RED 
557 
found by Danipier in Sharks - bay, on the 
coast of'New Holland. See Plate Nat. Hist, 
fig. 345. 
'The recurvirostra, or scoiopax alba, is 
about 14 inches and a quarter long, its colour 
white, the inferior coverts of its wings dusk- 
idi, its bill orange, its legs brown. Edwards 
remarks that the bill of this bird is bent up- 
wards, as in the avoset: its bill black at the 
tip, and orange the rest of its length ; ail the 
plumage is white, except a tint of yellowish 
on the great quills of the wing and of the tail. 
Edwards supposes that the whiteness is pro- 
duced by the cold climate of Hudsons-bav, 
from which he received it, and that they re- 
sume their brown feathers during the sum- 
mer. It appears that several species of this 
bird have spread further into America, and 
have even reached the southern provinces. 
A bird of this kind, Mr. Latham says, was 
sent from Hudsons-bay, and from the figure, 
has every appearance of an avoset. In Ed- 
wards s plate, however, the toes appear cloven 
to the bottom; a circumstance seeming to 
overturn the supposition, and only to be au- 
thenticated when other specimens shall have 
come under the eye ot the well-informed 
naturalist. 
RECUSANT, a person who refuses to go 
to church, and worship God after the man- 
ner of the church of England, as by law esta- 
blished ; to which is annexed the penalty of 
20/. a month for nonconformity. 23 Eliz. 
c. 1- 
R ED, in dyeing, is one of the five simple or 
mother colours. See Dyeing. 
Red-lead. See Lead, ctxide of. 
Red-book of the exchequer, an antient 
record or manuscript volume, in the keeping 
of the king’s remembrancer, containing divers 
• miscellaneous treatises relating to the times be- 
fore the Conquest. 
REDDENDUM, in our law, is used sub- 
stantively tor the clause in a lease wherein 
the rent is reserved to the lessor. The pro- 
per place for it is next after tne limitation 
of estate. 
REDEMPTION, in law, a faculty or right 
of re-entering upon lands, &c. that have been 
sold and assigned, upon reimbursing the pur- 
chase-money with legal costs. Bargains where- 
in the faculty, or, as some call it, the equity, 
of redemption is reserved, are only a kind ot 
pignorative contracts. A certain time is 
limited within which the faculty of redemption 
shall be Exercised, and beyond which it shall 
not extend. 
REDENS, Redans, or Redant, in for- 
tification, a kind of work indented in form of 
the teeth of a saw, with saliant and re-entering 
angles, to the end that one part may flank or 
defend another. It is called saw-work, and 
indented work. Redens are frequently used 
in the fortifying of walls, where it is not ne- 
cessary to be at the expence of building bas- 
tions ; as when they stand on the side of a 
river, a marsh, the sea, &c. 
REDOU BT, or Redout e, in fortification, 
a small square fort, without any defence but 
in' front, used in trenches, lines ot circnm- 
vallation, contravallation, and approach, as 
also for the lodgings of corps de garde, and to 
defend passages. In marshy grounds, re- 
doubts are frequently made ot stone-works, 
for the security of the neighbourhood; their 
face consists of from 10’ to 15 fathoms, the 
RED 
ditch round them from 8 to 9 feet broad and 
deep, and their parapets have the same thick- 
ness. 
REDUCT, or Reduit, a military term 
signifying an advantageous piece of ground, 
entrenched and separated from the rest ot 
the plac , camp, &c. for an army, garrison, 
3c c. to retire to in case of a surprize. 
REDUCTION, that rule by which num- 
bers oi different denominations are brought 
into one denomination. See Arithmetic. 
Reduction of a J/gure, design, or 
draught, is the making a copy oi it either 
larger or smaller than the original, still pre- 
serving the form and proportion, i lie great 
use of the proportional compasses is the re- 
duction oi figures, &e. whence they are called 
compasses ot reduction. 
There are various methods of reducing 
figures, See. The most easy is by means ot the 
pentagraph, or parallelogram ; but this has 
its detects. See Pentagraph. 
The best and most usual methods of re- 
duction are as follows: 1. lo reduce a 
figure, as ABODE (Plate Miscel. fig. 203) 
into a less compass. About the middle of the 
figure, as z, pitch on a point, and horn this 
point draw lines to its several angles A, B, 
C, &c. then drawing the line ab parallel to 
AB. be parallel to BC, &c. you will have the 
figure abede similar to ABC DE. 
If the figure abede had been required to be 
enlarged, there needed nothing but to produce 
the lines from the point beyond the angles, as 
sD, zC, & c. and to draw lines, viz. DC, CB, 
&c. parallel to the sides de, cb, &c. 
