ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

'Tis yet in vain to keep a pother About one vice, and fall into the other. Pope. What a pother has been here with Wood and his brass,

Who would modestly make a few half-pennies pass!

Swift. POTHOS, in botany, a genus of the polyandria order, and gynandria class of plants. The spatha or sheath is a simple spadix covered: CAL. none: petals four, and as many stamina; the berries are dispermous. Species four, American plants. POTIDEA, a town of Macedonia, in the peninsula of Pallene. It was founded by a colony of Corinthians, and became tributary to the Athenians, from whom Philip II. of Macedon took it, and gave it to the Olynthians, whom he afterwards extirpated. Cassander repaired and enlarged it, and named it Cassandria. POTION, n. s. Fr. potion; Lat. potio. draught; commonly a physical draught. For tastes in the taking of a potion or pills, the head and neck shake. Bacon's Natural History. The earl was by nature of so indifferent a taste, that he would stop in the midst of any physical potion, and, after he had licked his lips, would drink off

the rest.

Wotton.

A

Most do taste through fond intemperate thirst; Soon as the potion works, their human countenance, The' express resemblance of the gods, is changed Into some brutish form of wolf or bear. Milton. POTNIÆ, a town of Boeotia, where Bacchus bad a temple. The Potnians, having murdered the priest of Bacchus, were ordered by the oracle to sacrifice a young man annually. This horrible sacrifice having continued some years, Bacchus interposed and substituted a goat. Paus. 9. c. 8.

POTOMAC, a river of the United States, which rises in two branches, the north and south, originating in and near the Alleghany mountains, and forming, through its whole course, part of the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. It passes by Shepherdstown, Georgetown, Washington city, Alexandria, Port Tobacco, &c., and

flows into Chesapeake Bay, between Point Lookout and Smith's Point. It is seven miles and a half wide at its mouth, and one mile and a quarter at Alexandria, 290 miles from the Ocean. The termination of the tide water is above 300 miles from the sea, and the river is navigable for ships of the greatest burden through nearly that distance. Above the tide water the river has three considerable falls, those above Georgetown are now passable in boats. Its length above the tide is upwards of 300 miles through an inhabited country. Its junction with the Shenando at Harper's Ferry is regarded as a great curiosity. The river has seven fathoms of water at its mouth, five at St. George's island, four and a half at Lower Matchodic, and three at Swan's Point, and thence to Alexandria.

POTOMAC ACADEMY, in Prince George county, Valencia, near the Potomac ; twenty-three miles east of Fredericksburg.

POTOMAC CREEK, a river of Virginia, which runs into the Potomac. Long. 77° 22′ W., lat. 38° 24' N.

POTOSI, a government once belonging to Peru, but added by the Spanish government to the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, and one of the most valuable of its territories. It is bounded on the north by the cordillera of Vilcanota, which separates it from the Peruvian provinces, and by countries inhabited by wandering tribes; on the east by the mountains of Arequipa, the Pacific Ocean, and the Chilian Andes; on the west by the governments of Paraguay and Buenos Ayres; and on the south by that of Buenos Ayres. Great part of it is full of mountains, ravines, and chasms, of a very cold temperature, and almost barren of vegetable productions; in other parts the country is covered with deserts, forests, vast plains, and mountain streams expanding into rivers. The Provincias de la Sierra, which lie near the Andes, are the most populous.

POTOSI, a city of the above province and district of Porco, is situated in a narrow glen on the river of this name, and on the south side of the mountain which contains the Potosi mines.

The environs are barren, and the climate cold; the valleys being destitute of wood, the sides of the hills covered only with moss, and their summits with eternal snows. A few vicunas are the only animals now and then seen grazing in this elevated region.

