W I N 
IV I -R 
912 
The colouring principle, therefore, does 
not appear to be of a resinous nature ; it ex- 
hibits all the characters that belong to a very 
numerous class of vegetable products, which 
approach to the nature of the lees of wine, 
though without possessing all its properties. 
The greater number of colouring principles 
are of this kind: they are soluble by the 
acid of extractive matter, and, upon disen- 
gaging them from this agent, they fix them- 
selves in a solid form. 
Wine-spirit, a term used by our distil- 
lers, and which may seem to mean the same 
thing with the phrase of spirit of wine ; but 
they are taken in very different senses in the 
trade. 
Spirit of wine is tbe name given to the 
common malt spirit, when reduced to an al- 
cohol, or totally inflammable state ; but the 
phrase wine-spirit is used to express a very 
clean and fine spirit, of the ordinary proof 
strength, and made in England from wines of 
foreign growth. 
The way of producing it is by simple dis- 
tillation, and it is never rectified any higher 
than common bubble-proof. The several 
wines of different natures yield very different 
proportions of spirit; but, in general, the 
- strongest yield one-fourth, the weakest in 
spirits one-eighth part of proof-spirit; that is, 
they contain from a sixteenth to an eighth 
part of their. quantity of pure alcohol. 
WINMOWING-MACHINES. Machines 
of this sort are in pretty general use, where 
thrashing-mills, to which they may be attach- 
ed, are not erected : they are made on dif- 
ferent principles according to particular cir- 
cumstances. Those contrived by Mr. Cor, 
of Leicester, on Mr. Winlow’s plan, are good 
implements, and will dress grain with much 
dispatch. And there are others which are 
employed in the northern districts, which are 
made by Rodgers, that are also upon good 
and convenient principles; as well as many 
more in different places which have great 
merit in their construction, and do their work 
well and expeditiously. They are made of 
different prices, from three to five or six. 
pounds, and will last many years when the 
materials of which they are formed are of a 
proper kind. 
WINTERA, a genus of plants of the class 
polyandria, and order pentagynia ; and in the 
natural system arranged under the 12th or- 
der, holoraceae. The calyx is three-lobed ; 
there are six or twelve petals ; there is no 
stvle; the fruit is a berry, which is club- 
shaped as well as the germen. There are 
three species, the aromatica, granadensis, and 
axillaris. 
Wintera aromatica, is one of the largest 
forest-trees upon Terra del Fuego: it often 
rises to the height of 50 feet. Its outward 
• bark is on the trunk grey and very little 
wrinkled, on the branches quite smooth and 
green. The branches do not spread horizon- 
tally, but are bent upwards, and form an ele- 
gant head of an oval shape. The leaves come 
out without order, of an oval elliptic shape, 
quite entire, obtuse, flat, smooth, shining, of 
,ii thick leathery substance, evergreen, on the 
upper side of a lively deep-green colour, and 
of a pale bluish colour underneath, without 
any nerves, and their veins scarcely visible ; 
they are somewhat narrower near the foot- 
stalks, and there their margins are bent 
downwards. In general, the leaves are from j 
three to four inches long, and between one ( 
and two broad ; they have very short foot- 
stalks, seldom half an inch long, which are ! 
smooth, concave on the upper side, and con- 
vex underneath. From the scars of the old 
footstalks the branches are often tubcrcu- 
lated. 
WIRE, a piece of metal drawn through 
the hole ol an iron ii-ato a thread of a line- 
ness answerable to the hole it passed through. 
W ires are frequently drawn so fine as to be 
wrought along with other threads ®f silk, 
wool, flax, &c. 
The metals most commonly drawn into 
wire, are gold, silver, copper, and iron. 
Gold wire is made of cylindrical ingots of 
silver, covered over with a skin of gold, and 
•thus drawn successively through a vast num- 
ber of holes, each smaller and smaller ; till at 
last it is brought to a lineness exceeding that 
of a hair. That admirable ductility which 
makes one of the distinguishing characters of 
gold, is no where more conspicuous than in 
this gilt wire. A cylinder of 48 ounces of 
silver, covered with a coat of gold, only 
weighing one ounce, as Dr. Halley informs 
us, is usually drawn into a wire, two yards of 
• which weigh no more than one grain : whence 
98 yards 01 the wire weigh no more than 49 
grains, and one single grain of gold covers 
tlie 98 yards ; so that the ten-thousandth part 
of a grain is above one-eighth of an inch 
long. 
Silver wire is the same with gold wire, ex- 
cept that the latter is gilt, or covered with 
gold, and the other is not. 
