Horizontal Water-wheels
To make horizontal wheels for the water, first get a large wooden bowl
without a handle; then have an eight-sided wheel, made of a flat board
18 inches diameter, so that the length of each side may nearly be
seven inches: in all the sides cut a groove for the cases to lie in.
This wheel being made, nail it on the top of the bowl; then take four
eight-ounce cases, filled with a proper charge, each about six inches
in le
gth. Now, to clothe the wheel with these cases, get some
whitish-brown paper, and cut it into slips; being pasted all over on
one side, take one of the cases, and roll one of the slips of paper
about an inch and a half on its end, so that there will remain about
two inches and a half of the paper hollow from the end of the case:
tie this case on one of the sides of the wheel, near the corners of
which must be holes bored, through which put the packthread to tie the
cases: having tied on the first case at the neck and end, put a little
meal-powder in the hollow paper; then paste a slip of paper on the end
of another case, the head of which put into the hollow paper on the
first, allowing a sufficient distance from the tail of one to the head
of the other, for the pasted paper to bend without tearing: tie on the
second case as you did the first, and so on with the rest, except the
last, which must be closed at the end, unless it is to communicate to
any thing on the top of the wheel, such as fire-pumps or brilliant
fires, fixed in holes cut in the wheel, and fired by the last or
second case, as the fancy directs: six, eight, or any number, may be
placed on the top of the wheel, provided they are not too heavy for
the bowl.
Before trying on the cases, cut the upper part of all their ends,
except the last, a little shelving, that the fire from one may play
over the other, without being obstructed by the case. Wheel-cases have
no clay driven in their ends, nor pinched, but are always left open,
only the last, or those which are not to lead fire, which must be well
secured.