B E R 



■Born, the country- about it, and the glnclcrs of Su ifferland. 

 The adjacent country is richly cultivaitd, and agrecablv di- 

 vcrfificd with hills, lawns, wood, and water; the river flows 

 rapidly below, and an abrupt chain of rugged and inow- 

 capt Alps bounds tlie diftant hori/on. 



The pop\dation of Bern is climated at about 13,000 ; the 

 focietv is extremely afrreeable ; and foreigners arc received 

 with great eafe and politenefs. The men do not meet m se- 

 parate focicties; and the women are the life and ornament 

 of their daily aOemblies, which begin about four or five m 

 ths afternoon, and continue till eight, when the parties 

 ufiially retire to their ixfpeclive houfes. The inhabitants 

 are particularly fond c^f dancing, which of courfe is a frc- 

 q.icnt arr:uf-:mjnt ; and this diverfion cominences at the early 

 hour of five in the afternoon, on account of a ftandmg order 

 of Government, which prohibits their continuance after de- 

 \c^. There is but little trade in the capita'. Some few ma- 

 uufaclures, chiefly of linen and filk, have been eftabhnied ; 

 but they are carried on only by thofe who liave no prclpeft 

 of being admitted into the 'foveixign council, and who would 

 think themfelvss degraded by commerc--. But as offices of 

 the Hate, thofe of the bailliagcs excepted, are neither nu- 

 introus nor very profitable, many enter, as their fole refource, 

 into foreign armie=. As for the peafants, who hue aequued 

 opulence either by manufaanrcs or commerce, they feldom 

 quit their ftation, b'.:t retain the habits acquired m early 

 life, and, however wealthy, never give their daughters in 

 marriage to any but perfons of their own dcfcnption. Of 

 the burghers of Bern, thofe only are qualified for the ma- 

 llracy'and government of the city, who are the defcend- 

 ants of fueh as were made burghers before the year 

 1635 ; and, befides, they inuft not be under 30 years of age, 

 and mud be enrolled in one of the twelve companies. 1 he 

 Britilh envoy to the Swifs cantons ufually relides at Bern. 

 N. lat. 46° 55'. E. long. 7° 20'. Coxe's Travels, vol. ii. 

 Moore's View of Society, &c. in France, Switzerland, &c. 

 BER-a-Mad'lne, in J^ricullun; the name of an engine for 

 rooting up trees, invented by Peter Sommer, a native of Bern 

 in Swiffcrland. Tiiis machine, of which theie is a model in 

 the machine- room of the Society for the encouragement of 

 Arts, is reprefented in Plate III. 4gncu!lure ; and con- 

 fifts of three parts, the beam, the ram, and the lever. The 

 beam ABC (N° i.) of which only one fide is feen in the 

 figure, is compofed of two Rout planks of oak, three inches 



g 



thick at leaft, and feparated by two tianfverfe pieces of the 

 fame wood, at A and C, about three inches thick. Theie 

 planks are bored through with correfponding holes, as repre- 

 fented in the figure, to receive iron pins, upon which t!ie lever 

 acls between the two fides of the beam, and which is (hifttu 

 liigher and higher as the tree is raifed, or rather pufhed out of 

 its place. The fides are well fecured at the top and bottom 

 by ftrong iron hoops. The iron pins on which the kvcr reds 

 fhouldbe an inch and a quarter, and the holes through which 

 they pafs, an inch and a half, in diameter. The pofition of 

 thefe holes is fuflicienlly indicated by the figure. The foot 

 of the beam, when the machine is in aftioii, is fecured by flakes 

 reprefented at G, driven into the earth. The ram D, which 

 is made of oak, elm, or fome other ilrong wood, is capped 

 with three ftrong iron fpikes, reprefented at/, which take fail 

 hold of the tree.° This ram is fix or eight inches fquare ; 

