T E L 
1’ E M 
/ / 
7 6 
T E N 
circle, as the index I (fig. 234) points to on 
the telegraphic circle. 
If, instead of using the letters and numbers 
to form words at length, they are used as sig- 
nals, three motions of the arm will give above 
a hundred thousand different signals. 
TELEPHIUM, true orpine ; a genus 
©f plants of the class of pentandria, and order 
of trigynia ; and in the natural system rank- 
ing under the 54lh order, misceilaneae. The 
calyx is pentaplry lions ; there are five -petals, 
which are inserted into the receptacle; the 
capsule- is unilocular and trivalvular. There 
are two species, the imperati and oppositi- 
folitHn. 
TELESCOPE. See Optics. 
TELLER, an officer of the exchequer, 
in antient records called tallier ; there are 
four of these officers, whose duty is to re- 
ceive all sums due to the king, and to give 
the clerk of the pells a bill to charge him 
therewith. They likewise pay all money 
due from the king, by warrant from the au- 
ditor of the receipt ; and make weekly and 
yearly books, both of their receipts and pay- 
ments, which they deliver to the lord trea- 
surer. 
TEL LIN A, a genus of vermes testacea ; 
the generic character is, the animal a tethys ; 
shell bivalve, generally sloping on one side ; 
in the fore-part of one valve a convex, of the 
other a concave fold ; hinge with usually 
three teeth, the lateral ones smooth in one 
shell. There are about 100 species, divided 
into three sections: A ovate and thickish ; 
B ovate and compressed ; and C suborbicu- 
lar. The tellina foliacea is of section 13, hav- 
ing the shell oval, with rough pubes, the 
flattened sides serrate. It inhabits the Indian 
Ocean and is rare. See PI. Nat. Hist, fig, 393- 
TELLURIUM, a mineral found in Tran- 
sylvania, which Muller of Reichenstein ex- 
amined in 1782, and concluded, from his ex- 
periments, that the ore, which had been dis- 
tinguished by the names of aurum proble- 
maticum, aurum paradoxicum, and aurum 
album, contains a new metal different from 
every other. Being still dissatisfied with his 
own conclusions, lie sent a specimen of it lo 
Bergman ; but the specimen was too small to 
enable that illustrious chemist to decide the 
point. He ascertained, however, that the 
metal in question is not antimony. The ex- 
periments of Muller appeared so satisfactory, 
that they induced Mr. Kirwan, in the second 
edition of his Mineralogy, published in 1796, 
to give this metal a separate place, under the 
name of sylvanite". Klaproth published an 
analysis of the ore in 1798, and completely 
confirmed the conclusions of Muller. To the 
new’ metal, which constitutes 0.925 of the 
ore, he gave the name of tellurium ; and this 
name has been generally adopted. Gmelin 
examined the ore in 1799; and his experi- 
ments coincide almost exactly with those of 
Muller and Klaproth. By these philosophers 
the following properties of tellurium have 
been ascertained: 
Its colour is bluish-white, intermediate be- 
tween that of zinc and lead; its texture is 
laminated like antimony ; and its brilliancy 
is considerable. Its hardness has not been 
.ascertained. Its specific gravity, according 
to Klaproth, is 6.1. It is very brittle, and 
may be easily reduced to powder. It melts 
when raised .to a temperature somewhat high- 
er than the fusing-point of lead. If the heat 
is increased a little, it boils and evaporates, 
and attaches itself in brilliant drops to the 
upper part of the retort in which the experi- 
ment is made. It is therefore, next to mer- 
cury and arsenic, the most volatile of all the 
metals. When cooled slowly, it crystallizes. 
When exposed to the action of the blow- 
pipe upon charcoal, it takes fire, and burns 
with a lively blue flame, the edges of which 
are green ; and is completely volatilized in 
the form of a white smoke, which, according 
to Klaproth, has a smell not unlike that of ra- 
dishes, but which Gmelin could not observe. 
This white smoke is the oxide of tellurium, 
which may be obtained also by dissolving the 
metal in nitro-muriatic acid, and diluting the 
the solution with a great quantity of water. 
A white powder falls to the bottom, which is 
the oxide. It may be procured also by dis- 
solving the metal in the nitric acid, and add- 
ing. potass slowly till the oxide precipitates. 
T his oxide is easily melted by heat into a 
straw-coloured mass of a radiated texture. 
When made into a paste with oil, and heated 
in charcoal, it is reduced to the metallic state 
so rapidly, that a kind of explosion is pro- 
duced. 
Tellurium may be combined with sulphur 
by fusion. This sulphuret has a leaden grey 
colour, and a radiated texture ; cn red-hot 
coals it burns with a blue flame. 
Tellurium may be amalgamated with mer- 
cury by trituration, its other properties have 
not yet been examined. 
