REV 



REV 



Notwithstanding the sum annually 

 drawn from the public in taxes has been 

 raised to the above vast amount, it is still 

 thought necessary to have recourse to the 

 profit of lotteries, which, with the per- 

 manent and annual duties above stated, 

 und a few small incidental receipts, forms 

 the total public income in time of peace. 

 In years of war, it is almost invariably 

 found necessary to raise a large addition- 

 al sum by way of loan, which, being add- 

 ed to the debt previously existing, it be- 

 comes necessary to augment the revenue 

 appropriated to the payment of the inter- 

 est thereon by the imposition of new 

 taxes. 



The net produce of the several branch- 

 es, after the payment of certain bounties, 

 pensions, and other charges, is paid into 

 the. Exchequer, to be applied to the ser- 

 vices to wnich it is appropriated. The 

 public accounts at the Exchequer, both of 

 the revenue and expenditure, were, till 

 within a few years, kept in a peculiar 

 character, in use no where else, and 

 which, in the course of time, had become 

 so unintelligible, even to the officers them- 

 selves, that it w&s usual to write all high 

 numbers in common figures under the 

 characters. It is a curious circumstance, 

 that this obscure species of arithmetic 

 was defective in having no characters to 

 express high numbess, as millions, so far 

 were the framers of it from having any 

 idea of the amount to which the public re- 

 venue was to be extended. 



REVERBERATION, in chemistry, de- 

 notes a kind of circulation of the flame by 

 means of a reverberatory, or the return 

 of the flame from the top of the furnace 

 back to the bottom, chiefly used in calci- 

 nation. Reverberation is of two kinds : 

 the first with a close fire, that is, a rever- 

 beratory furnace, where the flame has 

 no vent at top, being covered with a 

 dome or capital, which repels its action 

 back on the matter or the vessel that con- 

 tains it with increased vehemence. Af- 

 ter this manner is refining, the distillation 

 of acids, spirits, &c. performed. Rever- 

 beration with an open fire is that per- 

 formed in a furnace or reverberatory, 

 whose registers are all open, used in cal- 

 cination, &c. See next article. 



REVERBERATORY, or REVERBERA- 

 TING FURNACE, a chemical furnace built 

 close all around, and covered at the top 

 with a capital of brick or tiles, so as not 

 'to give any vent to the heat or flame, but 

 to determine it to reverberate or turn 

 back from the brick- work with new force 

 upon the matter placed at bottom. When 



the tire has no vent or passage at top, it 

 is a whole reverberatory. When the 

 middle of the capital is open, and only 

 the sides close, so that there is only a 

 half circulation of the flame, it is calk-d 

 an half reverberatory. The reverbera- 

 tory furnace is chiefly used in the fusion 

 and calcination of metals and minerals, 

 and on other occasions where the most 

 intense heat is required, as in assaying, 

 &c. Whence it is also called the melting 

 furnace, and assaying furnace. 



REVERSION, a sum of money, estate, 

 annuity, or any other kind of property, 

 the possession of which is not to be ob- 

 tained till after the expiration of a certain 

 period of time, or till some event, as the 

 failure of a life or lives, has happened. 

 The present value of such property de- 

 pends greatly on the current interest of 

 money, for if money produced only three 

 per cent, interest, a person giving 1000/. 

 for a reversionary estate relinquishes an 

 annuity of 3U/., but if he could make five 

 per cent, interest of his money, he gives 

 up an annuity of 501. and consequently in 

 the latter case he would exffect a greater 

 reversion than the former. The true va- 

 lue of a reversion therefore is that present 

 sum, which if improved at a given rate of 

 interest, would at the period when the 

 reversion comes into possession amount 

 to its then actual value. This, with res- 

 pect to sums receivable at the end of a 

 certain number of years, is easily found 

 by Table II. article INTEREST. 



Thus, if a person is entitled to 500/. 

 at the end of ten years, and wishes to 

 know its present worth : the value of one 

 pound to be received at the end of this 

 term is, by the Table, 613913, which mul- 

 tiplied by 500 gives 306/. 19s. Id. for the 

 present value of the reversion. In a simi- 

 lar manner the present worth of the re- 

 version of an annuity or estate after a cer- 

 tain number of years may be found by 

 Table It. article ANNUITIES. 



Example 1. What is the present value 

 of an annuity of 21/. for the term of 30 

 years, but which is not to commence till 

 the expiration of 7 years from the pre- 

 sent time ? The present value of an an- 

 nuity of one pound for 30 years is, by 

 the Table, 15,372451, which multiplied 

 by 21 gives 322,8214 ; but as each pay- 

 ment of the annuity is to be received 7 

 years later than if it commenced immedi- 

 ately, this sum must be multiplied by the 

 value of one pound to be received at the 

 end of 7 years, or, .710681, which gives 

 229/. 8s. 5d. for the present worth of the 

 reversion. 