The silver mine of Potosi is by far the most productive of the whole of those in this government. The mountain from which the metal is extracted is of a conical form, about six leagues in circumference, and 4182 feet above the neighbouring plains. The discovery of its treasure was owing entirely to the accident we have adverted to in our article AMERICA, SOUTH, which see: a Peruvian, named Diego Hualpa, while chasing some chamois among the rocks, in his ascent laid hold of a small shrub, whose roots giving way disclosed to his view an immense vein of silver, which has been since distinguished by the name of La Rica, or the Rich. The Indian concealed the circumstance for a time from all his friends, and only had recourse to this treasure to supply his occasional wants; but the obvious change in his fortune had excited the

suspicions of one of his companions, who, by urgent entreaties, drew from him the secret, and, upon some slight quarrel, he soon after revealed it to his master, a Spaniard. The information was no sooner received than the mine was opened; and it was formally registered 21st of April, 1545. Since that time it has been constantly wrought, and the silver, which has paid the royal duties from this mine, has been valued at 5750,000,000 of livres tournois, equal to £234,693,840 sterling. The mountain is now almost completely excavated, and is perforated with above 300 pits, few of which, however, are more than seventy yards deep. It is opened at the base; and vaults, dug horizontally, penetrate into its bowels, and meet the veins of silver. In these vaults, which are called by the miners sacabouas, and are about six feet high and eight feet broad, the air is cold and unwholesome, and the Indians work there alternately night and day, entirely naked, lest they should embezzle

the ore.

On the first discovery of the mine of Potosi, the metal was much purer than at present, being now inferior to many of the other mines. It is the abundance of the ore alone which renders it worth working. According to Acosta, the average contents of silver in the crude ore were, in 1574, from eight to nine marks per quintal; and the minerals which yielded fifty marks per quintal were considered as extremely rich. Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, they reckon only from three to four marks per caxon, or fromto per quintal. A caxon contains about 50 cwt. From this it appears that the mean riches of the minerals have diminished in the proportion of 170 to one; but, what is surprising, the quantity of silver extracted from the mines of Potosi has only diminished in the proportion of four to one, according to the following calculations, which are from Humboldt.

1. From the opening of the mines of Potosi in 1545 to the year 1556, when the royal duties were first recorded with accuracy, Ulloa, upon the authority of Don Sebastiani Sandoval y Guzman, who published an account of these mines in 1634, entitled Pretensiones del Potosi, makes the total produce which paid duty to be 613,000,000 of piastres, making a yearly average of 55,726,000 piastres, or 6,556,000 marks of silver. This immense sum, however, Humboldt, upon unquestionable data, has reduced to 127,500,000 piastres, or 15,000,000 of marks, making an annual produce of nearly 1,363,636

marks.

2. The royal duties paid on the silver extracted from the mines of Potosi, between the 1st of January 1556, and 31st of December 1578, during which the fifth only was paid, amounted to 9,801,906 piastres, making a total produce of 49,009,530 piastres: or 5,765,827 marks of silver, which, for twenty-three years, makes the average annual produce of 256,688 marks.

3. The duties paid from the 1st of January 1579, to the 19th of July 1736, during which one and a half per cent. de covos was first paid, and then the fifth of the remaining 984 piastres, amounted to 129,417,273 piastres, making a total produce of nearly 610,458,835 piastres, or

71,818,686) marks of silver, which, for 157 years and a half, is at an annual average produce of nearly 455,991 marks.

4. Between the 20th of July 1736 and the 31st of December 1789, during which the one and a half per cent. de covos and the half of the fifth only were paid, the royal duties amounted to 14,542,684 piastres, making a total produce of 128,129,374 piastres, or 15,074,044 marks of silver, which, for fifty-three years and a half, makes an annual produce of nearly 281,758 marks.

5. From 1789 to 1803 we have no account of the royal duties; but during that period the total produce of Potosi, according to the records of the mint, was 46,000,000 of piastres, or 5,411,764 marks, making a yearly average of 386,554} marks.