There are also counterfeit gold and silver 
wires ; the first made of a cylinder of copper, 
silvered over, and then covered with gold: 
and the second of a like cylinder of copper, 
silvered over, and drawn through the iron, 
after the same manner as gold and silver 
wire. 
Brass wire is drawn after the same manner 
as the former. Of this there are diver's sizes, 
suited to the different kinds of works. The 
finest is used for the strings of musical instru- 
ments, as harpsichords, &c. 
1 he pin-makers likewise use vast quantities 
of brass wire, to make their pins of. 
Iron wire is drawn of various sizes, from 
half an inch to one-tenth of an inch diameter, 
and even smaller. 
The first iron that runs from the stone 
when meltiug, being the softest and toughest, 
is preserved to make wire of. Iron wire is 
made from bars of iron, called esleom-iron, 
which are first drawn out to a greater length, 
and to about the thickness of the little finger, 
at a furnace, with a hammer gently moved by 
water. [ hese thinner pieces are bored 
round, and put into a furnace to anneal for 
12 hours. A pretty strong fire is used for 
this operation. After this they are laid under 
water for three Or four months, the longer the 
better; then they are delivered to the work- 
men, called rippers, who draw them into wire 
through two or three holes. After this they 
anneal them again for six hours, and water 
them a second time for about a week, and 
they are then delivered again to the rippers, 
who draw them into wire of the thickness of a 
large packthread. They are then annealed a 
third time, and then “watered for a week 
longer, and delivered to the small wire- 
drawers, called overhouse-men. 
W I T 
In the mill where this work is performed* 
there are several barrels hooped with iron, 
which have two hooks on their upper sides, 
on each of which hang two links, which stand 
across, and are fastened to the two ends of the 
tongs which catch hold of the wire, and draw 
it through the hole. The axis on which the 
barrel moves does not run through the centre, 
but is placed on one side, which is that on 
which the hooks are placed ; and under- 
neath there is fastened to the barrel a spoke of 
wood, which they call a swingle, which is 
drawn back a good way by t lie cogs in the 
axis of the wheel, and draws back the barrel, 
which falls to again by its own weight. The 
tongs hanging on the hooks of the barrel, are 
by the workmen fastened to the end of the 
wire, and by the force of the wheel, the hooks 
being pulled back, draw the wire through the 
holes. The plate in which the holes are, is 
iron on the outside, and steel on the inside ; 
and the wire is anointed with train-oil, to 
make it run the easier. 
\\ ire of Lapland. The inhabitants of 
Lapland have a sort of shining slender sub- 
stance in use among them on several occa- 
sions, which is much of the thickness and 
appearance of our silver wire, and is there- 
fore called, by those w ho do not examine its 
structure or substance, Lapland wire. It is 
made of the sinews of the rein-deer, which 
being carefully separated in the eating, are, 
by the women, after soaking it in water, and 
beating, spun into a sort of 1 bread, of ad- 
mirable fineness and strength, when wrought 
to the smallest filament-; but when larger, is 
very strong, and tit tor the purposes of strengtji 
and force. Their w ire, as it is called, is made 
of the truest ot these threads, covered with 
tin. The women do this business ; and the 
way they take is to melt a piece of tin, and 
placing at the edge of it a horn with a hole 
through it, they dra>v these sinewy threads* 
covered with the tin. through ill hole, which 
prevents their coming out too thick covered. 
This drawing is performed with their teeth; 
and there is a small piece of bone placed at 
tbe top of the hole, where the wire is made 
flat, so that we always find it rounded on all 
sides but one, where* it is flat. 
This wire they use in embroidering their 
clothes, as we do gold and silver ; they often 
sell it to strangers, under the notion of its hav- 
ing certain magical virtues. 
WITCHCRAFT. By 9 G. II. c. 5, no 
prosecution shall be commenced or carried 
on against any person for witchcraft, sorcery, 
enchantment, or conjuration, or for charging 
another with any such offence. 
But if any person shall pretend to exercise 
or use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, en- 
chantment, or conjuration, or undertake to 
tell fortunes ; or pretend from his skill or 
knowledge in any occult or crafty science, to 
discover where, and in what manner, any 
goods supposed to have been stolen or lost, 
may be found ; he shall be imprisoned for a 
year, and once in every quarter of that year 
stand openly on the pillory for an hour ; and 
further shall be bound to good behaviour as 
the court shall award. 
W1TENA-MOT, or Witena-gemot, 
among our Saxon ancestors, was a term which 
literally signified the assembly of the wise 
men, and was applied to the great council of 
the nation, of latter days called the parlia- 
ment. 
