PIECES, in the military art, include all sorts of great guns and mortars. Battering pieces are the larger sort of guns used at sieges for making the breaches; such are the twenty-four pounder, and culverin, the one carrying a twenty-four and the other an eighteen pound ball. Field pieces are twelve-pounders, demiculverins, six-pounders, sakers, minions, and three-pounders, which march with the army, and encamp always behind the second line, but in the day of battle are in the front. A soldier's firelock is likewise called his piece.

PIEPOWDER is a court held for the redress of grievances, in remedying and inforcing of contracts at fairs.

PIER, or PEER, in building, denotes a mass of stone, &c. opposed by way of fortress against the force of the sea, or a great river, for the security of ships that lie at harbour in any haven.

PIERCED, or PERCE, in heraldry, is when any ordinary is perforated, or struck through, shewing, as it were, a hole in it, which must be expressed in blazon, as to its shape: thus, if a cross have a square hole, or perforation in the centre, it is blazoned square-pierced, which is more proper than quarterlypierced, as Leigh expresses it. When the hole or perforation is round, it must be expressed round-pierced; if it be in the shape of a lozenge, it is expressed pierced lozenge-ways. All piercings must be of the colour of the field, and when such figures appear on the centre of a cross, &c. of another colour, the cross is not to be suppos ed pierced, but that the figure on it is a charge, and must be accordingly blazoned.

PIGEON. See COLUMBA.

PIGEONS. By statute 1 James I. c. 27. the shooting at a pigeon is punishable with 201. fine, or commitment for three months.

PIGMENTS, are preparations, in a solid form, chiefly employed by painters, for imitating particular colours, and imparting them to the surface of bodies. They are obtained from animal, vegetable, and mineral substances: the latter are the most durable. See COLOURS.

PIKE, an offensive weapon, consisting of a shaft of wood, twelve or fourteen feet long, headed with a flat-pointed steel, called the spear. The pike was a long time in use among the infantry, to enable them to sustain the attack of the cavalry; but it is now taken from them, and the bayonet, which fixes on at the end of the carbine, is substituted in its place. Yet the pike still continues the weapon of the

sergeants, who fight pike in hand, salute with the pike, &c.

PILASTER, in architecture, a square column, sometimes insulated, but more frequently let within a wall, and only showing a fourth or fifth part of its thickSee ARCHITECTURE.

ness.

PILCHARD, a species of the Clupea, or Herring genus. The pilchard is less than the herring, but fatter and more abundant in oil. The pilchard appears in vast shoals off the Cornish coast, (England,) about the middle of July. Their approach is known by much the same signs as those that indicate the arrival of the herring. To the inhabitants of Cornwall, the pilchard fishery is a very profitable concern. Thousands of persons are employed, during the season, in catching and curing the fish; and the fishermen and merchants make large gains in sending them to Italy, Spain, &c. Nearly 30,000 hogsheads are exported annually. PILE, any heap, as a pile of balls, shells, &c.

PILE, in antiquity, a pyramid built of wood, on which the bodies of the deceased were laid in order to be burnt.

PILE, in coinage, denotes a kind of puncheon, which in the old way of coining with the hammer, contained the arms, or other figure and inscription to be struck on the coin. Accordingly we still call the arms side of a piece of money the pile, and the head the cross, because, in ancient coin, a cross usually took the place of the head in ours: but some will have it called pile, from the impression of a church built on piles, struck on this side our ancient coins, and others will have it to come from pile, the old French word for a ship.

PILE, in heraldry, an ordinary in form of a wedge, contracting from the chief, and terminating in a point towards the bottom of the shield. The pile, like other ordinaries, is borne, inverted, ingrailed, &c. and issues indifferently from any point of the verge of an escutcheon, PILE engine. See ENGINE,

PILE, in military affairs. Piles of shot or shells are generally formed, in the King's magazines, in three different manners: the base is either a triangular square, or a rectangle; and from thence the piles are called triangular, square, and oblong.

