Pella.

Pelias ly recommended, was with equal warmth accepted by the young hero, and his intended expedition was made known all over Greece. While Jason was absent in the Argonautic expedition, Pelias murdered Æson and all his family; but, according to the more received opinion of Óvid, Æson was still living when the Argonauts returned, and he was restored to the flower of youth by the magic of Medea. This change in the vigour and the constitution of Eson astonished all the inhabitants of Iolchos; and the daughters of Pelias, who have received the patronymic of Peliades, expressed their desire to see their father's infirmities vanish by the same powerful magic. Medea, who wished to ayenge the injuries which her husband Jason had received from Pelias, raised the desires of the Peliades, by cutting an old ram to pieces, and boiling the flesh in a cauldron, and then turning it into a fine young lamb. After they had seen this successful experiment, the Peliades cut their father's body to pieces, after they had drawn all the blood from his veins, on the assu rance that Medea would replenish them by her wonderful power. The limbs were immediately put into a cauldron of boiling water; but Medea suffered the flesh to be totally consumed, and refused to give the promised assistance, and the bones of Pelias did not even receive a burial. The Peliades were four in uumber, Alceste, Pisidice, Pelopea, and Hippothoe, to whom Hyginus adds Medusa. Their mother's name was Anaxibia, the daughter of Bias or Philomache, the daughter of Amphion. After this parricide, the Peliades fled to the court of Admetus, where Acastus, the son-in-law of Pelias, pursued them, and took their protector prisoner. The Peliades died, and were buried in Arcadia.

PELICAN, a genus of birds belonging to the order of anseres. See ORNITHOLOGY Index.

PELICAN, in Chemistry, is a glass alembic consisting of one piece, with a tubulated capital, from which two opposite and crooked beaks pass out, and enter again at the bottom of the cucurbit. This vessel was contrived by the older chemists for a continued distillation, but has gone into disuse.

PELICANUS, a genus of birds belonging to the order of anseres. See ORNITHOLOGY Index. PELION (Diodorus Siculus, &c.), Pelios, mons understood, (Mela, Virgil, Horace, Seneca), a mountain of Thessaly near Ossa, and hanging over the Sinus Pelasgicus, or Pegasicus; its top covered with pines, the sides with oaks, (Ovid). Said also to abound in wild ash (Val. Flaccus). From this mountain was cut the spear of Achilles, called pelias, which none but himself could wield, (Homer). Dicearchus, Aristotle's scholar, found this mountain 1250 paces higher than any other of Thessaly, (Pliny). Pelius, Cicero; Peliacus, (Catullus), the epithet.

PELLA, in Ancient Geography, a town situated on the confines of Emathia, a district of Macedonia, (Ptolemy); and therefore Herodotus allots it to Bottiæa, a maritime district on the Sinus Thermaicus. It was the royal residence, situated on an eminence, verging to the south-west, encompassed with unpassable marshes summer and winter: in which, next the town, a citadel jike an island rises, placed on a bank or dam, a prodigious work, hoth supporting the wall and securing it from any hurt by means of the circumfluent water. At a distance, it

seems close to the town, but is separated from it by the Ludias, running by the walls, and joined to it by a bridge, (Livy): distant from the sea 120 stadia, the Ludias being so far navigable, (Strabo). Mela calls the town Pelle, though most Greek authors write Pella. The birth-place of Philip, who enlarged it; and afterwards of Alexander, (Strabo, Mela). Continued to be the royal residence down to Perses, (Livy). Called Pella Colonia, (Pliny); Colonia Julia Augusta, (Coin). It afterwards came to decline, with but few and mean inhabitants, (Lucian). It is now called Ta Пaalia, the Little Palace, (Holstenius). Pellaus, both the gentilitious name and the epithet, (Lucian, Juvenal, Martial.) -Another PELLA, (Polybius, Pliny); a town of the Decapolis, on the other side the Jordan; abounding in water, like its cognominal town in Macedonia; built by the Macedonians, (Strabo); by Seleucus, (Eusebius); anciently called Butis, (Stephanus); Apamea, (Strabo); situated 35 miles to the north-east of Gerasa, (Ptolemy). Thither the Christians, just before the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, were divinely admonished to fly, (Eusebius). It was the utmost boundary of the Peræa, or Transjordan country, to the north, (Josephus).

