501 



SHEERS. 



SHEKEL. 



soa 



separately, that the whole be used together in the proportion of half an 

 ounce each of the zinc and tin, 1 oz. of the antimony, and 2 oz. of 

 the arsenic, to 100 Ibs. of copper. By these mixtures, Mr. Muahefc 

 states that the copper is rendered much more cohesive and fibrous in 

 its texture, and that the corrosive effect of the sea-water is in a great 

 measure prevented. The metallic sheathing patented by Mr. Pope, 

 consists either of tin and zinc, or of tin, lead, and zinc. If the former 

 mixture be used, the zinc is first melted, an equal quantity of tin is 

 added to it, and the alloy, after being stirred while fluid, is cast into 

 cakes about three-quarters of an inch thick, which are hammered or 

 rolled out to the required degree of tenuity. In uniting tin, lead, 

 and zinc, the lead is first melted, double its quantity of tin is then 

 added, and the alloy is cast into small lumps. A quantity of zinc 

 equal to the tin and lead united is then separately melted, ami the 

 alloy of tin and lead is added to it; the whole, when thoroughly 

 incoqx>rated, being cast into cakes as before, for subsequent rolling out 

 into sheets. 



Iron, protected by the galvanic action of zinc, has also been used for 

 sheathing. Mr. Pattison proposed to use sheets of iron similar in size 

 to the sheets of copper sheathing, each having at its lower extremity a 

 f zinc from one-eighth to one fourth of an inch thick, attached 

 in such a way that in sheathing the vessel from the upper part down- 

 wards, each succeeding sheet of iron shall be in contact with, and 

 overlap, the zinc plate of the sheet immediately above it. Washers or 

 perforated discs of zinc are also applied under the heads of the spikes 

 ur bolts used in fastening the sheathing; and the heads of the nails 

 i tuployed are made hollow, and filled with melted zinc. 



Sheathing of brown paper coated with tar, and of various other non- 

 metallic substances, has also been used. Perhaps the most important 

 of these is a kind of felt, into the composition of which a considerable 

 quantity of cow-hair enters. As this material itself felts very 

 imperfectly, the sheets are passed, in the process of manufacture, 

 through a boiler of pitch or tar, which increases the cohesion of the 

 fabric. This material, which is sometimes used in conjunction with 

 copper sheathing, being laid on immediately beneath it, has the 

 important qualities of being a perfect protection against the worm, and 

 of being at once impermeable to water, and so extensible as not to be 

 easily broken by the working which takes place among the timbers of 

 a crazy chip. A sheathing composed of a coarse fabric of fibrous 

 material, saturated with a solution of caoutchouc, together with 

 pitch and tar, has been recommended as a cheap and effectual substi- 

 tute for felt. 



Copper sheathing is usually applied in sheets about four feet long 

 and fourteen inches wide, the thickness being such that a square foot 

 weighs from sixteen to thirty-two ounces, most commonly from 

 twenty to twenty-eight ounces ; and the mode of application does not 

 vary materially whether the copper be laid upon the bare planking or 

 upon an interposed layer of tarred paper, felt, or thin boarding. The 

 sheets are pierced with holes, not only round the edges, but also at 

 intervals of three or four inches over the whole surface ; they are laid 

 so as to overlap each other about an inch, and are secured to the ship 

 with flat-headed copper-nails. Great regularity is observed in the 

 arrangement of the sheets, so that a certain symmetry of appearance, 

 as well as durability, is attained. After two voyages to the East 

 Indies, or an equivalent amount of voyaging elsewhere, the coppering 

 require* to be renewed; and the old copper is found to have lost 

 three or four ounces of its weight in the square foot, by the action 

 of sea- water, friction, and other causes. 



All the copper sheathing fur the Koyal Navy that is, for the ships 

 built at the royal dockyards is made at an establishment called the 

 in Chatham Dockyard. 



SIIKKI'.S, or SHEARS, a contrivance used for hoisting the masts of 



a nliip into or out of their place, and occasionally for loading and 



unloading heavy goods. The sheers used in masting vessels consist of 



i i;e poles, the lower ends of which rest upon thick planks laid 



along the sides of the deck ; while their upper ends are lashed 



together so as to cross each other exactly over the hole in the deck 



through which the mast is to be dropped; they being siistaiin-l in 



this position by ropes radiating from the top to various parts of the 



vessel. To this apparatus is attached the tackle necessary for lifting 



the masts out of the water, when they have been floated to the side 



of the ship, and lowering them gently into their places. This is the 



tus commonly employed in masting merchant-ships ; but the 



like operation is sometimes performed by means of a sheer-hulk and 



sometimes by a maitimj-hutuf. The nhcir-hu/k is an old man-of-war 



\vn to the lower deck, having a mast fixed in the hulk, and four 



stout spars or sheers which project obliquely from its side. The tops 



! sheers reach to such a height and project to such a distance 



from the side of the hulk, that the vessel to be masted can come 



beneath them to be fitted with her lower masts. A mantiay-lnjiae is a 



lofty building erected for the purpose of performing the operation 



more conveniently, by the aid of mechanism overhanging the water to 



ible distance, beneath which ships may be floated. 



SHEET-METAL. [COPPER; IRON; LEAD; TINNING AND TIN 

 PLATE.] 



SHEKEL (bptC), the principal weight and coin of the Hebrews. 

