ers socket-pipes; of these several respective diameters, 3, 3, 4, or 5 inches, and are made from sheet-lead, and most commonly from that which is called milled. They are formed in lengths of from eight or ten feet each; the sheet-lead for making which is dressed on a rounded core of wood, and the vertical joint, which is made at the back, is fastened and secured by solder. The horizontal joints are formed by an astrigal moulding in a separate piece of lead about two or three inches wide, and which laps completely over it, both above and below it, and is called the lap-joint, or collar of the socket-pipe. Two broad pieces of lead are attached to the back of the lap-joints, called the tacks, these are spread out right and left of the pipe upon the wall, to which they are hammered quite close, and answer the purpose of fixing the whole to the buildings: to do which more effectually, wall-hooks of iron are sometimes put, and driven into the masonry. The cistern-head, which is fixed at the top of rainwater pipes, is made up of sheet-lead, or cast in a mould. They are commonly moulded into a variety of forms, these are easily supplied in a metal so ductile as lead is: they are fastened by tacks in the same way as the collars are.

Reservoirs are generally formed of wood or masonry on their exterior, and their insides lined with cast sheet-lead, the joints of which are secured by solder. In this application of soldering no fear of cracking need be anticipated, as change of temperature seldom takes place in or near the place where reservoirs are commonly placed.

Pumps are of various descriptions, and employed for purposes multiplied and extensive; but the plumber's employment in this kind of work is confined generally to the making of two or three kinds required in our domestic economy. These may be considered as the sucking, forcing, and lifting pumps. The former and latter being now the most commonly made use of.

The sucking-pump consists of two pipes, one of which is the barrel, and the other the suctionpipe, which is of smaller diameter; these are joined by means of flanches, pierced with holes to admit of being fastened by screwed bolts. The joint of the flanches is filled with leather, which, being strongly compressed by the screwed bolts, renders the joint air-tight. The lower end of the suction-pipe is commonly spread out a little to facilitate the entry of the water, and frequently has a grating across it to keep out filth or gravel. The working barrel is cylindrical, and as evenly bored as possible, that the piston may fill it with as little friction as may be consistent with air-tightness. The piston is a sort of truncated cone, generally made of wood, the small end of which is cut off at the sides, so as to form a sort of arch, and by which it is fastened to the iron rod or spindle. The two ends of the conical part may be hooped with brass: this cone has its larger end surrounded with a ring or band of strong leather, fastened to it by nails. The leather band should always reach to some distance beyond the base of the cone, and the whole must be of uniform thickness all round, so as to suffer equal compression between the

cone and working barrel when put into action. The seam or joint of the two ends of this band. must be made very close, but not screwed or stitched together; if done so it would occasion lumps or inequalities, which would destroy its tightness; and no harm can result from the want of it, because the two ends will be squeezed close together when in the barrel. It is by no means necessary that this compression be great; when it is so, it is found a detrimental error of the pump-maker, by occasioning enormous friction, which destroys the very purpose they have in view, viz. rendering the piston air-tight; and it moreover causes the leather to wear through very soon at the edge of the cone, and also wears away the working barrel; in consequence of which it becomes wide in that part which is continually passed over by the piston, while the mouth remains of its original diameter, and hence follows the impossibility to thrust in a piston that shall completely fill the part so worn away.

The suction-pipe is usually made of smaller size than the working barrel, but only for the sake of economy, as it is not necessary that it should be so; but it ought to be of such a size that the pressure of the atmosphere may be able to fill the barrel with water as fast as the piston rises. This is the kind of pump fixed and made by plumbers, and is that which is commonly seen over wells and reservoirs for the purpose of raising water for the common purposes of life. The length of the suction-pipe should never be greater than thirty feet below its moveable valve, and there may be a loss of time in the ascent of the water, unless it be made even a few feet shorter. In using it the velocity of the stroke should never be less than four inches, nor greater than two or three feet in a second. The stroke should be as long as possible to prevent loss of water by the frequent alternations of the valves. When this pipe is adapted to common purposes, its diameter should be about two-thirds or threefourths of that of the barrel.