PELLETIER, BERTRAND, a celebrated chemical philosopher, was born at Bayonne in 1761, and very soon discovered a strong predilection for the sciences, to cherish which he had every thing in his father's house that could be reasonably desired, and here he acquired the elements of that art for which he was afterwards so famous His subsequent progress be made under Darcet, who admitted him among the pupils attached to the chemical laboratory of France. years intense application under such a master, gave him a stock of knowledge very uncommon at his years. As a convincing proof of this, he published, when only 21, a number of valuable observations on arsenic acid, proving, contrary to the opinion of Macquer, that sulphuric acid distilled from the arseniate of potash, disengages the acid of arsenic.

Five

Encouraged by the success which attended his first labours of a chemical nature, he communicated his remarks on the crystallization of sulphur, cinnabar, and the deliquescent salts; the examination of zeolites, particularly the false zeolite of Freyburg, which he discovered to be merely an ore of zinc. He also made observations on the oxygenated muriatic acid, in reference to the absorption of oxygen; on the formation of others, chiefly the muriatic and the acetous; and a number of memoirs on the operation of phosphorus made' in the large way; its conversion into phosphoric acid, and its combination with sulphur and most metallic substances. It was by his operations on phosphorus that he burnt himself so severely as nearly to endanger his life. Immediately on his recovery he began the analysis of different varieties of plumbago from France, England, Germany, Spain, and America, and gave both novelty and interest to his work, even after the labours of Scheele on the same subject had made their appearance. The analysis of carbonate of barytes led him to make experiments on animals, from which he discovered that this earth is a real poison, in whatever way administered. Strontites was also analysed by this celebrated chemist, which was found to contain a new earth.

Pelletier discovered a process for preparing verditer in the large way, equal, it is said, in beauty to that

I

nesus.

Pelletier which is manufactured in England. He was also among the first who shewed the possibility of refining Pelopon- bell metal, and separating the tin. His first experiments were performed at Paris, after which he went to the foundery at Romilly, to prove their accuracy in the large way. He was soon after this admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and afterwards accompanied Borda and General Daboville to La Fere, to assist in experiments on a new species of gunpowder. Being obliged to pass great part of the day in the open air during a cold and moist season, in order to render his experiments more decisive, his health, which was naturally delicate, was very much impaired. He partly ecovered it, but again fell a victim to his thirst after knowledge, for he was at one time nearly destroyed by inspiring the oxygenated muriatic acid gas, which occasioned a convulsive asthma, which at times appeared to abate, but was found to be incurable. The assistance of art was insufficient to save him, and he died at Paris on the 21st of July 1797, of a pulmonary consumption, in the flower of his age, being only 36.

PELLETS, in Heraldry, those roundles that are black; called also ogresses and gunstones, and by the French torteaux de sable.

PELLICLE, among physicians, denotes a thin film or fragment of a membrane. Among chemists it signihes a thin surface of crystals uniformly spread over a saline liquor evaporated to a certain degree.

PELLISON, or PELLISON FONTANIER, PAUL, one of the finest geniuses of the 17th century, was the son of James Pellison counsellor at Castres. He was born at Beziers in 1624, and educated in the Protestant religion. He studied with success the Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian tongues, and applied himself to the reading the best authors in these languages; after which he studied the law at Castres with reputation. In 1652 he purchased the post of secretary to the king, and five years after became first deputy to M. Fouquet. He suffered by the disgrace of that minister; and in 1661 was confined in the Bastile, from whence he was not discharged till four years after. During his confinement he applied himself to the study of controversy; and in 1670 abjured the Protestant religion. Louis XIV. bestowed upon him an annual pension of 2000 crowns; and be likewise enjoyed several posts. In 1676 he had the abbey of Giment, and some years after the priory of St Orens at Auch. He died in 1693. His principal works are, 1. The History of the French Academy. 2. Reflections on religious Disputes, &c. in 4 vols. 12mo. 3. The History of Louis XIV. 4. Historical Letters and Miscellanies, in 3 vols. 12mo.

