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Preface.

Most Honorable and Inclined Reader, Appropriate to Your Station!

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The second part of the Theatro Machinarum Hydraulicarum Theater of Hydraulic Machines appears here, in which various types of machines for raising water are shown once again. Four times as many could have been presented had one deemed it appropriate. However, most of those we have cited already appear vain and useless, yet they have been included to the end that one might learn to recognize their nature and defects, and learn to make a distinction between useful and genuine machines, and those that are incorrect and false. Often, a good and convenient machine can be constructed at much lower cost. When one lacks true understanding, one chooses what seems artistic and curious, or with which one believes one can accomplish much at once. This is the ultimate goal for most, but in doing so, they forget the time, and that double the load requires double the time or double the power. Indeed, in view of the load and the resulting much stronger friction, even more than double the power or time is necessary. Therefore, in both the previous and the present part, my primary purpose is aimed at the beginner or the inexperienced...