It appears, therefore, that the annual produce of the last period is little more than a fourth of that of the first; but, in giving the average produce for such long periods, the gradual diminution or increase of the quantity of silver extracted from these mines could not be distinctly marked. We may therefore observe that, during the second period, when the royal duties were first correctly registered, the king's fifth varied from 500,000 to 300,000 piastres; and that, during the first fifty years of the third period, the duties varied from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 piastres; and then gradually diminished until 1735, when they only amounted to 271,621 piastres, 6 reals. From 1737 to 1789, the increase was equally gradual from 183,704 to 335,468 piastres. We may also remark that, in these calculations, we have uniformly valued the piastre at only eight reals de plata, although, until near the close of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards reckoned by piastres of 480 maravedis, or nearly 134 reals de plata. In estimating, therefore, the total produce of these mines from 1545 to 1803, allowance must be made for this low valuation.

The quantity of silver extracted from the mines of Potosi during the

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

water, which, by the application of proper machinery, might be easily drained off. The methods employed for this purpose are, however, ill contrived and ineffectual. Mr. Helms saw one drain which had been begun, in 1779, and had, at an incredible expense, been carried two miles. This drain, even at its mouth, was too high, and it had been made to slope one yard in every 132; so that it could not possibly free many of the pits from the water with which they were overwhelmed. Still greater ignorance,' says Mr. Helms, was, if possible, displayed by the directors of the smelting houses and refining works at Potosi. By their method of amalgamation, they were scarcely able to gain two-thirds of the silver contained in the paco-ore; and, for every mark of pure silver gained, they destroyed one, and frequently two, marks of quicksilver. Indeed all the operations at the mines of Potosi, the stamping, sifting, washing, quickening, and roasting the ore, are conducted in so slovenly, wasteful, and unscientific a manner, that to compare the excellent method of amalgamation invented by baron Born, and practised in Europe, with the barbarous process used by these Indians and Spaniards, would be an insult to the understanding of my readers. The tools of the Indian miner are very badly contrived and unwieldy. The hammer, which is a square piece of lead of twenty pounds weight, exhausts his strength. The iron, a foot and a half long, is a great deal too incommodious, and in some narrow places cannot be made use of. The thick tallow candles wound round with wool, vitiate the air. In the royal mint at Potosi, where from 550,000 to 600,000 marks of silver, and about 2000 marks of gold, are annually coined, affairs were not better conducted. Every hundredweight of refined copper used for alloy in the gold and silver coin cost the king £35, through the gross ignorance of the overseers of the work, who spent a whole month in roasting and calcining it, and frequently rendered it quite unfit for the purpose.' These various evils the German commissioners, sent over by the king of Spain to inspect the mines, endeavoured to remove. They constructed a new laboratory, according to the most improved model, by which the copper ores used for alloy could be refined in four hours and a half, and for one-twentieth part of the expense incurred by the former process: they also erected machinery for the draining of the mines. New amalgamation works were also erected, and suitable instructions given to the persons employed. As soon as the water in the pits,' Helms observes, can be got "under, the mines of Potosi will be in a more flourishing condition than ever. The total want of timber, however, on the naked ridge of mountains on which Potosi is situated, very much retards the work.'

Porosi, formerly Mine-au-Burton, a post town and capital of Washington county, Missouri territory; forty-five miles west of St. Genevieve, and sixty S.S.W. of St. Louis.

POTOSI, SAN LOUIS, an extensive intendency of Mexico or New Spain, under the Spanish government, whose territorial limits it is scarcely possible accurately to ascertain, it being sur

rounded by deserts, or countries inhabited by wandering and independent tribes of Indians. On the south it is bounded by the intendancies of Vera-Cruz, Mexico, and Guanaxuato; on the east by the gulf of Mexico, and on the west by Zacatecas and Durango. This immense district includes, therefore, a greater surface than Europe or Spain; but though gifted by nature with the most precious productions, and situated under a serene sky, it is quite wild as to cultivation in most parts, and more thinly peopled than Asiatic Russia. Its position on the eastern limits of New Spain, the proximity of the United States, the easy communication with the colonists of Louisiana, and various other circumstances, concur, however, to favor its progress towards civilisation and prosperity.

On the coast, which is 230 leagues in extent, are a number of lagunas, or salt water lakes. The capital is of this name, and contained in Humboldt's time 12,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the eastern side of this table-land west of the sources of the Rio de Panuca.

