Charleston. Lon. 80. 10 W. Lat. 31. 40

N.

PORTALEGRE, a strong town of Por tugal, in Alentejo, with a bishop's see. It is

NAPOLIS.

PORT ST. ANN. See KILLOUGH.

PORT ST. JULIAN, a harbour on the coast of Patagonia, where ships usually touch that are bound for the Pacific Ocean. Lon. 68. 44 W. Lat. 49. 10 S.

PORT ST. MARY, a seaport of Spain, in Andalusia, The English made a descent here in 1702, with a design to besiege Cadiz, but without success. It is 10 miles N.E. of Cadiz. Lon. 6. 0 W. Lat. 35. 37 N.

PORT SANDWICH, a harbour in the island of Mallicolo, in the S. Pacific Ocean. Lon. 167. 53 E. Lat. 16. 25 S.

PORT VENDRE, a seaport of France, in the department of the Eastern Pyrenees and late province of Rousillon. It was taken by the Spaniards in 1793, but retaken the next year. It is 25 miles S. by E. of Perpignan. PORTA. (porta, a portando, because through it the blood is carried to the liver.) That part of the liver where its vessels enter.

PORTE VENA. See VENA PORTE. PORTA (Joseph), of Castel Nuovo,' acquired celebrity by his pieces in oil and in fresco. He wrote also some mathematical treatises, and died at Venice 1585, aged 50. PORTA (John Baptist), a Neapolitan, eminent for his learning. As he admitted a society of learned friends into his house, he was accused of magical incantations, and exposed to the censures of Rome. He died 1515, aged 70. He invented the camera obscura, improved afterwards by Gravesande, and formed the plan of an encyclopedia. He wrote a Latin treatise on natural magic, 8vo.; another on physiognomy, mixed with astrology, &c.; de occultis literarum notis; physiognomica, folio, &c.

PORTA (Simon), or PORTIUS, a NeapoliLan, distinguished by his learning, and professor of philosophy at Pisa. He died at Naples 1554, aged 57. He is author of treatises de mente humanâ-de voluptate et dolore-de coloribus oculorum, 4to.-de rerum naturalium principiis libri duo-opus physiologicum, 4to, &c.

PORTABLE. a. (portabilis, Latin.) 1. Manageable by the hand. 2. Such as may be born along with one (South). 3. Such as is transported or carried from one place to another (Locke). 4. Sufferable; supportable. PORTABLENESS. s. (from portable.) The quality of being portable.

PORTADOWN, a town of Ireland, in the county of Armagh, with an extensive linen manufacture. It is situate on the river Bann, nine miles N.E. of Armagh, and 16 N. of Newry.

PORTAGE. s. (portage, French.) 1. The price of carriage (Fell). 2. (from port.) Porthole (Shakspeare).

PORTAL. s. (portail, French.) A gate; the arch under which the gate opens (Sandys).

pleasant country, 30 miles N. W. of Elvas, and 90 N. E. of Lisbon.

PORTANCE. s. (from porter, Fr.) Air; mien; port; demeanour (Spenser). PORTA'SS. . (sometimes called porttis) A breviary; a prayer-book (Camden) PORTARLINGTON, a borough of Inland, partly in King's and partly in Queen's county. It is seated on the river Barrow, 31 miles N. of Kilkenny, and 36 S.W. of Deblin.

PORTCULLICE, in fortification, is an assemblage of several large pieces of wood, joined across one another like a harrow, and each pointed with iron at the bottom. They are sometimes hung over the gateway of old fortified towns, ready to let down in case of surprise, when the gates could not be shut.

To PORTEND. v. a. (portendo, Lat.) To foretoken; to foreshow as omens (Rosconmon).

PORTENSION. s. (from portend.) The act of foretokening: not in use (Brown).

PORTENT. s. (portentum, Latin.) Omen of ill; prodigy foretokening misery (Dryden).

PORTENTOUS. a. (portentosus, Latin.) 1. Foretokening ill; ominous (Shakspeare). 2. Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful (Roscom mon).

PORTER. s. (portier, French; from ports, Latin, a gate.) 1. One that has the charge of the gate (Arbuthnot). 2. One who waits at the door to receive messages (Pope). 3. (porteur, French.) One who carries burdens for hire (Howel).

PORTER. A malt liquor of a deep brown colour and a peculiar flavour, which it derives from the malt used in brewing, it being highly dried in the malt-kilns. This, at least, was the composition of porter until lately, when it has been found that the same colour and flavour may be communicated to liquor brew. ed from a mixture of brown and pale malt, by the addition of certain colouring matters, which being obtained from burning the same substance that causes the brown colour of the highly dried malt, produces a similar liquor at a far less expence of materials than when brown malt alone is used; because the pale malt yields a far greater proportion of saccharine matter than the brown, in which a share of the saccharum is burnt up in the kiln only for the purpose of producing a colour and flavour which may so easily be communicated to the beer of pale malt by a small quantity of burnt sugar."