The forcing-pump consists of a working barrel, a suction-pipe, and a main, called the serving main, or raising pipe. This kind of pump was formerly much in use for the purpose of forcing water to unnatural heights. The raising pipe of such pumps is usually in three parts, the first of which may be considered as making part of the working barrel of the pump, and is sometimes cast in one piece, whilst the second is joined to it by flanches, with which it forms an elbow. The third is properly the beginning of the main, and is continued forward to the place of the delivery of the water, where it is supplied by two moveable valves. The beauty of this kind of pump consists in the perfection of the barrel and piston, for which reason it is now made of brass or bell metal; and, when it is well polished, the piston may be used in it without either a wadding or leather.

The lifting-pump consists, as before, of a working barrel, which is closed at both ends. The piston is solid, and its rod passes through a collar of leather in the plate, and closes the upper end of the working barrel. The barrel communicates laterally with the suction-pipe, and

above with the raising main. This kind of pump differs only from the sucking-pump before described in having two valves, the lower one moveable, and the upper one fixed. The first pump, invented above a century before Christ by Ctesibius of Alexandria, to whom also music is indebted for the organ, was a forcing-pump, as may be easily collected from its description by Vitruvius (1. x. cap. 12).

Mixed pumps are the combination of the principle of the forcing and sucking-pumps into one machine; when the lower valve of a forcingpump is above the surface of the water it can only raise it by suction, but the manufacture of the pump remains as before. The mechanism of a pump may be employed for converting the weight of water descending in its barrel to the purpose of working another pump; such a pump has been invented by Mr. Trevithick, a description of which may be seen in Nicholson's Journal.

Of the spiral pump.-If we wind a pipe round a cylinder of which the axis is horizontal, and connect one end with a vertical tube, while the other is at liberty to turn round and receive water and air in each revolution, the machine is called a spiral pump. This pump was invented about 1746, by Andrew Wirtz, a pewterer in Zurich, and was afterwards employed at Florence. At Archangelsky near Moscow such a pump, it is reported, was erected in 1784, which raised a hogshead of water in a minute to a height of seventy-four feet, and through a pipe 760 feet in length. The force employed is not stated; we may therefore conjecture that it was turned by water. See PUMP.

Water-closets are manufactured by one set of workmen, and sold to the plumber to fix in their places. A water-closet consists of a basin and apparatus, traps, socket-pipe, and cistern; the whole of which is put into action by the plumber. To supply the cisterns with water is the purpose of his adopting a forcing or lifting-pump. These latter are on a small scale, very neatly fitted up, and require only the suction and main pipe to be added by the plumber to be capable of forcing or lifting water to almost any height. They are sold by the manufacturers at various prices. The mains or pipes are charged by the plumber additional, with such day-work as is required in putting the whole in its place. Plumbers charge their sheet-lead by the i cwt., and their prices are arranged half-yearly by the Warden and Court of Assistants of the Plumbers' Company. The milled lead is charged two shillings per cwt. more than the cast.

PLUME, n. s. & v. u.-
PLU'MAGE, n. s.
PLU'MOUS, adj.
PLU'MY.

Fr. plume, plumage; Lat. pluma. A feather; collection of feathers, as in a crest; hence a crest; token of honor; pride; also a term used by botanists for that part of the seed of a plant which in its growth becomes the trunk : to pick and adjust feathers; place as a plume; or adorn with plumes: also (Fr. plumer) to strip of plumes or feathers; to make bare or defenceless: plumage is a collection or suit of feathers: plumous and plumy mean feathery or resembling

leathers.

Swans must be kept in some enclosed pond, where they may have room to come ashore and plume them

Mortimer.

selves.
in the plume or stalk of a quill.
They appear made up of little bladders, like those
Grew's Museum.
Sometimes they are like a quill, with the plumy
part only upon one side.
Id. Cosmology.
Appeared his plumy crest, besmeared with blood.
Addison.
This has a like plumous body in the middle, but
finer.
Woodward.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Pope.

But gaudy plumage, sprightly strain,
And form genteel, were all in vain,
And of a transient date.
PLUMEAL'LUM, n. s.
sum. A kind of asbestus.

Cowper.

Lat. alumen plumo

skilful Italian. On his return to Provence, he settled in the convent at Bornes, a maritime place near Hieres, where he made discoveries in the fields with respect to simples. He was sent by the French king to America, to bring from thence such plants as might be of service in medicine. He made three different voyages to the Antilles, and to the island of St. Domingo. The king gave him a pension; and he at last settled at Paris. Preparing to go a fourth time to America, he died at the port of Santa Maria, near Cadiz, in 1706. He wrote several excellent works: the chief are, 1. A volume of the Plants in the American Islands. 2. A Treatise on the American Fern. 3. The Art of Turnery; a curious work embellished with plates.

