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Test Bank For Physics 5Th Edition Walker 0321976444 9780321976444 Full Chapter PDF
Test Bank For Physics 5Th Edition Walker 0321976444 9780321976444 Full Chapter PDF
9780321976444
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B) 40 km southwest
2
C) 9.8 m/s
D) -120 m/s
E) 186,000 mi
Answer: B, E
Var: 1
3) Suppose that an object travels from one point in space to another. Make a comparison
between the magnitude of the displacement and the distance traveled by this object.
A) The displacement is either greater than or equal to the distance traveled.
B) The displacement is always equal to the distance traveled.
C) The displacement is either less than or equal to the distance traveled.
D) The displacement can be either greater than, smaller than, or equal to the distance traveled.
Answer: C
Var: 1
4) Consider a car that travels between points A and B. The car's average speed can be greater
than the magnitude of its average velocity, but the magnitude of its average velocity can never be
greater than its average speed.
A) True B)
False
Answer: A
Var: 1
1
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5) Which of the following quantities has units of a velocity? (There could be more than
one correct choice.)
A) 40 km southwest
B) -120 m/s
2
C) 9.8 m/s downward
D) 186,000 mi
E) 9.8 m/s downward
Answer: B, E
Var: 1
7) You drive 6.0 km at 50 km/h and then another 6.0 km at 90 km/h. Your average speed
over the 12 km drive will be
A) greater than 70 km/h.
B) equal to 70 km/h.
C) less than 70 km/h.
D) exactly 38 km/h.
E) It cannot be determined from the information given because we must also know directions
traveled.
Answer: C
Var: 1
8) If the velocity of an object is zero at some point, then its acceleration must also be zero at
that point.
A) True B)
False
Answer: B
Var: 1
2
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10) If the acceleration of an object is zero, then that object cannot be moving.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B
Var: 1
11) If the velocity of an object is zero, then that object cannot be accelerating.
A) True
B) False
Answer: B
Var: 1
12) Suppose that a car traveling to the west begins to slow down as it approaches a traffic
light. Which of the following statements about its acceleration is correct?
A) The acceleration is toward the east.
B) Since the car is slowing down, its acceleration must be
negative. C) The acceleration is zero.
D) The acceleration is toward the
west. Answer: A
Var: 1
13) An auto manufacturer advertises that their car can go "from zero to sixty in eight
seconds." This is a description of what characteristic of the car's motion?
A) average speed
B) instantaneous speed
C) average acceleration
D) instantaneous acceleration
E) displacement
Answer: C
Var: 1
2
14) An object moving in the +x direction experiences an acceleration of +2.0 m/s . This means the
object
A) travels 2.0 m in every second.
B) is traveling at 2.0 m/s.
C) is decreasing its velocity by 2.0 m/s every second.
D) is increasing its velocity by 2.0 m/s every second.
Answer: D
Var: 1
3
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15) Suppose that a car traveling to the east (+x direction) begins to slow down as it approaches
a traffic light. Which statement concerning its acceleration must be correct?
A) Its acceleration is in the +x
direction. B) Its acceleration is in the -x
direction. C) Its acceleration is zero.
D) Its acceleration is decreasing in magnitude as the car slows
down. Answer: B
Var: 1
16) Suppose that a car traveling to the west (-x direction) begins to slow down as it approaches
a traffic light. Which statement concerning its acceleration must be correct?
A) Its acceleration is positive.
B) Its acceleration is negative.
C) Its acceleration is zero.
D) Its acceleration is decreasing in magnitude as the car slows
down. Answer: A
Var: 1
17) Suppose that an object is moving with a constant velocity. Which statement concerning its
acceleration must be correct?
A) The acceleration is constantly increasing.
B) The acceleration is constantly decreasing.
C) The acceleration is a constant non-zero value.
D) The acceleration is equal to zero.
Answer: D
Var: 1
18) If the velocity of an object is zero at one instant, what is true about the acceleration of that
object? (There could be more than one correct choice.)
A) The acceleration could be positive.
B) The acceleration could be negative.
C) The acceleration could be zero.
D) The acceleration must be zero.
Answer: A, B, C
Var: 1
19) Under what condition is average velocity equal to the average of the object's initial and
final velocity?
A) This can only occur if there is no acceleration.
B) The acceleration is constant.
C) This can occur only when the velocity is zero.
D) The acceleration must be constantly increasing.
