DUCKING-STOOL DUDLEY. 



743 



DUCKING-STOOL. See CttcAing-Stool. 



DUCLOS, CHARLES PJNEAU, a French novelist, 

 writer of memoirs, and grammarian, bora 1705, at 

 Dinant, received a good education at Paris, early 

 turned his knowledge to profit, in 1739 was chosen 

 member of the academy of inscriptions, in 1748 

 member, and soon after secretary of the French 

 academy. Though he resided at Paris, he was 

 elected mayor of his native town in 1744. When 

 the states of Bretagne, in reward of their zeal 

 for the welfare of the kingdom, were permitted to 

 nominate such of their number as they thought 

 most worthy of the royal favour, Duclos was 

 unanimously elected one of the number, and re- 

 ceived letters of nobility. Not long before his 

 death, he was appointed historiographer of France, 

 in Voltaire's place. He died at Paris, 1772. 

 Among the best of his novels are Confessions 

 du Comte de B*** (1141, 12mo); and of his me- 

 moirs, his Memoires sur les Mceurs du XFIIIme 

 Siecle (1751, 12mo); both full of acute and striking 

 remarks, especially on women and love. His Consi- 

 derations sur les Montrs de ce Siecle are full of strik- 

 ing sketches of character, and deep knowledge of 

 human nature. His History of Louis XI. is esteemed, 

 but shows the hand of the novelist. Of more value 

 are his Memoires secrets sur les Regnes de Louis XI P. 

 et XF. This work was composed in his character 

 of historiographer. He also distinguished himself in 

 liis Remarques sur la Grammaire generate de Port- 

 Royal (1764, 12mo), as a grammarian. Desessarts 

 published the (Euvres completes de Duclos (Paris, 

 1809, lOvols.), The last volume contains a frag- 

 ment of his autobiography. In the entertaining Me- 

 moires de Madame d'Epinay, the character of Duclos 

 is represented in no very favourable light. 



DUCTILITY ; the extensibility and cohesion of 

 V articles, which enables metal to be drawn into wire 

 without breaking. The ductility of some bodies, 

 especially of gold, is very surprising. A single grain 

 of gold may be stretched under the hammer into a 

 leaf that will cover a house, and yet the leaf remain 

 so compact as not to transmit the rays of light, nor 

 even admit spirit of wine to transude. But M. 

 Reaumur has shown the ductility of gold to be still 

 greater. What is called gold wire, every body knows, 

 is only silver gilt. The cylinder of silver, covered 

 with leaf gold, is drawn through the hole of an iron, 

 and the gilding is extended with the wire, to what- 

 ever length it maybe stretched. Now, M. Reaumur 

 shows, that, in the common way of drawing gold 

 wire, a cylinder of silver, twenty-two inches long, 

 and fifteen lines in diameter, is stretched to 

 1,163,520 feet, or is 634,692 lines longer than be- 

 fore, which amounts to about ninety-seven leagues. 

 To wind this thread on silk, for use, it is first flat- 

 tened, in doing which it stretches at least one-seventh 

 further, so that the twenty-two inches are now 111 

 leagues ; but in the flattening, instead of one-seventh, 

 it could be stretched one-fourth, which would bring 

 it to 120 leagues. This appears a prodigious exten- 

 sion, and yet it is nothing to what this gentleman 

 has proved gold to be capable of. 



Ductility of Glass. When glass is penetrated with 

 the heat of fire, it can be managed like soft wax, and 

 may be drawn out into threads exceedingly long and 

 fine. Ordinary spinners do not form their threads of 

 silk, flax, or the like, with half the ease and expedi- 

 tion the glass-spinners do threads of this brittle mat- 

 ter. Some of them are made into plumes, and used 

 in other works ; they are made much finer than liair, 

 and bend and wave, like hair, with every wind. 

 Two workmen are employed in making them : the 

 first holds one end of a piece of glass over the flame 

 of a lamp, anil, when the heat has softened it, the 



second operator applies a glass hook, and draws out 

 a thread of glass, which still adheres to the mass ; 

 then, fitting his hook on the circumference of a wheel 

 about two feet and a half in diameter, he turns the 

 wheel as fast as he pleases, till it is covered with a 

 skein of glass thread. The parts, as they recede 

 from the flame, by gradually cooling, become more 

 cohesive : the parts nearest the fire are least cohe- 

 sive, and, consequently, must give way to the effort 

 made to draw them towards the wheel. These tlireads 

 are commonly of a flat oval shape, being three or 

 four times as broad as thick : some of them seem 

 scarcely bigger than the thread of a silk-worm, and 

 are surprisingly flexible. If the two ends of such 

 threads are knotted together, they may be drawn and 

 bent till the aperture, or space in the middle of the 

 knot, does not exceed one-fourth of a line, or one 

 forty-eighth of an inch, in diameter. The flexibility 

 of glass increases in proportion to the fineness of the 

 threads ; and, probably, had we the art of drawing 

 threads as fine as a spider's web, we might weave 

 stuffs and cloths of them, but could never make them 

 long enough to be serviceable. For further infor- 

 mation see Divisibility. 



DU-DEFFAND, MADAME. See Deffand. 



DUDLEY, EDMUND ; noted in English history as 

 an instrument of Henry VII., in the arbitrary acts of 

 extortion practised during the latter years of his 

 reign. He was bom hi 1462, of an ancient and re- 

 spectable family ; and was educated at the univer- 

 sity of Oxford. Becoming a student of the law at 

 Gray's Inn, he arrived at such eminence in his pro- 

 fession as recommended him to the favour of the 

 king, who made much use of his services, and con- 

 ferred on him various offices and emoluments. In 

 1505, he was made speaker of the house of commons, 

 and, through his influence, several enactments took 

 place, oppressive to the people and profitable to the 

 monarch. On the accession of Henry VIII., he 

 perished on the scaffold, August 18, 1510, with his 

 associate, Sir Richard Emson (who was the son of a 

 sieve-maker at Towcester). 



DUDLEY, JOHN, duke of Northumberland, son 

 of the preceding. He was born hi 1502, and, after 

 his father's execution, was restored in blood by act 

 of parliament. In 1542, he was raised to the peer- 

 age as viscount Lisle, in right of his mother, who 

 inherited that title. Soon after, he was made K.G. ; 

 and at length the post of lord-high-admiral was con- 

 ferred on him for life. He served with reputation 

 in Scotland and France, and was left, by Henry VIII., 

 one of the executors named in his will, as a kind of 

 joint-regent during the minority of Edward VI. 

 Under that prince, he manifested the most insatiable 

 ambition, and obtained vast accessions of honours, 

 power, and emoluments. At first, he joined his inte- 

 rest with that of the duke of Somerset, the king's 

 uncle, whom, however, at length he undermined and 

 destroyed. He had been advanced to the titles of 

 earl of Warwick and duke of Northumberland ; and, 

 after the fall of his rival, his authority was almost, 

 unbounded. The illness of the king, over whom he 

 had gained complete ascendency, alarmed his fears, 

 and he endeavoured to strengthen his interest by 

 marrying his son, lord Guilford Dudley, to lady 

 Jane Grey, descended from the younger sister of 

 Henry VIII., and persuaded Edward to settle the 

 crown on his kinswoman by will, to the exclusion of 

 his two sisters, the princesses Mary and Elizabeth. 

 The death of the king, the abortive attempts to place 

 lady Jane Grey on the throne, and the ruin of all 

 those concerned in the scheme, are among the most 

 familiar events in the annals of England. Northum- 

 berland himself was beheaded on Tower-hill, August 

 22, 1553. He professed himself a Catholic a short 



