- Water thief
This term refers to three devices: one ancient and two modern.
1. A water thief is a
rubber fitting that attaches to an unthreadedfaucet on one end and a commongarden hose on the other. It is commonly used to fill freshwater tank s inrecreational vehicle s when a threaded hose bib is not available.2. A water thief allows
firefighters to break down one larger line into several smaller ones, each with independent control ofwater flow at thevalve . [ [http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/fire/glossary/Terms/waterthief.htm Water Thief ] ]3. Another device, used in antiquity, was called a "water thief," or "
clepsydra ."Carl Sagan describes it in "Cosmos ," (Random House, 1980, pp.179-80):"A brazen sphere with an open neck and small holes in the bottom, it is filled by immersing it in water. If you pull it out with the neck uncovered, the water pours out of the holes, making a small shower. But if you pull it out properly, with the neck covered, the water is retained in the sphere until you lift your thumb. If you try to fill it with the neck covered, nothing happens. Some material substance must be in the way of the water. We cannot "see" such a substance. What could it be? Empedocles argued that it could only be air. A thing we cannot see can still exert pressure, frustrate my wish to fill a vessel with water if I were dumb enough to leave my finger on the neck. Empedocles had discovered the invisible. Air, he thought, must be matter in a form too finely divided to be seen."
"The experiment was performed in support of a totally erroneous theory of the circulation of the blood, but the idea of performing any experiment to probe Nature is the important innovation."
External links
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