POTSCHINKI, a town of European Russia, in the government of Nischnei-Novgorod. It has a traffic in cattle, and 4000 inhabitants, and here is kept by government a stud of horses, which supplies a regiment of life-guards. 117 miles S. S. E. of Nischnei-Novgorod.

POTSDAM, a province of Brandenberg, Prussia, comprehending the former districts of the Ucker Mark, the Mark of Priegnitz, and the greatest part of the Middle Mark. It is situated between Pomerania and West Prussia on the north, and the province of Saxony on the south and west: Berlin, with a small district around, forms a distinct government. Towards the north-west this province is bounded by the Elbe and the Havel, and on the north-east by the Oder. Its area is about 8000 square miles, divided into the following thirteen circles :—

[blocks in formation]

This track is one extensive low plain, varied only occasionally by hills of slight elevation. The soil, though for the most part a light sand, sometimes barren and even drifting, contains spots, particularly on the rivers, remarkable for their fertility. The climate is not cold, and, since a number of the lakes have been drained, it is reckoned healthy. The chief mineral here is marsh iron ore, which affords about twenty per cent. of metal. The inhabitants, about 500,000, are in general industrious, and carry on manufactures of woollens, cotton, and linen. The towns are small, the principal, after Potsdam, being Brandenburg, Prenzlow, Spandau, and Ruppin.

POTSDAM, the chief town of the above government, is of a square form and situated on the north bank of the Havel, which here spreads its waters into a succession of small lakes. Potsdam, since the close of the seventeenth century,

has been the frequent residence of the court of Berlin, but is indebted for its chief improve ments to Frederic II. The new town was either built or repaired entirely by that prince: the fronts of several of the streets are all of stone, but the rest of the houses are finished in a far inferior style. The streets are not as yet all paved. On the whole, however, Potsdam may vie in beauty with Manheim, or any German town. It is surrounded by a wall and ditch, and has four gates toward the land, and four toward the river; on the banks of which is the Havel, a magnificent structure, begun in 1660, and extended progressively during the subsequent reigns. Its finest ornaments are a colonnade, a cupola, and a marble staircase. In the front is a square for manoeuvring troops; and along the river extensive gardens. Connected with it also are a theatre, menagerie, and noble stables. The town-house was built in 1754, on the plan of that of Amsterdam. There are in Potsdam extensive barracks; a great hall for exercising the troops in bad weather; and in the garrison church statues of Mars and Bellona. Here also is the tomb of Frederick II. There are in the town six other churches and a Jewish synagogue. The market-place is ornamented by statues of the kings of Prussia and an obelisk. The lyceum, two public schools of inferior extent, and one belonging to the garrison; the infirmary itself, a poor-house, and an orphan-house on a large scale, for the children of soldiers, are other public establishments worth notice.

[ocr errors]

The population of Potsdam, exclusive of military, is about 17,000; the former amount in general to the number of 6000 or 8000. In the absence of the court, Potsdam seems deserted. Its numerous manufactures are all on a small scale: but brewing is here, as in other German towns, a business of great extent; and the cultivation of gardens in the neighbourhood supplies no small employment. The palace of Sans Souci, the favorite retreat of the great Frederick,' is three-quarters of a mile to the northwest, and stands on the ascent of an eminence. It is only one story in height, with a circular pavilion at each end: in one is the library of Frederick, exactly in the state it was left at his death. Sans Souci has two appended buildings for a collection of paintings, and for other court entertainments. In the garden is a cabinet of statues, gems, and medals. Two miles to the west is a palace begun towards the close of the eighteenth century on a magnificent scale, but not likely to be soon finished. The structure called the marble palace is in the midst of a garden at some distance from Sans Souci. Fifteen miles W.S.W. of Berlin, and sixty-one E. N. E. of Dresden.

POTSDAM, a post town of St. Lawrence county, New York; ninety miles west of Plattsburg, and 150 N.N. W. of Albany. It is a flourishing town. The principal village is situated on the Racket, where there are fine falls, which afford excellent seats for mills and manufactories. A weekly newspaper is published here.

