PEN 



PEN 



PENNY, an ancient silver coin, which, 

 though now little used, was the only one 

 current among our Saxon ancestors. It 

 was then equal to ^--j^-th part of a pound. 

 In Etheldred's time the penny was the 

 20th part of the Troy ounce, hence the 

 denomination penny-weight. Till the 

 time of Edward the first, the penny was 

 struck with a cross so deeply sunk into it, 

 that it might on occasion be easity brok- 

 en, and parted into halves and quar- 

 ters, hence the term half-pence, and far- 

 things, or four tilings. We have now 

 copper pence, which are much used in 

 the way of change. They are manufactur- 

 ed by Mr. Bolton, and are very handsome 

 coins. 



PENIVT weight, a Troy-weight, contain- 

 ing twenty-four grains, each of which is 

 equal in weight to a grain of wheat, 

 gathered out of the middle of the ear, and 

 well dried. 



PENSION, no person having a pension 

 from the crown, during pleasure, or for 

 any term of years, is capable of being 

 elected a member of the House of Com- 

 mons. To receive a pension from a fo- 

 reign prince or state, without leave of the 

 king, has been held to be criminal, be- 

 cause it may incline a man to prefer the 

 interest of such foreign prince to that of 

 his own country. 



PENSIONER, in general, denotes a 

 person who receives a pension, yearly 

 salary, or allowance. Hence, 



The band of gentlemen-pensioners, the 

 noblest sort of guard to the king's person, 

 consists of forty gentlemen, who receive 

 a yearly pension of one hundred pounds. 

 This honourable band was first instituted 

 by King Henry VIII, and their office is to 

 attend the King's person, with their bat- 

 tle-axes, to and from his chapel-royal, and 

 to receive him in the presence chamber, 

 or coming out of his privy-lodgings ; they 

 are also to attend at all great solemnities, 

 as coronations, St. George's feast, public 

 audiences of embassadors, at the sove- 

 reign's going to parliament, &c. 



They are each obliged to keep three 

 double horses and a servant, and so are 

 properly a troop of horse. They wait 

 half at a time, quarterly ; but on Christ- 

 mas-day, Easter-day, Whitsunday, &c. 

 and on extraordinary occasions, they are 

 all obliged to give their attendance. They 

 have likewise the honour to carry up the 

 sovereign's dinner on the coronation-day, 

 and St. George's feast ; at which times, 

 the King or Queen usually confer the 

 honour of knighthood on two such gen- 



tlemen of the band as their captain pre^ 

 sents. Their arms are gilt battle-axes ; 

 and their weapons, on horse-back, in time 

 of war, are cuirassiers-arms, with sword 

 and pistols. Their standard, in time of 

 war, is, argent, a cross gules. Their cap- 

 tain is always a nobleman, who has under 

 him a lieutenant, a standard-bearer, a 

 clerk of the check, secretary, paymaster, 

 and harbinger. 



PENSTOCK, a sluice, or flood-gate, 

 serving to retain or let go, at pleasure, 

 the water of a mill-pond, or the like. 



PENTACHORD, an ancient musical in- 

 strument, with five strings, whence the 

 name. 



PENTAGON, in geometry, a figure of 

 five sides and five angles. If the five 

 sides be equal, the angles are so too, and 

 the figure called a regular pentagon. 



The most considerable property of a 

 pentagon is, that one of its sides is equal 

 in power to the sides of a hexagon and a 

 decagon, inscribed in the same circle ; 

 that is, the square of the side of the pen- 

 tagon is equal to the sum of the squares 

 of the sides in the other two figures. The 

 area of a pentagon, like that of any other 

 polygon, may be obtained by resolving it 

 into triangles. Pappus has also demon- 

 strated, that twelve regular pentagons 

 contain more than twenty triangles in- 

 scribed in the same circle. The dodeca- 

 hedron, which is the fourth regular solid, 

 consists of twelve pentagons. In fortifi- 

 cation, pentagon denotes a fort with five 

 bastions. 



PENTAGRAPH, an instrument where- 

 by designs of any kind may be copied in 

 what proportion you please, without be- 

 ing skilled in drawing. (Plate Penta- 

 graph, fig. 1), is a plan of a pentagraph, 

 and (fig. 2 and 3), part of th# same on a 

 larger scale. 



The pentagraph is made of brass, and 

 consists of four levers A B D E, the two 

 longest A B, are jointed together at their 

 ends, the other two, D E, are also jointed 

 together at one of their ends, and to the 

 levers A B at the others. In this manner 

 the instrument always forms a parallelo- 

 gram, a A a =s e E e and a B e = a D e ; 

 j\ g, and h, are three tubes upon the le- 

 vers, two of which, /, g, slide along upon 

 their respective levers, and can be fixed 

 at any point by screws (one of these tubes 

 is shewn separately in fig. 3), any one of 

 these tubes is adapted to receive either a 

 fulcrum or fixed centre, round which the 

 whole instrument turns a blunt point or 

 tracer, to pass ever the original design, 



