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invention of tire arms, a part of the infantry pull it harder forward on. "Check or ease, were armed with bows. or run up the bowling," that is let it be more slack.

Lewis XI. first abolished the use of them in France, introducing, in their place, the halbard, pike, and broad sword. The long bow was formerly in great vogue in England, and many laws were made to encourage the use of it. The parliament under Henry VIII. complaining of the disuse of long bows, heretofore the safeguard and defence of this kingdom, and the dread and terror of its enemies.

Bow, in music, an instrument, which, being drawn over the strings of a musical instrument, makes it resound. It is com-, posed of a small stick, to which are fastened eighty or an hundred horse hairs, and screw which serves to give these hairs the proper tension. In order that the bow may touch the strings briskly, it is usual to rub the hairs with rosin. The bow of the violin is now about 28 inches long.

Bow, among artificers, an instrument so called from its figure; in use among gunsmiths, locksmiths, watch-makers, &c. for making a drill go. Among turners, it is the name of that pole fixed to the ceiling, to which they fasten the cord that whirls round the piece to be turned.

Bow of a ship, that part of her head which is contained between the stern and the after-part of the fore-castle, on either side; so that a ship hath two bows, the starboard and the larboard, or, as they are sometimes called, the weather and the lee bow."

BOWLING, the art of playing at bowls. The first thing to be observed in bowling is, the right choosing your bowl, which must be suitable to the ground you design to run on. Thus, for close alleys, the flat bowl is the best; for open grounds of advantage, the round byassed bowl; and for plain and level swards, the bowl that is as round as a ball. The next is to choose your ground; and lastly to distinguish the risings, fallings, and advantages of the places where you bowl.

BOWLING, BOW-LINE, in a ship, a rope made fast to the leech or middle part of the outside of the sail: it is fastened by two, three, or four ropes, like a crow's foot, to as many parts of the sail; only the mizen bowling is fastened to the lower end of the yard. This rope belongs to all sails, except the sprit-sail and sprit-top-sails. The use of the bowling is to make the sails stand sharp or close, or by a wind.

"Sharp the bowling," is hale it taught, or pull it hard. "Hale up the bowling," that is

BOWSE, in the sea-language, signifies as much as to hale or pull. Thus bowsing upon a tack, is haling upon a tack. Bowse away, that is pull away all together.

BOWSPRIT, or BOLTSPIT, a kind of mast, resting slopewise on the head of the main stem, and having its lower end fastened to the partners of the fore-mast, and farther supported by the fore stay. It carries the sprit-sail, sprit-top-sail, and jack-staff, and its length is usually the same with that of the fore-mast.

BOWYERS, artificers, whose employ. ment or occupation it is to make bows. There is a company of bowyers in the city of London, first incorporated in 1623. BOX. See Buxus.

The turner, engraver, carver, mathematical instrument, comb, and pipe makers, give a great price for this wood by weight, as well as by measure. It makes wheels or shivers, pins for blocks and pullies, pegs for musical instruments, nut-crackers, weavers' shuttles, collar-sticks, bump-sticks and dressers for shoemakers, rulers, rolling-pins, pestles, mall-balls, beetles, tops, tallies, chess-men, screws, bobbins, cups, spoons, and the strongest of all axle-trees.

The box-tree formerly grew in great plenty, near Dorking in Surry, but only a few of the large trees are now left. Boxwood is chiefly imported from the Levant, sometimes from Spain.

BOYAU, in fortification, a ditch covered with a parapet, which serves as a communication between two trenches. It runs parallel to the works of the body of the place, and serves as a line of contravallation, not only to hinder the sallies of the besieged, but also to secure the miners. But when it is a particular cut that runs from the trenches to cover some spot of ground, it is drawn so as to be enfiladed, or scoured by the shot from the town.