POTT (Percival), F.R.S., was born in London in 1713. He received the rudiments of his education at a private school at Darne in Kent;

and became an apprentice to Mr. Nourse, one of the surgeons of St. Bartholomew's Hospital; of which hospital, in 1744-5, he was elected an assistant; and, in 1749, appointed one of the principal surgeons. In 1746 he married the daughter of Robert Cruttenden, Esq. His first publication is said to have been planned in 1756, during his confinement, in consequence of a compound fracture of the leg: from that time his pen was seldom long unemployed. His practice and his reputation were now rapidly increasing: in 1764 he was elected F. R. S.; and afterwards was complimented with honorary diplomas from the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in Edinburgh and Dublin. In 1787 he resigned the office of surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, after having served it,' as he used to say, 'man and boy, half a century;' and on the 22d of December, 1788, after an illness of eight days, he expired. He published a great number of treatises on various branches in surgery; particularly, On Tumors which soften the Bones; On Ruptures; On the Hydrocele; On Fistula Lachrymalis; On Hernia of the Bladder and Stone; On Fistula in Ano; On Fractures and Dislocations; On Wounds of the Head; On the Cataract, Polypus of the Nose, Cancer of the Scrotum, Ruptures, and Mortification of the Toes. All these have been collected and published in 1 vol. 4to.

POTTER (Christopher), a learned English divine, born in 1591, and educated at Oxford. In 1633 he published his Answer to a late Popish Plot, entitled Charity Mistaken, which he wrote by special order of king Charles I., whose chaplain he then was. In 1634 he was appointed dean of Worcester; and in 1640 vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford; in the execution of which office he met with considerable hindrance from the members of the long parliament. Upon the breaking out of the civil wars, he sent all his plate to the king, declaring that he would rather, like Diogenes, drink in the hollow of his hand, than that his majesty should want;' and he afterwards suffered much for the royal cause. He was accordingly nominated dean of Durham in 1646, but was prevented from being installed by his death, which happened about two months after. He was a person learned and religious, exemplary in his conversation, courteous in his carriage, of a sweet and obliging nature, and of a comely presence.' He was remarkable for his charity to the poor.

POTTER (John), D.D., archbishop of Canterbury, was the son of a linen-draper at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, where he was born about 1674. He studied at University College, Oxford; and at the age of nineteen published Variantes Lectiones et Notæ ad Plutarchi Librum de Audiendis Poetis; et ad Basilii magui orationem ad Juvenes, quomodo cum fructu legere possint Græcorum Libros, 8vo., 1693. In 1697 came out his Lycophron, in folio; which is reckoned the best edition of that obscure writer: soon after he published his Antiquities of Greece, 2 vols. 8vo. These works established his literary reputation, and engaged him in a correspondence with Grævius and other learned foreigners. In 1706 he was made chaplain to the queen; in

1715 bishop of Oxford; and in 1737 he succeeded archbishop Wake in the see of Canterbury; which high station he supported with much dignity until his death in 1747. He was a learned and exemplary churchman; but strongly tinctured with the pride of office; and disinherited his eldest son for marrying below his rank. His Theological works, containing Sermons, Charges, Discourses on Church Government, and Divinity Lectures, were printed at Oxford, in 3 vols. 8vo., 1753.

POTTER (Robert), a divine of the church of England, was born in Norfolk in 1721, and educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1741. His first preferment was the vicarage of Scarning in Norfolk, where he wrote poems in imitation of Pope, which were published in 1 vol. 8vo., in 1774. In 1777 appeared his translation of Eschylus, with notes, 4to.; reprinted in 1779 in 2 vols. 8vo. In 1781 came out the first volume of his translation of Euripides, and the second in the year following. In 1788 he printed his Sophocles, and his school-fellow, lord Thurlow, gave him a prebend in the church of Norwich: bishop Bagot presented him, about the same time, to the vicarages of Lowestoft and Kessingland. He died at Lowestoft in 1804. Besides the above, Mr. Potter wrote Observations on the Poor Laws; an Answer to Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets; A Translation of the Oracle concerning Babylon, &c.

