ject of inquiry with inventors. Bramah's first
invention with this object was his Hydrostatic Machine, founded on the
doctrine of the equilibrium of pressure in fluids, as exhibited in the
well known 'hydrostatic paradox.' In his patent of 1785, in which he no
longer describes himself as Cabinet maker, but 'Engine maker' of
Piccadilly, he indicated many inventions, though none of them came into
practical use,--such as a Hydrostatical Machine and Boiler, and the
application of the power produced by them to the drawing of carriages,
and the propelling of ships by a paddle-wheel fixed in the stern of the
vessel, of which drawings are annexed to the specification; but it was
not until 1795 that he patented his Hydrostatic or Hydraulic Press.

Though the principle on which the Hydraulic Press is founded had long
been known, and formed the subject of much curious speculation, it
remained unproductive of results until a comparatively recent period,
when the idea occurred of applying it to mechanical purposes. A
machine of the kind was indeed proposed by Pascal, the eminent
philosopher, in 1664, but more than a century elapsed before the
difficulties in the way of its construction were satisfactorily
overcome. Bramah's machine consists of a large and massive cylinder,
in which there works an accurately-fitted solid piston or plunger. A
forcing-pump of very small bore communicates with the bottom of the
cylinder, and by the action of the pump-handle or lever, exceeding
small quantities of water are forced in succession beneath the piston
in the large cylinder, thus gradually raising it up, and compressing
bodies whose bulk or volume it is intended to reduce. Hence it is most
commonly used as a packing-press, being superior to every other
contrivance of the kind that has yet been invented; and though
exercising a prodigious force, it is so easily managed that a boy can
work it. The machine has been employed on many extraordinary occasions
in preference to other methods of applying power. Thus Robert
Stephenson used it to hoist the gigantic tubes of the Britannia Bridge
into their bed,[2] and Brunel to launch the Great Eastern steamship
from her cradles. It has also been used to cut bars of iron, to draw
the piles driven in forming coffer dams, and to wrench up trees by the
roots, all of which feats it accomplishes with comparative ease.

The principal difficulty experienced in constructing the hydraulic
press before the