CAR 



554 



CAR 



Carrier. 



uncommon, of a pigeon being let fly at the moment 

 of an execution at Tyburn, whereby the relatives of 

 the unfortunate criminal might be warned of his fate. 

 In the latest times, they have chiefly bern converted 

 to use, in announcing the issue of wagers between 

 places far asunder ; and, considering the rapidity of 

 their flight, certainly they are not unsuitable messen- 

 gers. Nevertheless the carrier pigeon is not the only 

 bird which the ingenuity of mankind has entrusted 

 with being the bearer of information. The swallow 

 has been thus employed, though not in a systematic 

 manner ; and the ancients relate that one of the kings 

 of Egypt had a crow so well trained, and which had 

 been so useful to him, that after its death he preser- 

 ved it in a tomb. 



The carrier is naturally endowed with the faculty 

 of returning to its usual place of habitation ; but cer- 

 tain precautions have been observed to render its mis- 

 sion more secure. It is only used during the time of 

 incubation, or while it has unfledged young: besides, 

 ;i kind of training is adopted, whereby lesser distan- 

 ces are passed over in its return, before the full 

 flight is required. The Turks take a pigeon, on 

 gaining its ultimate strength, and first carrying it 

 half a mile in a basket, allow it to fly : it is next car- 

 ried a whole mile, and so on, increasing the distance 

 to twenty or thirty miles. The same was done be- 

 tween Aleppo and Scanderoon, and, at last, when 

 judged to be sufficiently trained, those which had 

 young were sent down to the port. When the pigeon 

 was allowed to escape, its feet were bathed in vinegar, 

 with the design of keeping them cool, and to restrain 

 the bird from alighting in quest of water, by which 

 the billet which was fastened under its wing might be 

 injured, or the journey prolonged. But it was ne- 

 cessary that there should be no great interval after 

 removal from its young, and if a fortnight elapsed, 

 the return of the pigeon could not be relied upon. 



Immediately on escaping, the carrier towers to an 

 immense height, and then commences its progress 

 with inconceivable rapidity. Though it be difficult 

 to ascertain the velocity with which a bird cleaves 

 the air, it has justly been assimilated to the flight of 

 an arrow from the bow, and some have ventured to 

 hazard conjectures on the subject. Mr Cartwright, 

 who lived so long in a desolate region, computed the 

 rate at which certain wild ducks flew, to be 90 miles 

 an hour : the celebrated Spallanz.ini found by expe- 

 riment, that a swallow flew from Bologna to Modena, 

 which are 20 miles distant, in 13 minutes ; and he af- 

 firms that the common swift can fly 60 miles in a 

 quarter of an hour. We do not know that the car- 

 rier is endowed with such incredible speed ; but Da- 

 miri, an Arabian author, maintains, that it can tra- 

 verse a space equal to about 450 miles in a day. 

 Maillet says that, when fairly in flight, it does not 

 occupy above half an hour in ten leagues ; and D'Ar- 

 vieux, in calculating the distance between Scanderoon 

 and Aleppo at 40 leagues, observes, that pigeons 

 pass from the one to the other in three or four hours. 

 However, when employed by the English factory of 

 the latter place, they have been known to perform 

 that flight in two hours and a half. A well authen- 

 ticated experiment is described, where a pigeon being 

 let fly from St Edmund's Bury in England, reached 



London in the same time, the distance being 72 miles. 

 Most probably the rate of flight is not less than 80 

 miles an hour, and perhaps considerably more. See 

 Bochart Hierozoicon, torn. iii. col. 15, 16. Leyden, 

 1692. JElian Varia historia, lib. ix. cap. 2. Plinii 

 Historia Naturalis, lib. x. 34. Maillet Descrip- 

 tion de I'Egypte par Mascries, part ii. p. 140 in 4to. 

 Pennant's British Zoology, vol. ii. Treatise on Do- 

 mestic Pigeons, p. 75. Russel's Natural History of 

 Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 203, 4-29. (c) 



CARRON WORKS, the name of an iron foundry 

 in Scotland, on the most extensive scale, situated by 

 the side of the river Carroll, about three miles above 

 its junctioa with the river Forth, and about two 

 miles north from the town of Falkirk, in the county 

 of Stirling and parish of Larbert. 



These works were projected by the late celebrated 

 and enterprising Dr John Roebuck, who, after visit- 

 ing many situations in Scotland for the purpose of 

 erecting an iron work and foundry, at last fixed upon 

 the present site. They were established by a com- 

 pany, with Dr Roebuck at their head as the acting 

 partner, in the year 1760. 



The company are chartered, having an original 

 capital of .150,000 divided into six hundred shares 

 of 250 each, which are now in comparatively few 

 hands. These shares sell at present at an advance of 

 thirty per cent., and the company divide upon the 

 purchase sum about seven per cent, each year, payable 

 half yearly. Besides the above increased capital, there 

 is a very great undivided and accumulating capital, 

 consisting of landed, mineral, and heritable property, 

 xvith an immense stock of all materials requisite for 

 carrying on a concern so very extensive ; for as a 

 foundry, it is indeed the most extensive in the world, 

 though, as to the making of pig iron, it is on a small 

 scale in comparison with several iron works in Great 

 Britain. 



One primary object in placing these works where 

 they are, appears to have been that of having the full 

 command of the river Carron, for driving the heavy 

 machinery, requisite for an iron work, together with 

 the facility of water carriage for the raw materials 

 and manufactured articles. 



As the river Carron flows but a short way through 

 a champaign country, and as its source is not very 

 distant, it is on that account suddenly swelled with 

 heavy rains, and as suddenly reduced by a short con- 

 tinuance of drought. This circumstance rendered it 

 absolutely necessary to collect the river Carron into 

 a large reservoir immediately adjoining the works, 

 though even this was found, from the intermitting of 

 the river, quite insufficient for the purposes of the 

 work. To correct this defect, a very powerful steam 

 engine, upon the common construction, is employed 

 to raise the water after having passed over the wheels, 

 and is discharged into the reservoir again. This ma- 

 chine raises the water about 36 feet high, by means of 

 four very large pumps, and is capable of lifting 40 

 tons of water each minute, which flows from it like a 

 river, to be again used at the water wheels. From 

 the great extension of the works, even this vast aux- 

 iliary power was found insufficient, and of late a very 

 powerful steam engine for blowing, made by Messrs 

 Watt and Bolton, has been erected, capable of blow- 



Carroj* 

 Work*. 



