PROCLAMATION of peace, a declaration of the cessation of war.
PROCONSUL, among the Romans, a magistrate who was sent to govern a province with consular authority.
PRODITION. See [Treachery].
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(Produit, Fr.) Effect, fruit. In arithmetic it is the quantity which grows out of the multiplication of two or more numbers or lines one by another: 5 for instance multiplied by 4, will give the produce 20; and the produce of two lines, multiplied one by the other, is called the rectangle of these lines.
PROFILE, in drawing, side-ways or side-view. A picture in profile represents a head or face set side-ways.
Profiler, Fr. the act of profiling, or designing with rule and compass.
Profile, (Profil, Fr.) in architecture, the draught of a building, fortification, &c. wherein are expressed the several heights, widths, and thicknesses, such as they would appear were the building cut down perpendicularly from the roof to the foundation. It serves to show those dimensions which cannot be represented in plans, but are yet necessary in the building of a fortification: they are best constructed on a scale of 30 feet to an inch. It is also called section, orthographical section, and by Vitruvius, sciagraphy. It is sometimes used in opposition to ichnography.
PROGRAM, (Programme, Fr.) a word derived from the Greek, signifying any public edict, notice, or declaration. The French make use or the word on occasions of national ceremony.
PROJECTILES, are such bodies as, being put in motion by any great force, are then cast off, or let go from the place where they received their quantity of motion; as a shell or shot from a piece of artillery, a stone thrown from a sling, or an arrow from a bow, &c. This line is commonly taken for a parabola, and the ranges are computed from the properties of the curves. The assumption would be just, in case the ball, in its motion, met with no resistance: but, the resistance of the air to swift motions being very great, the curve described by the shot is neither a parabola, nor near it: and by reason of the resistance, the angle which gives the greatest amplitude is not 45 degrees, as commonly supposed, but something less, probably 43¹⁄₂. Hence the sublime mathematics are absolutely necessary in the investigation of the track of a shell or shot in the air, known by the name of military projectiles.