PELOPIA, a festival observed by the Eleans in bonour of Pelops. A ram was sacrificed on the occasion, which both priests and people were prohibited from partaking of, on pain of excommunication from Jupiter's temple: the neck only was allotted to the officer who provided wood for the sacrifice. This officer was called Evλtus; and white poplar was the only wood made use of at this solemnity.

PELOPONNESUS, (Dionysius), a large peninsula to the south of the rest of Greece; called, as it were Pelopis nesus, or insula, though properly not an island, but a peninsula; yet wanting but little to be one, viz. the isthmus of Corinth, ending in a point like the leaf of the platane or plane tree. Anciently called Apia

nesus

Pelusium.

and Pelasgia; a peninsula second to no other country Pelopon for nobleness; situated between two seas, the Egean and Ionian, and resembling a platane-leaf, on account of its angular recesses or bays, (Pliny, Strabo, Mela). Strabo adds from Homer, that one of its ancient names was Argos, with the epithet Achaicum, to distinguish it from Thessaly, called Pelasgicum. Divided into six parts; namely, Argolis, Laconica, Messenia, Flis, Achaia, and Arcadia, (Mela). Now called the Morea.

PELOPS, in fabulous history, the son of Tantalus king of Phrygia, went into Elis, where be married Hippodamia the daughter of Oenomaus king of that country; and became so powerful, that all the territory which lies beyond the isthmus, and composes a considerable part of Greece, was called Peloponnesus, that is, the island of Pelops, from his name and the word Νεσος.

PELTA, a small, light, manageable buckler, used by the ancients. It was worn by the Amazons. The pelta is said by some to have resembled an ivy leaf in form; by others it is compared to the leaf of an Indian fig-tree; and by Serbius to the moon in her first quar

ter.

PELTARIA, a genus of plants belonging to the tetradynamia class, and in the natural method ranked under the 39th order, Siliquosa. See BOTANY Index.

PELUSIUM, in Ancient Geography, a strong city of Egypt, without the Delta, distant 20 stadia from the sea; situated amidst marshes; and hence its name and its strength. Called the key or inlet of Egypt (Dio. dorus, Hirtius); which being taken, the rest of Egypt lay quite open and exposed to an enemy. Called Sin (Ezekiel). Pelusiacus the epithet (Virgil, Diodorus). From its ruins arose Damietta. E. Long. 32°. N. Lat. 31°.

Mr Savary gives us the following account of this place: "The period of its foundation, as well as that Letters on of the other ancient cities of Egypt, is lost in the ob- Egypt, scurity of time. It flourished long before Herodotus, As it commanded the entrance of the country on the side of Asia, the Pharaohs rendered it a considerable fortress: one of them raised a rampart of 30 leagues in length from the walls of this town to Heliopolis. But we find from the history of nations that the long wail of China, those which the weakness of the Greek emperors led them to build round Constantinople, and many others, built at an immense expence, were but feeble barriers against a warlike people: these examples have taught us, that a state, to be in security against a foreign yoke, must form warriors within itself, and that men must be opposed to men. This rampart which covered Pelusium, did not stop Cambyses, who attacked it with a formidable army. The feeble character of the son of Amasis, unable to prevent the desertion of 200,000 E yptians, who went to found a colony beyond the cataracts, had not force sufficient to oppose that torrent which broke in upon his country. Cambyees, after a bloody battle, wherein he cut his enemies to pieces, entered Pelusium in triumph. That memorable day, which saw the desertion of one part of the Egyptian militia and the ruin of the other, is the true epoch of the subjugation of that rich country. Since that period, it has passed under the yoke of the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Turks. A

02

continued

Pelusium continued slavery of more than 2000 years seems to secure them an eternal bondage.