POTTERY, the manufacture of earthen-ware, or the art of making earthen vessels. See DELFT, PORCELAIN, &c. The wheel and lathe are the usual instruments in pottery; the first for large works, and the last for small. The potter's wheel consists principally in the nut, which is a beam or axis, whose foot or pivot plays perpendicularly on a free-stone sole or bottom. From the four corners of this beam, which does not exceed two feet in height, arise four iron bars, called the spokes of the wheel, which, forming diagonal lines with the beam, descend, and are fastened at bottom to the edges of a strong wooden circle, four feet in diameter, perfectly like the felloe of a coach wheel, except that it has neither axis nor radii, and is only joined to the beam, which serves it as an axis, by the iron bars. The top of the nut is flat, of a circular figure, and a foot in diameter; and on this is laid the clay which is to be turned and fashioned. The wheel thus disposed is encompassed with four sides of four different pieces of wood fastened on a wooden frame; the hind piece, which is that on which the workman sits, is made a little inclining towards the wheel; on the fore pieces are placed the prepared earth; on the side piece he rests his feet, and these are made inclining to give him more or less room. Having prepared the earth, the potter lays a round piece of it on the circular head of the nut, and, sitting down, turns the wheel with his feet till it moves with the proper velocity; then, wetting his hands with water, he presses his hand or his finger's end into the middle of the lump, and thus forms the cavity of the vessel, continuing to widen it from the middle; thus turning the inside into form with one hand,

while he proportions the outside with the other, the wheel constantly turning all the while, and he wetting his hands from time to time. When the vessel is too thick, he uses a flat piece of iron, somewhat sharp on the edge, to pare off what is redundant; and, when it is finished, it is taken off from the circular head by a wire passed under the vessel. The potter's lathe is also a kind of wheel, but more simple and slight than the former: its three chief members are an iron beam or axis three feet and a half high, and two feet and a half diameter, placed horizontally at the top of the beam, and serving to form the vessel upon and another larger wooden wheel, all of a piece, three inches thick, and two or three feet broad, fastened to the same beam at the bottom, and parallel to the horizon. The beam or axis turns by a pivot at the bottom in an iron stand. The workman gives the motion of the lathe with his feet, by pushing the great wheel alternately with each foot, still giving it a greater or less degree of motion as his work requires. They work with the lathe with the same instruments, and after the same manner, as with the wheel. The mouldings are formed by holding a piece of wood or iron cut in the form of the moulding to the vessel, while the wheel is turning round; but the feet and handles aré made by themselves, and set on with the hand; and, if there be any sculpture in the work, it is usually done in wooden moulds, and stuck on piece by piece on the outside of the vessel. The art of making pottery is intimately connected with chemistry. For Mr. Wedgewood's remarkable improvements in this. art see STAFFORDSHIRE.

The process of manufacturing stoneware is described by Dr. Watson as follows:-

Tobacco-pipe clay from Dorsetshire is beaten much in water. By this process, the finer parts of the clay remain suspended in the water, while the coarser sand and other impurities fall to the bottom. The thick liquid, consisting of water and the finer parts of the clay, is farther purified by passing it through hair and lawn sieves, of different degrees of fineness. After this, the liquid is mixed (in various proportions for various wares) with another liquor, of as nearly as may be the same density, and consisting of flints calcined, ground, and suspended in water. The mixture is then dried in a kiln; and, being afterwards beaten to a proper temper, it becomes fit for being formed at the wheel into dishes, plates, bowls, &c. When this ware is to be put into the furnace to be baked, the several pieces of it are placed in the cases made of clay, called seggars, which are piled one upon another in the dome of the furnace. A fire is then lighted; and when the ware is brought to a proper temper, which happens in about forty-eight hours, it is glazed by common salt. The salt is thrown into the surface, through holes in the upper part of it, by the heat of which it is instantly converted into a thick vapor; which, circulating through the furnace, enters the seggar through holes made in its side (the top being covered to prevent the salt from falling on the ware), and, attaching itself to the surface of the ware, it forms that vitreous coat upon the surface which

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »