The fairs of Geneva (held 4 times a year) are mentioned as early as 1262, and attained the height of their prosperity about 1450, but declined after Louis XI.'s grants of 1462-1463 in favour of the fairs of Lyons. Among the chief articles brought to these fairs (which were largely frequented by Italian, French and Swiss merchants) were cloth, silk, armour, groceries, wine, timber and salt, this last coming mainly from Provence. The manufacturers of Geneva formed in 1487 no fewer than 38 gilds, including tailors, hatters, mercers, weavers, tanners, saddle-makers, furriers, shoe-makers, painters on glass, &c. Goldsmiths are mentioned as early as 1290. Printing was introduced in 1478 by Steinschaber of Schweinfurth, and flourished much in the 16th century, though the rigorous supervision exercised by the Consistory greatly hampered the Estiennes (Stephanus) in their enterprises. Nowadays the best known industry at Geneva is that of watchmaking, which was introduced in 1587 by Charles Cusin of Autun, and two years later regulations as to the trade were issued. In 1685 there were in Geneva 100 master watchmakers, employing 300 work-people, who turned out 5000 pieces a year, while in 1760 this trade employed 4000 work-people. Of recent years its prosperity has diminished greatly, so that the watchmaking and jewelry trades in 1902 numbered respectively but 38 and 32 of the 394 establishments in Geneva which were subject to the factory laws. Lately, huge establishments have been constructed for the utilization of the power contained in the Rhone. The local commerce of Geneva is much aided by the fact that the city is nearly entirely surrounded by "free zones," in which no customs duties are levied, though the districts are politically French: this privilege was given to Gex in 1814, and to the Savoyard districts in 1860, when they were also neutralized. Entry: GENEVA
Water under pressure conveyed in pipes is a convenient and economical means of transmitting energy and distributing it to many scattered working points. Hence large and important hydraulic systems are adopted in which at a central station water is pumped at high pressure into distributing mains, which convey it to various points where it actuates hydraulic motors operating cranes, lifts, dock gates, and in some cases riveting and shearing machines. In this case the head driving the hydraulic machinery is artificially created, and it is the convenience of distributing power in an easily applied form to distant points which makes the system advantageous. As there is some unavoidable loss in creating an artificial head this system is most suitable for driving machines which work intermittently (see POWER TRANSMISSION). The development of electrical methods of transmitting and distributing energy has led to the utilization of many natural waterfalls so situated as to be useless without such a means of transferring the power to points where it can be conveniently applied. In some cases, as at Niagara, the hydraulic power can only be economically developed in very large units, and it can be most conveniently subdivided and distributed by transformation into electrical energy. Partly from the development of new industries such as paper-making from wood pulp and electro-metallurgical processes, which require large amounts of cheap power, partly from the facility with which energy can now be transmitted to great distances electrically, there has been a great increase in the utilization of water-power in countries having natural waterfalls. According to the twelfth census of the United States the total amount of water-power reported as used in manufacturing establishments in that country was 1,130,431 h.p. in 1870; 1,263,343 h.p. in 1890; and 1,727,258 h.p. in 1900. The increase was 8.4% in the decade 1870-1880, 3.1% in 1880-1890, and no less than 36.7% in 1890-1900. The increase is the more striking because in this census the large amounts of hydraulic power which are transmitted electrically are not included. Entry: 152
We have said that Napoleon's strategy was the result of this personal magnetism. Later critics evolved from his success the theory of "interior lines," and then accounted for it by applying the criterion they had evolved. Actually, the form in which the will to conquer found expression was in many important respects old. What, therefore, in the theory or its application was the product of Napoleon's own genius and will-power? A comparison with Souham's campaign of Tourcoing will enable us to answer this question. To begin with, Souham found himself midway between Coburg and Clerfayt almost by accident, and his utilization of the advantages of his position was an expedient for the given case. Napoleon, however, placed himself _deliberately_ and by fighting his way thither, in an analogous situation at Carcare and Cairo. Military opinion of the time considered it dangerous, as indeed it was, for no theory can alter the fact that had not Napoleon made his men fight harder and march farther than usual, he would have been destroyed. The effective play of forces on interior lines depends on the two conditions that the outer enemies are not so near together as to give no time for the inner mass to defeat one before the arrival of the other, and that they are not so far apart that before one can be brought to action the other has inflicted serious damage elsewhere. Entry: THE
