BALL
, any spherical, globular, or round body.
Ball, in the military art, signifies all sorts of bullets for fire arms, from the pistol up to the largest cannon. Cannon balls are made of cast iron; but the musket and pistol balls of lead, as these are both heavier under the same bulk, and do not furrow the barrels of the pieces.
Ball of a Pendulum, is the weight at the bottom of it; and is sometimes, especially in sh<*>rter pendulums, called the bob.
Balls of Fire, in Meteorology. See Fire balls.
Balls, in Electricity, invented by Mr. Canton, are two pieces of cork, or pith of elder tree, nicely turned in a lathe to the size of a small pea, and suspended by fine linen threads. They are used as electrometers, and are of excellent use to discover small degrees of electricity; and to observe its changes from positive to negative, or the reverse; as also to estimate the force of a shock before the discharge, so that the operator shall always be able to tell very nearly before hand what the explosion will be, by knowing how high he has charged his jars.
