On the Nature and Law of Waters

CHAPTER I. On the Subject of Hydraulics.

§ 2. Thales of Miletus A pre-Socratic Greek philosopher often cited as the first to investigate the basic substance of the universe. indeed first thought that water was the principle of all things; but the school of the Pythagoreans added both water and fire, air and earth. Vitruvius, Book 2, Chapter 2.

§ 3. By "water," we understand not only the fresh water of rivers, springs, wells, and some lakes or that collected from rains, but also marine and salt water, as well as mineral water, provided it can be channeled. Following this similarity, other liquids—namely wine, distilled waters, oil, and even mercury itself—constitute a secondary object of this discipline.

§ 4. However, the "waters above the heavens," famous in the Holy Scriptures Genesis 1:6–7, transcend our discipline Job 38:9, 25, 28, 30 & 37, unless insofar as they descend to the earth in condensed form, as happened at the time of the flood Genesis 7:11–12, or if some particle is condensed by a pneumatic press, which is discussed in the study of pneumatics. See the Dissertation on Air, Chapter 19.

§ 5. Our discipline is called Hydraulics, a word which properly denotes the art that brings pipes to life by the flow of water. For a pipe original Greek: αὐλός (aulos) to the Greeks is the same as a flute or pipe. Hence, a Hydraulus a water organ denotes an instrument composed of pipes in such a way that wind, driven by water, produces a sweet harmony. Gerardus Vossius, Etymological Dictionary of the Latin Language. Vitruvius describes a hydraulic machine of this kind in Book 10, Chapter 13. Pliny also writes concerning the dolphin—an animal friendly to humans—in Book 9, Chapter 8, that it is soothed by the singing of a symphony and especially by the sound of the water organ. Vitruvius mentions water-powered devices original: "Hydraularum" in Book 10, Chapter 10; by which Baldus, in his Vitruvian Lexicon, understands water-drums original: "tympana aquaria" for grinding flour. Philander, however, in his Commentaries, explains them as machines which are turned by the force of water rather than by the treading of men. Claude Saumaise a famous French classical scholar, in his notes on Solinus, page 589, calls them water-mills original: "Hydromylas". We, however, understand by Hydraulics in its general sense the Science, or rather the Art, which deals as much with finding waters as with conserving and directing them. Some name this by the more convenient term Hydrotechnics.