BOYLE (ROBERT), one of the greatest philosophers, as well as best men, that any country has ever produced, was the seventh son, and the fourteenth child, of Richard Earl of Cork, and born at Lismore, in the province of Munster in Ireland, the 25th of January, 1626-7; the very year of the death of the learned Lord Bacon, whose plans of experimental philosophy he afterwards so ably seconded, that it was said of him, that he was the person designed by nature to succeed to the labours and inquiries of that

extraordinary genius. While very young, he was instructed in his father's house to read and write, and to speak French and Latin. In 1635, when only eight years old, he was sent over to England, to be educated at Eton school. Here he soon discovered extraordinary powers of understanding, with a disposition to cultivate and improve it to the utmost.

After remaining at Eton between three and four years, his father sent him and his brother Francis, in 1638, on their travels upon the continent. They passed through France to Geneva, where they settled for some time to pursue their studies: here he resumed his acquaintance with the elements of the mathematics, which he had commenced at Eton when ten years old.

In the autumn of 1641, he quitted Geneva, and travelled through Switzerland and Italy to Venice, from whence he returned again to Florence, where he spent the winter, studying the Italian language and history, and the works of the celebrated astronomer Galileo, who died in a village near this city during Mr. Boyle's residence here.

About the end of March, 1642, he set out from Florence, visited Rome and other places in Italy, then returned to the south of France, and came back to England in 1644.

From this time, Mr. Boyle's chief residence, for some years at least, was at his manor of Stalbridge, from whence he made occasional excursions to Oxford, London, &c.; applying himself with great industry to various kinds of studies, but especially to philosophy and chemistry; and seizing every opportunity of cultivating the acquaintance of the most learned men of his time.

He was one of the members of that small but learned body of men, who, when all academical studies were interrupted by the civil wars, secreted themselves about the year 1645, and held private meetings, first in London, afterwards at Oxford, to cultivate subjects of natural knowledge upon that plan of experiment which Lord Bacon had delineated. They styled themselves then the Philosophic College; but after the restoration, when they were incorporated, and distinguished openly, they took the name of the Royal Society.

In the summer of 1654, he went to settle at Oxford, the Philosophical Society being removed from London to that place, that he might enjoy the conversation of the other learned members, his friends, who had retired thither, such as Wilkins, Wallis, VOL. I.

Ward, Willis, Wren, &c. It was during his residence here that he improved that admirable engine the air-pump; and by numerous experiments was enabled to discover several qualities of the air, so as to lay a foundation for a complete theory. But philosophy, and inquiries into nature, though they engaged his attention deeply, did not occupy him entirely; as he still continued to pursue critical and theological studies. He had offers of preferment to enter into holy orders, by the government, after the restoration. But he declined the offer, choosing rather to pursue his studies as a layman, in such a manner as might be most effectual for the support of religion; and began to communicate to the world the fruits of these studies.

In the year 1663, the Royal Society being incorporated by King Charles II. Mr. Boyle was named one of the council; and as he might justly be reckoned among the founders of that learned body, so he continued one of the most useful and industrious of its members during the whole course of his life.

In 1688, Mr. Boyle's health declining very much, he abridged greatly his time given to conversations and communications with other persons, to have more time to prepare for the press some others of his papers, before his death; he died on the last day of December of the same year 1691, in the 65th year of his age, and was buried in St. Martin's church in the Fields, Westminster; his funeral sermon being preached by Dr. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury; in which he displayed the excellent qualities of our author, with many circumstances of his life, &c. He represents him as being well acquainted with the whole compass of the mathematical sciences, and as well versed even in the most abstruse parts of geometry.

Mr. Boyle left also several papers behind him, which have been published since his death. Beautiful editions of all his works have been printed at London, in 5 volumes folio, and six volumes 4to. Dr. Shaw also published in three volumes 4to., the same works "abridged, methodized, and disposed under the general heads of Physic, Statics, Pneumatics, Natural History, Chemistry, and Medicine;" to which he has prefixed a short catalogue of the philosophical writings, according to the order of time when they were first published. The character of this great man can be only estimated by an attention to his works, reflecting, at the Rr

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same time, on the state of science at the period in which he lived. He was distinguished by the comprehensiveness of his views, and the extent and variety of his researches; by indefatigable diligence, and invincible perseverance, in his collection of facts and investigation of their causes; by a total freedom from any preconceived attachment to theories and systems; by candour in discussing the opinions of others; and by fidelity and modesty in the narration of his own performances.