Pembroke. 66

Herodotus, who visited Pelusium some years after the conquest of Cambyses, relates an anecdote which I cannot omit: I surveyed (says he) the plain where the two armies had fought. It was covered with human bones collected in heaps. Those of the Persians were on one side, those of the Egyptians on the other, the inhabitants of the country having taken care to separate them after the battle. They made me take notice of a fact which would have appeared very astonishing to me without their explanation of it. The skulls of the Persians, which were slight and fragile, broke on being lightly struck with a stone; those of the Egyp. tians, thicker and more compact, resisted the blows of flint. This difference of solidity they attributed to the custom the Persians have of covering their heads from their infancy with the tiara, and to the Egyptian custom of leaving the heads of their children bare and shaved, exposed to the heat of the sun. This explanation appeared satisfactory to me.' Mr Savary assures as that the same customs still subsist in Egypt, of which he frequently had ocular demonstration.

"Pelusium (continues he), after passing under the dominion of Persia, was taken by Alexander. The brave Antony, general of cavalry under Gabinius, took it from his successors, and Rome restored it to Ptolemy Auletes. Pompey, whose credit had established this young prince on the throne of Egypt, after the fatal battle of Pharsalia took refuge at Pelusium. He landed at the entrance of the harbour; and, on quitting his wife Cornelia and his son, he repeated the two following verses of Sophocles, The free man who seeks an asylum at the court of a king will meet with slavery and chains.' He there found death. Scarcely had he Janded on the shore, when Theodore the rhetorician, of the isle of Chio, Septimius the courtier, and Achillas the eunuch, who commanded his troops, wishing for a victim to present to his conqueror, stabbed him with their swords. At the sight of the assassins Pompey covered his face with his mantle, and died like a Roman. They cut off his head, and embalmed it, to offer it to Cæsar, and left his body naked on the shore. It was thus that this great man, whose warlike talents had procured the liberty of the seas for the Romans, and added whole kingdoms to their extended empire, was basely slain in setting foot on the territory of a king who owed to him his crown. Philip his freedman, collecting together, under favour of the night, the wreck of a boat, and stripping off his own cloak to cover the sad remains of his master, burnt them according to the custom. An old soldier, who had served under Pompey's colours, came to mingle his tears with those of Philip, and to assist him in performing the last offices to the manes of his general.-Pelusium was often taken and pillaged during the wars of the Romans, the Greeks, and the Arabs. But in spite of so many disasters, she preserved to the time of the Crusades her riches and her commerce. The Christian princes having taken it by storm, sacked it. It never again rose from its ruins; and the inhabitants went to Damietta." See DAMIETTA.

PELVIS, in Anatomy. See ANATOMY Index. PEMBROKE, MARY, COUNTESS OF. See HERBERT. PEMBROKE, in Pembrokeshire, in England, is the principal town in the county. It is situated upon a

1

It

shire.

creek of Milford-Haven, and in the most pleasant part Pembroke of Wales, being about 256 miles distant from London. Pembroke It is the county-town, and has two handsome bridges over two small rivers which run into a creek, forming the west side of a promontory. It is well inhabited, has several good houses, and but one church. There is also a customhouse in it. There are several merchants in it, who, favoured by its situation, employ near 200 sail on their own account; so that, next to Caermarthen, it is the largest and richest town in South Wales. has one long straight street, upon a narrow part of a rock; and the two rivers seem to be two arms of Milford-Haven, which ebbs and flows close up to the town. It was in former times fortified with walls, and a magnificent castle seated on a rock at the west end of the town. In this rock, under the chapel, is a natural cavern called Wogan, remarked for having a very fine echo this is supposed to have been a store-room for the garrison, as there is a staircase leading into it from the castle. This structure being burnt a few years after it was erected, it was rebuilt. It is remarkable for being the birth place of Henry VII. and for the brave defence made by the garrison for Charles I. The inhabitants in 1811 amounted to 2415.

