Clock Gearing Labelled Venus and Sun; Weights of Earth
A great toothed wheel with pinions a, b, c, beside notes on earth reckoned by the barrow
A great toothed wheel, drawn almost the full height of the leaf, turns a central gear by connecting rods, with smaller pinions engaging below. An upside-down note, headed as a clock mechanism, describes how the pinions a, c and b take the second, first and third wheels, and labels two of the wheels Venus and the Sun. Squeezed into the same note are unrelated figures for excavation: common earth weighs 23-27 libbre when moist and 36-40 when compacted, reckoned at 6 shovelfuls to a barrow and 20 barrows to a box.
On this page
A great toothed wheel and its pinions
A large toothed wheel, drawn nearly filling the page, drives a central gear through connecting rods, with smaller pinions below. A note keyed to the drawing states that the pinion a engages the second wheel, the pinion c the first, and the pinion b the third.
Weights of common earth and rates by the barrow
The same note records that common earth of ordinary dampness weighs 23-27 libbre, and 36-40 when compacted. It reckons the moving of it at 6 shovelfuls to a barrow and 20 barrows to one box.
Wheels named for Venus and the Sun
Two of the wheels in the mechanism are labelled Venus and the Sun, indicating a gear train meant to follow their motions. The labels appear on the wheel at the center of the leaf.