[8] He is fabled by the ancients to have formed a man of clay or earth, and to have stolen fire from heaven, with which he animated the man he had made.
Heathen Deities.
[9] [Fig. 11] represents an apparatus for boring Rockets when driven solid—should this method be attempted, it is one of the simplest kind that can be used: A B are two movable blocks hollowed out at their edges to receive the Rocket. C D are two screws in each, going through two sides of the frame to make them fast. E is a brace carrying a shell-bit in dimensions proper for the Rocket. [Fig. 16] is a similar bit fixed in a handle; which is useful in cleaning out the bore when the Rocket is taken from the blocks.
[10] A line is the twelfth part of an inch, or 144th part of a foot. Geometricians conceive the line notwithstanding its smallness to be subdivided in six points. The numbers in the table might have been given in lines and points, but it was thought the fractional numbers would be as well understood.
[11] Euclid 12. 18. Spheres are to each other as the cubes of their diameter, this is the principle employed in the construction of the table; but the method is converse, being that of extracting the roots.
[12] When the Rods are of large dimensions, they should be bored at the top, and filled with powder, which blows them to pieces previous to their return to the earth, and prevents any mischief which might happen by their falling otherwise.
[13] So called, from their resemblance (when in action) to the rod borne by Mercury; which, according to fabulous history, was entwisted by two serpents, as the sign and quality of his office, which was given him for his seven stringed harp.—The term (or Caduce) was also used among the Romans, and applied to a staff or wand of a similar form, carried by those officers who went to proclaim peace with any people with whom they had been at variance.
[14] From the French term, Courant, signifying running.
[15] A French term signifying a cluster.
[16] Absolute motion is the change of absolute space or place of bodies, as the motion of a projectile, the flight of a bird, or the motion of our own apparatus.