THR
735
THR
Thoracic. Duct. ' See Am atomy.
THORN, in geography, a town of Regal Prussia, in the pala-tinate of Culm. Lon. 18. 42. E. Lat. S3. 6. N.
Thorn, a town of England, in the West Riding of Yorkshire,31 miles S. of York, and 166 N. of London ;
Thorn, Black, in botany. See Prljnus.
Thorn, White, or Hawthorn. See Cratiegus.
THORNBURY, an insorporate town of England, in Glou-cestershire ; 24 miles S. W. ot Gloucester . Lon. 2. 31. W. Lat.51. 35. N.
THORNDIKE, Herbert, B. D. a learned English divineof the 17lh century. He was educated at Trinity College, Cam-bridge, where he graduated. In 1613, he was elected master ofTrinity College ; but was soon after ejected for his loyalty. In1660, he obtained a prebend in Westminster Abbey . He wrote,1. Epilogus, a Latin treatise in defence of the Church of Eng-land , fol. 2. A Treatise on Weights and Measures. 3. A Tracton Church-Censures. Pie also assisted Walton in the PolyglotBible . He died in 1672.
THORNHILL, in geography, a town of Scotland in Dumfries-shire, 15 miles N. W. of Dumfries .
THORNTON, Bonnel, A. M. and M. B. an English poet,born ill Maiden-lane, London , in 1724. He was the son of anapothecary; and being educated at Westminster school, waselected to Christ Church, Oxford in 1743. The first work inWhich he was concerned was, “ The Student, or Oxford andCambridge Miscellany,” which appeared in monthly numbers;and was collected in two vols. 8vo. in 1748. Smart was the chiefConductor of the work ; but Thornton, and other wits of bothuniversities, assisted in it. He took his degrees in 1750 and 1754.In 1754, he undertook "The Connoisseur,” in conjunction withColman, which they continued weekly to the 30th September,1756. To the Public Advertiser, then in high reputation, he wasa frequent contributor. In 1764, he married Miss Sylvia Brath-waite, youngest daughter of colonel Brathwaite. In 1766, he'published a translation of Plautus in blank verse, in two vols.These volumes contained seven plays, of which the Captive wastranslated by Mr. Warner, who afterwards completed all thatThornton left unfinished. Thornton published, in 1767, TheBattle of the Wigs, on the disputes then subsisting between thefellows and licentiates. Pie died of the gout in his stomach,May 9, 1768, aged 44. Pie wrote the papers in the Adventurer,•narked A: An Ode to St. Cecilia’s Day, The Oxford Barber;With many detached essays in the public papers. His character>n his epitaph written in Latin by Dr. Warton, and placed on hismonument i., Westminster Abbey , is to this effect: “ His genius,cultivated most happily by everv kind of polite literature, wasAccompanied and recommended by manners open, sincere, andcandid. In his writings and conversation he had a wonderful live-liness, with a vein of pleasantry peculiarly his own. In ridicul-ing the failings of men, without bitterness, and with much liu-biour, he was singularly happy ; as a companion, he was delight-ful,”
THOUARS, a town of France, in the department of the TwoSevres, and province of Poitou , 32 miles S. E. of Angers. Lon.9.5. E. Lat. 46. 59. N.
THOUGHT is a general name for all the ideas consequent onthe operations of the mind, and even for the operations them-Se lves. Sei- Metaphysics.
TflOUINl 'll, a genus of plants of the class diandria, and ordermonogyuia. The corolla is quadripetalous, the calyx quadripar-*[le, and the antherse sessile. There is only one species, a tree ofMadagascar.
„THRACE, a country very frequently mentioned by the'-'reek and Latin writers, deriving its name, according to Jose-phus , h om Tj ras one of the sons of Japhet. It was bounded on*hv N. by |yi 0lm i Hienms; on the S. by the jEgean Sea ; on theW. by Macedon and the river Strymon ; and on the E. by the~uxine Sea, the Hellespont, and the Propontis . The Thracian''hersonesus is a peninsula inclosed on the S. by the TEgean Sea,cn the W. by the gulf of Melas, ami on the E. by the Hellespont ;being joined on the N. to the continent by a neck of land about? 7 furlongs broad. The inland parts of Thrace are very cold and* art «n, the snow lying on the mountains the greatest part of the
year; hut the maritime provinces are productive of all sorts ofgrain and necessaries for life; and withal so pleasant, that Melacompares them to the most fruitful and agreeable countries ofAsia .
