There are many portions of the Messaria plain where the
water is even nearer, but the shadoof could work profitably at six, and
even at eight feet, and it possesses the advantage of such extreme
cheapness of original cost that the outlay is insignificant.
Where fuel is expensive, and cattle and human labour cheap, the ancient
Egyptian water-wheel will deliver a supply at a cheaper rate than steam.
It has the merit of being always ready; there is no delay in lighting
fires and getting up the steam; there is no expensive engineer who may
be sick or absent when required; but the wheel is turned either by night
or day by mules or oxen, driven by a child. Wind vanes might be attached
to this principle, and could be connected on favourable occasions.
The peculiarity throughout the lower levels in Cyprus (specially
exhibited in the plain of Messaria) of a water-supply within a few feet
of the surface, at the same time that the crops may be perishing from
drought, is in favour of the general adoption of the Egyptian wheel.
Although this simple construction is one of the oldest inventions for
raising water, and is generally understood, I may be excused for
describing it when upon the important topic of irrigation.
A large pit is sunk to about three feet below the level of the water,
and should the earth not be sufficiently tenacious for self-support, the
sides are walled with masonry; this pit would usually be about twenty
feet long, four feet wide, and twenty feet deep for a first-class wheel.
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