machine tools appeared and began to spread around the world. They wanted an engine. How could Newcomen's machine with a pair of chains dangling up and down help here? Watt knew and heard all this for a long time. He examined the model with avid interest. And every minute his confidence grew in him: it was he and no one else who would be able to improve the car. Where did such confidence come from? Watt was not like armchair white-handed women - most scientists of that time. He was an excellent mechanic - golden hands. He had more - a golden head.

But are there enough skillful hands and clear heads in the world? Watt had something else that other mechanics of the world lacked in those days. He was a friend and faithful assistant in the experiments of the famous heat researcher Black. Watt thoroughly knew the properties of steam and heat, knew how few knew in his time. He felt everything here with his own hands. So Watt took up Newcomen's machine with the confident hand of a master. He proceeded to it fully armed with scientific instruments: thermometers, manometers, silometers. When there were not enough instruments for measurements, he invented them himself and continued his research.

Watt completely redesigned the car. Watt realized that a big loss of heat is to cool the cylinder with water over and over again and immediately heat it up again. Watt threw out the water fountain. The cylinder was now heated constantly. And the refrigerator served as a separate vessel, constantly cooled with cold water. It was connected to the cylinder by a tube with a tap. Before the working stroke of the piston, a tap was opened, the steam went into the refrigerator and settled there as water drops. There was a void in the refrigerator and in the cylinder.

Now the machine had all the parts of modern steam engines. Papin's first "powder" machine resembled the simplest animal - a small lump of living mucus - an amoeba. The body of the amoeba, its mucus, was at the same time a mouth to feed on, and legs to move about, and tentacles to grab.

The cylinder of a gunpowder machine was at the same time a cylinder, and a boiler, and a firebox, and a refrigerator.

Papin separated the furnace from the boiler.

Newcomen - a boiler from a cylinder.

Watt - separated the refrigerator from the cylinder.

The machine ceased to look like an amoeba, and if it did resemble anything living, then most likely a higher animal with its specially adapted body parts: legs to walk, hands to grab, mouth to eat.

PUMP CONVERSION. BUTTERFLY

Newcomen's machine was not a steam engine.

It was an air car. The piston in it moved by the pressure of external air, and the steam served only to get a void in the cylinder. The pressure of the outside air did not depend on people. To increase the strength of the machine, there was only one way - to increase the size of the piston. The car turned out big and weak. What an insult! Water boils in the boiler, steam gushing from the pipe, and this steam is almost never used in the machine. Watt was shocked to the core. People hold a treasure in their hands and do not notice it.

Just think about it! The indomitable force of steam pressure, the frenzied force that often tore boilers in Black's experiments, this force was not used in the machine. Watt decided to get his hands on the steam. And this is the first great merit of Watt. Watt closed the cylinder with a cap with a hole in which the piston rod went tightly. From the steam boiler to the bottom of the cylinder and the lid held pipes with taps.

Lights a fire in the furnace, raises the pressure in the boiler. Starts wielding cranes.

Opens downpipe. Steam bursts into the cylinder, - gives the piston from below. The piston rises rapidly.

Stop! Downpipe closed. Opens the top. Presses nap from above, drives the piston down.

Up - down, up - down! The car went.

Of course, Watt guessed: he combined all the taps into one spool so that the machine itself controlled it. And the car went by itself with unprecedented speed. Small, fast, powerful.

The piston goes up and down, the rocker swings. The rocker is swinging, but not like that, not at full strength. What's the matter? Blame the chain. When the piston goes up, the flexible chain does not transmit movement. I had to replace the chains with rigid rods and come up with a transmission from them to the rocker.

And from the rocker...

But here we will talk about such serious things, "that we will have to start a special conversation.

PUMP CONVERSION. THE SOUL OF MACHINES

Two years before Newcomen's car came to the Englishman Watt, in the Barnaul plant, in the Urals, Russian mechanic Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov made a brilliant discovery. He saw an engine in Newcomen's car.

Excuse me, - they will say, - but any little boy can see this!

This is for us now, from our bell tower, far to see. In the old days there were fewer open doors than now. Many doors were locked, and on the strongest lock. It was believed that there are two engines - a windmill and a water wheel. And Newcomen's machine is a pump, albeit a self-propelled one, but a pump.

And when they wanted to set some device in motion, for example, blast-furnace bellows, they did so. Newcomen's machine was forced to pump water into a tall pumping station. Water was pumped from a water pump to a water wheel. And from the water wheel, in the usual way, blast-furnace bellows were set in motion.

And for a long time no one could have guessed that Newcomen's machine itself could move the bellows. Born from a pump, the machine continued to appear as a pump.

People still saw the chrysalis where the butterfly had already developed and matured, and now it will break the withered shell and crawl out into the light, spreading its colorful wings.

Only a man of genius could see in Newcomen's machine an engine suitable for driving more than just pumps. Polzunov began to build a machine to move the furs of smelting furnaces.

Pump and bellows are different things. And the car, especially for furs, came out unusual, not like Newcomen's: two cylinders, a kind of transmission. But then times were tight, and the then backward Russian industry did not really need cars. Polzunov died, coughing up blood, without waiting for the launch.

The car was allowed to run without him and soon broke down. And for a long time lay in the reeds, on the bank of the pond, green copper cylinders. The tall grass is rustling, the glory of the car is rustling among the people, and now the old-timers are still pointing their fingers at the lawn - Polzunov's ashes.

The Polzunov case was brought to an end by James Watt in England. Polzunov's car was not suitable everywhere. It was good for furs, but it was not good for, say, a spinning wheel.

And if we did it the way Polzunov did, then we would have to invent our own special steam engine for each job: one for furs, another for a mill, a third for a hammer.

Watt went further than Polzunov. It wasn't just pumps and bellows that he cared about. He took care of all the machines, and this is another of Watt's greatest merit. He was able to discern the common thing that almost all machines have in common.

Some machines hummed, others "chirped, others hooted, but in all of them one silent soul lived - rotation. Wheels spun: geared, conical, all sorts; levers turned on axles, like spokes of wheels without rims. Rotation was the soul of machines, and this was understood James Watt.

He did not pull the clumsy chain from the yoke, but arranged a transmission from it to the wheel. The machine worked, the wheel turned, and Watt said to the industrialists:

Here's a spinning wheel. It rotates by itself and does not require any wind or water flow. It will spin wherever it is needed, just supply fuel. And you yourself set in motion what cars you want from it! Thus ended another amazing transformation. Turning a pump into a steam engine.

We are accustomed to the rapid pace of technology.

Yesterday there was no aviation - today planes are buzzing overhead. Yesterday there was no radio - today the loudspeakers are broadcasting in the squares. And it even seems strange that inventions were made so slowly in the old days. People had everything: the boiler, the cylinder, and the piston - and not separately, but together, in one machine.

But sixty years passed before people figured out that steam from a boiler could move a piston. And it took the genius of Watt to discover it.

That one is happy. who will be able to discern the features of an unborn thing in a familiar car.

But for this you need to know your car, to see through everything in it, to be an expert in your field.