PEMBROKESHIRE, a county of Wales, bounded on all sides by the Irish sea, except on the east, where it joins to Caermarthenshire, and on the north-east to Cardiganshire. It lies the nearest to Ireland of any county in Wales; and extends in length from north to south 35 miles, and from east to west 29, and is about 140 in in circumference. It is divided into seven hundreds; contains about 420,000 acres, one city, eight markettowns, two forests, 145 parishes. In 1811 it contained 12,874 houses, and 60,615 inhabitants, of whom 15,557 lived in towns, and 45,058 in the country. It lies in the province of Canterbury, and diocese of St David's. It sends three members to parliament, viz. one for the shire, one for Haverfordwest, and one for the town of Pembroke.

sea.

The air of Pembrokeshire, considering its situation, is good; but it is in general better the farther from the As there are but few mountains, the soil is generally fruitful, especially on the sea-coasts; its mountains also maintain great numbers of sheep and goats. Its other commodities are corn, cattle, pit-coal, marl, fish, and fowl. Among these last are falcons, called here peregrines. Amongst the birds common here are migratory sea-birds, that breed in the isle of Ramsey, and the adjoining rocks called The Bishop and his Clerks. About the beginning of April such flocks of sea-birds, of several kinds, resort to these rocks, as appear incredible to those who have not seen them.

The inhabitants of this county make a very pleasant durable fire of culm, which is the dust of coal made up into balls with a third part of mud. The county is well watered by the rivers Clethy, Dougledy, Cledhew, and Teive; which last parts it from Cardiganshire. There is a division of the county styled Rhos in the Welsh, by which is meant a large green plain. This is inhabited by the descendants of the Flemings, placed there by Henry I. to curb the Welch, who were never able to expel them, though they often attempted it. On the coasts of this county, as well as on those of Glamorganshire and the Severn sea, is found a kind of alga or laver, which is gathered in spring; and of which

the

Pen,

(he says) can be described by it in the simple form. We shall give a short description of it from Adam's Penance. Geometrical and Graphical Essays.

Pembroke the inhabitants make a sort of food, called in Welch shire, Ihavan, and in English black butter. Having washed it Pen. clean, they lay it to sweat between two flat stones, then shred it small, and knead it well, like dough for bread, and then make it up into great balls or rolls, which is by some eaten raw, and by others fryed with oatmeal and butter. It is accounted excellent against many distempers. See PEMBROKESHIRE, SUPPLEMENT. PEN, a town of Somersetshire, in England, on the north-east side of Wincaunton, where Kenwald a West Saxon king so totally defeated the Britons, that they were never after able to make head against the Saxons; and where, many ages after this, Edmund Ironside gained a memorable victory over the Danes, who had before, i. e. in 1001, defeated the Saxons in that same place.

Plate

in

The fountain pen is composed of several pieces. The CCCCVII. middle piece, fig. 1. carries the pen, which is screwed fig. I into the inside of a little pipe, which again is soldered to another pipe of the same bigness as the lid, fig. 2.; which lid is soldered a male screw, for screwing on the cover, as also for stopping a little hole at the place and hindering the ink from passing through it. At the other end of the piece, fig. 1. is a little pipe, on the outside of which the top-cover, fig. 3. may be screwed. In the cover there goes a port-crayon, which is to be screwed into the last-mentioned pipe, in order to stop the end of the pipe, into which the ink is to be poured by a funnel. To use the pen, the cover fig. 2. must be taken off, and the pen a little shaken, to make the ink run more freely.

There are, it is well known, some instruments used by practical mathematicians, which are called pens, and which are distinguished according to the use to which they are principally applied; as for example, the drawing pen, &c. an instrument too common to require a particular description in this place, But it may be proper to take some notice of the geometric pen, as it is not so well known, nor the principles on which it depends so obvious.

The geometric PEN is an instrument in which, by a circular motion, a right line, a circle, an ellipse, and other mathematical figures, may be described.