Rules for finding the Number of Shot in

any Pile.

PILE, triangular. Multiply the number in the side of the base by the base+

1, this product by the base + 2, and divide by 6.

PILE, square. Multiply the bottom row by the bottom row+1, and this product by twice the bottom row+2, and divide by 6.

PILES, rectangular. Multiply the breadth of the base by itself +1, and this product by three times the difference between the length and breadth of the base, added to twice the breadth + 1, and divide by 6.

PILES, incomplete. Incomplete piles being only frustrums, wanting a similar small pile on the top, compute first the whole pile as if complete, and also the small pile wanting at top; and then subtract the one number from the other.

PILEUS, in botany, the orbicular horizontal expansion, or upper part of a mushroom, which covers the fructification. This, from its figure, is termed, by botanists, the hat of the mushroom.

PILL. See PHARMACY.

PILLAR, in architecture, a kind of irregular column, round and insulated, but deviating from the proportions of a just column. See ARCHITECTURE.

At

PILLORY, was anciently a post erected in a cross road, by the Lord of the Manor, with his arms upon it, as a mark of his seignory, and sometimes with a collar to fix criminals to. present it is a wooden machine, made to confine the head and hands, in order to expose criminals to public view, and to render them publicly infamous.

PILOCARPOS, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Dumosæ. Rhamni, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx five-leaved; corolla five-petalled; filaments inserted below the germ; pericarpium with from two to five cocculi, united below, elastic. There is only one species, viz. P. Racemosus, a native of the West Indies.

PILOT, a person employed to conduct ships over bars and sands, or through intricate channels, into a road or harbour. Pilots are not constant and standing officers aboard our vessels, but are called in occasionally, on coasts or shores unknown to the master, and having pilotted in the vessel, they return to the shore where they reside.

Every respect and attention are paid to pilots on board his Majesty's ships: they are likewise well accommodated, and when conducting a ship have the sole command of it, and may give orders for steering, setting, trimming, &c. The

captain is to see that all the officers and men obey his orders.

PILOT. All pilots must be examined and approved by the Trinity House. 3 Geo. I. c. 13. And for the particular regulations of the pilots of the Trinity House, at Deptford, see the statute 5 Geo. II. c. 30.

PILULARIA, in botany a genus of the Cryptogamia Miscellanea class and order. Natural order of Filices, or Ferns. Generic character: common receptacle globose, with four cells and four valves, lined with numerous anthers, and many globose germs beneath them. There is but one species, viz. P. globulifera, pillwort, or pepper-grass.

PIMELEA, in botany, a genus of the Diandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character: calyx none; corolla four-cleft; stamina inserted into the throat; nut covered with a bark, one-celled. There are four species, natives of New Zealand and New South Wales.

PIMELIA, in natural history, a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera. Generic character: antennæ filiform; feelers four ; thorax plano-convex, margined; head exserted; shells rather rigid; generally without wings. There are between one and two hundred species, divided into sections: A. antennæ, moniliform at the tip. B. antennæ, entirely filiform. The section is subdivided into a, feelers filiform, and b, feelers clavate. The section B is likewise subdivided into a, fore-feelers, filiform; b, fore-feelers, hatchet-shaped; hind ones clavate. The species P. mortisaga is black; shells mucronate, subpunctured. It is found in many parts of Europe; and in Sweden it is regarded as a presage of death to one of the house in which it is found crawling. It is believed that not a single species of this genus is to be found in America.

PIMPINELLA, in botany, burnet saxifrage, a genus of the Pentandria Digynia

class and order. Natural order of Umbellatæ, or Umbelliferæ. Essential character petals bent in; stigma subglobular; fruit ovate, oblong. There are nine species, among which we shall notice the P. ansium, anise; it has an annual root, producing a stem a foot and a half in height, dividing into several branches, having narrow leaves on them, cut into three or four narrow segments; umbels large and loose, on long peduncles; flowers small, yellowish white; seeds oblong, swelling, possessing an aromatic scent, and a pleasant warm taste; in dis

tillation with water, three pounds of them yield an ounce of essential oil, which congeals into a butyraceous white concrete, even when the air is not sensibly cold; these seeds also yield an oil, by expression, of a greenish colour and grateful taste, strongly impregnated with the flavour of the seeds. It is a native of Egypt; it is cultivated in Malta and Spain, whence the seeds are annually imported into England.