It is not quite certain who first discovered in the coal-naphtha the presence of benzene (q.v.), which had been isolated from oil-gas by M. Faraday as far back as 1825. John Leigh claims to have shown coal-tar benzene and nitro-benzene made from it at the British Association meeting held at Manchester in 1842, but the report of the meeting says nothing about it, and the world in general learned the presence of benzene in coal-tar only from the independent discovery of A. W. Hofmann, published in 1845. And it was most assuredly in Hofmann's London laboratory that Charles Mansfield worked out that method of fractional distillation of the coal-tar and of isolating the single hydrocarbons which laid the foundation of that industry. His patent, numbered 11,960 and dated November 11th, 1847, is the classical land-mark of it. About the same time, in 1846, Brönner, at Frankfort, brought his "grease-remover" into the trade, which consisted of the most volatile coal-tar oils, of course not separated into the pure hydrocarbons; he also sold water-white "creosote" and heavy tar-oils for pickling railway timbers, and used the remainder of the tar for the manufacture of roofing-felt. The employment of heavy oils for pickling timber had already been patented in 1838 by John Bethell, and from this time onward the distillation of coal-tar seems to have been developed in Great Britain on a larger scale, but the utilization of the light oils in the present manner naturally took place only after Sir W. H. Perkin, in 1856, discovered the first aniline colour which suddenly created a demand for benzene and its homologues. The isolation of carbolic acid from the heavier oils followed soon after; that of naphthalene, which takes place almost automatically, went on simultaneously, although the uses of this hydrocarbon for a long time remained much behind the quantities which are producible from coal-tar, until the manufacture of synthetic indigo opened out a wide field for it. The last of the great discoveries in that line was the preparation of alizarine from anthracene by C. Graebe and C. T. Liebermann, in 1868, soon followed by patents for its practical manufacture by Sir W. H. Perkin in England, and by Graebe, Liebermann and H. Caro in Germany. Entry: COAL
The essence of the bread-making process recently invented by Serge Apostolov is the combination of a flour mill and bakery. The wheat, after a preliminary cleaning, is ground into flour by a mill composed of metal disks dressed, that is furrowed, very much like the surfaces of a pair of mill-stones. The disks are not set to grind very close, because it is desired, by minimizing friction, to keep the meal cool. From the middlings obtained by this milling process about 10% of bran is separated, and the remainder of the middlings is treated by a peculiar process, akin to mashing, termed "lixiviation." The middlings are saturated with tepid water containing a small proportion of yeast, which causes a certain amount of fermentation. It is claimed that by this process a solution is obtained of the floury constituents of the middlings. From the vats the solution is poured on an inclined sieve which has a gentle reciprocating motion. The floury particles pass through the meshes, while the bran tails over the sieve; the proportion of the wheat berry thus rejected is given as about 2½%. On the other hand, the milky-looking solution, called "lactus," is caught in a special vessel, and delivered by a shoot into a trough, which may be either a mechanical kneader of an ordinary trough. This lactus takes the place of the ordinary sponge. The flour is added in the proportion necessary to make the required batch and the whole mass is doughed, either by hand or power. The resultant dough is moulded in the ordinary way into loaves, which are baked in due course. The advantages claimed for the process are that it permits of the utilization in bread-making of about 87½% of the wheat berry, that the resultant bread is fairly white in colour and is agreeable in flavour, and that it is extremely simple and provides a ready and cheap means of flour-making. Entry: A
The great influence of the Spaniards upon the American Indians has been treated by Blackmar in his _Spanish Institutions in the South-west_, and by Lummis, Bourke, Hodge and other authorities. The results of Spanish contact and control are seen in the loan-words in the various languages of the region, the consequences of the introduction of domestic animals (horse, mule, sheep, goat, fowls), the perfection of the arts involved in the utilization of wool, the planting of wheat, the cultivation of peaches and other exotic fruits. The difference between the Navaho and their close kinsmen the Apache may be largely attributed to changes wrought by the coming of the Spaniards. The "Mission Indians" of California represent another great point of contact. In California thousands and thousands of Indians were converted and brought under the control of the able and devoted missionaries of the Catholic Church, only to become more or less utterly helpless when Spanish domination ceased and the missions fell into decay. Traces of Spanish influence may be found as far north as the Saskatchewan, where personal names implying origin from a Mexican captive occur; and there is not a little Spanish blood in some of the tribes of the Great Plains, who often took with them from their border raids, or acquired from other tribes, many white prisoners from Mexico, &c. Entry: 1
