BEA 



BEA 



BEARERS, in heraldry. See StrppofcT- 



RS. 



BEARING, in navigation and geogra- 

 phy, the situation of one place from ano- 

 ther, with regard to the points of the 

 compass; or the angle which a line drawn 

 through the two places makes with the 

 meridians of each. 



The bearings of places on the ground 

 are usually determined from the magne- 

 tic needle, in the managing of which con- 

 sists the principal part of surveying, since 

 the bearing or distance of a second point 

 from a first being found, the place of that 

 second is determined; or the bearings of 

 a third point from two others, whose dis- 

 tance is known, being found, the place of 

 the third is determined instrumentally. 

 But to calculate trigonometrically, there 

 must be more duta. 



BEARING, in the sea language. When a 

 ship sails towards the shore, before the 

 wind, she is said to bear in with the land 

 or harbour. To let the ship sail more be- 

 fore the wind, is to bear up. To put her 

 right before the wind, is to bear round. 

 A ship that keeps off from the land, is 

 said to bear off. When a ship that was 

 to windward comes under another ship's 

 stern, and so gives her the wind, she is 

 said to bear under her lee, &c. There is 

 another sense of this word, in reference 

 to the burden of a ship ; for they say a 

 ship bears, when, having too slender or 

 lean a quarter, she will sink too deep into 

 the water with an over light freight, and 

 thereby can carry but a small quantity of 

 goods. 



BEARING of a piece of timber, among car- 

 penters, the space either between the 

 two fixed extremities thereof, when it 

 has no other support, which they call 

 bearing at length, or between one ex- 

 treme and a post, brick wall, &c. trim- 

 med up between the ends, to shorten its 

 bearings. 



BEAT, in music, a transient grace note, 

 struck immediately before the note it is 

 intended to ornament. The beat always 

 lies half a note beneath its principal, and 

 should be heard so closely upon it, that 

 they may almost seem to be struck to- 

 gether. 



BEAT of drum, in the military art, to 

 give notice by beat of drum of a sudden 

 danger, or that scattered soldiers may 

 repair to their arms and quarters, is to 

 beat an alarm, or to arms ; also to signify, 

 by different manners of sounding a drum, 

 that the soldiers are to fall on the enemy; 

 to retreat before, in, or after an attack ; 

 tx) move, or march, from one place to 



another ; to treat upon terms, or confer 

 with the enemy; to permit the soldier*- 

 to come out of their quarters at break 

 of day, in order to repair to their colours, 

 &c. is to beat a charge, a retreat, a march, 

 &c. 



BEATING gold and silver. See GOLD 

 BEATIXG. 



BEATING time, in music, a method of 

 measuring and marking the time tor per- 

 formers in concert, by the motion of the 

 hand and foot up and down successively, 

 and in equal times. Knowing the true 

 time of a crotchet, and supposing the 

 measure actually subdivided into four 

 crotchets, and the half measure into two, 

 the hand or foot being up, if we put it 

 down with the very beginning of the first 

 note or crotchet, and then raise it with 

 the third, and then down with the begin- 

 ning of the next measure, this is called 

 beating the time ; and by practice, a habit 

 is acquired of making this motion very 

 equal. Each down and up is sometimes 

 called a time, or measure. 



The general rule is, to contrive the di- 

 vision ot'the measure so, that every down 

 and up ot the beating shall end with a 

 particular note, on which very much de- 

 pends the distinctness, and, as it were, 

 the sense of the melody. Hence, the be- 

 ginning of every time or beating in the 

 measure is reckoned the accented part 

 thereof. 



If time be common, or equal, the beat- 

 ing is also equal; two down and two up, 

 or one down and one up : if the time be 

 triple, or unequal, the beating is also un- 

 equal ; two down and one up. 



BEATINGS, in music, those regular 

 pulsative heavings or swellings of sound, 

 produced in an organ by pipes of the 

 same key when they are not exactly in 

 unison, i. e. when their vibrations are not 

 perfectly equal in velocity; not simulta- 

 neous and coincident. 



BEATS, in music, are certain pulsa- 

 tions of two continued sounds, as in an 

 organ, that are out of tune, occasioned by 

 warring vibrations, that prevent coinci- 

 dence in any two concords. This phe- 

 nomenon Dr. Smith has made the founda- 

 tion of a system of temperament. In tun- 

 ing musical instruments, especially or- 

 gans, it is a known thing, that while a 

 consonance is imperfect, it is not smooth 

 and uniform as when perfect, but inter- 

 rupted with very sensible undulations or 

 beats, which, while the two sounds con- 

 tinue at the same pitch, succeed one 

 another in equal times, and in longer and 

 longer times, while either of the sounds 