PIN, in commerce, a little necessary implement made of brass-wire, used chiefly by the women in adjusting their dress. The perfection of pins consists in the stiffness of the wire and its whiteness, in the heads being well turned, and in the fineness of the points. The London pointing and whitening are in most repute, because our pin-makers, in pointing, use two steel mills, the first of which forms the point, and the latter takes off all irregularities, and renders it smooth, and as it were polished; and in whitening, they are block-tin granulated; whereas in other countries they are said to use a mixture of tin, lead, and quicksilver; which not only whitens worse than the former, but is also dangerous, on account of the ill quality of that mixture, which renders a puncture with a pin thus whitened somewhat difficult to be cured. The consumption of pins is incredible, and there is no commodity sold cheaper. The number of hands employed in this manufacture is very great, each pin passing through the hands of six different workmen, between the drawing of the brass wire and the sticking of the pin in the paper.

Pins are sometimes made of iron wire, rendered black by a varnish of linseed oil with lamp-black, which the brass wire would not receive; these are designed for the use of persons in mourning, though not universally approved.

PINCHBECK. See COPPER.
PINE. See PINUS.
PINE apple. See ANANAS.
PINEAL GLAND.

See ANATOMY.

PINGUICULA, in botany, butter wort, a genus of the Diandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Corydales. Lysimachia Jussieu. Essential character: corolla ringent, with a spur; calyx, two lipped, five-cleft; capsule, one celled. There are five species, natives of many parts of England.

PINION, in mechanics, an arbor, or spindle, in the body whereof are several notches, which catch the teeth of a wheel

that serves to turn it round: or it is a les

ser wheel which plays in the teeth of a larger. In a watch, &c. the notches of a pinion, which are commonly 4, 5, 6, 8, &c. are called leaves, and not, teeth, as in other wheels. For the pinions of a watch, and the leaves, turns, &c. thereof, see CLOCK.

PINION of report, is that pinion in a watch, commonly fixed on the arbor of a great wheel; it drives the dial-wheel, and carries about the hand.

PINITE, in mineralogy, is of a blackish grey colour, usually crystallized, in six-sided prisms, with truncated edges and angles. The crystals are of different sizes. Specific gravity almost three. It experiences no alteration before the blow-pipe, either alone, or with the addition of borax. With carbonate of soda it forms an opaque globule, and with microcosmic salt, a transparent glass: it is compounded of

Alumina
Silica
Oxide of iron

63.75

29.50

6.75

100.00

It has only been found in the mine level of Pini in Saxony, hence it derives its name; and is usually accompanied with quartz, felspar and mica.

PINK, a vessel used at sea, masted and rigged like other ships, only that this is built with a round stern; the bends and ribs compassing so as that her ribs bulge out very much. This disposition renders the pinks difficult to be boarded, and also enables them to carry greater burthens than others, whence they are often used for store-ships and hospital ships, in the fleet.

PINK. See DIANTHUS.

PINNA, in natural history, nacre, a genus of the Vermes Testacea class and order: animal a limax: shell bivalve, fragile, upright, gaping at one end, and furnished with a beard; hinge without

There

teeth, the valves united into one. are eighteen species. The inhabitants of these shells produce a large quantity of byssus, which is woven by the Italians into a kind of silk; the shells themselves are generally found standing erect in the smoother waters of the bays, with the larger end a little open: the fish of several of the species affords a rich food. We do not know of any species on the

shores of the United States.

PINNACE, a small vessel used at sea with a square stern, having sails and oars, and carrying three masts, chiefly used as

a scout for intelligence, and for landing of men, &c. One of the boats belonging to a great man of war, serving to carry the officers to and from the shore, is also called the pinnace.

