WAT 



W A T 



being likewife well cleanfed at the fame time, fo that the 

 water may have an eafy fall out of every one of them into 

 the large water-furrows. The number of thefe large fur- 

 rows mull conftantly depend on the variations of the furface, 

 and fome other circumllances of the lands : the only general 

 rule is to make them fo many in number, as that no water 

 may be fuffered to ftand on any part of the land in the wet- 

 ted weather. In the bottoms or low parts of fields, or in 

 other places of them where there is a double flope of the 

 land, it is neceflary to form and cut double water-furrows at 

 the diftance of about a yard or four feet from each other, in 

 order to take the water from each defcent iingly. 



The fame writer, too, farther advifes, that in all lands fown 

 with clover or other grafles among the corn, thefe forts of 

 furrows fhould be dug a fpit deep, and the mould raifed in 

 that way be carefully thrown out. Many farmers, it is 

 faid, are not attentive enough to this point. They only 

 fcour the furrows in fuch cafes. They (hould, however, it is 

 thought, confider how long the grafs crops are on the 

 ground, which may be two or three winters ; confequently 

 it mud be very material to fuch crops to lie dry all that 

 length of time, which fcouring alone will not effeft, at leaft 

 not in a fufSciently perfett manner. Particular attention 

 fhould alfo be paid to the fpreading of the earth that is dug 

 out of the furrows in thefe cafes, as if the men be not cau- 

 tioned, they will lay it too thick and injure the crops ; it 

 fhould be chopped and rendered fniall, and then fpread 

 with great care, in order that the feeds may rife freely 

 through it. 



In the cafe of arable land, thefe furrows fhould be often 

 examined during the winter feafon, to fee that they are 

 perfeftly open and free ; the clods, lumps, and other fuch 

 matters that may have fallen into them, being cleared out by 

 means of the fpade. 



This is a praftice which is either much overlooked, or 

 very imperfeftly executed, in a great many diftrifts of the 

 kingdom. The fides of the furrows in thefe cafes fhould 

 always be made to Itand firm, and to have a good flope each 

 way, which prevents their falling in and mouldering down 

 fo much. The name of water-furrow drain is fometimes 

 given to this fort of furrow. See W ATER-Furro-,ving. 



VJ^ ATER-Furroiu Fall Plough. See the next article. 



VfATER-Furroiui/ig, a term ufed to fignify the operation 

 of opening water-furrows. It is a fort of work moftly 

 executed by the affiftance of a large plough for the pur- 

 pofe and the fpade, but fometimes by the plough alone. 

 And in fome parts of the county of EU'ex, particularly in 

 the neighbourhood of Colchefter, they have a method of 

 doing it by means of a machme that is termed a fall-plough : 

 in the lines where this fort of furrowing is to be performed 

 acrofs the ditches or ridges, this fort of tool is ufed there 

 once in fix, feven, or eight years, for the purpofe of lower- 

 ing, or, as they call \\., falling the furface. They fird gather 

 four or fix furrows by the plough ; then follows this imple- 

 ment acrofs thefe furrows, in their loofe frefh ploughed 

 ftate, taking up the parts of the mould, and dropping them 

 on the crowns or fides of the ditches or ridges, and when 

 finiflied, the water-fm-rows are ploughed and fcoured in the 

 common manner : the invention is faid to have merit, as the 

 water certainly takes a freer courfe than in the ufual 

 method. In a dry feafon, a large extent of ground can be 

 done in a fliort time, at little expence, in this way. 



Some think this work done in the neated and mod; effec- 

 tual manner by means of a fhovel ; and that an old worn 

 fhovcl is the bed for the purpofe. See W ATEK-Furronu. 



WATER-Gagp, the name of a fimple contrivance for mea- 

 furing and afcertaining the depth or quantity of any water 



in its application to any purpofe, or otherwife. See 

 Gage. 



WATER-Gan^, a term applied to a channel or padage cut 

 through any fpot to drain and free a place of water by car- 

 rying off a dream from it. 



WATER-Gavel, in our Old Writers, a rent paid for filhing 

 in, or other benefits received from, fome river. 



W AT Ell- Gilding. See Gilding. 



"W ATEM-Lanman, a fmall glafs inftrument, which is a tube 

 of about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with a ball 

 about It, inch at one end, the other end being hermetically 

 clofed ; the ball contains water, and the empty fpace is ren- 

 dered nearly a vacuum by boiling the fluid previoufly to 

 fealing it. In this indrument the heat of the hand applied 

 to the wetted tube, is fufficient to produce bubbles of 

 vapour, which enter the ball, but fpeedily coUapfe. The 

 feries of thefe condenfations is as quick as 15 or 16 in a 

 fecond. But in the deam-engine the condenfation is prodi- 

 gioufly more rapid. When a fmall double deam-engine, on 

 the condruftion of Boulton and Watt, having all the parts 

 and gear of the large engines, but its cyhnder being only 2^ 

 inches diameter, and the length of droke 6f inches, was fet 

 to work ; it gave 600 drokes per minute, or about twice as 

 many as the beats of a common watch. By an eafy calcu- 

 lation it may be fhewn, that the deam condenfed was then 

 much more than 300 cubic inches per fecond ; and if the 

 condenfation, indead of being efFedled in maffes of about 

 a pint at a time, could have been performed by fucceffive 

 coilapfes of each cubic inch in an open fpace, the pulfes 

 would have produced the tone of the lowed E flat in the 

 treble cliff. »But the number of cubic inches condenfed in 

 a large fteam-engine, e. g. a three-feet cylinder with an 

 eight-feet ftroke, will be eight or nine times as much at 

 the ufual rate of working. See Nicholfon's Journal, 

 vol. iv. 8vo. 



WATER-Level, the level which is formed by the furface 

 of dill water, managed in fome way or other in a conve- 

 nient manner for its application in different cafes ; and 

 which is perhaps the trued of any for mod ufes. The term 

 is alfo applied to and iignifies the level ufed in watering 

 land, and performing different other operations in the bufi 

 nefs of agriculture. See Level, SpiRir-Level, and WA' 

 TERiNG Land. 



W ATER-Levels are alfo lengths of canal in fome places, 

 that are not connefted by locks with other navigations 

 but at the ends of which the goods are unloaded into tea! 

 waggons. See Canal. 



Vf AiER-Line and Reel, the ftrong large line and reel of 

 the garden kind, which is ufed in forming fome part of the 

 works in watering of land. 



WATER-Zinw, (fee Smv- Building), are the lines of 

 floatation fuppofed to be defcribed by the furface of the 

 water on the bottom of a fliip. Of thefe the mod par- 

 ticular are thofe denominated the light luater-line and the 

 load luater-Une ; the former, namely, the light water-line, 

 being that line which fhews the depreflion of the fliip's body 

 in the water when light or unladen, or when fird launched, 

 called the launching draught of -water ; and the latter, which 

 exhibits the fame when laden with all her guns and ballad, 

 or cargo. 



WATER-LeggeJ, in Sea Language, denotes the ftate of a 

 diip when, by receiving a great quantity of water into her 

 hold, by leaking, &c. die has become heavy and inaftive 

 upon the fea, fo as to yield without refidance to the effort 

 of every wave rudiing over her deck. In this dangerous 

 iituation of a diip, the crew have no refource, except to free 



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