E) The acceleration must be constantly
decreasing. Answer: B
Var: 1
4
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20) A racing car accelerates uniformly from rest along a straight track. This track has markers
spaced at equal distances along it from the start, as shown in the figure. The car reaches a speed
of 140 km/h as it passes marker 2.
Where on the track was the car when it was traveling at half this speed, that is at 70 km/h?
A) before marker 1
B) at marker 1
C) between marker 1 and marker
2 Answer: A
Var: 1
21) When a ball is thrown straight up with no air resistance, the acceleration at its highest
point A) is upward.
B) is downward.
C) is zero.
D) reverses from upward to
downward. E) reverses from
downward to upward. Answer: B
Var: 1
22) A rock from a volcanic eruption is launched straight up into the air with no appreciable air
resistance. Which one of the following statements about this rock while it is in the air is
correct? A) On the way up, its acceleration is downward and its velocity is upward, and at the
highest point both its velocity and acceleration are zero.
B) On the way down, both its velocity and acceleration are downward, and at the highest point
both its velocity and acceleration are zero.
C) Throughout the motion, the acceleration is downward, and the velocity is always in the
same direction as the acceleration.
D) The acceleration is downward at all points in the motion.
E) The acceleration is downward at all points in the motion except that is zero at the
highest point.
Answer: D
Var: 1
23) Suppose a ball is thrown straight up and experiences no appreciable air resistance. What is
its acceleration just before it reaches its highest point?
A) zero
B) slightly less than g
C) exactly g
D) slightly greater than g
Answer: C
Var: 1
5
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24) A ball is thrown straight up, reaches a maximum height, then falls to its initial height. Which
of the following statements about the direction of the velocity and acceleration of the ball as it is
going up is correct?
A) Both its velocity and its acceleration point upward.
B) Its velocity points upward and its acceleration points downward.
C) Its velocity points downward and its acceleration points upward.
D) Both its velocity and its acceleration points downward.
Answer: B
Var: 1
25) A ball is thrown downward in the absence of air resistance. After it has been released, which
statement(s) concerning its acceleration is correct? (There could be more than one correct
choice.)
A) Its acceleration is constantly
increasing. B) Its acceleration is constant.
C) Its acceleration is constantly
decreasing. D) Its acceleration is zero.
E) Its acceleration is greater than
g. Answer: B
Var: 1
26) A 10-kg rock and a 20-kg rock are thrown upward with the same initial speed v0 and
experience no significant air resistance. If the 10-kg rock reaches a maximum height h, what
maximum height will the 20-kg ball reach?
A) h/4
B) h/2
C) h
D) 2h
E) 4h
Answer: C
Var: 1
27) A 10-kg rock and 20-kg rock are dropped from the same height and experience no
significant air resistance. If it takes the 20-kg rock a time T to reach the ground, what time will it
take the 10-kg rock to reach the ground?
A) 4T B)
2T C) T D)
T/2 E) T/4
Answer: C
Var: 1
6
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28) A 10-kg rock and a 20-kg rock are dropped at the same time and experience no significant air
resistance. If the 10-kg rock falls with acceleration a, what is the acceleration of the 20-kg rock?
A) 4a
B) 2a C) a
D) a/2 E)
a/4
Answer: C
Var: 1
29) Two objects are dropped from a bridge, an interval of 1.0 s apart. Air resistance is
negligible. During the time that both objects continue to fall, their separation
A) increases.
B) decreases.
C) stays constant.
D) increases at first, but then stays constant.
E) decreases at first, but then stays
constant. Answer: A
Var: 1
30) From the edge of a roof top you toss a green ball upwards with initial speed v0 and a blue
ball downwards with the same initial speed. Air resistance is negligible. When they reach
the ground below
A) the green ball will be moving faster than the blue ball.
B) the blue ball will be moving faster than the green ball.
C) the two balls will have the same speed.
Answer: C
Var: 1
31) Ball A is dropped from the top of a building. One second later, ball B is dropped from the
same building. Neglect air resistance. As time progresses, the difference in their speeds
A) increases.
B) remains constant.
C) decreases.
D) cannot be determined from the information
given. Answer: B
Var: 1
32) Two objects are thrown from the top of a tall building. One is thrown up, and the other is
thrown down, both with the same initial speed. What are their speeds when they hit the street?
Neglect air resistance.
A) The one thrown up is traveling faster.
B) The one thrown down is traveling faster.
C) They are traveling at the same speed.
D) It is impossible to tell because the height of the building is not given.