The art of brewing porter is referable to the same general principles as any other beer. (See BREWING.) What we chiefly intend to explain in this article is the admirable system of management under which the process is conducted in the great porter breweries in London, some of which are on such an ex

tensive scale as to brew 100,000 barrels annually in one house.

The process of brewing porter as generally practised with but trifling variations in these works is as follows. The different kinds of malt made use of are pale, brown, and amber, which is a medium between the two. Some brewers use equal quantities of the three; others equal proportions of pale and brown; others use amber malt alone; and some pale malt with one-third of brown. These va tieties give to their porter the different flavours for which they are distinguished by th connoisseurs in this liquor.

The malt being coarsely ground, or in some breweries bruised between iron rollers, is deposited in the mash tun, into which water is admitted, heated to 150 degrees of Fahrenheit (when the malt is compounded of the three kinds) for the first mashing; and in quantity at the rate of two barrels per quarter of malt. It is next mashed and mixed up by the mashing engine about three-quarters of an hour; then it stands to extract the saccharum of the malt for an hour, at the end of which the wort, called the first wort, is run off into the under back. In a large mash tun it will take half an hour to run off, and is immediately pumped up into the copper to be boiled. At about an hour and three-quarters, or two hours, from the cominencement, the water for the serond mash is admitted into the mash tun ata heat of 160 degrees, but only one barrel to the quarter of malt, because the malt is already wetted from the first liquor. It is mashed by the engine for half an hour, and stands an hour; after which it is run off. During this time the first wort has been boiling in the copper, where the hops are put to it, usually at the rate of six or seven pounds to the quarter of malt, which makes three barrels and a half of porter; but this quantity is increased or diminished as the liquor is intended for keeping, er for a quick consumption. After boiling the proper time (the length of which is much disputed, and greatly varied by different brewers) the wort is run off into the coolers. The third mash is made at about two hours and a half after beginning the second mash; it is heated to 180 degrees, and at the rate of one barrel one firkin per quarter: it is mashed half an hour, and stands one hour, as the other mashes, before it is run off. A fourth mash is sometimes made, but it is only taken at a blood heat and sufficient quantity to cover the malt, upon which it stands two hours; it is used to inake sour beer for the finings, as will be hereafter explained, though some brewers boil it again the next morning for the first mash instead of fresh water. This practice, however, is not a good one, because the wort by standing all night frequently becomes foxed; a term used by the brewers to denote a premature fermentation of the wort before the gross mucilaginous parts of the extract are coagulated by the process of boiling. The first wort being richer than the others soon contracts the fox, particularly in hot weather, if it is left in the

under back, and therefore it is pumped up into the copper as soon as the water which was heated in the copper for the second mash can be run out into the mash tun. The weaker worts may stand much longer without danger of foxing; and therefore the fourth wort when taken inay in cold weather stand all night, and be good the next morning to use instead of fresh water; in which case a considerable saving of malt will be made, or the liquor be stronger: but if, on the other hand, it becomes tainted, a whole brewing of beer may be spoiled by it. On this account the most established brewers rather choose to lose the advantage than take the risk, and therefore make only three mashes.

The boiling of the wort coagulates the mucilage suspended in the liquor, and separates it into distinct fecula, which, when it is run into the coolers, deposit themselves in considerable quantities. By this means it is freed from the superabundant portion of gross fermentable matter, which would otherwise occasion the beer to proceed so rapidly through the process of fermentation, that those gross parts would come to the acetous, and even the putrefactive, fermentation before the other parts of the beer had advanced sufficiently in the vinous fermentation to give the liquor its proper strength. The addition of the hops which is made in the boiling also tends to the same effect, of retarding the fermentative disposition; and for this reason the proportion of hops must be regulated by the time the beer is intended to be kept. If it is intended for exportation it must have a large quantity of hops; and then it will be kept long enough to fine itself, at least in a great degree, by the gradual subsidence of the minute fecula suspended in it. But the porter brewed for the supply of London is kept a very short time, and therefore has a small share of hops; and as it would not have time to become fine, it is fined by a peculiar process on purpose.

