Rotating Screw-Reservoir, Pulleys, and Weight Calculations
A hundred-turn screw holding ten barrels, pulleys with paired loads, and columns of arithmetic
The main note describes a screw of 100 turns holding 10 brente (barrels), reduced by friction to a quarter — 25 barrels — that pours out one barrel per turn, its load set far enough from the centre of its circular motion to overcome 25 times its own weight. Around it are pulley diagrams with paired loads (6, 3, 2) and long columns of arithmetic running to 1024, 4096 and 1,600,000, closing with 'Tell me if it was ever done.' Many further mechanical sketches, wheels and figures crowd the sheet.
On this page
Hundred-turn screw holding ten barrels
The rotating screw has 100 turns and holds 10 brente, which friction reduces to a quarter, making 25; in one whole turn it pours out one brenta. Its load must sit so far from the centre of the circular motion that it weighs enough to exceed 25 times its own weight.
Pulleys with paired loads
Several pulley diagrams carry paired numerical loads — 6 against 6, two weights of 2, and 8 with 1/6 against 3 and 3 — testing the mechanical advantage of the tackle.
Columns of numbers, 'tell me if it was ever done'
A block of figures rises through powers and products — 1024, 4096, 80,000, 1,600,000 — and ends with the challenge 'Tell me if it was ever done.'
