Part 346

PANIER à mine, Fr. See BOURRIQUET.

PANIERS, Fr. Baskets. Figuratively, un panier percé, a leaky vessel, or one who cannot keep a secret. A dangerous man in society: and in military concerns, one who ought to be particularly guarded against where discretion and confidence are necessary.

PANIQUE, Fr. See PANIC.

PANNE, Fr. literally means shag, plush, &c. and is properly a sea term, signifying to lie to, mettre en panne. It is likewise used in a military sense, to express the steady posture of troops who are drawn up for battle, and wait an enemy’s attack. La troupe est restée en panne. The squadron remained immoveable.

PANNEAU, Fr. Trap, snare.

Donner dans le PANNEAU, Fr. to be ensnared, or outwitted.

PANNELS, in artillery, are the carriages which carry mortars and their beds upon a march.

PANNONCEAU, Fr. an ancient term, which was used to signify ensign or banner.

PANOPLY, complete armor or harness.

PANSEMENT, Fr. The dressing of wounds.

PANSER, Fr. to dress a wound.

PANSER, Fr. in farriery, signifies to rub down, and otherwise to take care of a horse.

PANTHEON, in architecture, a temple of a circular form, dedicated to all the gods. The name has been adopted among modern nations from the Pantheon of ancient Rome, built by Agrippa in his third consulate, and dedicated to Jupiter Ultor, or Jupiter the avenger. There is a chapel in the Escurial in Spain, called Pantheon, of marble and jasper inlaid: the whole inside is of black marble, excepting the luthern, and some ornaments of jasper and red marble. The Pantheon at Paris during the progress of the French revolution, has been appropriated to national purposes; the names and busts of the most distinguished statesmen and generals being preserved therein as marks of public gratitude, and objects of public emulation. There is a building in London that bears the name of Pantheon, but that is all. It is private property, and the only public use to which it has been appropriated, has been that of operatical speculation, masquerades, or frivolous entertainments.

PANTOGRAPHE, Fr. a mathematical instrument, which serves to copy all sorts of drawings. The French have paid great attention to the improvement of this instrument, of which a minute description may be found in Cours de Mathématiques, by Pere Deschalles. But the sieur Panglois brought it to such perfection in 1750, that it is become universally useful.

PANTOMETER, an instrument used, to take all sorts of angles, distances and elevations. It was invented by the ancients, but has been greatly improved since.

PANTOMETRE, Fr. See PANTOMETER.

PAPIER de cartouche, Fr. Paper used for cartridges.

PAPIER gris, ou PAPIER brouillard, Fr. Whited brown paper.

PAPIERS et enseignemens, Fr. All the papers and manuscripts which are found on board a ship are so called.

PAQUEBOT, Fr. a modern French term, derived from packet-boat, which see.

PARABOLA, in geometry, a figure arising from the section of the cone, when cut by a plane parallel to one of its sides.

From the same points of the cone, therefore, only one parabola can be drawn; all the other sections within these parallels being ellipses, and all without hyperbolas.

Properties of the PARABOLA. The square of an ordinate is equal to the rectangle of the abscissa, and four times the distance of the focus from the vertex.

The perpendicular on the tangent, from the focus, is a mean proportional between the distance from the vertex to the focus, and the distance of the focus from the point of contact.

All lines within the parabola, which are drawn parallel to the axis, are called diameters.

The parameter of any diameter is a right line, of such a nature that the product under the same, and the abscissa, are equal to the square of the semi-ordinate.

The squares of all ordinates to the same diameter, are to one another as their abscissas.

Cartesian PARABOLA, is a curve of the second order, expressed by the equation xy = ax³ + bx² + cx + d containing four infinite legs, being the 66th species of lines of the third order, according to sir Isaac Newton: and is made use of by Descartes, in the third book of his geometry, for finding the roots of equations of six dimensions by its intersections with a circle.