PLUMMET, n. s. Diminutive of PLUMB, which see. A weight of lead hung at a string, by which depths are sounded, and perpendicularity ascertained.

Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. Isaiah xxviii. 17.

Deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book. Shakspeare. Tempest. God sees the body of flesh which you bear about you, and the plummets which it hangs upon your soul; and therefore, when you cannot rise high enough to him, he comes down to you.

Duppa.

The heaviness of these bodies, being always in the ascending side of the wheel, must be counterpoised by a plummet fastened about the pulley on the axis: this plummet will descend according as the sand doth make the several parts of the wheel lighter or heavier. Wilkins.

PLUMMET, PLUMB RULE, or PLUMB LINE, an instrument used by carpenters, masons, &c., in order to judge whether walls, &c., be upright planes, horizontal, or the like. It is thus called from a piece of lead, fastened to the end of a cord, which usually constitutes this instrument. Sometimes the string descends along a wooden ruler, &c., raised perpendicularly on another; in which case it becomes a level.

PLUMMING, among miners, is the method of using a mine-dial, in order to know the exact place of the work where to sink down an airshaft, or to bring an adit to the work, or to know which way the load inclines when any flexure happens in it. It is thus performed :—A skilful person with an assistant, and with pen, ink, and paper, and a long line, and a sun-dial, after his guess of the place above ground, descends into the adit or work, and there fastens one end of the line to some fixed thing in it; then, the incited needle is let to rest, and the exact point where it rests is marked with a pen: he then goes on farther in the line still fastened, and at the next flexure of the adit he makes a mark on the line by a knot or otherwise: and then letting down the dial again, he there likewise notes down that point at which the needle stands in this second position. In this manner he proceeds, from turning to turning, marking down the points, and marking the line, till he comes to the intended place: this done, he ascends and begins to work on the surface of the earth what he did in the

adit, bringing the first knot in the line to such a place where the mark of the place of the needle will again answer its pointing, and continues this till he come to the desired place above ground, which will of course be perpendicular over that part of the mine into which the air shaft is to be sunk.

PLUMP, n.s., adj., & v. a.
PLUMP'NESS, n. s.
PLUMP'Y, adj.

Dr. Johnson says of this word the etymology is

not known. Skinner derives it from pommele, French, full like a ripe apple; it might be more easily deduced from plum, which yet seems very harsh. Junius omits it. But there is a Belg. plomb, and Swed. plumbe, meaning a tuft, or cluster. Somewhat fat; sleek; full and smooth; not lean; a cluster; knob; tuft: to swell; fatten : plumpness is, fatness; fulness of habit or appearance: plumpy, a ludicrous word for fat.

We rested under a plump of trees. Sandys.
Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne,
In thy vats our cares be drowned.

Shakspeare. England, Scotland, Ireland, lie all in a plump together, not accessible but by sea. Bacon. Warwick, having espied certain plumps of Scottish horsemen ranging the field, returned towards the arriere to prevent danger. Hayward.

The particles of air expanding themselves, plump out the sides of the bladder, and keep them turgid. Boyle.

Spread upon a lake, with upward eye A plump of fowl behold their foe on high; They close their trembling troop, and all attend On whom the sowsing eagle will descend.

Dryden.

The heifer that valued itself upon a smooth coat and a plump habit of body, was taken up for a sacri fice; but the ox, that was despised for his raw bones, L'Estrange.

went on with his work still.

I'm as lean as carrion; but a wedding at our

house will plump me up with good cheer. Id.

Let them lie for the dew and rain to plump them. Mortimer.

Plump gentleman

Prior.

Get out as fast as e'er you can: Or cease to push, or to exclaim, You make the very crowd you blame. Those convex glasses supply the defect of plumpness in the eye, and by encreasing the refraction make the rays converge sooner, so as to convene at Newton's Opticks. the bottom of the eye.

see.

The famished crow Grows plump and round, and full of mettle. Swift.

She dexterously her plumpers draws, That serve to fill her hollow jaws.

Id. Miscellanies.

PLUMP, adv. Corrupted from PLUMB, which
With a sudden fall.