THRAPSTON, a town of England, in Northamptonshire ,75 miles N. N. W. of London . Lon. 0. 15. W. Lat. 52.36. N.
THRASHING, or THRESHING, in rural oeconomv, is tjieoperation, by which grain is separated from the straw. Thrashingis performed by different methods, in various parts of the globe;thus, in the eastern climates, corn is trodden out by oxen, cows,horses, mules, and even by asses: while in Europe , the flail isgenerally employed. This implement is certainly preferable tothe feet of animals; as it is not only more expeditious, but the la-bour is executed in a much cleaner mode than can he effected bythe latter. But, notwithstanding these advantages, thrashing withthe flail, is liable to many objections; being too laborious, evenfor persons of considerable strength: and, as they are often paidin proportion to the quantity of com thrashed, such work is sel-dom accomplished in a perfect manner; so that numerous grainsgenerally remain in the straw. To remedy these inconveniences,machines of various construction, have been invented ; and, assome of these contrivances promise to be of great advantage toagriculturists, we shall give an account of the most valuable.1 he first thrashing machine which has come to our knowledge, isthat manufactured, in 1732, by Mr. Michael Menzies of Edin-burgh ; it consisted, as far as we have been able to ascertain, ofnumerous instruments, resembling flails, which were attached to amoveable beam, and inclined to the latter in an angle of ten degrees.On each side of such beam were placed floors, or benches, onwhich the sheaves were spread; the flails being moved forwardand backward on these benches by a crank, that was fixed to theend of an axle, revolving'about thirty times in a minute. Thesecond machine was invented, in 1753, by Mr. Michael Sterling,of Dunblaine, Perthshire; his first models were very imperfect;but, after repeated alterations, he completed it in its present form,in 1758 ; and it iffiw consists of an outer, or water-wheel, havingan inner wheel, furnished with forty eight cogs, and turning on thesame axle. With this cog-wheel is connected a vertical trundle,or pinion, with seven notches: and the axle of which passesthrough a floor above the wheel ; its upper pivot being securedin a beam six inches above the floor. At the height of three feetthree inches from the latter, two straight pieces of squared wood,(each being four feet in length) are inserted through the axle ofthe pinion, at right angles, so as to form four arms, that are movedround horizontally. To the ends of these arms are affixed fouriron-plates, each twenty inches in length, and eight inches inbreadth at the extremity nearest to the arms, but tapering to apoint at the opposite end. The horizontal fly, here described,constitutes four thrashers, and is inclosed in a cylindrical woodenbox, that is three feet and a half high, and eight feet in diameter ;on the top of this bnx is an opening eight inches in width, extend-ing a foot and a half from the circumference to its centre, andthrough which the sheaves of corn descend ; the latter being pre-viously opened, and laid separately on a board - ovided with twoledges, gradually declining towards such port, ' : opening. With-in the cylindrical box, there is an inclined p' e, along which thestraw and grain fall into a wire-riddle two feet square, that is plac-ed immediately beneath a hole of a similar size: the riddle isjerked at each revolution of the spindle, by means of a knob fixedon its side ; and is thrust backward by a small spring that pressesit in a contrary direction. Thus, tjie short straw', together withthe grain and chaff, that passes through the wide riddle, fall in-stantly into an oblong, straight riddle, one end of which is raised,and the other depressed, by a similar contrivance. And, as theriddle last-mentioned is not provided with a ledge at the lowerend, the long chaff, which cannot pass through, drops thence totiie ground, while the grain and smaller chaff descend into a pairof common barn-fanners, and are thus separated with great exact-ness. These fanners are moved by means of a rope, that runs in ashallow groove cut on the circumference of the cog-wheel. In themean time, the straw collected in the lower part of the box overthe wide riddle, and through an opening two feet and a half square,is drawn down to the ground with a rake, by the persons employ-ed to form it into trusses, In 1785, Mr. Andrew Meikle obtained
a patent