other persons concerned in commerce, meet at certain times to confer and treat together of matters relating to exchanges, payments, freights, and other mercantile negotiations both by sea and land. The most considerable exchanges in Europe are those of London, Amsterdam, Dublin, Bourdeaux and St. Petersburg. The Philadelphia Exchange is an elegant and commodious building.

EXCHANGE.

EXCHANGES. See BILLS OF The course of exchange is always fluctuating, sometimes over and sometimes under the par, or equal value, of exchange, and is chiefly governed by the bal ance of trade being for or against the negotiating parties; so that when the exchange is above par, the balance of trade is against them, and when it is under par, it is in their favor. If London ships to Boston merchandise to the amount of 500,000l., and at the same time Boston ships to London goods or merchandise to the amount of only 300,000l., Boston can only discharge to the amount of 300,0001., and for the remaining balance of 200,0007. she must procure bills of exchange at the lowest possible

premium elsewhere, in order to

liquidate the debt due to London; as it is not to be supposed that Boston, being indebted to London, can furnish bills on equally good terms with another city not indebted to London. Thus Boston, by paying a premium of one per cent for bills of exchange, would have to pay 202,0007. in order to liquidate the aforesaid balance of 200,0007., thereby losing 20007. on the transaction.

EXCISE, one of the principal branches of the public revenue in Great Britain, consists of inland duties, or taxes on articles manufactured or consumed; whereas the duties of customs are paid on goods brought into or carried out of the country.

EXPORTATION: the act of sending goods out of one country into another.

F.

FAILURE, is where a tradesman, through misfortune or imprudence, is unable to pay his debts, which may happen from trading beyond his capital, or negligence in keeping his accounts, or misfortunes in trade.

FATHOM: a long measure con

States, and is frequently exported in barrels to the West Indies and different parts of South America. Some of the principal flour-mills are those of Brandywine in Delaware, and Rochester in New York. These are the most extensive, but there are also large flour-mills in most of the Southern States. Many of these mills are so contrived that the wheat is carried by machinery to one of the upper rooms and there ground; it then falls into a room below and is sifted or bolted, and then falling still lower is received into the barrels, and there packed and headed for shipping.

FOIL among glass-grinders, a sheet of tin incorporated with quicksilver, &c., laid on the back of a looking-glass to make it reflect.

FORECASTLE: that part of a ship where the foremast stands. It is divided from the rest by a bulk-head, and here are the berths allotted to the sailors.

FORGERY is where a person counterfeits the signature of another with intent to defraud. The punishment of this crime is severe.

FOUNDERY, or FOUNDRY, is the place or workhouse, which is furnished with forges or furnaces, for melting and casting all sorts of

metals, particularly brass, iron, bell-metal, type-metal, &c.

FRANKINCENSE: a dry, resinous substance, obtained from a tree which grows in Arabia.

FREIGHT is the consideration of money agreed to be paid for the use or hire of a ship, or, in a larger sense, the burden of such ship.

FRIGATE: a ship of war. A frigate has commonly two decks, whence that called a light frigate is a frigate with only one deck. All ships of war that carry from twenty to fifty guns are called frigates.

FULLER'S EARTH: a species of clay, of a grayish, ash-colored brown, in all degrees from very pale to almost black, and it has generally something of a greenish cast. It is used by fullers to take grease out of their cloth before they apply the soap.

FULLER. The business of the fuller is to clean, scour, mill, and thicken woollen cloths; and is chiefly to be met with in the countries where the woollen manufacture flourishes.

FUR the skins of quadrupeds, which are dressed with alum without depriving them of their hair. The skins chiefly used are those of

the sable, ermine, bear, buffalo, beaver, hare, fox, &c. They constitute an article of considerable traffic in North America and Russia.

FURRIER. The furrier cures, dyes, and makes up several kinds of furs or skins, with the hair on, into muffs, tippets, the lining of robes, &c.

FUSTIAN: a kind of cotton stuff, which seems as if it was waled or ribbed on one side. The principal manufacture of this article is carried on at Manchester, in England, and in its neighborhood. FUSTIC: a yellow wood, used in dyeing, principally from the islands of Barbadoes, Tobago, &c. The color it yields is a fine golden yellow.

kind of ferret or lace, used to edge or border clothes, sometimes made of wool or thread, and at others of gold or silver, but commonly of mohair or silk.

GALLS are tumors, produced by the punctures of insects on several species of the oak tree. Other trees are liable to the same accidents, and produce galls of various forms and sizes, but those of the oak only are used in medicine, and for the purposes of dyeing and making ink. Those which come from Aleppo are the most valuable. Galls put in small quantity into a solution of vitriol in water, though but a very weak one, give it a purple or violet color, which, as it grows stronger, becomes black; and on this depends our writing ink, as also a great deal of the art of dyeing, staining leather, and many other of the manufactures.

GAMBOGE: a gum-resin of a firm texture and of a beautiful yellow. It is chiefly brought from Cambogia or Carbaja, in the East Indies, whence it has derived its

into the oriental or Asiatic, and occidental or European kinds. The first are principally brought from Calicut, Cananor and Cambay, and the second are common in Italy, Hungary and Bohemia.

GAS-LIGHT. Common bituminous pit-coal, when exposed to a certain degree of heat, becomes decomposed. It gives out in the first place an inflammable gas, consisting of carbon and hydrogen. It is this which has been applied to the furnishing of light in the place of oil. The inflammable nature of coal-gas was first known from its dreadful explosive effects in mines, and received the name of fire or choke-damp. It was also observed to issue sometimes from crevices on the surface of the earth, when, on a lighted torch being presented to it, it would inflame, and burn for a considerable period. In 1726, Stephen Hales procured an elastic air or gas from the distillation of coal; and although some experiments of the inflammability of air

The most casual observer must have remarked, that, when a piece of coal becomes heated in the fire, it begins to swell; it then bursts at a particular part; a stream of air rushes out, and, coming in contact with the fire, ignites into a flame. If a common tobacco-pipe is taken, a small piece of coal put into the bulb, the top of this cemented closely with moist clay, and the bulb then put into the fire, a stream of inflammable air will, in a short time, issue from the extremity of the pipe, and continue to do so till the whole gas the coal contains is exhausted. On examining the matter remaining, it will be found to be coke, or charcoal. Coal, then, by this mode of distillation, is found to consist of an inflammable gas, called carburetted hydrogen, and of charcoal. The extension of this long-known and simple experiment into a process of general usefulness proceeded by gradual and oftinterrupted steps; and, as is usual in many important processes of the kind, the real inventor is involved in some degree of doubt. In the year 1792, a Mr. Murdoch, residing in Cornwall, England, made use of coal-gas for lighting up his house and offices; and in 1797, he again