It was

first invented and explained by John Baptist Suardi, in a work intitled Nuovo Instromenti per la Descrizzione di diverse Curve Antichi e Moderne, &c. Several writers had observed the curves arising from the compound motion of two circles, one moving round the other; but Suardi first realized the principle, and first reduced it to practice. It has been lately introduced with success into the steam-engine by Watt and Bolton. The number of curves this instrument can describe is truly amazing; the author enumerates not less than 1273, which

Fig. 1. represents the geometric pen; A, B, C, the Plate stand by which it is supported; the legs A, B, C, are CCCCVIL contrived to fold one within the other for the conveni. fig. 1. ence of packing. A strong axis D is fitted to the top of the frame; to the lower part of this axis any of the wheels (asi) may be adapted; when screwed to it they are immoveable. EG is an arm contrived to turn round upon the main axis D; two sliding boxes are fitted to this arm; to these boxes any of the wheels belonging to the geometric pen may be fixed, and then slid so that the wheels may take into each other and the immoveable wheel i; it is evident, that by making the arm EG revolve round the axis D, these wheels will be made to revolve also, and that the number of their revolutions will depend on the proportion between the teeth. Fg is an arm carrying the pencil; this arm slides backwards and forwards in the box c d, in order that the distance of the pencil from the centre of the wheel h may easily varied; the box c d is fitted to the axis of the wheel h, and turns round with it, carrying the arm fg along with it: it is evident, therefore, that the revolutions will be fewer or greater in proportion to the difference between the numbers of the teeth in the wheels hand i; this bar and socket are easily removed for changing the wheels. When two wheels only are used, the bar fg moves in the same direction with the bar EG; but if another wheel is introduced between them, they move in contrary directions.

be

"The number of teeth in the wheels, and consequently the relative velocity of the epicycle or arm fg, may be varied in infinitum. The numbers we have used are 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80, 88, 96.

"The construction and application of this instrument is so evident from the figure, that nothing more need be pointed out than the combinations by which va rious figures may be produced. We shall take two as examples:

“The radius of EG (fig. 2.) must be to that of f g Fig. 2. as 10 to 5 nearly; their velocities, or the number of teeth in the wheels, to be equal; the motion to be inthe same direction.

"If the length of fg be varied, the looped figure delineated at fig. 3. will be produced. A circle may be Fig. 3. described by equal wheels, and any radius but the bars must move in contrary directions.

"To describe by this circular motion a straight line and an ellipsis. For a straight line, equal radii, the velocity as I to 2, the motion in a contrary direction; the same data will give a variety of ellipses, only the radii must be unequal; the ellipses may be described in direction." See fig. 4. any

PEN, or Penstock. See PENSTOCK. Sea-PEN. See PENNATULA, HELMINTHOLOGY Index.

PENANCE, a punishment, either voluntary or imposed by authority, for the faults a person has committed. Pennance is one of the seven sacraments of the Romish church. Besides fasting, alms, abstinence, and the like, which are the general conditions of penance, there are others of a more particular kind; as the repeating a certain number of ave-marys, pater-nosters,

and

Fig. 4

The penates were properly the tutelar gods of the Trojans, and were only adopted by the Romans, who gave them the title of penates.

PENCIL, an instrument used by painters for laying on their colours. Pencils are of various kinds, and made of various materials; the largest sorts are made of boars bristles, the thick ends of which are bound to a stick, bigger, or less according to the uses they are designed for; these, when large, are called brushes. The finer sorts of pencils are made of camels, badgers, and squirrels hair, and of the down of swans; these are tied at the upper end with a piece of strong thread, and enclosed in the barrel of a quill.

All good pencils, on being drawn between the lips, come to a fine point.

PENCIL, is also an instrument used in drawing, writing, &c. made of long pieces of black lead or red chalk, placed in a groove cut in a slip of cedar; on which other pieces of cedar being glued, the whole is planed round, and one of the ends being cut to a point, it is fit for use.