2. To reduce a figure by the angle ot pro- 
portion, suppose the figure *A BCD E, (fig. 204 ) 
required to be diminished in the piopoition 
of the line AB to ab, (fig- 205). Draw the in- 
definite line GH, (tig, 200) and from G to H 
set off the line AB. On G describe the arch 
HI. Set off the line ab as a chord on HI, 
and draw GI. I lien with the angle IGrl, 
you have all the measures of the figure to be 
drawn. Thus, to lay down the point c, take 
the interval BC, and upon the point G, de- 
scribe the arch KL. Also on the point G, 
describe MN ; and upon A, with the distance 
MN, describe an arch cutting the preceding 
one in c, which will determine the side be. 
And after the same manner are the other sides 
and angles to be described. 1 he same pro- 
cess wifi also serve to enlarge the figure. 
3. To reduce a figure by a scale. Mea- 
sure all the sides of the figure, as ABCDE, 
tig. 204, by a scale, and lay down the same 
measures respectively from a sniallerscale in 
the proportion required. 
4. To reduce a map, design, or figure, by 
squares. Divide the original into little 
squares ; and divide a fresh paper of the di- 
mensions required into the same number of 
squares, which are to be larger or less than 
the former, as the map is to be enlarged or 
diminished. This done, in every square of 
the second figure draw what you find in its 
correspondent one in the first. 
Reduction, in metallurgy, is the bringing 
back metalline substances which have been 
changed into scoria: or oxides, into their na- 
tural and original state of metals again. See 
Chemistry. 
Reduction, in surgery, denotes an ope- 
ration by which a dislocated, luxated, or 
fractured bone, is restored to its former state 
or place. 
REF 
REDUNDANT hyperbola, is a curve 
of the higher kind, thus called because it ex- 
ceeds the conic section ot that name, in the 
number of its hyperbolical legs; being a 
triple hyperbola with six hyp rbolical legs. 
REDUPLICATION, m logic, a kind ot 
condition expressed in a proposition indicat- 
ing or assigning the manner in which tne 
predicate is attributed to the subject. Hence 
reduplicative propositions are such vheiem 
the subject is repeated with some circum- 
stance or condition, thus : Men, as men, are 
rational; Kings, as kings, are subject to none 
but God. 
REED. See Arundo. 
REEF, a term in navigation. W hen there 
is a great gale of wind, they commonly loll 
up part of the sail below, that by this means 
it may. become the narrower, and not draw 
so much wind ; which contracting or taking 
up the sail they call a reef, or reefing the 
sail ; so also when a top-mast is sprung, as 
they call it, that is, when it is cracked, or al- 
most broken in the cap, they cut oil the 
lower piece that was nearly broken off, and 
setting the other part, now much shorter, hi 
the step again, they call it a reefed top- 
mast. 
REEL, in the manufactories. There are 
various kinds of reels, some very simple, 
others very complex. Ot the former kinds 
those most in use are: 1 . A little reel held in 
the hand, consisting of three pieces of wood, 
the biggest and longest whereoi (which does 
not exceed a Lot and a halt in length, and a 
quarter of an inch in diameter) is traversed by 
two other nieces disposed different ways. 
I 2. The common reel, or windlass, which 
; turns upon a pivot, and lias four flights tra- 
versed by long pins or sticks, whereon the 
! skain toAe reeled is put, and which are 
: draw n closer or opened wider according to 
' the . skain. A representation of the common 
reel may be seen in Plate Miscel. fig. 20/, 
where A is the bench or seat of the reel, B the 
two uprights ; C the arms of the reel, its 
arbor turning, and hitching its little lantern 
of four notches in the teeth of the wheel ; D 
| two wheels, the upper one of which moves 
i the lower by means of a pinion ; E a ham- 
mer, the handle whereof is lowered by a peg 
at the bottom of the lower wheel ; F a cord 
which is rolled round the axle of (lie lower 
wheels, and supports a weight which stops 
after a certain number of turns, to regulate 
the work-woman. 
REELING, in the manufactories, the 
winding of thread, silk, cotton, or the like, 
into a skain, or upon a bottom, to prevent its 
entangling. It is also used for the charging 
or discharging of bobbins or quills, to use 
them in tiie manufacture ot different staffs, as 
thread, silks, cotton, &c. 
RE-ENTRY, in law, signifies the resum- 
ing or retaking that possession which any one 
had lately foregone; as where a person makes 
a lease of lands to another, the lessor thereby 
quits the possession, and the lessee covenants 
tiiat upon non-payment of the rent reserved, 
the lessor may lawfully re-enter. 
REEVING, in the sea language, the put- 
ting a rope through a block; hence to pull a 
rope out of a block, is called unreeving. 
REFINING, in general, is the art of puri- 
fying a thing; including not only the assay- 
ing or refining of metals, but likewise the de- 