 The subject of Hebrew weights and money is involved in great 



obscurity. The almost uniform testimony of ancient authors is that the 

 shekel was equal to the Attic tetradrachm, or to the stater, or half the 

 Roman ounce, that is to 4 denarii, which were reckoned at the period 

 equal to four Attic drachmae. The Septuagint indeed commonly 

 renders the shekel by the didrachm current at Alexandria, which was 

 double of the Attic. Hesychius, in one passage, makes it equal to 

 four, and in others to two Attic drachma; ; and Suidas makes it five 

 drachmae. But the testimony of Hesychius and Suidas is of no value 

 against that of St. Matthew, Josephus, Philo, and the other contempo- 

 rary authorities. The average weight of the shekels of Simon Macca- 

 bieus is about 218 English grains, or half the English avoirdupois 

 ounce, and only two grains more than the Roman ounce, or the 

 weight assigned to the shekel by ancient writers. But the full weight 

 of the Attic tetradrachm, to which the shekel is said to have been 

 equal, was not the full one of 266 grains of the time of Pericles or 

 Xenophon, but the reduced one under the Koman emperors, which was 

 always considered as equivalent to the four denarii. 



With respect to the shekel of the time before the Captivity, we have 

 no certain information. The Rabbins say that after the Captivity all 

 weights were increased by one-fifth ; but there are many circumstances 

 which prove this tradition to be of no value. In the absence of trust- 

 worthy information to the contrary, it is most probable that the 

 aucieut and the modem shekel were of the same weight, namely, 

 about 218 grains. 



The shekel formed the foundation of the Hebrew weights, of which 

 there were three principal denominations : the shekel (7ptt7) meaning 

 (' iyht ; the maneh (H3D), numbtr, that is, a certain number of shekels 

 or weights ; and the kikkar (~1D3), a round number, or sum total, that 

 is, a certain collection of manehs, translated by the word " talent " in 

 the Septuagint, Vulgate, and modern versions. The shekel, maneh, 

 and kikkar corresponding respectively to the stater, mina, and talent. 



The kikkar was equal to 3000 shekels. (Exod. xxxviii. 25.) There 

 is a difficulty about the maneh, since from 1 Kings x. 16, compared 

 with 2 Chron. ix. 16, it would seem to have contained 100 shekels, 

 while in Ezekiel xlv. 12, it is ordered to contain 60 shekels. There 

 are great difficulties in adopting the former value, and on the other 

 hand the meaning of the passage in Ezekiel is very doubtful. If the 

 latter value be adopted, the kikkar would contain 50 manehs. The 

 shekel was subdivided into the beka (37p2> half), or half shekel, or 

 didrachm, the raba (S?m, quarter), or quarter-shekel, or drachm (the 

 zuz or zuza of the Talmudists), and the gerah (n~13, a kind of bean), 

 or the twentieth of the shekel, or obolos. The following table there- 

 fore representa the Hebrew weights : 



Name 

 Oerah 



Reba or Zuza . 

 Beka 

 Shekel 

 Maneh . 

 Kikkar or Talent . 



There appear however to have been at least two standards of the 

 shekel, the shekel of the santtuary and the royal or profane shekel. 

 (Exod. xxx. 13; 2 Sam. xiv. 26.) The former was used in calculating 

 the offerings to the Temple, and all other sums connected with the 

 sacrfd law ; the latter, for the tribute and civil payments. The tradi- 

 tion of the Rabbins is that the shekel of the sanctuary was double the 

 profane shekel. By comparing the passages in Kings and Ezekiel 

 quoted above, understanding the former of the profane shekel, and 

 tin! latter of the shekel of the sanctuary, the process gives 100 : 60 or 

 5 : Z for the ratio of the shekel of the sanctuary to the profane 

 shekel. 



The currency of the Jews from the earliest ages was silver, and this 

 word expressed money. It is, however, nowhere mentioned as coined, 

 but always as weighed out, till after the Captivity (Josh. vii. 21 ; 

 1 Kings xx. 39; Ezek. xlv. 15; Zechariah xi. 12), although some 

 stamps appear to have been impressed on the ingots (Gen. xxiii. 16), 

 or they were made up in the shape of rings, or nezem (Job xlii. 11, 

 Septuagint). (lokl money is first mentioned in David's time (1 Chron. 

 xxi. 25 ; Isaiah xlvi. 6) under the name of pD~nN, adarkon, or 

 pODTI, itarkemon, supposed to be gold darics, or drachms, neither 

 of which however were in existence at the period, although both were 

 probably current when the Chronicles were written or revised. The 

 sirliest Hebrew coins are the silver shekels of Simon Maccabseus, to 

 whom the right of striking money had been conceded by Demetrius II, 

 or Antiochus VII. (1 Maccab. xv. 6). These have on one side the 

 supposed pot of manna, or, rather, gold and gemmed sacred vessel given 

 by Simeon (1 Maccab. xiv. 15), with the legend ^S^tl? 11 bpE', shekel 

 Isliratl, " the shekel of Israel," and the initial letters of the year; and, 

 on the other, the supposed Aaron's rod which budded, or, rather, 

 the lilly of the valley of Israel (Isaiah xxxv. 1), and the legend 



T^Tpn D s VtZP~l\ JertaaUm haqodesha, "Jerusalem the holy." 

 The half shekels have the same types and legends, with khatzi, half, 

 added to the word shekel. The inscriptions are in the Samaritan, 



