‹‹‹ Vitr. 10.7.3 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 10.7.5 ›››
4Nor is this the only machine which Ctesibius has invented. There are many others, of different sorts, which prove that liquids, in a state of pressure from the air, produce many natural effects, as those which imitate the voices of singing birds, and the engibita, which move figures that seem to drink, and perform other actions pleasing to the senses of sight and hearing.
4This, however, is not the only apparatus which Ctesibius is said to have thought out, but many more of various kinds are shown by him to produce effects, borrowed from nature, by means of water pressure and compression of the air; as, for example, blackbirds singing by means of waterworks, and “angobatae,” and figures that drink and move, and other things that are found to be pleasing to the eye and the ear.