BRAKENBURGBR AMAH'S PRESS. 



659 



in consequence of having said, in the warmth of his 

 religious zeal, that one of the tutors was as devoid of 

 grace as a chair an expression which reached the 

 ears of the rector, who commanded B. to make a 

 public confession in the hall. Thinking the order 

 unjust to humble himself before the -whole college 

 for what he had uttered in private conversation, he 

 refused to comply, and, on this account, as well as 

 for having gone to the separate religious meeting at 

 New Haven, after being prohibited to do so by the 

 authority of the college, he was dismissed. In the 

 spring of 1742, he began the study of divinity; and, 

 at the end of July, he was licensed to preach, for 

 which a thorough examination had shown him quali- 

 fied. He had for some time entertained a strong 

 desire of preaching the gospel among the heathens, 

 which was gratified by an appointment as missionary 

 to the Indians from the society for propagating Chris- 

 tian knowledge. At Kaunameek, an Indian village 

 of Massachusetts, situated between Stockbridge and 

 Albany, he commenced his labours, in the twenty- 

 fifth year of his age. He remained there about twelve 

 months, at first residing in a wigwam among the In- 

 dians, but afterwards in a cabin, which he constructed 

 for himself, that lie might be alone when not engaged 

 in his duties of preaching and instruction. On the 

 removal of the Kaunameeks to Stockbridge, he turned 

 his attention towards the Delaware Indians. In 

 1 744, he was ordained by a presbytery at Newark, 

 New Jersey, and took up his habitation near the forks 

 of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, where he resided 

 for a year, during the course of which he made two 

 visits to the Indians on the Susquehannah river. His 

 exertions, however, were attended with little success, 

 until he went to the Indians at Crossweeksung, near 

 Freehold, in New Jersey. Before the end of a year, 

 a complete reformation took place in the lives of the 

 savages, seventy-eight of whom he baptized within 

 that time. They became humble and devout ; and 

 it was not unusual for the whole congregation to shed 

 tears and utter cries of sorrow and repentance. Jn 

 1747, he went to Northampton, in Massachusetts, 

 where he passed the short residue of his life in the 

 family of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. He died 

 in 1747, after great sufferings. B. was a man of 

 vigorous intellect and quick discernment. He was 

 giifted with a strong memory, a happy eloquence, and 

 a sociable disposition, that could adapt itself with ease 

 to the different capacities, tempers, and circumstances 

 of men, which, together with an intimate knowledge 

 of human nature, as well as of theology and worldly 

 science, peculiarly fitted him for the Business of in- 

 struction. He was remarkably composed and resigned 

 during the approaches of death, and left this world 

 in the full hope of a glorious immortality. His pub- 

 lications are, a narrative of his labours at Kaunameek, 

 and his journal, or account of the rise and progress 

 of a remarkable work of grace among a number of 

 Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1746. 



BRAKENBUKG, Regner, a well-known Dutch painter, 

 distinguished for his rustic scenes, family pieces, &c., 

 was born at Haerlem, in 1649. The time of his 

 death is not known : it took place at Friesland. His 

 paintings are true to nature. 



BRAMA ; the first person in the Trinity, or Trimur- 

 ti, of the Hindoos, consisting of Brama, the creator, 

 Vishnu, the preserver or redeemer, and Siva, the 

 destroyer. He is represented with four heads and as 

 many arms, and the swan is consecrated to him. His 

 name signifies knowledge of the laws, in allusion to 

 his creative power. He is the god of the fates, mas- 

 ter of life and death, and, by some, has been repre- 

 sented as the supreme eternal flower ; but he is 

 himself created, and is merely thwfcgent of the Eter- 

 nal One. He is believed to die, according to some, 



annually, or, according to others, after a longer pe- 

 riod, and to rise again. His character is no better 

 than that of the Grecian Jupiter. He is considered 

 as the author of the Yedas, and as the lawgiver and 

 teacher of India. The/ worship of B. is regarded as 

 the oldest religious observance in that country. For 

 a more particular account, see Indian Mythology. 



BRAMAH'S PRESS, or the hydrostatic press, is one of 

 the most valuable of all the machines ever invented 

 by man, dependent on the action of water. The first 

 idea of the construction of this machine was given by 

 Pascal, about the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 but we have no proof of its ever having been put in 

 practice, until Mr Bramah, about the year 1800, 

 without any knowledge of the discovery of Pascal, 

 constructed the press which now goes by his name. 

 The action of this press depends upon the well known 

 principle in hydrostatics, that fluids press equally in 

 all directions (see Hydrostatics) ; and the application 

 of this theorem to the machine under consideration, 

 will be easily understood from this cut. Here AB is 

 the bottom of a hollow 

 cylinder, into which a 

 piston P is fitted. Into 

 the bottom of this cy- 

 linder there is intro- 

 duced a pipe C leading 

 from the forcing pump 

 D; water is supplied 

 to this pump by a cis- 

 tern below, from which 

 the pipe E is led, be- 

 ing furnished with a 

 valve opening upwards 



where it is joined to the pump barrel. Where the 

 pipe C enters into the pump barrel there is also a 

 valve opening outwards into the pipe ; consequently, 

 when the piston D rises, this valve shuts, and the 

 valve at the cistern pipe opens, and the fluid rises 

 into the pump barrel. When the piston begins to 

 descend, the cistern valve shuts, and the water is 

 forced through the pipe C into the large cylinder AB ; 

 and by the law of fluids before alluded to, whatever 

 pressure be exerted by the piston D on the surface of 

 the water in the pump, will be repeated on the pis- 

 ton of the large cylinder AB as many times as the 

 area of the small piston D is contained in the area of 

 the large piston AB ; that is, if the area of the pump- 

 piston were one square inch, and that of the cylinder 

 100 inches, and if the piston were forced down with 

 a pressure of 10 Ibs., then the whole pressure on the 

 bottom of the piston AB will be 10 times 100, that is 

 1,000 Ibs. The wood engraving in the following page 

 will give a correct idea of the most improved con- 

 struction of the press. ABCD is a strong iron frame, 

 at one side of which is the cistern containing the 

 water for the supply of the force pump F, wrought 

 by means of a lever which fits into the tube. G, at the 

 other end of which is the counterweight H. At the 

 beginning of the operation little power is required, 

 but a great quantity of water, and therefore the ful- 

 crum of the bar is placed far back, in order that the 

 pump may have a longer stroke ; but as the pumping 

 advances, more pressure becomes necessary, and 

 therefore the stroke is shortened by moving the fiu- 

 crum forward. The water is forced in the manner 

 before described into the bottom of the large cylinder 

 I, and the piston being pressed up, the board K sup- 

 porting the material to be pressed, is raised, and the 

 goods are compressed between this board and the top 

 of the press. To prevent the machine from bursting, 

 a safety valve, capable of overcoming a given pres- 

 sure is employed ; and for the purpose of admitting 

 the water or drawing it from the large cylinder, the 

 press is furnished with stop-cocks at E. From the 