B QUADRO, QUADRATO, or DURALE, in music, called by the French b quarre, from its figure. This is what we call B natural or sharp, in distinction to B mol or flat. See FLAT and

If the flat be placed before a note in the thorough bass, it intimates that its third is to be minor; and if placed with any cypher over a note in the bass, as 6, or 5, &c. it denotes, that the fifth or sixth thereto are to be flat. But if the quadro be placed over any note, or with a cypher, in the thorough bass, it has the contrary effect; for thereby the note or inter

val thereto is raised to its natural order.

BRABEIUM, in botany, a genus of the Polygamia Monoecia class and order. Essential character: herm. scales of the

ament; corol four-parted, revolute above; stamens four; pistil one; drupe roundish; seed globular; male, scales of the ament; corol four or five-parted; stamens four, inserted into the throat; style bifid, abortive. There is only one species, with its varieties, riz. B. stellulifolium, or African almond, rises with an upright stem, which is soft and full of pith, and covered with a brown bark. Horizontal branches are sent out at every joint, the lower ones being longest, and every tier diminishing to the top, so as to form a sort of pyramid. The flowers are produced near the ends of the shoots, coming out from between the leaves, quite round the branches, they are of a pale colour inclining to white, they appear early in the spring, and fall away without any fruit succeeding them in this country. It is a native of the country about the Cape of Good Hope.

BRACE, in architecture, a piece of timber framed in with bevil joints, the use of which is to keep the building from swerving either way. When the brace is framed into the king-pieces, or principal rafters, it is by some called a strut.

BRACES, in the sea-language, are ropes belonging to all the yards of a ship, except

the mizen, two to each yard, reeved through blocks that are fastened to pennants, seized to the yard arms. Their use is either to square, or traverse the yards. Hence to brace the yard, is to bring it to either side. All braces come aftward on, as the main brace comes to the poop, the main-top-sail brace comes to the mizen-top, and thence to the main shrouds: the fore and fore-topsail braces come down by the main and main-top-sail stays, and so of the rest. But the mizen-bowline serves to brace to the yard, and the cross-jack braces are brought forwards to the main-shrouds when the ship sails close by a wind.

BRACES, in music, are those double curves which are placed at the beginning of the staves of any composition. Their use is to bend together the harmonizing parts, and lead the eye with facility from one set of staves to another. In those scores which include a part for a keyed instrument, as usual to draw a smaller brace within the great the organ, harpsicord, or piano-forte, it is one, to include and to distinguish from the other parts of the score the two staves designed for either of those instruments.

BRACES to a drum, the cords which are distended in oblique lines from the head to the bottom round the exterior of the drum, and which by tightening or relaxing the parchment, serve to raise or flatten the tone.

BRACELET, an ornament worn on the wrist, much used among the ancients: it was made of different materials, and in different fashions, according to the age and Bracelets are still quality of the wearer. worn by the savages of Africa, who are so excessively fond of them, as to give the richest commodities, and even their fathers, wives, and children, in exchange for those made of no richer materials than shells, glass, beads, and the like.

BRACHIÆUS, in anatomy, a name given to two muscles, which are flexors of the cubitus, and distinguished by the appellations of externus and internus. See ANATOMY.

