Bucket machine for raising water from a well
Output reckoned in barrels per hour for two and four men, with pulleys, a drum and a domed building
This torn fragment sets out a machine for raising water from a well, drawn as a cluster of pulleys, a winch-drum and a bucket apparatus. In the text a stone (labelled a) weights and sinks the bucket; Leonardo reckons that with the hour divided into 1800 tempi and a bucket drawn every 16 tempi, the device delivers 112½ buckets — 56 barrels — per hour with two men, and 112 barrels per hour with four, raising the water 80 braccia from the surface of the well. Arithmetic operations work through these figures. A domed building is sketched at the upper left. Further faint writing along the torn top margin is only partly legible.
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Bucket-and-pulley apparatus for a well
The sheet is crowded with mechanisms for lifting water: pulleys, a winding drum, and a bucket rig in which a stone (a) is used to weight and sink the bucket. Leonardo describes drawing one bucket every 16 tempi of the hour. The devices are worked by two or four men.
Raising water 80 braccia from the well
The apparatus is designed to raise water 80 braccia from the surface of the well water. A stone is set on the bucket so that its weight sinks it into the water to fill. The calculation treats the sustained delivery of water as the machine's purpose.
Output reckoned in buckets and barrels per hour
Taking the hour as 1800 tempi and one bucket every 16 tempi, Leonardo computes 112 buckets and 8/16 (a half-bucket) per hour, equal to 56 barrels with two men, and 112 barrels with four men. A column of arithmetic operations works through these figures.
Sketch of a domed building
At the upper left a small building crowned by a dome is drawn in a few rapid strokes. A smaller domed structure appears lower on the sheet. Neither is described in the transcribed text.