PINNACLE, in architecture, the top or roof of an house, terminated in a point. This kind of roof, among the ancients, was appropriated to temples; their ordinary roofs were all flat, or made in the platform way. It was from the pinnacle that the form of the pediment took its rise.

INNATED leaves. See BOTANY.

PINT, a vessel or measure used in estimating the quantity of liquids, and even sometimes of dry things. It is the eighth part of a gallon, both in ale and wine measure: but the gallon being different, the pint must also differ. The wine pint of pure water weighs almost seventeen ounces avoirdupois, and the ale pint contains a little more than twenty ounces.

The Scotch pint is equal to three English pints.

PINUS, in botany, pine tree, a genus of the Monoecia Monadelphia class and order. Natural order of Coniferæ.

Essen

tial character; male, calyx four-leaved : corolla none; stamina very many, with naked anthers: female, calyx strobiles, with a two-flowered scale; corolla none; pistil one; nut with a membranaceous wing. There are twenty-one species; we shall notice some of the most remarkable.

P. cedrus, cedar of Lebanon, has a general striking character of growth, so peculiar to itself that no other tree can be mistaken for it; it is placed by Linnæus along with the larch, in the same genus with the firs and pines; it agrees with the former in its foliation, with the latter in being evergreen; the leaves resemble those of the larch, but are longer and closer set, erect, and perpetually green; the cones are tacked and ranged between the branch leaves, in such order as to give it an artificial and very curious appearance, and at a little distance a beautiful effect: these cones have the bases rounder, or rather thicker, and with blunter points, the whole circumzoned with broad, thick scales, which adhere together in exact series to the summit, where they are smaller; but the entire lorication is smoother couched than those of the firs within these repositories, under the scale, nestle the small nutting seeds of a pear shape. Many wonderful properties are ascribed to the wood of this celebrated tree, such as its resisting puVOL. X.

trefaction, destroying noxious insects, continuing a thousand or two thousand years sound, yielding an oil famous for preserving books and writings.

The P. sylvestris, wild pine tree, is called in Britain the Scotch fir, from its growing naturally in the mountains of Scotland; it is common in most parts of Europe, particularly the northern; the wood is the red or yellow deal, which is the most durable of any of the kinds yet known; the cones are small, pyramidal, ending in narrow points; they are of a light colour; the seeds are small. In a favourable soil, this tree grows to the trunk; the bark is of a brownish colour, height of eighty feet, with a straight

white, truncated, little sheath, in pairs; full of crevices; the leaves issue from a they are linear, acuminate, entire, striated, convex on one side, flat on the other, mucronate, bright green, smooth, from an inch and a half to two inches in

length; the scales of the male catkins inner and upper scales of the cones graroll back at top, and are feathered; the dually terminate in a short awn, the lower scales have none. Few trees have been applied to more uses than this; the tallest and straightest afford masts to our navy; the timber is resinous, durable, and applicable to numberless domestic purposes; from the trunk and branches of this and others of the genus, tar and pitch are obtained; by incision, barras, quired and prepared; the resinous roots Burgundy pitch and turpentine, are acare dug out of the ground in many parts of the Highlands of Scotland. The fishermen make ropes of the inner bark; and hard necessity has taught the Laplanders and Kamtschatdales to convert it into bread; to effect this, in spring they strip off the outer bark carefully from the best trees, collecting the soft, white, succulent, interior bark, and drying it in the shade. When they have occasion to use it, they first toast it at the fire, then grind, and after steeping the flower in warm water, to take off the resinous taste, they make it into thin cakes and bake them.

P. strobus, Weymouth pine tree, or white pine, is one of the tallest species, frequently attaining an hundred feet in height, in its native country, North America. The bark is very smooth and delicate, especially when the tree is young; the leaves are long and slender; they are closely placed on the branches; the cones are long, slender, and very loose, I

opening with the first warmth of the spring.

