The Description and Uses of the Steelyard Balance Swing, Invented and Made by Mr. Timothy Sheldrake

VI. An Observation of extraordinary Warmth of the Air in January 1741-2, communicated in a Letter from the Rev'd Mr. H. Miles to Mr. John Eames, F. R. S. Tooting, Surry, Jan. 20. 1741-2. MY Mercurial Thermometer abroad, was last Night, at 10 o’Clock, 20 Degrees above the freezing Point; which is higher than it was sixteen Mornings of the one-and-thirty in May last, and higher than in any Morning in April, one excepted. VII. The Description and Uses of the Steel-yard Balance Swing, invented and made by Mr. Timothy Sheldrake. As a beautiful and regular Form of Body renders a Person agreeable; so, on the contrary, Deformity of Body not only produces Weakness, but sometimes is the Cause of Ridicule amongst such unthinking People as will not remember, That it is He that made us, and not we ourselves. For the foregoing Reasons, and to prevent such bad Consequences as the above-mentioned, it would be much to the Advantage of crooked Persons, if any Method could be found for giving them any Help, by endeavouring to regain the original Symmetry of Parts, which, by its Commonness, is not sufficiently esteem’d, esteem'd, though justly valued by such as Crookedness has unhappily deprived thereof. Where Crookedness is caused by bad Accidents, as Falls, breaking of Bones, or any such Causes, attended with Neglect; there it is to be feared no Help can be given. But where a Deformity of Body is owing to some Defect of Health, ill Habit of Body, or some internal Cause, I hope it is in the Power of Art and Care to prevent growing worse; or with good Care and Endeavours, to recover entirely: For doing which, I hope, this Steel-yard Swing, now laid before this Honourable Society, will be thought an useful Invention for doing such Service to crooked Persons, whose Bones are tender, and capable of having their Form a little alter'd. The Body, as it is composed of Bones with Joints, cover'd with Muscles, &c. for moving the Body, as Necessity requires, so if any of these Muscles that are of Use for bending the Body forward, backward, downward, or raising it upward, or for turning Part of the Body to the Right or Left Side, have by Illness, want of proper Nourishment flowing so freely to one Side as the other, a careless way of Sitting or Lying, been contracted on one Side of the Body, by which the Bones are braced closer together than Nature intended; in this Case, the Hip generally rises, the Shoulder on the same Side falls lower; the great Support of the Body, the Vertebrae of the Back, are alter'd from their natural Uprightness to a Curve, and the other Side extended to too great a Length: Thus the Viscera are pressed too close on the contracted Side, and probably hindered from performing their due Office; whilst on the contrary Side, which which is extended beyond its true Bounds, there is too much Room for them, that may give too large a Growth to them, or render them too lax and weak. From this united ill State of the Viscera it is possible that crooked Persons are generally unhealthy. For removing this distorted Form, and recovering a better, this Steel-yard Swing is proposed, as a mechanical Method, for stretching the contracted Side, and giving Liberty to the too-much extended Side to contract; that the Sides may thereby be brought to their original and regular Form, by suspending the crooked Person with Cords properly cover'd for Ease, and put under each Arm, and then placed at equal Distances from the Centre of the Beam. The Gravity of the Body will, in great Probability, immediately affect the contracted Side of the Body, so as to put the Muscles a little upon the Stretch; and if the Cord under the Arm on the longest Side of the Body be remov'd further from the Centre, the longest Side will become a Weight continually increasing, as the Point of Suspension is remov'd further from the Point of Motion; by which means the shortest Side must be lengthen'd. Thus the Vertebrae of the Back will be gradually brought from their irregular Form, to a perpendicular; and the Head, that probably lean'd too much to one Side, will rise upright. The Child, or crooked Person, may hang suspend-ed much longer upon this Swing, than by the Head in one of the Semicircular Swings, which cannot extend the contracted Side in such manner as this can, as will appear by the just Observation of this Instrument. It may be necessary to keep the Arms down, down, by a small Bandage round the Body and Arms a little above the Elbow. By this Method of swinging a Child, its own Weight must consequently stretch the contracted Muscles, &c. that draw the Shoulder and Hip too close together, and give Liberty to the Ribs to extend themselves to a greater Distance from each other; and at that very Moment of Time, the too much extended Side, by the Weight of the Body, will be pressed closer together; and by daily increasing the Time that the Person is upon the Swing, the desired Effect may be produced, an agreeable Form of Body recovered, and a healthy Constitution restored, to the Satisfaction of the Parents, and great Benefit of the once crooked Person. London, over-against Cecil-street in the Strand, Jan. 19. 1741-2. Tim. Sheldrake. ABC, Is the Steel-yard Balance-Swing. D, One of the square iron Loops to which the Cords are to be fix'd, and which Loops, one on each Arm of the Balance, are moveable from one Notch to another. E, A Weight, to be hung upon the Arm C at F, to add to the Weight of the too-much extended Side, as Occasion requires. VIII. A Letter from Sir Tho. Mostyn, Bart. to Roger Jones, M.D. F.R.S. concerning a golden Torques found in England. SIR, Gloddeth, Dec. 27. 1741. I have received the Favour of your Letter, wherein you desire to be informed of the Particulars of my Torques. I wish I were able to give you a better Account, but have never seen nor heard of any Remarks made upon it, or any Account where it was found, but I think it was in this County. It is a Wreath of Gold, weighing, as near as I can judge, nine Ounces. I believe it is without Alloy, being very pliable; it answers exactly Virgil's Description, Æn. V. 558 and 559. Pars leves humero pharetras: it pectore summo Flexilis obtorti per collum circulus auri. It being joined here with the Pharetta, and being very proper for carrying a Quiver, inclines me to think, that the Gauls, from whom the Romans took it, used it for that Purpose; but among the latter it seems to have been worn as an Ornament, rather than a thing of Use. There are several Passages in the Hist-