An advantage common to all kinds of gaseous fuel, which indeed forms the principal reason why it is intentionally produced from solid fuel, in spite of inevitable losses in the course of the operation, is the following. The combustion of solid fuel (coal, &c.) cannot be carried on with the theoretically necessary quantity of atmospheric air, but requires a considerable excess of the latter, at least 50%, sometimes 100% and more. This is best seen from the analyses of smoke gases. If all the oxygen of the air were converted into CO2 and H2O, the amount of CO2 in the smoke gases should be in the case of pure carbon nearly 21 volumes %, as carbon dioxide occupies the same volume as oxygen; while ordinary coal, where the hydrogen takes up a certain quantity of oxygen as well, should show about 18.5% CO2. But the best smoke gases of steam boilers show only 12 or 13%, much more frequently only 10% CO2, and gases from reverberatory furnaces often show less than 5%. This means that the volume of the smoke gases escaping into the air is from 1½ to 2 times (in the case of high-temperature operations often 4 times) greater than the theoretical minimum; and as these gases always carry off a considerable quantity of heat, the loss of heat is all the greater the less complete is the utilization of the oxygen and the higher the temperature of the operation. This explains why, in the case of the best-constructed steam-boiler fires provided with heat economizers, where the smoke gases are deprived of most of their heat, the proportion of the heat value of the fuel actually utilized may rise to 70 or even 75%, while in some metallurgical operations, in glass-making and similar cases, it may be below 5%. Entry: C
3. The stumpage price would seem on the face of the figures to have risen from about one dollar to more than three dollars per thousand board-feet. The receipts, however, for any one year are not exclusively for the timber cut in that year, since payments are made in advance. In the year 1907 the average price obtained was something less than $2.50 per thousand. It is therefore true that stumpage prices have risen greatly, although conditions new to the American lumbermen are imposed. Full utilization of all merchantable material, care of young growth in felling and logging, and the piling of brush, to be subsequently burned by the forest officers if burning is necessary, are among these conditions. Timber to be cut must first be marked by the forest officers. Sales of more than $100 in value are made only after public advertisement. Entry: 3
A first scheme, indicated by him, was immediately drawn out by two French engineers who were in the Egyptian service, MM. Linant Bey and Mougel Bey. This project, differing from others that had been previously presented or that were in opposition to it, provided for a direct communication between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. After being slightly modified, the plan was adopted in 1856 by an international commission of civil engineers to which it had been submitted. Encouraged by this approval, de Lesseps no longer allowed anything to stop him. He listened to no adverse criticism and receded before no obstacle. Neither the opposition of Lord Palmerston, who considered the projected disturbance as too radical not to endanger the commercial position of Great Britain, nor the opinions entertained, in France as well as in England, that the sea in front of Port Said was full of mud which would obstruct the entrance to the canal, that the sands from the desert would fill the trenches--no adverse argument, in a word, could dishearten Ferdinand de Lesseps. His faith made him believe that his adversaries were in the wrong; but how great must have been this faith, which permitted him to undertake the work at a time when mechanical appliances for the execution of such an undertaking did not exist, and when for the utilization of the proposed canal there was as yet no steam mercantile marine! Impelled by his convictions and talent, supported by the emperor Napoleon III. and the empress Eugénie, he succeeded in rousing the patriotism of the French and obtaining by their subscriptions more than half of the capital of two hundred millions of francs which he needed in order to form a company. The Egyptian government subscribed for eighty millions' worth of shares. The company was organized at the end of 1858. On the 25th of April 1859 the first blow of the pickaxe was given by Lesseps at Port Said, and on the 17th of November 1869 the canal was officially opened by the Khedive, Ismail Pacha (see SUEZ CANAL). While in the interests of his canal Lesseps had resisted the opposition of British diplomacy to an enterprise which threatened to give to France control of the shortest route to India, he acted loyally towards Great Britain after Lord Beaconsfield had acquired the Suez shares belonging to the Khedive, by frankly admitting to the board of directors of the company three representatives of the British government. The consolidation of interests which resulted, and which has been developed by the addition in 1884 of seven other British directors, chosen from among shipping merchants and business men, has augmented, for the benefit of all concerned, the commercial character of the enterprise. Entry: A