Answer: C
Var: 1
7
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33) Brick A is dropped from the top of a building. Brick B is thrown straight down from the
same building, and neither one experiences appreciable air resistance. Which statement about
their accelerations is correct?
A) The acceleration of A is greater than the acceleration of
B. B) The acceleration of B is greater than the acceleration of
A. C) The two bricks have exactly the same acceleration.
D) Neither brick has any acceleration once it is
released. Answer: C
Var: 1
34) An object is moving with constant non-zero velocity in the +x direction. The position versus
time graph of this object is
A) a horizontal straight line.
B) a vertical straight line.
C) a straight line making an angle with the time
axis. D) a parabolic curve.
Answer: C
Var: 1
35) An object is moving with constant non-zero acceleration in the +x direction. The position
versus time graph of this object is
A) a horizontal straight line.
B) a vertical straight line.
C) a straight line making an angle with the time
axis. D) a parabolic curve.
Answer: D
Var: 1
36) An object is moving with constant non-zero velocity in the +x direction. The velocity versus
time graph of this object is
A) a horizontal straight line.
B) a vertical straight line.
C) a straight line making an angle with the time
axis. D) a parabolic curve.
Answer: A
Var: 1
37) An object is moving with constant non-zero acceleration in the +x direction. The velocity
versus time graph of this object is
A) a horizontal straight line.
B) a vertical straight line.
C) a straight line making an angle with the time
axis. D) a parabolic curve.
Answer: C
Var: 1
8
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38) The slope of a position versus time graph gives
A) the distance traveled.
B) velocity.
C) acceleration.
D) displacement.
Answer: B Var: 1
40) If the position versus time graph of an object is a horizontal line, the object
is A) moving with constant non-zero speed.
B) moving with constant non-zero acceleration.
C) at rest.
D) moving with increasing
speed. Answer: C
Var: 1
41) If the velocity versus time graph of an object is a horizontal line, the object
is A) moving with zero acceleration.
B) moving with constant non-zero acceleration.
C) at rest.
D) moving with increasing
speed. Answer: A
Var: 1
42) If the velocity versus time graph of an object is a straight line making an angle of
+30° (counter clockwise) with the time axis, the object is
A) moving with constant non-zero speed.
B) moving with constant non-zero acceleration.
C) at rest.
D) moving with increasing acceleration.
Answer: B
Var: 1
9
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
43) The motions of a car and a truck along a straight road are represented by the velocity-
time graphs in the figure. The two vehicles are initially alongside each other at time t = 0.
At time T, what is true of the distances traveled by the vehicles since time t = 0?
A) They will have traveled the same distance.
B) The truck will not have moved.
C) The car will have travelled further than the truck.
D) The truck will have travelled further than the car.
Answer: D
Var: 1
10
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
44) Which of the following graphs represent an object at rest? (There could be more than one
correct choice.)
A) graph a
B) graph b
C) graph c
D) graph d
E) graph e
Answer: A
Var: 1
11
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
45) Which of the following graphs represent an object having zero acceleration?
A) only graph a
B) only graph b
C) graphs a and b
D) graphs b and c
E) graphs c and d
Answer: C Var:
1
46) The figure shows a graph of the position x of two cars, C and D, as a function of time t.
According to this graph, which statements about these cars must be true? (There could be
more than one correct choice.)
A) The magnitude of the acceleration of car C is greater than the magnitude of the
acceleration of car D.
B) The magnitude of the acceleration of car C is less than the magnitude of the acceleration
of car D.
C) At time t = 10 s, both cars have the same velocity.
D) Both cars have the same acceleration.
E) The cars meet at time t = 10 s.
Answer: D, E
Var: 1
12
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
47) The motion of a particle is described in the velocity vs. time graph shown in the figure.
Over the nine-second interval shown, we can say that the speed of the particle
A) only increases.
B) only decreases.
C) increases and then decreases.
D) decreases and then increases.
E) remains constant.
Answer: D
Var: 1
13
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
48) The graph in the figure shows the position of a particle as it travels along the x-axis.
49) The area under a curve in a velocity versus time graph gives
A) acceleration.
B) velocity.
C) displacement.
D) position.
Answer: C Var:
1
14
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cloth produced. There was likewise still another act conferring
particular privileges on two companies which carried on the linen
manufacture in Paul’s Work, Edinburgh, and in the Citadel of Leith,
as an encouragement which was required for their success.
An act was passed at the same time for encouraging James Foulis,
John Holland, and other persons named, in setting up a manufactory
of ‘that sort of cloth commonly called Colchester Baises’ in Scotland;
‘which baises will consume a great deal of wool which cannot be
profitable neither at home nor abroad.’