BRACHMANS, a sect of Indian philosophers, known to the ancient Greeks by the name of Gymnosophists. The ancient Brachmans lived upon herbs and pulse, and abstained from every thing that had life in it. They lived in solitude, without matrimony, and without property; aud they wished ardently for death, considering life only as a burden. The modern Brachmans make up one of the casts or tribes of the Banians. They are the priests of that

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people, and perform their office of praying and reading the law, with several mimical gestures, and a kind of quavering voice. They believe, that, in the beginning, nothing but God and the water existed, and that the Supreme Being, desirous to create the world, caused the leaf of a tree, in the shape of a child playing with its great toe in its mouth, to float on the water. From its navel there issued out a flower, whence Brama drew his original, who was intrusted by God with the creation of the world, and presides over it with an absolute sway. They make no distinction between the souls of men and brutes, but say the dignity of the human soul consists in being placed in a better body, and having more room to display its faculties. They allow of rewards and punishments after this life; and have so great a veneration for cows, that they look on themselves as blessed, if they can but die with the tail of one of them in their hand. They have preserved some noble fragments of the knowledge of the ancient Brachmans. They are skilful arithmeticians, and calculate, with great exactness, eclipses of the sun and moon. They are remarkable for their religious austerities. One of them has been known to make a vow, to wear about his neck a heavy collar of iron for a considerable time: another to chain himself by the foot to a tree, with a firm resolution to die in that place: and another to walk in wooden shoes stuck full of nails on the inside. Their divine worship consists chiefly of processions, made in honour of their deities. They have a college at Banara, a city seated on the Ganges. BRACHURUS, the name of a genus of animalcules, with tails shorter than their bodies, and no visible limbs.

BRACHYGLOTTIS, in botany, a genus of the Syngenesia Superflua class and order. Receptacle naked; down feathery; calyx cylindrical, simply equal; florets of the disk five-cleft. There are two species, natives of the South Sea Islands.

BRACHYGRAPHY, the art of shorthand-writing. See SHORT-HAND.

BRACKETS, in a ship, the small knees, serving to support the galleries, and commonly carved. Also the timbers that support the gratings in the head, are called brackets.

BRACKETS, in gunnery, are the cheeks of the carriage of a mortar: they are made of strong planks of wood, of almost a semicircular figure, and bound round with thick iron plates; they are fixed to the beds by

four bolts, which are called bed-bolts; they rise up on each side of the mortar, and serve to keep her at any elevation, by means of some strong iron bolts, called bracket-bolts, which go through these cheeks or brackets.

BRADLEJA, in botany, so named from Richard Bradley, F. R. S. first professor of botany at Cambridge, a genus of the Monoecia Monadelphia class and order. Essential character: male calyx none; corol petals six, nearly equal: filaments three, with three twin anthers; female calyx none; corol six-parted, three parts interior; germ superior, with six to eight stigmas; capsules six-celled, six-valved; seed solitary. There are three species, B. sinica, Chinese bradleja, is a shrub with leaves resembling the annona, but not of a lucid surface. The fructifications proceed from the axils of the leaves. The fruits or seed-vessels are compressed, small or bicular, straited and hard. B. zeylanica, is a Ceylonese shrub. B. glochidium, is a shrub which grows in the Islands of the Southern or Pacific Ocean.

BRADLEY (DR. JAMES), a celebrated English astronomer, the third son of William Bradley, was born at Sherborne in Gloucestershire, in the year 1692. He went to ford, and was admitted a commoner of Baliol College, March 15, 1710, where he took the degree of bachelor the 14th of Oct. 1714, and of master of arts the 21st of January, 1716. His friends intending him for the church, his studies were regulated with that view; and as soon as he was of a proper age to receive holy orders, the Bishop of Hereford, who had conceived a great esteem for him, gave him the living of Bridstow, and soon after he was inducted to that of Landewy Welfry, in Pembrokeshire.