 and a flit is cut lengthwife through the middle of it, from its 

 lower end at K to the-iirll ferule a, in order to allow room 

 for the chain gh to play round the pulley K, which fhould be 

 four inches thick, and nine inches in diameter. This ram is 

 raifed by means of the chain gh, which fhould be about ten 

 feet long, with links four inches and jhree quarters in length, 

 and an inch thick. One end of this chain is faflened to the 



B E R 



top of the beam at C, while the other, after palling through 

 the lower part of the ram, and over the pulley K, terminates 

 in a ring or link, reprefented N^ 3, liie two cars mn of wliich 

 ferve to keep it in a true pofition between the two planks cf 

 the beam. In this ring the hook 1' 1.=; infcrted. The hook 

 is reprefented in profile N^ 2, where F is the part that takes 

 hold of the ring. But it muil be obfcrvcd, that the parts of 

 this machine, reprefented in N'-" 2, 3, are drawn on a fcaje 

 twice as large as the whole engine. The hook F, N° 2, 

 fliould be made of very' tough iron, as v>\ ;; as the hai.dle D, 

 and the arch Ec. This handle fhouid be two inches thick 

 at rs, where it joins to the l.ook, and tiie thicknel's gradually 

 leffens by degrees np to the arch, which need not be more 

 than half an inch tliick. On each fide of the pin k, is a 

 femicircular notch, x, y, which reds alternately on the pins 

 when the machine is worked. The hole D, and the arch Er, 

 ferve to fix a long lever of wood EF, N° i, by means of two 

 iron pins ; and by this contrivance the lever is either raifed 

 or dcprefled at pleafure, in order to render the working of 

 the machine eafy in whatever part of the beam the lever 

 may be placed ; for without this coutiivance the extremity 

 of the lever EF, would, when the handle is near the top of 

 the ber>m, be much higher tlian men Handing upon the ground 

 could reach. It muil however be remembered, tliat the lever 

 is often fhorter.ed by th:s contrivance, and confequently its 

 power Icfiencd. 



The machine is worked in the foUo^ving manner : It is 

 placed againll a tree, in the manner reprefentt-d in the figure, 

 fo that the iron fpikes at/ may have hold of tiie tree, and the 

 erd of the beam A be fnpported by flakes reprefented at G. 

 Tlie iron handle N'' 2, is placed in the opening between the 

 two planks of the beam, and the wooden lever fixed to it, by 

 means of the iron pins already mentioned. The hook F takes 

 bold of the chain, and one oi the iron pins is thruft into the 

 outer row of holes, by which means the outer notch x will 

 rell on the pin, which will be now the centre of motion ; and 

 the end of the lever E, N° i, being prefTed downwards, the 

 other notch y, N^ 2, will be raifed, and at the fame time the 

 chain, and confequently the ram. The other iron pin is now 

 to be thruft into the hole in the inner row, next above that 

 which was before the centre of motion, and the end of the 

 lever E elevated or puflred upwards, the latter pin on which 

 the notch y refts now becoming the centre of motion. By 

 this alternate motion of the lever, and fhifiing the pins, the 

 chain is di-awn upwards over the pulley K, and confequently 



the whole force of the engine exerted againll the tree. There 

 it a fmall wheel at L, in order to IcfTen the fridlion of that 

 part of the machine. 



From this account the reader will very cafily perceive that 

 the machine is nothing more than afingle pulley compounded 

 with a lever of the firfl and fecond order. It mull, however, 

 be remembered, that as the pufh of the engine is given in an 

 oblique direfkion, it will exert a greater or lefTer force againll 

 the horizontal roots of the tree in proportion to the angle 

 formed by the machine with the plane of the horizon ; and 

 that the angle of 45"^ is the maximum, or that when tiic ma- 

 chine will exert its greatell force againll the horizontal roots 

 of the tree. 



BERNABEI, ERC0LE,in Mijlcal B'lography, the fcholar 

 and fuccefTor of Bcnevoh at St. Peter's, and inllruftor of the 

 abate Stclfani, may be ranked among the greatcfl mailers of 

 harmony, in the ancient ecclefiallical ilylc, of the 17th cen- 

 tury. This compofer being invited by the elector of Bavaria 

 to Munich, about the year 1650, entered into the fervice of 

 that court, where he continued the rell of his life. His 

 fun, Guifeppe Ant. Barnabei, after following his father'* 

 fteps in the iludy of ecclefiallical harmony, furpaiTed him 



confiderably 