On the same day, there was an act in favour of William Scott,
cabinet-maker, who designed to set up a 1693.
coach-work, being, as would appear, the
first of the kind that had been proposed in Scotland, though the use
of the article ‘not only occasions the yearly export of a great deal of
money out of the kingdom, but likewise that the lieges cannot be
furnished with such necessars when they have occasion for them,
without bringing them from abroad at a double charge, beside sea-
hazard.’ It was ordained that William Scott should have the
privileges of a manufactory ‘for making of coaches, chariots, sedans,
and calashes, harnish and grinding of glasses,’ for eleven years.
On the 28th May 1694, articles of agreement were concluded
between Nicolas Dupin, acting for a linen company in England, and
the royal burghs and others in Scotland, for the formation of a
company to carry on the linen manufacture in this kingdom. It was
arranged that the enterprise should rest in a capital of six thousand
five-pound shares, one half of which should be held by Englishmen,
the rest by Scotsmen, the burghs being each allowed certain shares in
proportion to their standing and wealth. The money to be paid in
four instalments within the ensuing two years.[106]
The linen manufacture is spoken of in 1696 as established, and two
years later we find the bleaching was executed at Corstorphine.
Dupin conducted works in England and Ireland for the
manufacture of paper, and the establishment of another in Scotland
was one of the objects for which he had come to the north. Several of
the Scottish nobility and gentry whom he met in London encouraged
him in his enterprise, telling him that ‘some persons have already
attempted to work good writing-paper, but could not effect the
same.’ In July we find him addressing the Privy Council for
permission to erect and carry on a paper-work in this kingdom,
setting forth that he had arrived at ‘the art of making all sorts of fine
paper moulds as good, or better, as any made beyond seas, and at a
far cheaper rate, insomuch that one man can make and furnish more
moulds in one week than any other workman in other nations can
finish in two months’ time:’ moreover, ‘whereas large timber is
scarce in this kingdom,’ he and his associates ‘have arts to make the
greatest mortar and vessel for making of paper without timber;’ they
‘have also provided several ingenious outlandish workmen to work
and teach their art in this kingdom.’
On this shewing, Dupin and his friends obtained ‘protection and
liberty to set up paper-mills in this 1693.
kingdom, without hindering any other
persons who are already set up;’ also permission ‘to put the coat of
arms of this kingdom upon the paper which shall be made by them at
these mills.’[107]
By an act of Estates two years later, Dupin’s project was sanctioned
as a joint-stock concern.[108]
A rope-manufactory had been some years before established at
Newhaven by James Deans, bailie of the Canongate, and one of his
sons; but it had been discontinued for want of encouragement, after
a considerable loss had been incurred. In November 1694, Thomas
Deans, another son of the first enterpriser, expressed himself as
disposed to venture another stock in the same work, at the same
place, or some other equally convenient, provided he should have it
endowed with the privileges of a manufactory, though not to the
exclusion of others disposed to try the same business. His wishes
were complied with by the Privy Council.
On the 7th May 1696, the privileges of a manufactory, according to
statute, were granted by the Privy Council to Patrick Houston and his
partners for a rope-work at Glasgow. This copartnery was to set out
with a stock of forty thousand pounds Scots, and introduce foreign
workmen to instruct the natives.
One David Foster had set up a pin-work at Leith in 1683, and was
favoured by the Privy Council with the privileges assigned by statute
to manufactories. In January 1695, Foster being dead, his successor,
James Forester, came forward with a petition for a continuance of
these privileges, professing that he meant to ‘carry on the work to a
further degree of perfection, and bring home foreigners to that
effect.’ This request was complied with.[109]
The parliament, in May 1695, granted privileges for the
encouragement of James Lyell of Gairden, in setting up a
manufactory of oil from seeds, and of hare and rabbit skins for hats,
the raw materials having formerly been exported from the country
and re-imported in a manufactured state. The Estates at the same
time encouraged in like manner certain persons proposing to set up a
gunpowder and an alum manufactory, the latter of which arts was
stated to have been heretofore not practised in the kingdom.[110]
In July 1697, we hear of the paper-manufactory going on
prosperously under a joint-stock company, 1693.
