V E S 



V E S 



VESSAUX, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Ardeche ; 9 miles S.W. of Privas. 



VESSEL, Vas, yafc, a thing proper to hold or con- 

 tain liquor. See Vas. 



Thus, a ton, or hogfhead, <3cc. are veflels fit to contain 

 ale, wine, &c. 



Tbe chemifts ufe a great diverfity of veffels in their opera- 

 tions; as copper alembics, with their refrigeratories ; worms 

 and receivers ; alembics of glafs, (tone, and earthen-ware ; 

 adopters, or fmall receivers with two necks ; aludels, bal- 

 loons, bottles, glafs jars and bafohs of various fizes ; cap- 

 fules, or difhes of glafs, ftone-ware, cryftal glafs, crucible 

 earth, and plate-iron ; the cone, crucibles, glafs funnels, in- 

 got moulds, matraiTes, mortars, muffles, peHcans, retorts, 

 receivers, circulatory veffels, fubliming veffels, &c. See 

 each article. See alfo Laboratory. 



Among anatomifts, &c. all the tubes or canals in which 

 the blood, and other juices or humours, are fecreted, con- 

 V3yed, depofited, &c. as the veins, arteries, lymphatics, 

 fpermatics, &c. are called veffels. 



Some even extend the word veffel to the nerves ; as fup- 

 pofing them the conduits of the animal fpirits. 



Vessel, a general name given to the different forts of 

 fhips, from the firft-rate man-of-war to the fmalleft, which 

 are navigated with mafts and fails. It is, however, more 

 particularly applied to thofe of the fmaller kind. Plate VI. 

 will reprefent moft European veffels, with little defcription. 

 The^r/I-rate is a (hip of the line, of one hundred guns and 

 upwards, having three decks or tiers of guns ; and the 

 fe-venty-four is alfo of the line, with two decks or tiers of 

 guns. The gun-vejfel is rigged Lke a (loop of war, which is 

 the fixth or fmallell rate. The brig has only two mafts, 

 which are rigged hke the main and fore mafts of a (hip, but 

 has a fore and aft main-fail. A fnow only differs from a 

 brig by having a try-fail, which hoifts upon a fmall maft 

 abaft the main-maft, and thereby can carry a fquare main- 

 fail. A ketch has two mafts, (imilar to the brig, but has 

 no fore-maft, but a main-maft and a mizen-maft rigged as a 

 (hip's. The lugger has two mafts, with fquare fails that are 

 hoifted by their yards, not in the middle, as veffels in general, 

 but at one-third of their length. Schooners are veffels of a 

 fimilar fize to luggers, having two mafts, whofe main-fail 

 and fore-fail are fufpended from gaffs at the head ; and the 

 foot ftretched out by a boom, like a man-of-war's long- 

 boat. Both luggers and fchooners fometimes carry top-fails, 

 as the brig. Sloops, or veffels having one maft, have a main- 

 fail, fore-fail, and jib, as the man-of-war's lonsj-boat. Fo- 

 reign veffels, not rigged like the above, are moftly like the 

 xebec ; which fee. 



A veffel is faid to be of three or four hundred tons ; mean- 

 ing, that it will carry three or four hundred times two thou- 

 fand weight ; or that, when immerged in water, it poffeffes 

 the fpace of three or four hundred tons of water ; which 

 are equal to the weight of the veffel, and all the loading it 

 can carry. 



A veffel is faid to draw ten or Jiftem feet of water ; mean- 

 ing, that when loaden, it finks fo deep under water. 



The figure of veffels is an objeft of gjeat importance, 

 with regard to their motion, faihng, &c. ; and m the deter- 

 mining what form is moft commodious, the new doftrine 

 of infinites becomes of apparent fervice to navigation and 

 commerce. 