The utilization of meat in the form of meat extract belongs to some extent to this class of preserved foods. Its origin is due to J. von Liebig and Max von Pettenkofer, and dates from the middle of the 19th century. The soluble material is extracted mainly from beef, in Australia to some extent from mutton, by means of warm water; the albumen is coagulated by heat and removed, and the broths thus obtained are evaporated _in vacuo_ until the extract contains no more than about 20% of water. One pound of extract is obtained from about 25 lb. of lean beef. Entry: FOOD
The history of charity is a history of many social and religious theories, influences and endeavours, that have left their mark alike upon the popular and the cultivated thought of the present day. The inconsistencies of charitable effort and argument may thus in part be accounted for. To understand the problem of charity we have therefore (1) to consider the stages of charitable thought--the primitive, pagan, Greek and Roman, Jewish and Christian elements, that make up the modern consciousness in regard to charity, and also the growth of the habit of "charity" as representing a gradually educated social instinct. (2) We have also to consider in their relation to charity the results of recent investigations of the conditions of social life. (3) At each stage we have to note the corresponding stage of practical administration in public relief and private effort--for the division between public or "poor-law" relief and charity which prevails in England is, comparatively speaking, a novelty, and, generally speaking, the work of charity can hardly be appreciated or understood if it be considered without reference to public relief. (4) As to the present day, we have to consider practical suggestions in regard to such subjects as charity and economic thought, charity organization, friendly visiting and almonership, co-operation with the poor-law, charity and thrift, parochial management, hospitals and medical relief, exceptional distress and the "unemployed," the utilization of endowments and their supervision, and their adaptation to new needs and emergencies. (5) We have also throughout to consider charitable help in relation to classes of dependants, who appear early in the history of the question--widows and orphans, the sick and the aged, vagrants and wayfarers. Entry: CHARITY
The theory of valency as a means of showing similarity of properties and relative composition became a dominant feature of chemical theory, the older hypotheses of types, radicals, &c. being more or less discarded. We have seen how its utilization in the "structure theory" permitted great clarification, and attempts were not wanting for the deduction of analogies or a periodicity between elements. Frankland had recognized the analogies existing between the chemical properties of nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic and antimony, noting that they act as tri- or penta-valent. Carbon was joined with silicon, zirconium and titanium, while boron, being trivalent, was relegated to another group. A general classification of elements, however, was not realized by Frankland, nor even by Odling, who had also investigated the question from the valency standpoint. The solution came about by arranging the elements in the order of their atomic weights, tempering the arrangement with the results deduced from the theory of valencies and experimental observations. Many chemists contributed to the establishment of such a periodicity, the greatest advances being made by John Newlands in England, Lothar Meyer in Germany, and D.J. Mendeléeff in St Petersburg. For the development of this classification see ELEMENT. Entry: A
A work of enormous magnitude which has now begun is planting on the national forests. At present, with low stumpage prices and incomplete utilization of forest products, clear cutting with subsequent planting is not practicable. There are, however, many million acres of denuded land within the national forests which require planting. Such planting is still confined chiefly to watersheds which supply cities and towns with water. The first planting was done in 1892, in California. Since then similar work has been done on city watersheds in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and New Mexico. Other plantations are in the Black Hills national forest, where large areas of cut-over and burned-over land are entirely without seed trees, and in the sandhill region of Nebraska. Up to 1908 about 2,000,000 seedlings had been planted, on over 2000 acres--a small beginning, but the work was entirely new and presented many hard problems. Entry: A