I would fain now see 'em row'ld
Down a hill, or from a bridge
Head-long cast, to break their ridge;
Or to some river take 'em

Plump, and see if that would wake 'em.

Ben Jonson.

PLUNDER, v. a. & n. s. I Belg. and Teut. PLUN'DERER. S plunderer; Dan. plyndre. To pillage; rob: plunder is the spoil or pillage of war; a robbery: plunderer, a thief; robber.

Nebuchadnezzar plunders the temple of God, and we find the fatal doom that afterwards befel him. South's Sermons.

It was a famous saying of William Rufus, whosoever spares perjured men, robbers, plunderers, and traitors, deprives all good men of their peace and quietness. Addison.

Their country's wealth our mightier misers drain, Or cross, to plunder provinces, the main. Pope. He plundered the convents of their stores of provision; and told them that he never had heard of any magazines erected by the Apostles.

Johnson.

PLUNGE, v. a., v. n., & n. s. Fr. plonger; Belg. plompen; Germ. plump. To force suddenly into or under water; hence to force or urge into distress, guilt, or hazard; sink suddenly; to dive; fall or rush into crime, calamity, or hazard: the act of putting or sinking under water; difficulty; strait; distress.

She was weary of life, since she was brought to that plunge, to conceal her husband's murder, or accuse her son. Sidney.

Accoutred as I was I plunged in.

At this advanced, and sudden as the word,
In proud Plexippus' bosom plunged the sword. Id.
His courser plunged,

And threw him oft; the waves whelmed over him,
Id.
And helpless in his heavy arms he drowned.
People, when put to a plunge, cry out to heaven
for help, without helping themselves. L'Estrange.

When tortoises have been a long time upon the water, their shell being dried in the sun, they are easily taken; by reason they cannot plunge into the water nimbly enough. Ray.

You warn us of approaching death, and why
Will you not teach us what it is to die?
But having shot the gulf, you love to view
Succeeding spirits plunged along like you;

Nor lend a friendly hand to guide them through.
Norris.

Bid me for honour plunge into a war;
Then shalt thou see that Marcus is not slow.
Addison.

Wilt thou behold me sinking in my woes?
And wilt thou not reach out a friendly arm,
To raise me from amidst this plunge of sorrows?

Id.

Impotent of mind and uncontrouled,

He plunged into the gulf which heaven foretold.

Pope.

Without a prudent determination in matters before us, we shall be plunged into perpetual errors. Watta. Let them not be too hasty to plunge their enquiries at once into the depth of knowledge. Id.

He must be a good man; a quality which Cicero and Quinctilian are much at a plunge in asserting to the Greek and Roman orators. Baker on Learning. Thence country wives, wi' toil and pain, May plunge and plunge the kirn in vain ; For oh! the yellow treasures taen, By witching skill;

An' dawtit, twal-pint Hawkie's gaen

As yell's the Bill. Burm. Half on wing,

And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood, Conscious, and fearful of too deep a plunge. Cowper.

Then must I plunge again into the crowd, And follow all that peace disdains to seek? Byron,

PLUNKET (Oliver), D. D., a Roman Catholic divine, the titular archbishop of Armagh, went to Rome at an early age, and received the title of primate of Ireland from pope Innocent charge of treason, and being sent to London, XI. In September, 1679, he was arrested on a was executed at Tyburn in 1681. The life of this respectable man, whose innocence was subracy between some priests of a scandalous life, sequently established, fell a sacrifice to a conspi

whose disorders he had censured, and certain persons under sentence of death.

PLU'RAL, adj. PLURALIST, n. s. PLURALITY,

PLU'RALLY.

Lat. pluralis. More than one a pluralist is he who holds more than one ecclesiastical benefice : plurality, the state of being more than one; the greater number or majority: plurally, in a sense implying more than one.

To be brief, he (a pedant) is a heteroclite, for he wants the plural number, having only the single Sir E. Overbury. quality of words.

Thou hast no faith left now, unless thoud'st two; Better have none

Than plural faith, which is too much by one.

curates, their number might be so retrenched, that they would not be in the least formidable. Collier on Pride.

They could forego plurality of wives, though that be the main impediment to the conversion of the East Bentley.

Indies.

PLURAL. See GRAMMAR.