producing ‘good white paper,’ and only
requiring a little further encouragement to be ‘an advantage to the
whole kingdom.’ On the petition of the adventurers, the Lords of
Privy Council ordained that candlemakers should not use rags for
making of wicks, and that the company should have the same power
over its instructed servants as had been given to the cloth-work at
Newmills. We may infer that the paper-work established at Dalry in
1679[111] was no more, as this manufactory was now spoken of as the
only one in the kingdom ‘that has either work or design for white
paper.’[112]
A pamphlet in favour of the African Company, in 1696, remarked
that Scotland had lately been falling upon true and lasting methods
of increasing her trade, by erecting companies ‘to manufacture our
own natural commodities:’ ‘thus we have the woollencloth
manufactory at Newmills, and the baise-manufactory for our wool,
the linen-manufactory, several for leather, and others.’ It was
likewise remarked that ‘soap, cordage, glass, gilded leather, pins,
ribands, cambrics, muslins, paper,’ and some other articles, which
used to be brought from abroad, were now made at home by
companies, individuals having heretofore failed to establish
them.’[113]
June 14.
James Young, writer in Edinburgh, stated
to the Privy Council that he had been at great pains and expense in
bringing to perfection ‘ane engine for writing, whereby five copies
may be done at the same time, which it is thought may prove not
unuseful to the nation.’ He requested and obtained a nineteen years’
privilege of exclusively making this ‘engine’ for the public.
Young seems to have been a busy-brained man of the inventive
and mechanical type, and as such, of course, must have been a
prodigy to the surrounding society of his day. In January 1695, we
find him again coming before the Privy Council, but this time in
company with Patrick Sibbald, locksmith, the one as inventor, the
other as maker, of a new lock of surprising accomplishments. It
‘gives ane account of how oft it is opened, and consequently may be
very useful in many cases’—for example, ‘though the key were lost,
and found by another person, it discovers if that person has opened
the lock; if your servant should steal the key, and take things out of
the room or cabinet, it discovers how oft they have done it; if you
find one of your servants is dishonest, but know not whom to
challenge, this lock may set you on the right man; if you have any
rooms with fine furniture, pictures, glasses, or curiosities, if you
desire your servants not to let any of their acquaintances in to see the
room, lest they abuse or break anything in it, though you leave them
the key, as in some instances it is necessary, yet this lock discovers if
they break your orders, and how oft; if you be sick, and must intrust
your keys to a servant, this lock discovers if he takes occasion when
you are asleep, to look into your cabinet, and how oft.’ It was
conceived that this clever lock ‘would be for 1694.
the public good,’ if it were only ‘to frighten
servants into honesty.’ Wherefore the inventor and maker had no
hesitation in asking for an exclusive privilege of making it for fifteen
years, at the same time agreeing that the price of the simplest kind
should be not more than fifteen shillings sterling. The petition was
complied with.[125]
There was at this time at Grange Park, near Edinburgh, a house
called the House of Curiosities, the owner of which made an
exhibition of it, and professed to have new articles on view every
month of the passing summer. A colloquy between Quentin and
Andrew[126] gives an account of it, from which it appears that one of
the most prominent articles was the ingenious lock above described.
Another was the aforementioned writing-engine, but now described
as calculated to produce fifteen or sixteen copies by one effort with
the pen, and so proving ‘an excellent medium between printing and
the common way of writing.’ A third was thus described by Andrew:
‘They took me up to a darkened room, where, having a hole bored
through the window, about an inch in diameter, upon which they had
fixed a convex lens, the objects that were really without were
represented within, with their proper shapes, colours, and motions,
reversed, upon a white board, so that, it being a very clear sunshiny
day, I saw men, women, and children walking upon the road with
their feet upwards; and they told me, the clearer the day, it does the
better.’ It may be inferred with tolerable confidence that this House
of Curiosities was a speculation of James Young, the inventor of the
lock and writing-engine.
It is curious to trace the feeling of strangeness expressed in this
brochure towards scientific toys with which we are now familiar.
Much is made of a Magical Lantern, whereby pictures of
Scaramouch, Actæon, and Diana, and twenty others, ‘little broader
than a ducatoon,’ are ‘magnified as big as a man.’ Eolus’s Fiddle,
which, being hung in a window, ‘gives a pleasant sound like an organ,
and a variety of notes all the day over,’ is descanted upon with equal
gusto. ‘Sometimes it gives little or no satisfaction,’ Andrew admits;
‘but when I was there, it happened to do very well.’ There is also a
very animated account of a machine for telling how far you have
travelled—the modern and well-known pedometer.