A body moving in an inunoveable fluid, is obliged to fever 



the parts thereof : and they refift fuch feparation Now, 



fetting afide a certain tenacity, by which they are, as it 

 were, glued together, and which is different in different 

 fluids ; the whole force of the refiftance depends on that of 



the (hock, or impulfe : for a body that is ftruck, ftrikes at 

 the fame time ; but a perpendicular ftroke is that which a 

 hquid refills the moft, as being the greateft ; and for a body 

 to move freely therein, it muft be of fuch figure, as to pre- 

 fent itfelf as obhquely as poflible. If it were triangular, 

 and moved with the point foremoft, it is certain all its 

 parts would ftrike the fluid obliquely ; but they would all 

 ftrike it with the fame obliquity ; and it were more advan- 

 tageous that each fhould ftrike more obliquely than the next 

 adjacent. 



Now, fuch a perpetual augmentation of obliquity can no 

 where be had in a curve fine ; each point of which is con- 

 fidered as an infinitely fmall right hne, always inclined to 

 the other little right lines contiguous to k. 



To find what curve it is, whofe perpetual change of ob- 

 liquity, or inclination in all its parts, renders it, of all 

 others, the fitteft to divide the fluid eafily, is a problem 

 much more difficult than it appears to be, and, in effeft, is 

 only to be folved by the new geometry ; the folution wai 

 firft given by fir Ifaac Newton, in his inveftigation of the 

 folid of the leaft refiftance. 



That author, however, did not publilh his analyfis ; yet 

 the marquis de rH6pital hit upon it ; and afterwards M. 

 Fatio refolved the fame problem, though by a much longer, 

 and more perplexed way. See Solid of the leafl Resistance, 

 Ship, and Ship-building. 



Vessels, Book of. See Book. 



Vessel Bay, in Geography, a bay on the E. coaft of lake 

 Champlain. 



VESSIEGONSK, a town of Ruffia, in the government 

 of Tver ; 48 miles N.N.E. of Tver. N. lat. 58° 20'. E. 

 long. 37" 34'. 



VESSIGON, a term formerly apphed to the puffy fwell- 

 ing termed wind gall on the legs of animals. It is fome- 

 times written -veffion. 



VEST, and Vestiture. See Investiture. 



VESTA, in Aflronomy, one of the new planets, which 

 was difcovered by Dr. Olbers in March 1807, andobferved 

 by S. Groombridge, efq. at Blackheath, near London, in 

 April of the fame year. For an account of this planet, fee 

 Planet, Planetary Numbers, and Solar System. 



Vesta, in Mythology, one of the principal deities of the 

 Pagans. 



Thofe who have diligently inveftigated the religion of the 

 Pythagorean philofophers pretend, that by Vefta they meant 

 the univerfe, to which they afcribed a foul, and which they 

 wor(hipped as the fole divinity, fometimes under the name 

 of TO ^Kv, the whole, and fometimes under the appellation of 

 /^OTo:, unity. However, fabulous hiftory records two god- 

 deffes under the name of Vefta ; one the mother of Saturn, 

 and wife of Ccelum, and the other the daughter of Saturn, 

 by his wife Rhea. The firft was Terra, or the Earth, called 

 alfo Cybele, and derived her name Vefta, according to fome, 

 from clothing, becaufe the earth is clothed, veflitur, with 

 plants and fruits, or, according to Ovid, from the ftability 

 of the earth, becaufe _y?a; vi terra fua, or it fupports itfelf. 

 Hence the firft oblations in all facrifices were offered to 

 her, becaufe whatfoever is facrificed fprings from the earth ; 

 and the Greeks both began and concluded their facrifices 

 with Vefta, becaufe they efteemed her the mother of all the 

 gods. The fecond was fire, and Vefta, whole power was 

 exercifed about altars and houfes, derives her name, accord- 

 ing to Cicero, from Trix, fire or hearth. Accordingly the 

 poets frequently ufe Vefta for fire or flame ; as they do Ju- 

 piter for air, Ceres for corn, &c. An image of Vefta, to 

 which they facrificed every day, was placed before the doors 

 of the houfes at Rome ; and the places where thefe ftatnes 



