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DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
of Mechanics, were accompanied with the gift of the
most happy invention.
This is not the place to speak of the great undertakings
of Polheim : otherwise I should mention the famous dyke
of Lyckeby, the locks of Trolhatta, the bason of Carl
scrona, and other works executed by him.
Of such works, Swedenborg, for his part, executed
one of the greatest importance, during the siege of Fred
erickshall, in 1718. He contrived to transport over
valleys and mountains, by the help of machines of his
own invention, two galleys, five large boats, and a sloop,
from Stromstadt to Iderfjol, which divides Sweden from
Norway towards the south ; that is to say, the distance
of two miles and a half.* By this operation, the king
found himself in a situation to carry on his plans ; for
under the cover of these galleys and boats, he transported
on pontoons his heavy artillery, which it would have been
impossible to have conveyed by land, under the very
walls of Frederickshall. It is thus that the sciences and
arts, judiciously applied, become universally useful, and
effect objects, which, without their aid, no human power
could accomplish.
But Mechanics alone did not occupy all his time. In
1717 and 1718 he published the continuation of his
Dedalus Hyperboreus. In the latter year he printed an
Introduction to Algebra, under the title of Regel-Konsten;
in 1719, a Proposal for fixing the value of the Coin,
and determining the Measures,of Sweden, so as to
suppress Fractions and facilitate Calculations : and in
the same year, a treatise on the position ofthe Earth
and the Planets ; with another on the Height of the
Tides, and the greater Flux aud Reflux of the Sea in
former ages; with Proofs furnished by various appear
ances in Sweden. He had begun, at the same time,
several other works ; of which we shall soon learn the
particulars by advice from abroad.
He had not yet taken possession of his office of
Assessor of the Royal Board of Mines ; because he was
* Equal to about fourteen English miles.
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