TELIFEROUS, in entomology, means 
such insects as are armed with a dart or 
sting. 
TEMPERAMENT. See Physiology, 
Vo!. II. p. 421. 
Temperament, in music, the accommo- 
dation or adjustment of the imperfect sounds 
l)y transferring a part of their defects to the 
more perfect ones, in order to remedy, in 
some degree, the false intervals of those in- 
struments, the sounds of which are fixed ; as 
the organ, harpsichord, piano-forte, &c. 
Temperament is what the Italians call par- 
ticipatione, participate, or svstema tempe- 
rato, because it is founded on temperature ; 
that is, on the diminution of some intervals 
and augmentation of others, by which it par- 
takes of the diatonic and chromatic systems. 
TEMPERATURE. See Meteorolo- 
gy. 
TEMPERING of steel and iron, the ren- 
dering cf them either more compact and hard, 
or soft and pliant, according as the different 
uses for which they are wanted may require. 
See Iron, p: 33. Vol. II. 
TEMPLARS, or Temflers, a religious 
order instituted at Jerusalem, about tha year 
1118. Some religious gentlemen put them- 
selves under the government of the patriarch 
of Jerusalem, renounced property, made the 
vow of celibacy and obedience, and lived like 
canons regular. King Baldwin assigned them 
an apartment in his palace. They had like- 
wise lands given them by the king, the patri- 
arch, and the nobility, for their maintenance. 
They took the name of knights templars, 
because their first house stood near the tem- 
ple dedicated to our Saviour, at Jerusalem. 
This order, after having performed many 
great exploits against the infidels, became 
rich and powerful all over Europe ; but the i 
knights, abusing their wealth and credit, fell j 
into great disorders and irregularities. Many 
crimes and enormities being alleged against 
them, they were prosecuted in Prance, Italy, 
and Spain ; and at last, the pope, by bis bull 
of the 22nd of May, 1312, given in the coun- 
cil of Vienna, pronounced the extinction of 
the order of Templars, and united their es- 
tates to the order ot St. John of Jerusalem. 
I EMPORALI 1 1ES of bishops, are such 
revenues, lands, and tenements, and lay fees, 
as have been added to bishops’ sees, by kings 
and other great personages of this land, from 
time lo time, as they are barons and lords of 
parliament. I his revenue of tire king, which 
was antiently very considerable, is now, by a 
customary indulgence, almost reduced to no- 
thing ; for at present, as soon as the new bi- 
shop is consecrated and confirmed, he usually 
receives from the king the restitution of his 
temporalities entire and untouched ; and then 
and not sooner, he has a lee simple in his bi- 
■ shopric, and may maintain an action for the 
profits. 1 Black”. 283. 
'I ENACITY, a term applied to metals, 
by which is meant the power that a metallic 
wire of a given diameter lias of resisting, with- 
out breaking, the action of a weight suspend- 
ed from its extremity. Metals differ ex- 
c; a dingly from, each other in tenacity. Iron 
wire, for instance, — Lth of an inch in diame- 
ter, will support without breaking, about 
5001b. weight ; whereas one made of lead of 
the same diameter will not support above 
29ib.^ 
1 ENAILLE. T Ins word literally means 
shears. A military evolution which was per- 
formed in the times of the ancients. In page 
206 ol Observations on the Military Art, we 
have the following account of it : 
A phalanx, attacked by a lozenge or tri- 
angular wedge, bent its right and left forward 
by a half-quarter conversion, each wing on 
their common centre; and when they found 
themselves opposite tiie sides of the enemy’s 
arrangement, they each marched on their 
own side, right before them ; by which means 
they both inclosed and attacked the enemy 
together, at the same time, while the head 
was engaged and at blows with tiie centre of 
the phalanx that had kept its ground. Such 
is the description authors have left us of the 
design and effects of this manoeuvre. 
T he tenaille had considerable advantage 
over the triangular wedge ; but, according to 
chevalier Folard, it was not equally effica- 
cious against the column. The latter could 
alter the direction of its march, and fall upon 
one ol the wings, whether in motion or not, 
or detach the section of the tail or rear to 
take its wings in flank, while it was occupied 
in making the quarter-conversion. The co- 
lumn and tenaille were formed for acting 
against each other, and could only be victori- 
ous over one another by the superior abilities 
of their commander. We Lucy, however, the 
column was alwaysexposed to less danger than 
the tenaille, for the latter could not pursue the 
column without changing its order ; whereas 
the column must destroy, and in a manner an- 
nihilate tiie tenaille, in case it could once 
break it. 
The tenaille is unquestionably an excellent 
manoeuvre, and strictly conformable to a very 
wise maxim, which directs us to multiply our 
strength and efforts as much as possible 
against one ptvint. We sometimes indeed, 
make use of it in war without being sensible 
