The method by which the size of
such ships and barges was reckoned was based on the amount of grain
they were capable of carrying, and this was measured by the _gur_, the
largest measure of capacity. Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of
vessels of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and
seventy-five gur capacity. A boat-builder's fee for building a vessel of
sixty gur was fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately
less for boats of smaller capacity. To ensure that the boat-builder
should not scamp his work, regulations were drawn up to fix on him the
responsibility for unsound work. Thus if a boat-builder were employed to
build a vessel, and he put faulty work into its construction so that it
developed defects within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to
strengthen and rebuild it at his own expense.
* The fourth class of machine for raising water employed in
Mesopotamia at the present day consists of an endless chain
of iron buckets running over a wheel. This is geared by
means of rough wooden cogs to a horizontal wheel, the
spindle of which has long poles fixed to it, to which horses
or cattle are harnessed. The beasts go round in a circle and
so turn the machine. The contrivance is not so primitive as
the three described above, and the iron buckets are of
European importation.
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