,1* 



% * 



I. ,-..( .:- 



b: . tat 



in a favourable >Ute ut ? M..V^ '. 



of four or five leagues, although it ,s .mpossiblc that 



mnr* than a sincle reflector can be seen at a time. 



The (delation or design of this light-house is consider- 

 *tl to be in very good taste. It is a house of two stories, 

 with a platform roof, and parapet with embrazures ; the 



t-house tower forming the staircase to the secot 

 C 3 light-room. The light-keepers are ^com- 

 fortably lodged, the principal 



and his assistant two. Bet - 



court of offices is formed in connection with th 



of the old fort;. and, besides other conveniences. 



truth ; Marco Polo, Simon Majolus, and a few others, 

 * - .^ existence subsequ ent to the darker ages; after 

 which Kircher, Ray, Ciampini, and many more, directed 

 ^ ^J^ ^ substance and manu f ac ture. 



The words of Pliny concerning the use of incombustible 

 ^ in pres erving the remains of princes, are thought 

 c. J^*^ not to apply t the Roman so. 



rereigns, but to those of the east ; and it is said that a 

 ? prince sent a piece of it to Alexander, one of 

 A P p *J who trave ,, ed into Tartary m 



e P P century, speaks of a province called 



which T substance isfound whereof 





niard bed and fire-place. 



This establishment is in all respects very complete, 

 and the situations of the light-keepers rendered pretty 

 comfortable. The principal has a salary of, 

 his assistants have i635 ; besides 10 acres of the island 

 inclosed, and a garden, which they possess or hold m 

 common, with a sufficient allowance of coal and oil for 



family use. 



The following inscription is cut upon a stone, in a 

 conspicuous part of the building: " For the benefit and 

 security of commerce, and for the direction and com- 

 fort of mariners, this light-house was erected by order ot 

 the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses. It was 

 founded on the 18th of May, 1803 ; and lighted on the 

 1st of September, 180*. Thomas Smith, Engineer. 



Under our general article LIGHT-HOUSE, we shall 

 have occasion to treat more fully of distinguishing 

 light-houses. See Pitscottie's Hist. ; Sibbald's Fife ; 

 Pinkerton's History of the Sluarls; Arnot's History of 

 Edinburgh; Dr. Johnson's Tour, 1773. (s.) 

 INCIDENCE, ANGLE OF. See OPTICS. 

 INCLINATION. See PORISMS. 

 INCLINED PLANE. See MECHANICS. 

 l.N'CLOSURES. See AGRICULTURE. 

 INCOMBUSTIBLE CI.OTH, is the name of a species 

 of cloth which resists the action of fire. It has been 

 known for many centuries, that a mineral substance 

 called asbestos can resist the action of fire ; and that 

 some species admit of division into fine slender threads 

 of a lanuginous appearance. These in general are very 

 short and brittle, but with careful attention in the sepa- 

 ration, they may be obtained several inches in length. 

 .... The ancients, availing themselves of the peculiar pro- 

 dothknown perty of asbestos, devised means of working it into cloth, 

 to the in- Pliny and Dioscorides, speak of asbestine cloth nearly 

 in the same terms. Pliny in one passage remarks the 

 incombustible nature of asbestos, and in another he 

 speaks as if he had actually seen napkins made of it, 

 which, being thrown into the fire during entertain- 

 ments, were much better cleansed and came out whiter 

 than if they had been washed with water. Dioscorides 

 says, that " cloth is prepared from the asbestos of Cy- 

 prus, which, bc'ing thrown into the fire, burns, but is 

 unconsumed, and comes more splendid from the flames." 

 Besides the preceding observation, Pliny adds, that from 

 this property the cloth was used to preserve the ashes 

 of kings when their bodies were committed to the fu- 

 neral pile. We find occasional allusions to asbestine 

 cloth ever since the age of Pliny ; and the ingenuity of 

 mankind in our own tera has proved that it may still 

 be made of the tame materials. Accordingly, Isido- 



be put during an hour into the fire, when it comes out 

 vvhiter than snow ; and no other washing is required, 

 if dirty, than passing it through the flames." 

 Rhodiginus only makes an allusion to incombusti- 

 ble cloth, but Simon Majolus saw an incombustible 

 cloak of asbestos exposed to the fire at Louvain ; and 

 Agricola observes, that at Verelung in Saxony there 

 was another of the same substance. Kircher tells us, Observa. 

 that in his museum he had a whole cabinet full of as- trans oi 

 bestine articles ; that he had got a napkin of it from 

 Cardinal Lugo, which after being thrown into the fire 

 came out quite clean. He also had writing paper of 

 the same substance, from which the letters were entire- 

 ly obliterated on being committed to the flames, as if 

 washed out, and the paper was withdrawn entire and 

 clearer than before. Thus, he observes, correspond- 

 ence could constantly be carried on by means of a 

 single sheet. In addition to these instances may be 

 mentioned the information of Mr. Ray, to whom the 

 Prince Palatine shewed an incombustible purse at Hei- 

 delberg, which received no injury after being thorough- 

 ly ignited in a pan of charcoal. A long rope likewise, 

 which had been steeped in oil, and then put into the 

 fire, proved incombustible. In the year 1702, a funeral 

 urn was found, containing a quantity of bones and 

 ashes, wrapped in a piece of incombustible cloth no 

 less than eight feet long, and five in breadth. Being 

 presented to Pope Clement XI. he ordered it to be de- 

 posited in the Vatican, where it yet remains, and affords 

 incontestible evidence of the truth of Pliny's narration. 

 Some of the monkish writers also inform us, that a cer- 

 tain St. George being sentenced to be burnt alive, he 

 was enveloped in asbestine cloth, that they might not 

 ascribe his preservation from fire to a miracle. 



Pliny is silent respecting the mode of fabricating Method of 

 asbestine cloth. The chemist of the ninth century di- fabricating 

 reels the alternate soaking of asbestos in oil and water, | m 

 in order to render it fit for spinning. Kircher, in the 

 seventeenth century, affirms, that there were a few per- 

 sons in his country acquainted with the mode both of 

 spinning and weaving it, whereof some specimens might 

 be seen in his museum ; but such individuals were very 

 rare, and did so only with the view of great emolu- 

 ment. He considered it a secret art ; adding, that though 

 it. had been described by Boetius, Libavius, and ^orta, 

 they had been deceived by an erroneous account. Pivati, 

 in his Encyclopaedia, published in the year 1748, says, 

 that a quantity of asbestos was formerly spun at Ve- 

 nice. All these remarks refer to an early date, and they 

 inspired very little confidence. At length Ciampini, aa 