Black lead in fine powder, stirred into melted sulphur, unites with it so uniformly, and in such quantity, in virtue perhaps of its abounding with sulphur, that though the compound remains fluid enough to be poured into moulds, it looks nearly like the coarser sorts of black lead itself. Probably the way which Prince Rupert is said to have had, mentioned in the third volume of Dr Birch's History of the Royal Society, of making black lead run like a metal in a mould, so as to serve for black lead again, consisted in mixing with it sulphur or sulphureous bodies.

On this principle the German black lead pencils are said to be made; and many of those which are hawked about by certain persons among us are prepared in the same manner: their melting or softening, when held to a candle, or applied to a red-hot iron, and yielding a bluish flame, with a strong smell like that of burning brimstone, betrays their composition; for black lead itself yields no smell or fume, and suffers no apparent alteration in that heat. Pencils made with such additions -are of a very bad kind; they are hard, brittle, and do not cast or make a mark freely either on paper or wood, rather cutting or scratching them than leaving a coloured stroke.

The true English pencils (which Vogel in his mineral system, and some other foreign writers, imagine to be prepared also by melting the black lead with some additional substances, and casting it into a mould) are formed of black lead alone sawed into slips, which are fitted into a groove made in a piece of wood, and another slip of wood glued over them: the softest wood, as cedar, is made choice of, that the pencil may be the easier cut; and a part at one end, too short to be conveniently used after the rest has been worn and cut away, is left unfilled with the black lead, that there may be mo waste of so valuable a commodity. These pencils

5

are greatly preferable to the others, though seldom so perfect as could be wished, being accompanied with some degree of the same inconveniences, and being very unequal in their quality, on account of different sorts of the mineral being fraudulently joined together in one pencil, the fore part being commonly pretty good, and the rest of an inferior kind. Some, to avoid these imperfections, take the finer pieces of black lead itself, which they saw into slips, and fix for use in port crayons: this is doubtless the surest way of obtaining black lead crayons, whose goodness can be depended on.

PENDANT, an ornament banging at the ear, frequently composed of diamonds, pearls, and other jewels.

PENDANTS, in Heraldry, parts hanging down from the label to the number of three, four, five, or six at most, resembling the drops in the Doric frieze. When they are more than three, they must be specified in blazoning.

PENDANTS of a Ship, are those streamers, or long colours, which are split and divided into two parts, ending in points, and hung at the head of masts, or at the yard-arm ends

PENDENE-Vow, in Cornwall, in England, on the north coast, by Morvath. There is here an unfathomable cave under the earth, into which the sea flows at high water. The cliffs between this and St Ives shine as if they had store of copper, of which indeed there is abundance within land.

PENDENNIS, in Cornwall, at the mouth of Falmouth haven, is a peninsula of a mile and a half in compass. On this Henry VIII. erected a castle, opposite to that of St Maw's, which he likewise built. It was fortified by Queen Elizabeth, and served then for the governor's house. It is one of the largest castles in Britain, and is built on a high rock. It is stronger by land than St Maw's, being regularly fortified, and baving good outworks.

PENDULOUS, a term applied to any thing that bends or hangs downwards.

PENDULUM, a vibrating body suspended from a fixed point. For the history of this invention, see the article CLOCK.

The theory of the pendulum depends on that of the inclined plane, Hence, in order to understand the nature of the pendulum, it will be necessary to premise some of the properties of this plane; referring, however, to Inclined PLANE, and to the article MECHANICS, for the demonstration.

Pencil

Pendulum

Plate

I. Let AC (fig. 1.) be an inclined plane, AB its perpendicular height, and D any heavy body: then CCCCVIIL the force which impels the body D to descend along fig. 1. the inclined plane AC, is to the absolute force of gravity as the height of the plane AB is to its length AC; and the motion of the body will be uniformly accelerated.

II. The velocity acquired in any given time by a body descending on an inclined plane AC, is to the velocity acquired in the same time by a body talling freely and perpendicularly, as the height of the plane AB to its length AC. The final velocities will be the same; the spaces described will be in the same ratio; and the times of description are as the spaces described.

III. If a body descend along several contiguous planes,