P. picea, silver fir, is a noble, upright tree: the branches are not numerous, but the bark is smooth and delicate; the upper surface of the leaves is of a fine strong green, the under has two white lines running lengthwise on each side of the mid-rib, giving the leaves a silvery look, for which reason this fir takes its name; the cones are large, growing erect; when the warm weather comes on they soon shed their seeds: the scales are wide, deltoid, rounded above, below beaked, and appendicled with a membranaceous, spatulate, dorsal ligule, terminated by a recurved dagger-point; nuts rather large, membranaccous, variously angular, dun-coloured. It has been observed in Ireland, that no tree grows so speedily to so large a size as the silver fir: some at forty years' growth, in a wet clay on a rock, measuring twelve feet in circumference at the ground, and seven feet and a half at five feet high; one contained seventy-six feet of solid timber.

P. balsamea, balm of Gilead fir tree, rises with an uprigh stem; the leaves are dark green on their upper surface, marked with whitish lines underneath; the cones are roundish and small; the buds and leaves are remarkably fragrant; from wounds made in this tree a very fine turpentine is obtained, which is often sold for the true balm of Gilead. This tree makes little progress after eight or ten years' growth; it has very much the habit of the silver fir; but the leaves are wider and blunter, disposed on each side along the branches like the teeth of a comb, but in a double row, the upper one shorter than the under; underneath they are marked with a double glaucous line, each having eight rows of white dots: they are often cloven at top.

PIONEER, in the art of war, a labourer employed in the army to smooth the roads, pass the artillery along, and dig lines and trenches, mines, and other works.

PIPE, in building, &c. a canal or conduit, for the conveyance of water and other liquids. Pipes for water, waterengines, are usually of lead, iron, earth, or wood,; the latter are usually made of oak or elder. Those of iron are cast in forges, their usual length is about two feet and a half; several of these are commonly fastened together by means of four screws at each end, with leather or old hat between them, to stop the water.

Those of earth are made by the potters: these are fitted into one another, one end being always made wider than the other. To join them the closer, and prevent their breaking, they are covered with tow and pitch; their length is usually about that of the iron pipes. The wooden pipes are trees bored with large iron augers, of different sizes, beginning with a less, and then proceeding with a larger successively: the first being pointed, the rest being formed like spoons, increasing in diameter from one to six inches, or more; they are fitted into the extremities of each other.

Wooden pipes are bored as follows, (Fig. 1, Plate Pipe-boring,) is a plan of the machine; and Fig. 2, an elevation of it. The piece of timber intended to form the pipe is placed upon a frame, a, a, a, a, and held down upon it firmly by chains going over it, and round two small windlasses, b b, and it is wedged up to prevent its rolling sidewise; if the piece is tolerably straight, this will be sufficient, otherwise it must be steadied by iron dogs or hooks, similar to those used by sawyers, drove into the carriage at one end, and into the tree at the other. The frame and tree together run upon small wheels traversing two long beams or ground sills, D D, placed on each side of a pit, dug to receive the chips made by the borer; at one end they are connected by a cross beam, E, bolted upon them; this supports the bearing for a shaft F, the extremity of which, beyond the bearing, is perforated at the end with a square hole to receive the end of the borer, f. The carriage, a a, and piece of timber, are advanced towards the borer by ropes,

is one hooked to it, going over a pulley, (not seen) and returning to a windlass, H, above the carriage, round which it is coiled several times, and the end made fast to it; h is another rope, hooked to it at the other end, and going over a pulley, and coming to the same windlass, H; it is coiled round the windlass in a contrary direction to g g, and then nailed fast; by this means, when the windlass, H, is turned by the handles on its wheel, I, one rope will wind up, while the other gives out, and draws the carriage and piece of timber backwards or forwards, according as the wheel is turned. The weight of the borer is supported by a wheel, l, turning between uprights, fixed to a block, L, whose end rests upon the ground sills, D; it is moved forwards by two iron bars, m m, pinned to the front cross bar of the carriage, a a; the dis