PRESSOW 



6322 



PRESTER JOHN 



of the recruits se- 

 cured by it. 



The system dis- 

 appeared after 

 the Napoleonic 

 wars. An Act of 

 1835 limited the 

 service of men so 

 taken to five 

 years, but the 

 right of impress- 

 ment was never 

 disowned. See 

 Navy;Recruiting. 



Pressow. Al- 

 ternative name of 

 the town of 

 Czecho - Slovakia 

 better known as 

 Eperjes (q.v.). 



Press Ser- 

 vice of Canada, 

 NATIONAL. Co- 

 operative associa- 

 tion inaugurated 

 Sept., 1917, with 

 the support of the 

 Canadian Govern- 

 m e n t, relieving 

 the Atlantic and 

 Western Prov- 

 inces of the 

 Dominion of dependence upon 

 American news agencies, and 

 placing its news services at the 

 disposal of American newspapers 

 through the Associated Press. The 

 association operates 12,000 m. of 

 leased wire, connecting Sydney, 

 Cape Breton, with Victoria, British 

 Columbia, and was regarded at its 

 inauguration as an important step 

 towards a Press Union of the British 

 Empire. 



Pressure. Sum of the forces 

 exerted on its surroundings by a 

 solid, liquid, or gas. Pressure is 

 usually measured in terms of the 

 area and the force exerted, e.g. 100 

 Ib. per sq. in., or 10 kilogrammes 

 per sq. centimetre. The unit of 

 pressure is the unit of force acting 

 on the unit of area. The centre of 

 pressure of a body is that point at 

 which the resultant of all the 

 pressures may be assumed to act. 

 See Gas. 



Pressure Gauge. Instrument 

 for measuring the pressure of 

 fluids. For ordinary purposes 

 pressures are expressed in pounds 

 per sq. in. or kilogrammes per 

 sq. cm. The form of gauge most 

 widely used by engineers is the 

 Bourdon, which takes advantage 

 of the fact that an elastic tube of 

 flat section, bent to a curve and 

 closed at one end, will endeavour 

 to straighten itself out, if a gas or 

 liquid be forced into it. 



Another form of gauge, thb 

 Schaffer-Budenberg, depends for 

 its action on the elasticity of a 

 thin corrugated metal plate, ex- 



Press-San?. A waterman seized by the press-gang on 



Tower Hill on the morning of bis marriage day. From 



the picture by A. Johnston 



posed to pressure on one side. As 

 the plate bulges outwards, it 

 pushes up a rod which actuates a 

 quadrant and rack like that of the 

 Bourdon gauge. Vacuum gauges 

 for condensers, brake apparatus, 

 etc., are similar to those described 

 above, but their motions range 

 in the inward direction from the 

 normal position of the spring or 

 disk, and the index hand is set 

 accordingly. Spring-controlled 



pressure gauges should be tested 

 periodically for accuracy, as a 

 spring is liable to lose some of its 

 elasticity. Tests are made by 

 means of either a miniature 

 hydraulic accumulator with a 

 sensitive ram weighted to give any 

 desired pressure, or a gas mano- 

 meter. In this instrument a body 

 of gas, usually air, is imprisoned 

 in a glass tube and compressed by 

 a column of mercury. Readings 

 are taken in accordance with 

 Boyle's law that the pressure of the 

 gas varies inversely as the space 

 occupied by the gas. 



The hydrostatic manometer is 

 useful for measuring small pres- 

 sures, such as those in stokeholds 

 under forced draught, gasometers, 

 etc. It consists of a glass U-tube 

 containing mercury or water. One 

 leg is open to the air, the other 

 to the chamber, the pressure in 

 which is being tested. The 

 pressure is estimated from the 

 difference in level of the surfaces 

 in the legs, and expressed in 

 inches of mercury or water, as the 

 case may be. 



In ballistics, a pressure gauge is 

 an instrument for measuring the 

 pressure developed by the gases 

 when an explosive is fired in a 

 closed space. It consists of a stout 

 steel body having at one end a 

 piston, provided with a gas check 

 consisting of a copper cup. The 

 inner end of the piston bears 

 against a copper cylinder, and the 

 extent to which the latter is 

 crushed is equivalent to the 

 pressure developed. See Mano- 

 meter ; Nobel Pressure Gauge. 



Prestatyn. Urban dist. and 

 market town of Flintshire, Wales. 

 It stands on the coast and is 4 m. 

 from Rhyl, with a station on the L. 

 & N.W. Rly. There are ruins of 

 a castle, and in the neighbourhood 

 are lead mines. Pop. 2,000. 



Presteign. Urban dist. and 

 market town of Radnorshire, 

 Wales, also the county town. It 

 stands on the Lugg, 151 m. from 

 London, with a station on the G.W. 

 Rly. The chief buildings are the 

 parish church of S. Andrew, dating 

 mainly from the 15th century, the 

 guild hall, and the market hall. 

 The Warden is a hill converted 

 into a public recreation ground ; 

 the castle formerly stood here. 

 John Bradshaw, the regicide, was 

 born in the town, and the old re- 

 sidence of his family is now an inn. 

 Market day, Wed. Pop. 1,100. 



Prester John. Priest- king in 

 the 12th century. The centre of 

 many legends and theories, by 

 name Jorkhan or Coirkhan, and 

 a native of Asiatic Tartary, he 

 is said to have been converted 

 by Nestorians from Buddhism to 

 Christianity. When he became king 

 he assumed the title of Prester, i.e. 

 presbyter or elder, vanquished the 

 rulers of Media and Persia, and 

 attempted to march to the aid of 

 the Church at Jerusalem, but got 

 no farther than the Tigris. He was 

 succeeded by his son or brother, 

 who also called himself Prester 

 John, and who was killed by 

 Jenghiz Khan. 



He was reputed to have been a 

 descendant of the ancient Magi. 

 Pope Alexander III is reported to 

 have addressed him as king of the 

 Indies and most holy of priests. 

 Marco Polo's report of a Christian 

 kingdom in India named Abascia. 

 or a conjecture of a Portuguese 

 traveller, Peter Covillanus, in the 

 15th century, appears to be respon- 

 sible for the theory that the land 

 ruled by Prester John was Abys- 

 sinia. J. E. Fischer, in his History 

 of Siberia, attempted to identify 

 him with the first Grand Lama 

 of Tibet. 



Described in the Travels of Sir 

 John Mandeville as a descendant of 

 Ogier the Dane, one of the paladins 



