A CYCLOMETER IN 1657
[To the Editor of the SPEcraT0n.1 Sta,—May I refer your correspondent " R. K." to p. 300 of Tht Legacy of Rome (Clarendon Press), where he will find an illus. tration and a description of a "taxicab or hodotneter, as described by Vitruvius—a contemporary of Julius Caesar and Augustus ? A wheel runs along the ground and the machine is so geared that for every mile traversed a pebble placed over a hole in a revolving disc falls into a reservoir. Dials may be fitted to horizontal shafts which are actuated by a series of cog' wheels set in motion by the rotation of the main wheel. Mr. Charles Singer, the author of the essay in which the above description appears, adds : "It was perhaps from an Italian translation of Vitruvius that Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) obtained hints which enabled him to design lits 'taxicab.' "—I am, Sir, &c., C. C. LLOYD JoNi:s King's School, Canterbury.
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