Section 66
No. 66. Wine discharged into a Cup in any required quantity.
LET there be a vessel filled with wine and provided with a spout under
which a drinking cup is placed: wine shall run into the cup in any
required quantity. Let A B (fig. 66), be the vessel containing wine, and C D the
spout, the upper surface of which at the extremity C is so smooth
that, A when a valve in the form of a kettle-drum E F is placed upon
it, water is excluded. On the handle of the vessel fix the vertical
rod G H, on which, as on a fulcrum,
another rod K L vibrates: again place another rod, M N, under the
pedestal, moving about the point X, and attach two more rods K 0, L P,
moving on pivots in such a way that, if the extremity M of the bar be
depressed, the valve E F is raised, and the spout is opened and sends
out a stream, but is closed again when M is suffered to return. Let the
bar M N support the drinking-cup R, into which we wish to receive the
given quantity of liquid: the cup must be placed beneath the spout.
Take a weight, S, capable, by means of a ring, of being shifted along
the projection M 0 of the rod: and when S has been brought towards M,
the spout will be opened and send its stream into the cup, but as the
cup
grows heavy the weight will be raised again and the spout closed. That
the wine may flow out in the required quantity, place in the cup any
measure of liquid, for instance, a cotyle, and, receiving what falls
from the spout in another vessel, shift the weight along the bar to the
first point at which the discharge from the spout ceases: make a mark
on the bar at this point and register one cotyle. We must proceed in
the same manner for a half-cotyle, and two cotyle, and so on for other
measures as far as we please; and thus we shall have marks for the
different quantities, signifying the points to which the weight must be
brought in order that they may be discharged. Instead of the valve E F,
an airtight vessel may encircle the spout, so that, as long as the
liquid is kept away by the air within, there will be no discharge
through the spout.
Section 67.
Index.