GUNTER GUNTER'S SCALE. 



591 



gion in one common ruin. A vault below the house 

 of lords, which had been used to store coals, was 

 hired, two hogsheads and thirty-six barrels of powder 

 lodged in it, the whole covered with faggots, and the 

 doors thrown open so as to prevent suspicions. As 

 the young prince Charles and the princess Elizabeth 

 would l)e absent, measures were taken to have them 

 seized, and Elizabeth proclaimed queen. The secret 

 of the conspiracy was communicated to more than 

 twenty persons, and had been faithfully kept for near 

 a year and a half. Ten days, however, before the 

 meeting of parliament, a Catholic peer received a 

 note from an unknown hand, advising him not to at- 

 tend at the parliament, as it would receive a terrible 

 blow. This lie communicated to the secretary of 

 state, lord Salisbury, who, although apprehending 

 nothing 1 , thought proper to lay it before the king. 

 James saw the matter in a more serious light ; and, 

 on searching the vaults below the houses of parlia- 

 ment (Nov. 5, 1605), Guy Fawkes, an officer in the 

 Spanish service, who had been employed to fire the 

 powder, was found at the door, with the matches in 

 his pocket, and the gunpowder in the vault was dis- 

 covered. Fawkes was put to the torture, and made 

 a full discovery of the conspirators, who, with their 

 attendants, to the number of eighty persons, had 

 assembled in Warwickshire, determined to defend 

 themselves to the last. Percy and Catesby were killed 

 in the attack ; the others were made prisoners and 

 executed. 



Lingard (History of England, vol. ix, chap. 1.) 

 gives a very full account of the conspiracy, which 

 does not materially differ from the statement above 

 given. It has been, however, asserted by others, 

 that it was all a plot of Salisbury's, to effect the ruin 

 of the Catholics, and that the warning came from his 

 hands. In support of this, they allege that most of 

 the conspirators declared themselves ignorant of the 

 extent of the conspiracy, the Jesuits, who were im- 

 plicated in it, protested their innocence, and that the 

 French ambassador, who made inquiries on the spot, 

 entirely exculpates them. (See Lettres et Negotia- 

 tions d'Antoine Lefevre de la Boderie.) In the calen- 

 dar of the church of England, the 5th of November 

 is duly noticed as a holyday at the public offices ; 

 and the Common Prayer Book contains " A Form of 

 Prayer with thanksgiving, to be used yearly upon the 

 Fifth day of November, for the happy deliverance of 

 King James I.," &c. It is customary for boys in 

 England to make an effigy representing Guy Fawkes, 

 which they c'arry about, singing certain verses,* and 

 asking for materials to burn the figure. 



GUNTER, EDMUND ; an excellent English mathe- 

 matician, who flourished in the reign of James I., and 

 distinguished himself by his inventions, which have 

 never yet been superseded, though some of them have 

 been subsequently much improved. 



GUNTER'S CHAIN ; the chain in common use 

 for measuring land according to the true or statute 

 measure ; so called from the name of its inventor. 

 The length of the chain is sixty-six feet, or twenty- 

 two yards, or four poles of five yards and a half each; 

 and it is divided into 100 links of 7.92 inches each. 

 100,000 square links make one acre. 



These verses are : 



" Remember, remember 

 The fifth ot November, 



Gunpowder treason, and plot t 

 We know no reason 

 Why gunpowder treason 

 Should ever be forgot. 



Holla, boys ! Huzza I 

 " A. stick and a stake, 

 For king William's sake ; 

 A stick and a stump 

 For Guy Pawkes's rump. 

 Holla, boys I Huzza!" 



GUNTER'S LINE; a logarithmic line, usually 

 graduated upon scales, sectors, &c. It is also called 

 the line of lines and line of numbers, being only the 

 logarithms graduated upon a ruler, which therefore 

 serves to solve problems instrumentally, in the same 

 manner as logarithms do it arithmetically. It is usually 

 divided into a hundred parts, every tenth of which is 

 numbered, beginning with 1, and ending with 10; 

 so tliat, if the first great division, marked 1, stand 

 for one-tenth of any integer, the next division, marked 

 2, will stand for two-tenths, 3, three-tenths, and so 

 on ; and the intermediate division will, in like man- 

 ner, represent one hundred parts of an integer. If 

 each of the great divisions represent ten integers, 

 then will the lesser divisions stand for integers ; and 

 if the great divisions be supposed each 100, the sub- 

 divisions will be each 10. 



Use of Gunter's Line : 1. To find the product of 

 two numbers. From 1 extend the compasses to the 

 multiplier ; and the same extent, applied the same 

 way from the multiplicand, will reach to the pro- 

 duct. Thus, if the product of 4 and 8 be required, 

 extend the compasses from 1 to 4, and that extent, 

 laid from 8 the same way, will reach to 32, their 

 product. 2. To divide one number by another. The 

 extent from the divisor to unity will reach from the 

 dividend to the quotient ; thus, to divide 36 by 4, 

 extend the compasses from 4 to 1, and the same 

 extent will reach from 36 to 9, the quotient sought. 

 3. To find a fourth proportional to three given 

 numbers. Suppose the numbers 6, 8, 9 : extend the 

 compasses from 6 to 8 ; and this extent, laid from 9 

 the same way, will reach to 12, the fourth propor- 

 tional required. 4. To find a mean proportional be- 

 tween any two given numbers. Suppose 8 and 32 : 

 extend the compasses from 8, in the left hand part of 

 the line, to 32 in the right ; then, bisecting this dis- 

 tance, its half will reach from 8 forward, or from 32 

 backward, to 16, the mean proportional sought. 5. 

 To extract the square root of a number. Suppose 25: 

 bisect the distance between 1 on the scale and the 

 point representing 25 : then half of this distance, 

 set off from 1, will give the point representing the 

 root 5. In the same manner, the cube root, or that 

 of any higher power, may be found by dividing the 

 distance on the line, between 1 and the given num- 

 ber, into as many equal parts as the index of the 

 power expresses ; then one of those parts, set 

 from 1, will find the point representing the root 

 required. 



GUNTER'S QUADRANT is a quadrant made of 

 wood, brass, or some other substance ; being a kind 

 of stereographic projection on the plane of the equi- 

 noctial, the eye being supposed in one of the poles; so 

 that the tropic, ecliptic, and horizon form the arches 

 of circles ; but the hour circles are other curves, 

 drawn by means of several altitudes of the sun for 

 some particular latitude every year. This instru- 

 ment is used to find the hour of the day, the sun's 

 azimuth, &c., and other common problems of the 

 sphere or globe ; as also to take the altitude of an 

 object in degrees. 



GUNTER'S SCALE, usually called, by seamen, 

 the gunter, is a large plain scale, having various 

 lines upon it, of great use in working the cases or 

 questions in navigation. This scale is usually twc 

 feet long, and about an inch and a half broad, with 

 various lines upon it, both natural and logarithmic, 

 relating to trigonometry, navigation, &c. On the 

 one side are the natural lines, and on the other the 

 artificial or logarithmic ones. The former side is 

 first divided into inches and tenths, and numbered 

 from 1 to 24 inches, running the whole length, near 

 one edge. One half of the length of this side con- 

 sists of two plane diagonal scales, for taking off 



