Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

D E S (
tercepted between the next equinoctial point and the
horizon, palling through the centre of the object, at
its fetting, in an oblique fphere.
DESCENT, in general, is the tendency of a body front
a higher to a lower place; thus all bodies, tinlefs o
therwife determined by a force fuperior to their gra¬
vity, defcend towards the centre of the earth. See
Mechanics.
Descent, or Discent, in law, an order or method
whereby lands or tenements are derived to any man
from his ancelktrs.
Descent, in genealogy, the order or fucceffion of de-
fcehdants in a line or family; or their diflance from a
common progenitor: thus we fay, one defcent, two
defcents, &c.
Descent, in heraldy, is ufed to exprefs the coming
down of any thing from above; as, a lion en defccnt,
is a lion with his head towards the bale points, and
his heels towards one of the corners of the chief, as if
he were leaping down from fome high place.
DESCRIPTION, is fuch a (trong and beautiful reprefen-
tation of a thing, as gives the reader a diltincl view and
fatisfaClory notion of it. See Narration and De¬
ft ri fit ion.
DESEADA, or Desiderada, one of the Caribbee-
iflands, fubjeCt to France, lying eaftward of Guarda-
loupe. See Caribbee.
DESERTER, in a military fenfe, a foldier who, by
running away from his regiment or company, aban¬
dons the fervice.
A deferter is, by the articles of war, punifliable by
death, and, after conviction, is hanged at the head of
the regiment he formerly belonged to, with his crime
writ on his breaft.
DESERTION, in Scots Law, when one of the married
perfons deferts or forfakes the other. Wilful defer-
tion for four years together is a ground of divorce.
See Scots Law, title 6.
DESHACHE', in heraldry, is where a bead has its
limbs feparated from its body, fo that they dill remain
on the efcutcheon, with only a fmall feparation from
their natural places.
DESIDERATUM is ufed to fignify the defirable per¬
fections in any art or fcience : thus, it is a defideratum
with the blackfmith, to render iron fufible by a gentle
heat, and yet preferve it hard enough for ordinary
ufes; with the glafsman, and looking-glafs maker, to
render glafs malleable; with the clock-maker, to bring
pendulums to be ufeful where there are irregular mo¬
tions, i6c.
DESIGN, in a general fenfe, the plan, order, reprefen-
tation, or conltruCtion of a building, book, painting,
ire.
Design, in the manufactories, exprelTes the figures
wherewith the workman enriches his duff, or filk, and
which he copies after fbme painter, or eminent
draughts-man, as In diaper, damalk, and other dower¬
ed fiik and tapedry, and the like.
In undertaking of fuch kinds of figured duffs, it is
neceffary, fays Monf. Savary, that, before the fird
ftroke of the fhuttb, the whole defign be reprefented
418 ) D E S
on the threads of the warp; we do not mean in co¬
lours, but with an infinite number of little pack¬
threads, which, being difpofed fo as to raife the
threads of the warp, let the workmen fee, from time
to time, what kind of filk is to be put in the eye of the
fliuttle for woof. This method of preparing the
work is called reading the. defign, and reading the fi¬
gure, which is performed in the following manner: a
paper is provided, confiderably broader than the duff,
and of a length proportionate to what is intended to
be reprefented thereon. This- they divide lengthwife,
by as many black lines as there are intended threads
in the warp; and crofs ihefe lines, by others drawn
breadthwife, which, with the . former, make little e-
qual fquares: on the paper thus fquared, the draughts¬
man defigns his figures, and heightens them with
colours, as he fees fit. When the defign is finifhed,
a workman reads it, while another lays it on the fim-
blot.
To read the defign, is to tell the perfon who ma¬
nages the loom, the number of fquares, or threads,
comprifed in the fpace he is reading, intimating at the
fame timer whether it is ground or figure. To put
what is read on the fimblot, is to fallen little drings
to the feveral packthreads, which are to raife the
threads named; and thus they continue to do till the
whole defign is redd. '
Every piece being compofed of feveral repetitions
of the fame defign, when the whole defign is drawn,
the drawer, to jre-begin the defign afrefh, has nothing
to do but to raife the*little^ drings, with dip-knots, to
the top of the fimblot, which he had let down to the
bottom : this he is to repeat as often as is neceffary till
<he whole be manufactured.
The ribbon-weavers have likewife a defign, but far
more Ample than that now deferibed. It is drawn on
paper with lines and fquares, reprefenting the threads
of the warp and woof. But indead of lines, whereof
the figures of the forme/confid, thefe are condituted
of points only, or dots, placed in certain of the little
fquares, formed by the interfedion of the lines. Thefe
points mark the threads of the warp that are to be
raifed, and the fpaces left blank denote the threads
that are to keep their fituation : the red is managed as
in the former. <
Design is alfo ufed, in painting, for the fird idea of a
large work, drawn roughly, and in little, with an in¬
tention to be executed and finifhed in large.
Defign, in painting, is the fimple contour, or out¬
lines of the figures intended to be reprefented, or the
lines that terminate and circumfcribe them: fuch de¬
fign is fometimes drawn in crayons, or ink, without
any lhadows at all ^ fometimes it is hatched, that is,
the lhadows are expreffed by fenfible outlines, ufually
drawn acrofs each other with the pen, crayon, or gra¬
ver. Sometimes, again, the Ihadows are done with
the crayon rubbed fio as that there do not appear any
lines : at other times, the grains or drokes of the
crayon appear, as not being rubbed : fometimes the
defign is walhed, that is, the lhadows are done with
a pencil in Indian ink, or fome other liquor ; andfome-