BRE 
wood. Ill this way a fine crimson lake, imi- 
tating the cochineal carmine,, may be pre- 
pared, which therefore consists of alumine, 
intimately combined with the colouring 
matter of the wood a little heightened. 
JNitro-muriate of tin added to the decoction 
separates the whole of the colouring matter, 
which falls down in great abundance in 
union with the oxide of tin, and the liquor 
remains colourless. 
The solutions of iron blacken the decoc- 
tion or infusions of brazil wood, shewing the 
presence of die gallic acid. Many of the 
other metallic solutions act similarly to that 
of tin, in forming hakes, consisting of the co- 
louring matter of the wood united with the 
metallic oxide of the solution employed. 
See Dyeing. 
BRAZING, the soldering or joining two 
pieces of iron together by means of thin 
plates of brass, melted between the pieces 
that are to be joined. If the work be very 
fine, as when two leaves of a broken saw 
are to be brazed together, they cover it 
with pulverized borax, melted with water, 
that it may incorporate with the brass pow- 
der, whicii is added to it ; the piece is then 
exposed to the fire without touching the 
coals, and heated till the brass is seen to 
run. 
Brazing is also used for the joining two 
pieces of iron togelher by beating them hot, 
the one upon the other, which is used for 
large pieces by farriers ; this is more pro- 
perly welding. 
BREACH, in fortification, a gap made 
in any part of the works of a town by the 
earmon or mines of the besiegers, in order 
to make an attack upon the place. To 
make the attack more difficult, the besieged 
sow the breach with crow-feet, or stop it 
with chevaux de frize. A practicable 
breach is that where the men may mount 
and make a lodgment, and ought to be fif- 
teen or twenty fathoms wide. The be- 
siegers make their way to it, by covering 
themselves with gabions, earth-bags, &c. 
Breach, in a legal sense, is where a per- 
son breaks through the condition of a bond 
or covenant, on an action upon which, the 
breach must be assigned ; and this assign- 
ment must not be general, but particular, 
as in an action of covenant for not repairing 
bouses, it ought to be assigned particularly 
what is the want of reparation ; and in such 
certain manner, that the defendant may 
take an issue. 
BREAD is a light porous spongy sub- 
jstasce, prepared by fermentation and 
BRE 
baking from the flour of certain farinaceous 
seeds, especially wheat, and is the principal 
sustenance of man in the temperate re- 
gions of the northern hemisphere. 
When flour is kneaded with water, it 
forms a tough paste, called dough, which, if 
kept in a warm place, swells, becomes 
spongy, and filled with a number of air-bub- 
bles : in this state it is called leaven : and 
this leaven, if incorporated with fresh 
dough, will bring the whole into a ferment- 
ing state, much more speedily and uniform- 
ly than if the mass was exposed to spontane- 
ous decomposition. But though leavened 
bread is perfect in every other respect, it 
always retains a slightly acidulous flavour 
from the leaven by which it is fermented ; 
for it is impossible to carry the fermenta- 
tion of the gluten to a sufficient extent to 
change in into leaven, without at the same 
time exciting the acid fermentation in the 
sugar ot the flour. It was therefore a very 
important improvement in the art, and cne 
which is attributable to the English bakers, 
to substitute.yeast or the froth of malt- 
liquor in a state of fermentation to leaven ; 
for the former net only communicates no 
unpleasant flavour to bread, but is also a 
more speedy ferment, and by acting first 
on the gluten of the flour produces the de- 
sired effect befoie any acid has time to be 
evolved from the other ingredients. The 
process of making common bread is ex- 
tremely simple, though its. perfect success 
depends considerably on a kind of knack in 
manipulation, which cannot be described 
by words. It is of essential consequence 
that the flour and yeast should be mixed to- 
gether with perfect accuracy, in order that 
the whole mass may be equally fermented, 
and that this action may commence in every 
part at the same time. Now, though in 
the making of a single loaf this may easily 
be effected at one continued process, yet 
where a considerable quantity of bread is to 
be made at once, this is impracticable. See 
Baking. 
The changes produced upon dough by 
baking are very remarkable, nor can they 
in any degree be attributed to evaporation, 
since the loss of weight never ought to ex- 
ceed Jg, and is very often not greater than 
jL. In the first place the progress of fer- 
mentation is entirely stopped : the bread 
may be kept for several days without ex- 
periencing any alteration, and the first 
sign of spontaneous change is its becoming 
mouldy. Secondly, the tenacious ductility 
of the dough and its compact texture a** 
