30. An Automaton which will drink any quantity that may be presented to it.
The animal may be made to drink without the aid of running water, or of
any thing to move the figure of Pan.
Let A B C D (fig. 30) be a
pedestal, and E the mouth of the animal, through the breast and hinder
foot or tail of which a tube, E F G, is inserted, leading from the mouth
E to the interior of the pedestal. The pedestal having been first firmly
fixed, let a hole, E, so fine as to be scarcely discernible, be bored in
the tube E F G which passes through the animal, in a line with the
extremity G. Now if we fill the siphon E F G with water through some
pipe above it, the mouth of which is applied to E, the siphon will
continue full since its two orifices lie in the same level. If,
therefore, a drinking vessel be brought to the mouth E, and a portion of
the mouth immersed in it, it will be found that the leg of the siphon
towards G has become the longer, so that it will attract the water, and
the water attracted is carried into the pedestal A B C D. In this
construction it is not necessary that A B C D should be air-tight.