PLURALITY OF BENEFICES, or livings, is where the same clerk is possessed of two or more spiritual preferments, with cure of souls. The smallness of some benefices first gave rise to pluralities; for an ecclesiastic, unable to subsist on a single one, was allowed to hold two; and at length the number increased without bounds. A remedy was attempted for this abuse at the council of Lateran under Alexander III. and Innocent III. in 1215, when the holding more than one benefice was forbidden by a canon under the penalty of deprivation; but, the same canon granting the pope a power to dispense with it in favor of persons of distinguished merit, the prohibition became almost useless. They were also restrained by stat. 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13, which enacts that if any person having one benefice with cure of souls, of the yearly value of £8 or above (in the king's books), accept any other with cure of souls, the first shall be adjudged in law to be void, &c., though the same statute provides for dispensation in certain cases. In England, to procure a dispensation, the presentee must obtain of the bishop in whose diocese the livings are, two certificates of the values in the king's books, and the reputed values and distance; one for the archbishop, and the other for the lord chancellor. And, if the livings lie in two dioceses, then two certificates of the same kind are to be obtained from each bishop. He must also show the archbishop his presentation to the second living; and bring with him two testimonials from the neighbouring clergy concerning his behaviour and conversation, one for the archbishop, and the other for the lord chancellor; and he must also show the archbishop his letters of orders, and a certificate of his having taken the degree of M. A. at the least, in one of the universities of this realm, under the hand of the register. And if he be not B. D. nor D. D. nor LL. B. nor LL. D. he is to procure a qualification of a chaplain, which is to be duly registered in the faculty of office, in order to be tendered to the archbishop, according to the statute. And if he has taken any of the aforesaid degrees, which the statute allows as qualifications, he is to procure a certificate thereof, and to show the same to the archbishop; after which his dispensation is made out at the faculty office, where he gives security according to the direction of the canon. He must then repair to the lord chancellor for confirmation under the broad seal; and he must apply to the bishop of the diocese where the living lies for his admission and institution. By the several stamp acts, for every skin or paper, or parchment, &c., on which any dispensation to hold two ecclesiastical dignities or benefices, or a dignity and a benefice, shall be engrossed or written, there shall be paid a treble 40s. stamp duty. There is also a regulation with regard to pluralities; but it is often dispensed with: for, by the faculty of dispensation,

I love to wear clothes that are flush, Not prefacing old rags with plush. Cleaveland. The color of plush or velvet will appear varied if you stroak part of it one way, and part of it another. Boyle.

PLUSH, a kind of stuff, with a sort of velvet nap or shag on one side, consisting of a woof of a single woollen thread, and a double warp; the one of two woollen threads twisted, the other goat's or camel's hair; though there are plushes entirely of worsted, others of hair, and others again of silk, cotton, &c. White plush breeches have been often worn by English dragoons. They resist moisture, and are easily cleaned. Blue plush pantaloons are worn by the Royal Artillery drivers.

PLUSH'ER, n. s. Lat. galea lavis. A sea

fish.

The pilchard is devoured by a bigger kind of fish called a plusher, somewhat like the dog-fish, who leapeth above water, and therethrough bewrayeth them to the balker.

Carew.

PLUTARCH, a celebrated philosopher and historian of antiquity, who lived from the reign of Claudius to that of Hadrian, was born at Charonea, a small city of Boeotia in Greece. Plutarch's family was ancient in Chæronea: his grandfather Lamprias was a philosopher, and eminent for his learning; and is often mentioned by Plutarch in his writings, as is also his father. Plutarch was placed, at an early age, under the care of Ammonius, an Egyptian; who, after having taught philosophy with great reputation at Alexandria, settled at Athens. Under this master he made great advances in knowledge; but neglected the study of languages. Though he is supposed to have resided in Rome nearly forty years, at different times, yet he never seems to have acquired a competent skill in the Latin language; nor did he even cultivate his mother tongue, the Greek, with acccuracy, and hence that harshness, inequality, and obscurity in his style, which is so justly complained of. After leaving Ammonius, he travelled into Egypt, and was initiated in the Egyptian mysteries, as appears by his treatise of Isis and Osiris: in which he shows himself well versed in their ancient theology and philosophy. From Egypt he returned into Greece; and, visiting in his way all the academies and schools of the philosophers, gathered from them many of those observations with which he has enriched his works. He does not