Page images
PDF
EPUB

a message sent him at the same time by the senate of Lampsacus, requesting to be ininformed in what manner they might honour his memory after his decease, he said, "By ordaining the day of my death to be annually kept as a holiday in all the schools of Lampascus." This request was complied with, and a festival called Anaxagoria was instituted on the occasion.

ANAXIMANDER, in biography, a very celebrated Greek philosopher, was born at Miletus in the 42d olympiad ; for, according to Apollodorus, he was 64 years of age in the second year of the 58th olympiad. He was one of the first who publicly taught philosophy, and wrote upon philosophical subjects. He was the kinsman, companion, and disciple of Thales. He wrote also upon the sphere and geometry, and framed a connected series of geometrical truths: he also wrote a summary of his doctrine, and carried his researches into nature very far, for the time in which he lived. It is said that he discovered the obliquity of the zodiac; that he first published a geographical table; that he invented the gnomon, and set up the first sun-dial in an open place at Lacedæmon. He is said to have been the first who delineated the surface of the earth, and marked the divisions of land and water upon an artificial globe. He taught, that an infinity of things was the principal and universal element; that this infinite always preserved its unity, but that its parts underwent changes; that all things came from it; and that all were about to return to it. He held that the worlds are infinite; that the stars are composed of air and fire, which are carried about in their spheres, and that these spheres are ́gods; that the sun has the highest place in the heavens, the moon the next, and the planets and fixed stars the lowest; that the earth is a globe, placed in the middle of the universe, and remains in its place, and that the sun is 28 times larger than the earth.

ANCHOR, in maritime affairs, an extremely useful instrument, serving to retain a ship or boat in its place.

It is a very large and heavy iron instrument, with a double hook at one end, and a ring at the other, by which it is fastened to a cable.

It is cast into the bottom of the sea, or rivers, where taking its hold, it keeps ships from being drawn away by the wind, tide,

or currents.

The parts of an anchor are: 1. The ring to which the cable is fastened: 2. the beam,

or shank, which is the longest part of the anchor: 3. the arm, which is that which runs into the ground: 4. the flouke or fluke, by some called the palm, the broad and peaked part, with its barbs, like the head of an arrow, which fastens into the ground: 5. the stock, a piece of wood fastened to the beam near the ring, serving to guide the fluke, so that it may fall right, and fix in the ground.

The following are the dimensions of the several parts of an anchor, as given by M. Bougier. The two arms generally form the arch of a circle, the centre of which is ths of the shank from the vertex, or point where it is fixed to the shank; each arm is equal to the same length or radius, so that the two arms together make an arch of 120 degrees: the flukes are half the length of the arms, and their breadths two fifths of the said length. With respect to the thickness, the circumference at the throat or vertex of the shank is generally made about th part of its length, and the small end two thirds of the throat: the small end of the arms of the flukes three fourths of the circumference of the shank of the throat.

Cast iron anchors have been proposed, and indeed from the improvements in this metal, it is probable they would be cheap and serviceable. But when we consider the great importance of anchors to the lives and property intrusted in shipping, it would not be an act of prudence to make an anchor of any material, but the very best. It appears reasonable, that a cast iron anchor, made broad in the flukes, and strong in the shank, and fortified with a kind of edge-bar, knee, or bracket, in each angle, between the arm and the shank, might prove as trust-worthy as a forged anchor, and be more than equal to the strain of any cable which is made.

There are several kinds of anchors: 1. the sheet anchor, which is the largest, and is never used but in violent storms, to hinder the ship from being driven ashore: 2. the two bowers, which are used for ships to ride in a harbour: 4. the stream anchor: 5. the grapnel. The iron of which anchors are made, ought neither to be too soft nor too brittle; for, if the iron be brittle, the anchor is apt to break, and if it be soft, the anchor will bend. In order to give them a proper temper, it is the practice to join brittle with soft iron, and for this reason, the Spanish and Swedish iron ought to be preferred.