_Vienna._--In 1892 the Vienna fire service was reconstituted on modern lines owing to the area of the Vienna municipality having been greatly extended. The professional brigade was somewhat strengthened and entirely re-equipped, and the various existing volunteer brigades of the outlying districts were transformed into suburban volunteer fire brigades, equipped and controlled by the municipality and standing under the general command of the fire brigade headquarters. The principle involved was the utilization of the splendid volunteer force around Vienna for the purpose of strengthening the municipal brigade, a principle of great economic advantage, as the professional brigade would otherwise have had to be materially strengthened, probably trebled. These suburban volunteer fire brigades number no fewer than 34, and have 1200 firemen of all ranks. They are practically independent institutions as far as the election of officers and administration is concerned, but their equipment and uniforms and their fire stations are provided by the municipality, and in certain districts a staff of professional firemen detached from headquarters are attached to their stations as telegraph clerks and drill-instructors. Entry: A
DESTRUCTORS. The name destructors is applied by English municipal engineers to furnaces, or combinations of furnaces, commonly called "garbage furnaces" in the United States, constructed for the purpose of disposing by burning of town refuse, which is a heterogeneous mass of material, including, besides general household and ash-bin refuse, small quantities of garden refuse, trade refuse, market refuse and often street sweepings. The mere disposal of this material is not, however, by any means the only consideration in dealing with it upon the destructor system. For many years past scientific experts, municipal engineers and public authorities have been directing careful attention to the utilization of refuse as fuel for steam production, and such progress in this direction has been made that in many towns its calorific value is now being utilized daily for motive-power purposes. On the other hand, that proper degree of caution which is obtained only by actual experience must be exercised in the application of refuse fuel to steam-raising. When its value as a low-class fuel was first recognized, the idea was disseminated that the refuse of a given population was of itself sufficient to develop the necessary steam-power for supplying that population with the electric light. The economical importance of a combined destructor and electric undertaking of this character naturally presented a somewhat fascinating stimulus to public authorities, and possibly had much to do with the development both of the adoption of the principle of dealing with refuse by fire, and of lighting towns by electricity. However true this phase of the question may be as the statement of a theoretical scientific fact, experience so far does not show it to be a basis upon which engineers may venture to calculate, although, as will be seen later, under certain circumstances of equalized load, which must be considered upon their merits in each case, a well-designed destructor plant can be made to perform valuable commercial service to an electric or other power-using undertaking. Further, when a system, thermal or otherwise, for the storage of energy can be introduced and applied in a trustworthy and economical manner, the degree of advantage to be derived from the utilization of the waste heat from destructors will be materially enhanced. Entry: DESTRUCTORS
In 1900 only 4.6% of the population were engaged in manufactures. They are mainly dependent on the mining industry. There are many large smelters and reduction plants in the state, most of them at Denver, Leadville, Durango and Pueblo; at the latter place there are also blast-furnaces, a steel plant and rolling mills. Use is made of the most improved methods of treating the ore. The cyanide process, introduced about 1890, is now one of the most important factors in the utilization of low-grade and refractory gold and silver ores. The improved dioxide cyanide process was adopted about 1895. The iron and steel product--mainly at Pueblo--is of great importance, though relatively small as compared with that of some other states. Nevertheless, the very high rank in coal and iron interests of the state among the states west of the Mississippi, the presence of excellent manganiferous ores, a central position for distribution, and much the best railway system of any mountain state, indicate that Colorado will almost certainly eventually entirely or at least largely control the trans-Mississippi market in iron and steel. The Federal census of 1900 credited the manufacturing establishments of the state with a capital of $62,825,472 and a product of $102,830,137 (increase 1890-1900, 142.1%); of which output the gold, silver, lead and copper smelted amounted to $44,625,305. Of the other products, iron and steel ($6,108,295), flouring and grist-mill products ($4,528,062), foundry and machine-shop products ($3,986,985), steam railway repair and construction work ($3,141,602), printing and publishing, wholesale slaughtering and meat packing, malt liquors, lumber and timber, and coke were the most important. The production of beet sugar is relatively important, as more of it was produced in Colorado in 1905 than in any other state; in 1906 334,386,000 lb (out of a grand total for the United States of 967,224,000 lb) were manufactured here; the value of the product in 1905 was $7,198,982, being 29.2% of the value of all the beet sugar produced in the United States in that year.[3] Entry: COLORADO