Elements, Underground Water, and a Lifting Machine
Aphorisms on the densities of earth, water, air and fire, beside a drawn mechanical device
A page combining a boldly drawn mechanical device at the lower right with a column of natural-philosophical aphorisms in mirror script. The notes hold that caverns form through the course of underground waters, which drain to the sea and so leave less water above the earth than before, and that turbid water clogs the pores of the earth. A proportional scheme sets out the densities of the elements, holding that earth converted tenfold becomes like water, hundredfold like air, and thousandfold like fire, alongside a column of numbers 1, 10, 100, 1000. The Ambrosiana catalogues the sheet under excavating and lifting machinery.
On this page
Mechanical device drawn at the lower right
A carefully drawn machine, numbered 39, occupies the lower right, showing a low framed structure with toothed or ratcheted elements and projecting arms. It is not described in the transcribed text; the Ambrosiana catalogues the leaf under an excavating machine and a crane.
The densities of the four elements in proportion
When the unit of earth is converted into ten it becomes like the density of water; converted into a hundred it becomes like air; and converted into a thousand it becomes like fire. Air converted into ten, and water converted into a hundred, do the same, and the numbers 1, 10, 100, 1000 are set out in a column.
Caverns formed by subterranean watercourses
Caverns are born through the course of subterranean waters, and the waters that fill them are lost to the sea. Therefore there is now less water above the earth than there used to be.
Turbid water clogging the pores of the earth
Water made turbid with dust or fine mud, penetrating into the earth, clogs its pores. These then prevent the further penetration of waters into that earth.