Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 10 -- Geophysical, Pnuematic and Electromagnetic Engines
It's the "hydrostatic paradox" in which the larger weight on
the diagram's left forces water down and around the narrow
neck where the weight is less, pushing it up and from the
orifice at the top.
The weight-of-the-sea hypothesis wasn't long held,
however.
Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was an influential “kabbalist,” an alchemist in modern parley. The
“chaotic four elements” in his theory of Macrocosm and Microcosm were heat, chill, moisture and
dryness. The four aspects are heat (life), light (mind), electricity (kamic), and the synthetic
essences.
De Naturae Simia Seu
Technica Macrocosmi Historia
(1618)
A water-powered pump was
described by Fludd in De
Naturae Simia Seu Technica
Macrocosmi Historia, likely
inspired by what he may have
observed in German mine
works. While Fludd is
remembered for his esoteric
theories, this particular
machine not a scheme for
perpetual motion.
To the right, a sketch of Fludd's
pump from Descriptive and
Historical Account of Hydraulic
and Other Machines for
Raising Water (1850) by
Thomas Ewbank. Water is
dumped in at a given elevation
and water from another source
(presumably of better quality) is
drawn up to a lower elevation.
To put it concisely, A is above
B.
We include the pump as evidence that by the 17th century, even a kabbalist was aware that a
closed system consumes more energy than it yields.
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