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Nique-Taghil le 16er de Mai 1781
I w dispatched 2 or 3 scraps of letters to you from hence a few days ago; but I shall not
let pass an opportunity which just offers of giving you another scrap.
The commissions which I gave you for wearables I drop entirely; but I must
give you another of a different kind. I do not sufficiently understand the
mechanism of wind mills or rather I am not acquainted with the dimensions
to which they may be extended. to The principles on which they act
can need no illustration to any one who has sailed in a boat.
What I want then is the dimensions of the Vanes as well as of the axis
&c the means of turning presenting them at so as to suit all directions of
the wind, and of increasing & diminishing the quantity of sail. All this I can
easily enough invent, but I wish to know how it is actually practised in the most
approved mills, and at the same time whether any new mode of applying
the force of wind to produce a circular motion has made its appearance
lately. Remember that those parts of a Windmill which are to
adapt it to the grinding of corn I am not in want of.
Now how are you to get this information. I don't know of your having
any mechanical friends who could give it you directly.
You might go to Nairne and inventing some story or other to account for
your curiosity. Desire him to inform himself if he does not know of
the length of the Vanes of a windmill. This is the principal Quere.
There are 2 or 3 remarkably large windmills on the River Thames below
Wapping at Limehouse or the Isle of Dogs, which I have been used
to see in passing. They had a contrivance which I much admired of
staying or supporting the extremities of the Vanes by a rope to each
which are fastened at their other ends all to the axis produced.
the axis produced.
I give you leave & desire you to employ two afternoons
to procure me this information but no more. Do it
however immediately and send also by the first Courier directed to
Sir James Harris any good book there may be on the subject of both
wind & water mills. The bulk must not be greater than 2 small quartos.
There is a change in any plan since I wrote my last which though contrary to
my usual prudence I will 'een tell you of. Finding some clever workmen
and being likely to be detained a month longer by the making this new
invented travelling carriage, I have determined to try here my machine of which I
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Identifier: | JB/539/187/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 539.
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1781-05-16 |
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539 |
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187 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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