The different worts after boiling are spread out thin in the coolers, and their temperature brought down to between 60 and 70 degrees, at which all the three worts are mixed together in a great vessel called the guile tun or square, where yest being put to it the liquor is fermented. The temperature at which the wort is set to working in the square, and the heat at which the several mashes are made, have greater influence than any other circumstances upon the quality of the beer. The greater the working heat is, the more rapidly the fermentation proceeds: therefore in sum mer, when the natural heat of the air is such that the working will advance perhaps more rapidly than the brewer wishes, he counteracts this by cooling the wort down as low as possible: on the other hand, in cold weather the fermentation must be encouraged by commencing it at a greater temperature; in general it may be stated to be between 60 and 70 degrees, at the discretion of the brewer, and in some degree regulated by the kind of porter he wishes to produce, and the malt from which he has

extracted his wort. The fermentation is continued in the square as long as the head of yest which floats upon it continues to increase in depth; but when the head shews signs of diminution the liquor is fit for cleansing. This is putting it into a great number of small casks, which, by dividing the beer into small quantities, lowers its temperature and tends to check the fermentation. The same end is also at tained by causing the yest to flow off as fast as it is produced, and keeping the casks always filled up as they diminish by working, to leave no room for a head of yest to gather upon the surface of the beer. After the fermentation is concluded the beer is put into immense casks called store vats, where it is kept till wanted for sale. By keeping it begins to clear itself, and grow fine; but it is seldom kept long enough to become perfectly so. It is when wanted drawn off from the store vats into casks, and then sent away; and the consumer puts into the cask a small quantity of fining, sent out with the porter by the brewer, who calls it in the rough when his liquor requires fining.

The finings are made of isinglass dissolved in sour beer brewed from the wort of the fourth mash, or sour beer obtained from the waste of any of the processes. A small quantity of this fining beer being put into the cask precipitates the minute fecula, and soon renders the liquor quite fine. The flavour of the draught porter in London is almost universally obtained by compounding two kinds, the due admixture of which is palatable, though neither are good alone. One is mild, and the other stale porter; the former is that which has been lately brewed, and has rather a bitter mawkish flavour; the latter has been kept longer, and is in some degree acid. This mixture the publican adapts to the taste of his several customers; he effects the proportion of mixture very readily by means of the BEER PUMPS, described under that article (see pl. 24). These will be found to have four pumps, but only three spouts, because two of the pumps throw out at the same spout. One of these two pumps draws mild, and the other the stale porter; and the publican, by dextrously changing his hold to the next handle works, either pump, and draws both kinds of beer at the same spout; and an indifferent observer supposes that since it all comes from one spout it is entire butt beer, as the publican professes over his door, and which vulgar prejudice has decided to be the only good porter, though the difference is not easily distinguished.

A walk through an extensive London porter brewery, as Mr. Whitbread's, Meux's, Barclay's, or many others, is very interesting, by reason of the very extensive scale on which their processes are conducted, by the aid of the steam engine, which is applied to perform all the laborious operations without exertion of the workmen, who are very few in number considering the magnitude of the works.

Plate 140 contains an elevation of a porter brewery, shewing all the vessels and machinery at one view. This elevation is in some

measure imaginary, as few works have their vessels so arranged as to be all seen at once; being often situated one behind the other as the local convenience of the building demands. AA represents the walls supporting the copper B, and containing the fire-place at C with the fire grate, and chimney r. Above the copper is a vessel D, called the copper-pan, in which the liquor is heated previously to being let down into the copper. E is the mash-tun containing the mashing machine, of which we have given a detail in plate 141. Over this is a bin F to contain the malt, after it has been ground in the millstones, aa. These are turned by wheel work from the steam-engine, of which is the fly-wheel: this, by bevilled cog-wheels on its axis, turns a vertical shaft c, upon which are other bevilled wheels giving motion to the rest of the machinery. The beam of the steam-engine works a pump down in the well G, by which cold water is raised up to a large cistern H, supported on the walls of the-engine house. From this cistern a pipe d proceeds to the copper where the water is heated, and is then let out at the cock e into the mash-tun, previously filled with ground malt, let down from the bin F. When suffciently mashed, the wort is let down into a vessel I beneath the mash-ton, called the underback, from which it is drawn by the pumps K, and conducted by the pipe ƒƒ up to the copper-pan D. In this pan it derives considerable heat from the copper when any liquor is boiling beneath, as the steam rising from it cannot escape, because the copper is covered with a dome-head; it therefore ascends through the large central pipe g, and turning down the inclined pipes hh, bubbles out beneath the surface of the liquor contained in the pan D, and by this means communicates a very considerable heat to it, which, as well as what comes up through the dome of the copper, would otherwise be lost. When the water in the copper is let out into the mash-tun to make the second mash, the wort is let down from the copper-pan into the copper to be boiled; and the hops are put in at a door in one side of the dome covering the copper, the pan D being notched in on that side to give access to it. The hops are kept stirring all the time the boiling is continued, to prevent their burning to the bottom of the copper. It is done by a vertical spindle s, in the centre of the copper, which is put in motion by cog wheels at t, turned by hand, or sometimes by the engine. At the lower end of the spindle a cross bar e is fastened, and to this chains are linked, which drag round upon the bottom of the copper when the wheels are turned. This machine is called the rouser: it can be drawn up out of the way when the copper requires cleaning, by a chain w passing over pulleys, and drawn by proper rollers.

After boiling, the worts and hops together are run out at the cock e, and conducted by a spout into a large vessel called the jack-back (which being before the copper cannot be shewn in our late); it has a false bottom