He was nephew to Mr. Pound, a gentleman well known in the learned world, by many excellent astronomical and other observations, and who would have enriched it much more, if the journals of his voyages had not been burnt at Pulo Condor, when the place was set on fire, and the English who were settled there cruelly massacred, Mr. Pound himself very narrowly escaping with his life. With this gentleman, at Wanstead, Mr. Bradley passed all the time that he could spare from the duties of his function; being then sufficiently acquainted with the mathematics to improve by Mr. Pound's conversation. It may easily be imagined that the example and conversation of this gentleman did not render Bradley more

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fond of his profession, to which he had before no great attachment: he continued, however, as yet to fulfil the duties of it, though at this time he had made such observations as laid the foundation of those discoveries which afterward distinguished him as one of the greatest astronomers of his age. These observations gained him the notice and friendship of the Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, Mr. Newton, afterward Sir Isaac, Mr. Halley, and of many other members of the Royal Society, into which he was soon after elected a member.

Soon after, the chair of Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford became vacant, by the death of the celebrated Dr. John Keil, and Mr. Bradley was elected to succeed him on the 31st of October, 1721, at 29 years of age: his colleague being Mr. Halley, who was professor of geometry on the same foundation. Upon this appointment, Mr. Bradley resigned his church livings, and applied himself wholly to the study of his favourite science. In the course of his observations, which were almost innumerable, he discovered and settled the laws of the alterations of the fixed stars, from the progressive motion of light, combined with the earth's annual motion about the sun, and the nutation of the earth's axis, arising from the unequal attraction of the sun and moon on the different parts of the earth. The former of these effects is called the "aberration" of the fixed stars, the theory of which he published in 1727; and the latter the "nutation" of the earth's axis, the theory of which appeared in 1737 so that in the space of about ten years he communicated to the world two of the finest discoveries in modern astronomy, which will for ever make a memorable epoch in the history of that science. See ABERRATION and NUTA

TION.

In 1730 Mr. Bradley succeeded Mr. Whiteside, as lecturer in astronomy and experimental philosophy in the Museum at Oxford: which was a considerable emolu, ment to him, and which he held till within a year or two of his death, when his ill state of health induced him to resign it. He always preserved the esteem and friendship of Dr. Halley; who, being worn out by age and infirmities, thought he could not do better for the service of astronomy than procure for Mr. Bradley the place of regius professor of astronomy at Greenwich, which he himself had many years possessed with the greatest reputation. With this view he wrote many letters, desiring Mr. Bradley's

permission to apply for a grant of the rever sion of it to him, and even offered to resign it in his favour, if it should be thought ne cessary; but Dr. Halley died before he could accomplish this kind object. Dr. Bradley however obtained the place in February, 1741-2, by the interest of Lord Macclesfield, who was afterward president of the Royal Society, and upon this appointment the University of Oxford sent him a diploma of doctor of divinity.

This appointment of astronomer royal at Greenwich, which was dated the 3d of February, 1741-2, placed Mr. Bradley in his proper element, and he pursued his observations with unwearied diligence. However numerous the collection of astronomical instruments at that observatory, it was impossible that such an observer as Dr. Bradley should not desire to increase them, as well as to answer those particular views, as in general to make observations with greater exactness. In the year 1748, therefore, he took the opportunity of the visit of the Royal Society to the observatory, annually made to examine the instruments and receive the professor's observations for the year, to represent so strongly the necessity of repairing the old instruments, and providing new ones, that the Society thought proper to make application to the king, who was pleased to order one thousand pounds for that purpose. This sum was laid out under the direction of our author, who, with the assistance of the late celebrated Mr. Graham and Mr. Bird, furnished the observatory with as complete a collection of astronomical instruments as the most skilful and diligent observer could desire.

During Dr. Bradley's residence at the Royal Observatory, the living of the church at Greenwich became vacant, and was offered to him: upon his refusing to accept it, from a conscientious scruple," that the duty of a pastor was incompatible with his other studies and necessary engagements," the king was pleased to grant him a pension of 2501, over and above the astronomer's original salary from the Board of Ordnance, " in consideration (as the sign manual, dated the 15th Feb. 1752, expresses it) of his great skill and knowledge in the several branches of astronomy and other parts of the mathematics, which have proved so useful to the trade and navigation of this kingdom." A pension which has been regularly continued to the astronomers royal ever since.

About 1748 onr author became entitled

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