The shank of an anchor is to be three

times the length of one of its flukes, and a ship of 500 tons hath her sheet anchor of 2000 weight; and so proportionably for others smaller or greater, although Aubin observes, that the anchors of a large vessel are made smaller in proportion than those of a small one.

The anchor is said to be a-peak, when the cable is perpendicular between the hawse and the anchor.

An anchor is said to come home when it cannot hold the ship. An anchor is foul, when, by the turning of the ship, the cable is hitched about the fluke. To shoe an anchor, is to fit boards upon the flukes, that it may hold the better in soft ground. When the anchor hangs right up and down by the ship's side, it is said to be a cock bell, upon the ship's coming to an anchor.

The inhabitants of Ceylon use large stones instead of anchors; and in some other places of the Indies, the anchors are a kind of wooden machines loaded with stones.

ANCHORAGE, in law, is a duty taken of ships for the use of the port or harbour, where they cast anchor: for the ground there belonging to the king, no man can let fall anchor thereon, without paying the king's officers for so doing.

ANCHUSA, in botany, the alkanet,a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class of plants, the calyx of which is an oblong, cylindric, acute, perianthium, divided into five seg ments, and permanent; the corolla consists of a single petal; the tube is cylindric, and of the length of the cup; the limb is lightly divided into five segments, erecto-patent and obtuse; the opening is closed by five oblong, convex, prominent, and connivent squamulæ there is no pericarpium: the cup becomes larger, and serves as a fruit, containing in its cavity four oblong, obtule, and gibbous seeds. There are thirteen species: though according to Martyn only ten. They are mostly biennial, except when they grow in rubbish, or out of a wall. They may all be easily propagated by seeds, 30wn in the autumn.

ANCISTRUM, in botany, genus of the Diandria Monogynia class and order: calyx four leaved; no corola: stigma many-parted: drupe dry, hispid, one celied. There are three species. A. decumbens resembles burnet in the herb and manner of flowering it is remarkable for the yellow awns to the calyx, resembling fox's nails. A native of New Zealand. A. lucidum is a native of the Falkland islands, introduced

here in 1777 by Dr. Fothergill; it flowers in May and June.

ANDALUSITE, or hardspar, in mineralogy, a species of the Felspar family, discovered by Bournon in a primitive granitic mountain in Forez. Colour flesh red, sometimes approaching to rose red. Massive, and crystallized in rectangular four-sided prisms. Specific gravity 3.16. Infusible by the blow-pipe without addition. It is distinguished from felspar by its great hardness, and higher specific gravity, and from corundum, by its inferior specific gravity and its form. It is now found in the primitive mountains in Spain and France, with quartz and mica, and sometimes in a mica state at Braunsdorf near Freyberg in Saxony.

ANDRACHNE, in botany, a genus of the Monacia Gynandria class of plants; the corolla of the male flower is formed of five emarginated slender petals, shorter than the cup; the female flower has no corolla'; the fruit is a capsule containing three cells, with two obtuse trigonal seeds, roundish on one side, and angular on the other. There are three species.

ANDREA, in botany, a genus of the Cryptogamia Musci class and order. Essen. char. capsule very short, turbinate: fringe simple of four incurved concave teeth, united at their tips, and bearing the lid and veil. There are two species.

[ocr errors]

ANDROIDES, in mechanics, an automaton, in the figure of a man, which, by virtue of certain springs, &c. duly contrived, walks and performs other external functions of a man. Albertus Magnus is recorded as having made a famous androides, which is said not only to have moved, but to have spoken. Thomas Aquinas is said to have been so frightened when he saw this head, that he broke it to pieces; upon which Albert exclaimed, Periit opus triginta annorum." Artificial puppets, which, by internal springs, run upon a table, and, as they advance, move their heads, eyes, or hands, were common among the Greeks, and from thence they were brought to the Romans. Figures, or puppets, which appear to move of themselves, were formerly employed to work miracles; but this use is now superseded, and they serve only to display ingenuity, and to answer the purposes of amusement. One of the most celebrated figures, of this kind was constructed and exhibited at Paris, in 1738; and a particular account of it was published in the Memoirs of the Academy for that year. This

[subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »