B L U
BOA
an inch thick b . In the whale, its thicknefs is ordinarily fix' inches ; but, about the under lip, it is found two or three feet thick. The whole quantity yielded by one of thefe animals ordinarily amounts to forty or fifty, fometimcs to eighty, or more hundred weight e .—[ a Hough!. Collect. T. 3. N° 534. &N° 535. p. 277 & 281. b Phil. Tranf. N° 77. p. 2275. ' jiVo/ Mark. p. 134.]
The ufe of blubber to the animal feems to be partly to poife the body, and render it equiponderant to the water; partly to keep off the water at fome diftance from the blood, the im- mediate contact whereof would be apt to chill it ; and partly alfo for the fame ufe that cloaths ferve us, to keep the fifh warm, by reflecting or reverberating the hot fleams of the body, and fo redoubling the heat ; fince all fat bodies are, by experience, found lefs fenfible of the impreflions of cold than lean ones. Ray, Wifd. Creat. P. 1. p. 152. Its ufe in trade and manufactures is to furniih train-oil, which it does by boiling down. Formerly this was performed afhore, in the country where the whales were caught ; but of late the fiihers do not go afliore, they bring the blubber home flowed in calks, and boil it down there. Vid. Atiaf. Mark. p. 132. Savar. Diet. Comm. Supp. p. 1072. Haught. loc. cit.
Blubber livers. — The livers of cods, which having been barrel- led, yield fpontaneoufly a coniiderable quantity of oil, which being fkimmed off", the refidue are called blubber-livers, to be boiled down for more oil, Collins, DifT. of Salt and Fifh, p. So.
Sea Blubber, a denomination given by our navigators to the urtica marina, or fea-nettle. Phil. Tranf. N° 349. p. 478. See Uktica marina.
BLUE {Cycl.) — The colour blue anfwers to what was called among the Greeks xu*^. 3 ; among the Latins, eterulcus b ; in middle-age writers, blavus, blaveus, blavius, and bleats c . — [ * Vid Goer. Def. Med. p. 251. voc. kvk^-. b Cajl.
Lex. Med. p. 452. voc cizruleus. See alio Menage, Orig. Franc, p. 1 c6. pefai. Orig. 'p. 25. vod bleu. Siinn. Etym, voc. blew. « Du Cange, Glofi'. Lat. T. 1. p. 572. voc.
blavus. ]
Of a mixture of blue and yellow is compounded 'green ; tho' every blue and every yellow will not, by their mixture, pro- duce green, e. g. amaranth. Vid. Beyle, Phil. Work, abridg. T. 1. p. 70.
Of blue and fcarlet is made violet and panfy colour ; and of blue and crimfon is made purple, and columbin or dove co- lour d . Dr. Hook will have blue and fcarlet to be the only fimple and primitive colours, out of whofe mixture all the others are compounded c . Others afcribe this prerogative to blue and yellow ; an opinion which has had the honour of being combated by Sir Ifaac Newton '■—[" Trcv. Dicf. Univ. T. i. p. 1074. ' Vid. Bali, Microgr. obf. 9. p. 58, feq. _ ' Phil Tranf. N° 96. p. 6086, feq.] The juices of blue flowers become green by the admixture of alcalis ; and red by that of acids. See the articles Acid and Alcali.
The blue flowers of cichory are prefently changed to a blood colour by the juice of pifmires s. A folution of verdigreafe with oil of tartar is found to produce a beautiful blue \— [s Phil. Tranf. N« 68. p. 2064. b Beyle, Phil. Works abridg T.
There are divers fhades or degrees of blue, as fcy-bluc, light- blue, deep Imd-bluc, &c. anfwering to which the' Romans had their caruhus, eafms, caftius, &c '. Sir Ifaac Newton diftin- guifhes blues by different orders : that of the firft order is very faint and weak, fuch as is the azure of the iky K— [ ' Pitife. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 504, feq. voc. color. k Nevjton, Opt I. 2. P. 3. prop. 7. p. 232.] Blue, in commerce, is ufed for an artificial or compound body, prepared for imparting a blue colour to woods, ft uft's, canvas, and the like.
The antient painters ufed an artificial blue made of fand, fait, nitre, and copper-duff '. But the moderns have a much bct-
' ter, which is ultramarine procured from lapus lazuli ».
[ ' Vitruv. Archit. 1. 7. c. n. Felib. Princ. de l'Archk. p. 356. *,&&, lib. cit p. 356.] See the article Ultra- marine, Cycl.
The azure or blue prepared from the lapis Armenus ", fuppofed hy Dr. Woodward to be much the fame with the terre bleue, or blue earth, and called among us Lambert's blue, is a mineral earth of a bright colour, found in the north. Its blucnefs, which is much efteemed, is owing to an admixture of copper ° — [ " Vid. Grew, Muf. Reg. Societ. P. 3. §. ,, c. 6. p. 316. Junck. Confp. Therap. tab. 3. p. 82. Du Harnel, Hift. Acad. Scienc. 1. 4. §. 4. c. I. p. 3(2. ° Woodw. Nat. Hift. Engl. i off. T. 1. p. 7 & 3.] See Armenus lapis. To thefe may he added divers other mineral blues, or metallic caduiisE, all prepared from cobalt. Woodw. Catal. For. Foff
P- 50. Felib. Princ. Archit. 1.
3. c. 13. p. 319.
