SH A 
brewed among the skins till the greatest 
part stick to them ; and then separated into 
distinct tubs, till they swell and rise of 
themselves above the water. By this 
means the remains of the lime are cleared 
out : they are then wrung out, hung up to 
dry on ropes, and sent to the mill, with the 
quantity of oil necessary to scour them : the 
best oil is that of stock-fish. Here they are 
first thrown in bundles into the river for 
twelve hours, then laid in the mill trough, 
and fulled without oil till they be well soft- 
ened ; then oiled with the hand. One by 
one, §nd thus formed into parcels of four 
skins 'each, which are milled and dried on 
chords a second time, then a third ; then 
oiled again and dried. 
This process is repeated as often as neces- 
sity requires ; when done, if there be any 
moisture remaining, they are dried in a 
stove, and made up into parcels wrapped 
up in wool ; after some time they are open- 
ed to the air, but wrapped up again as be- 
fore, till such time as the oil seems to have 
lost all its force, which it ordinarily does in 
twenty-four hours. 
The skins are then returned from the 
mill to the chamoiser to be scoured ; which 
is done by putting them into a lixivium of 
wood-ashes, working and beating them in it 
with poles, and leaving them to steep till 
the lye have had its effect; then wrung out, 
steeped in another lixivium, wrung again, 
and this repeated till all the grease and oil 
be purged out. They are f^hen half dried, 
and passed over a sharp-edged iron instru- 
ment, placed perpendicular in a block, which 
opens, softens, and makes them pliable: 
lastly, they are thoroughly dried, and pass- 
ed over the same instrument again, which 
finishes the preparation, and leaves them in 
form of shammy. 
Kid and goat skins are charnoised in the 
same manner as those of sheep, excepting 
that the hair is taken off without the use of 
any lime ; and that when brought from the 
mill they undergo a p^irticular preparation 
called ramalling, the most delicate and diffi- 
cult of all the others. It consists in this, 
that as soon as brought from the mill they 
are steeped in a fit lixivium : taken out, 
stretched' on a round wooden leg, and the 
hair scraped off with the knife ; this makes 
tliein smooth, and, in working, cast a fine 
nap. The difficulty is in scraping them 
evenly. 
SHARK, in ichthyology, the English 
name of two species of squalus, distingnish- 
SH A 
ed by their different colours, blue and wliitc. 
See Squalus. 
^SHARP (Abraham), in biography, an 
eminent mathematician, mechanist, and as- 
tronomer, was descended from an ancient 
family at Little Horton, near Bradford, in 
the west riding of A'orksh>»e, where he was 
born about the year 1651, At a proper 
age he was put apprentice to a merchant at 
Manchester; but his genius led him so 
strongly to the study of mathematics, both 
theoretical and practical, that he soon be- 
came uneasy in that situation of life. By 
the mutual consent, therefore, of his master 
and himself, though not altogether with that 
of his father, he quitted the business of a 
merchant. Upon this he removed to Liver- 
pool, where he gave himself up wholly to 
the study of mathematics, astronomy, &c. 
and where for a subsistence he opened a 
school, and taught ■ writing and accounts, 
&c. 
He had not been long at Liverpool, when 
he accidentally fell in company with a mer- 
chant, or tradesman, visiting that town from 
London, in whose house it seems the astro- 
nomer Flamsteed then lodged. With the 
view, therefore, of becoming acquainted 
with this eminent man, Mr. Sharp engaged 
himself with the merchant as a book-keeper. 
In consequence he soon contracted an inti- 
mate acquaintance and friendship with Mr. 
Flamsteed, by whose interest and recom- 
mendation he obtained a more profitable 
employment in the dock-yard at Chatham } 
where he continued till his friend and pa- 
tron, knowing his great merit in astronomy 
and mechanics, called him to his assistance 
in contriving, adapting, and fitting up the 
astronomical apparatus in .the royal obser- 
vatory at Greenwich, which had been lately 
built, namely, about the year 1676; Mr. 
Flamsteed being then thirty years of age, 
and Mr. Sharp twenty-five. 
In this situation he continued to assist 
Mr. Flamsteed in making observations (with 
the mural arch, of eighty inches radius, and 
140 degrees on the limb, contrived and gra- 
duated by Mr. Sharp) on the meridional ze- 
nith distances of the fixed stars. Sun, Moon, 
and planets, with the time of their transit 
over the meridian ; also the diameter of the 
Sun and Moon, and their eclipses, with those 
of Jupiter’s satellites, the variation of the 
compass, &c. He assisted him also in mak- 
ing a catalogue of nearly 3000 fixed stars, as 
to their "longitudes and magnitudes, their 
right ascensions and polar distances, with 
