Smoke jack
Encyclopedia
A roasting jack is a machine which rotates meat roasting on a spit. It can also be called a turnspit, although this name can also refer to a human turning the spit, or a turnspit dog
. Cooking meat on a spit dates back at least to the 1st century BC, but at first spits were turned by human power. In Britain, starting in the Tudor period
, dog-powered turnspits were used; the dog ran in a treadmill linked to the spit by belts and pulleys. Other forms of roasting jacks included the steam jack, driven by steam, the smoke jack, driven by hot gas rising from the fire,and the bottle jack or clock jack, driven by weights or springs.
attached to a spit, was described by the Ottoman engineer Taqi al-Din in his Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines), in 1551. A steam-powered turnspit was also briefly mentioned by John Wilkins
in his book Mathematical Magick (1648.) A steam-driven jack was patented by the American clockmaker John Bailey II in 1792, and steam jacks were later commercially available in the United States
.
Leonardo da Vinci
sketched a smoke-jack with four vanes. Smoke-jacks were also illustrated in Vittorio Zonca
's book of machines (1607). A later description appears in 1648, in John Wilkins
's book Mathematical Magick. The 1826 A Treatise of Mechanics describes a smoke-jack:
Turnspit Dog
The Turnspit Dog was a short-legged, long-bodied dog bred to run on a wheel, called a turnspit or dog wheel, to turn meat. The type is now extinct. It is mentioned in Of English Dogs in 1576 under the name Turnespete. Rev. W. Bingley's Memoirs of British Quadrupeds also talks of a dog employed to...
. Cooking meat on a spit dates back at least to the 1st century BC, but at first spits were turned by human power. In Britain, starting in the Tudor period
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
, dog-powered turnspits were used; the dog ran in a treadmill linked to the spit by belts and pulleys. Other forms of roasting jacks included the steam jack, driven by steam, the smoke jack, driven by hot gas rising from the fire,and the bottle jack or clock jack, driven by weights or springs.
Steam jack
A steam-powered roasting jack, in the form of a rudimentary steam turbineSteam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
attached to a spit, was described by the Ottoman engineer Taqi al-Din in his Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines), in 1551. A steam-powered turnspit was also briefly mentioned by John Wilkins
John Wilkins
John Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
in his book Mathematical Magick (1648.) A steam-driven jack was patented by the American clockmaker John Bailey II in 1792, and steam jacks were later commercially available in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Smoke jack
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
sketched a smoke-jack with four vanes. Smoke-jacks were also illustrated in Vittorio Zonca
Vittorio Zonca
Vittorio Zonca was an Italian engineer and writer. He wrote the Theater of machines, which was published in Padua in 1607, four years after his death....
's book of machines (1607). A later description appears in 1648, in John Wilkins
John Wilkins
John Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
's book Mathematical Magick. The 1826 A Treatise of Mechanics describes a smoke-jack:
Smoke-jack is an engine used for the same purpose as the common jack; and is so called from its being moved by means of the smoke, or rarefied air, ascending the chimney, and striking against the sails of the horizontal wheel which being inclined to the horizon, is moved about the axis of the wheel AB (plate XXI. fig 1.), together with the pinion C, which carries the wheels D and E; and E carries the chain F, which turns the spit. The wheel AB should be placed in the narrow part of the chimney, where the motion of the smoke is swiftest, and where also the greatest part of it must strike upon the sails. --The force of this machine depends on the draught of the chimney, and the strength of the fire.
Smoke-jacks are sometimes moved by means of spiral flyers coiling about a vertical axle; and at other times by a vertical wheel with sails like the float-boards of a mill: but the above is the more customary construction.