Or. Plott alio (peaks of a native or earth blue, found in a marl- pit in Oxfordfhire, the fteam of which covered the roots of trees and other vegetables near it with a bluijh fubftance, like Hour otfulphur. Plott, Nat. Hift. Oxfordfh. c. 6. S. «. It c. 3. §. 1 b'. ' J
PruJim'BLVB, or Berlin Rivii, is a modern invention, confi- deraMy in uie among painters, though inferior to the ultra- marine blue. See Prussian blue.
Stone or powder Blue, ufed in warning of linen, is the fame with fmalt, either in the lump or powdered. Vid. Savar. Diet. Comm. T. 1. p. 206. voc. azur. See Smalt. When the fmalt is taken from the pot, it is thrown into a large veffel of cold water : this makes it niore traclablc, and eafily powdered. Afterwards, when examined after cooling, it is found to be mixed with a greyifh matter refembling afhes, which they call efchel. This grey matter is feparated by warn- ing, and then the blue fubftance is powdered and fitted through fine fieves, to bring it to what we call powder blue. Phil. Tranf, N° 396. Blue japan is made of white lead, fmalt, and ifinglafs mixed.
Pari. Treat, of Japann. c. 5. p. 23. BlVE-eap, in ichthyology. See BLZW-cap. Blue gems, fuch are the turcois, and divers other artificial (tones, whofe preparation is defcribed by Neri. Vid. Neri, Art. Vi- triar. 1. 1. c. 36. p. 56. It. 1. 7, cm. p. 164& 291. See Turcois, Cycl.
AH blue gems, accordiug to Woodward, derive their colour from a mixture of copper. Woodw. Nat. Hift. Engl. Foff. T. 1. p. 190. See Gem. Blue nuns, files blues, thofc of the order of the annunciation. BLVE-bettle, in botany, the Englifh name of the eyanus, a fmall plant, with beautiful blue flowers, common in our corn-field 1 ;, and of which many beautiful fpecies arc kept in gardens. See Cyanus. BLUFF-fa</, or BLVTT-beaded, in the fea-language, is when a fhip has but a fmall rake forward on, being built with her ffem too ftreight up. Bote!. Sea Dial. 4. p. 103. Guilt. Gent. Dicl. P. 3. in voc.
Bluff-headed (hips are oppofed to thofe that arc (harp-headed. They are fhorlcr, lefs mafted, and fail cheaper. Vid. Petty, Difc. of Duplic. Proport. p. 29, feq. BLUING, (Cycl.) the act or art of communicating a blue colour to bodies otherwife deftitute thereof. See Blue. Laundreffes blue their linen with fmalt ; dyers their fluffs and woolls with woad or indigo. Savar. Die*. Comm. T. 1. p. 96. voc. ampajleler. Bluing of iron, a method of beautifying that metal fometimcs praclifed ; as for mourning buckles, fwords, and the like. The manner is thus : take a piece of grind-ftone or whet- flone, and rub hard on the work, to take off the black fcurf from it ; then heat it in the fire, and as it grows hot, the colour changes by degrees, coming firft to light, then to a darker gold colour, and laftly to a blue. Sometimes alfo they grind indigo and fallad oil together ; and rub the mixture on the work with a woollen rag, while it is heating, leaving it to cool of itfelf. Neve, Build. Dicl in voc. iron. Among fculptors we aifo find mention of bluing a figure of bronze, by which is meant the heating of it, to prepare it for the application of gold-leaf, becaufe of the bluifb. caft it ac- quires in the operation. Felib. Princ. Archit. p 3 ;6. BLUNDERBUSS, in the military art, a fliort fort of fire-arm, with a large bore, contrived to carry a number of mufket or piftol-bullets at once.
The blunderbufs is proper to do execution in a crowd, or to make good a narrow paffage, as the door of a houfe, ftair-cafc, or the like. Milit. Dia. in voc. Trev. DiS. Univ. T. 3. p. 524. voc. snoufquetou. Siinn. Etym. in voc. BLUNT, in fencing.— To fight with blunts, is to exercife or parade with weapons without points or edges. Hope, New Art Fenc. c. 4. §. 5. p. 6S. BLUNTING the anglet of a battalion, in the military art, figni- fies to retrench the four corners, and turn the fquare into an octogon.
This is done in order to give an opportunity for prefentimr the pikes, or firing on all fides, and was a military evolutionfor- merly much in ufe ; but now out of doors. Trev. Dicl. Univ. T. 2. p. 1286. voc. emouffer. BOADODA Bajhee, in the Turkifh military orders, an officer of the janizaries, whofe bufinefs it is to walk every day about the principal parts of the city, with a number of janizaries to attend him, to keep order, and fee that all things arc regular, even to the drefs. This office is for three months, and"from this the pcrfon is ufually advanced to be a feracb. Poeoclc's Egypt, p. 167. BOAR, in zoology. See the articles Hog and Sus. BOARD (Cycl.) — Dcz\-bea?rls arc generally imported into Eng- land ready fawed, becaufe done cheaper abroad, in regard we want faw-mills. Heught. Collect. T. 3. p. 45. Clap-boards are imported from Sweden and Dantzic. Oak-boards chiefly from Sweden and Holland ; fome from Dantzic. Haught. ibid. p. 194.
¥ipe-boards are brought from Dantzic. We alfo import white boards for (hoemakers ; mill and (cdle-bonrds, paft .beards &c. for divers artificers. Crouch, View Brit. Cuft. T. 1. p. 120.
Scale-board is a thinner fort, ufed for the covers of primers, thin boxes, and the like. It is made with large planes ; but might probably be fawed with mills to advantage. Hough. lib. cit. T. 3. p. 46. Board is alfo ufed for a kind of table or bench, whereon feve- ral artificers perform their work. Ftlib. Princ. Archit, p. 414. voc. cftab'e. *
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