One of the articles for the month of June 1694.
was of such a kind that, if reproduced, it
would even now be original and surprising. It is a Horizontal Elastic
Pacing Saddle—horizontal, because it had four pins to keep it level;
elastic, because of four steel springs; and pacing, because designed to
make one have the sensation and experiences of pacing while in
reality trotting. ‘I saw it tried by three or four gentlemen, who all
gave good approbation of it.’
Another of the June articles serves to shew that the principle of the
revolver is no new invention. It is here called David Dun’s Machine,
being a gun composed of ten barrels, with forty breeches adapted to
the ends of the barrels, ‘somewhat like that of a rifled gun.’ ‘The
breeches are previously charged, and in half a minute you may wheel
them all about by tens, and fire them through the ten barrels.’
Amongst the other articles now well known are—a Swimmingbelt
—a Diving Ark, identical with the Diving Bell since re-invented—a
Humbling Mirror, the object of which is to reflect a human being in
a squat form—and the Automatical Virginals, which seem neither
more nor less than a barrel-organ with clock-work. ‘It plays only
foreign springs, but I am told it might be made to play Scots tunes.’
There was also the now little-heard-of toy called Kircher’s Disfigured
Pictures. A sheet of strangely confused colouring being laid down on
a table, a cylinder of polished metal is set down in the midst of it, and
in this you then see reflected from the sheet a correct picture of some
beautiful object. ‘There happened to be an English gentleman there,
who told it was one of the greatest curiosities now in Oxford College.’
It was a toy, be it remarked, in some vogue at this time among the
Jacobites, as it enabled them to keep portraits of the exiled royal
family, without apprehension of their being detected by the Lord
Advocate.
Not long after, we find Young coming forward with an invention of
a much more remarkable kind than either the detective-lock or the
manifold writing-engine. He stated (July 23, 1696) that he had
invented, and with great expense perfected, ‘ane engine for weaving,
never before practised in any nation, whereby several sorts of cloths
may be manufactured without manual operation or weaving-looms.’
He had ‘actually made cloth thereby, before many of the ingenious of
this kingdom.’ He believed that this engine might, with due
encouragement, prove highly useful, ‘especially for the trade to Africa
and the Indies,’ and therefore petitioned the 1694.
Privy Council for the privileges of a
manufactory and for a patent right. The Lords complied with his
request, giving him exclusive use of his machine for thirteen years.
On the 12th December 1695, Nicolas Dupin, whom we have seen
engaged in preparations for the manufacture of linen and of paper in
Scotland, comes before us in the character of a mechanical inventor.
He professed, in association with some ingenious artists, and after
much cost and travel in foreign parts, to have ‘brought to perfection
the yet never before known art and mystery of drawing water out of
coal-pits.’ ‘In twenty fathoms deep,’ says he, ‘we can raise in two
minutes’ time a ton of water, provided the pit or sheft will admit of
two such casks to pass one another.’ It was done easily, the work
being performed ‘by the true proportions and rules of hydrostaticks,
hydronewmaticks, and hydrawliacks.’[127] The machine was
calculated to be useful for ‘all manner of corn-mills work, where
water is scarce or frozen,’ for ‘we can grind by one man’s hand as
much as any water-mill doth.’ It was adapted ‘for draining of lochs
[lakes] or bringing of water to any place where water is wanting,’ and
‘for clearing of harbour-mouths from great rocks or sand.’ ‘In a short
time, any vast weight that seems to be past lifting by men’s strength,
this our engine shall lift by one man’s strength, more than twenty
men shall do, being present altogether to the same lift.’ Our
mechanist had also a smaller engine, with the same economy of
power, for a more household sort of work, such as mincing of tallow
for candles, ‘ane very exact way of cutting tobacco,’ for cutting of
tanner’s bark, &c., ‘without the assistance of either wind or water.’
Several noblemen and gentlemen were said to be ready to treat with
the inventor for the draining of certain drowned coal-pits; but it was
necessary, before such work was undertaken, that the engines should
be protected by a patent. On his petition, the Privy Council granted a
patent for eleven years.[128]
Two years later (1696) Mr David Ross, son of a deceased provost of
Inverness, succeeded, to his own satisfaction, in discovering a
perpetuum mobile. He divulged his plan to certain persons, his
neighbours, who consequently prepared to enter into a bond or oath,
giving assurance that they should not, by word, write, or sign, divulge
the secret before the inventor should obtain 1694.
a patent, unless he should himself do so, or
should be removed from the world, ‘in which it shall be both lawful
and expedient that we discover the same.’[129]