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BLANCO-BLAND

Blanco, Antonio Guzman, än-to'nyō gooz'män blän’kō, Venezuelan soldier: b. Caracas, 29 Feb. 1828; d. 29 July 1899. He became prominent in the Federalist revolts, 1859-63, and, when his party triumphed, was made first vicepresident in 1863 under Falcon, who was deposed in the revolution of 1868. Blanco led a successful counter-revolution in 1870, became president, and retained the office till 1882. In 1893 he was appointed minister to France, where he resided till his death.

Blanco, Jose Felix, hō'sa fa-lēks, Venezuelan historian: b. Mariana de Caracas, 24 Sept. 1782; d. Caracas, 8 Jan. 1872. At different times he acted in the capacity of priest, soldier, and statesman. He was one of the leaders in the revolution at Caracas, 19 April 1810, and was the first editor of the great historical work, 'Documentos para la historia de la vida publica del Libertador,' etc.

Blanco, Pedro, pā'dro, Bolivian statesman: b. Cochabamba, 19 Oct. 1795; d. Sucre, January 1829. He joined the Spanish army in 1812, but soon deserted to the patriots, and served with them till the end of the revolution. In 1828 he became a general, and in the same year, when Sucre fell, was made president of Bolivia, but was superseded in the revolution of 31 Dec. 1828. He was shot in Sucre.

Blanco, Ramon y Arenas, rä'mon ē a-rānas, MARQUIS DE PENA PLATA, Spanish soldier: b. San Sebastian, Spain, 1833. He began his military career in 1855 as lieutenant; was promoted captain in 1858, and won the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the war with San Domingo. When the Spaniards were driven from the island Blanco went to the Philippines as governor of Mindanao. When he returned to Spain he was assigned to the Army of the North, and in the war with the Carlists made a brilliant record. He successfully stormed Pena Plata, for which achievement he was created a marquis with that title. He succeeded Gen. Weyler as captain-general in Cuba. His career has been marked by deeds of blood and violence. When in command at the Philippines he ordered 169 prisoners to be thrown into a dungeon, where they were left for two days. When the guard opened the door they were all dead from asphyxiation. In the second Cuban insurrection 1,500 defenseless prisoners were slaughtered by his orders. At Cavité the Spanish captured several native leaders, and, by Blanco's instructions, after being tortured, the unhappy wretches were disemboweled and their bleeding bodies hung on the gates of the city. The Spanish government permitted him to resign his post in Cuba before the day set for the American occupation.

Blanco, Encalada, Manuel, mä-noo-el blän-ko-en-kä-lä'da, Spanish-American soldier: b. Buenos Ayres, 5 Sept. 1790; d. 5 Sept. 1875. He distinguished himself in the Chilean war of independence. He was chosen president of Chile in July 1826, but soon resigned and was made general of the army. He unsuccessfully invaded Peru in 1837, and was not allowed to retire till he had signed a treaty of peace. Chile annulled this treaty, and he was court-martialed, but freed. In 1847 he was intendant of Valparaiso, and in 1853-8 minister to France.

Blanco, blän'ko, Cape (literally, "white cape”), a name given to a great number of capes by the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians. It corresponds to the French cap blanc. The name is as common and as unphilosophical as that of White Hill, Black River, etc. The cape best known by this name is a headland on the west coast of Africa, in lat. 20° 47′ N., and lon. 16° 58′ W., the extremity of a rocky ridge which projects from the Sahara in a westerly direction, and then bending southward forms a commodious harbor called the Great Bay. Cape Blanco was first discovered by the Portuguese in 1441.

Bland, Edith Nesbit (E. NESBIT), English writer: b. London, 15 Aug. 1858. She was married to Hubert Bland, 1879. She has written several volumes of verse, as well as a series of popular children's books and several novels. Her published works include: 'Lays and Legends' (1886-92); Leaves of Life' (1888); A Pomander of Verse) (1895); Grim Tales' (1893); Something Wrong (1893); The Marden Mystery) (1896); Songs of Love and Empire' (1897); The Secret of Kyriels' (1898); The Story of the Treasure Seekers' (1899); Pussy and Doggy Tales' (1899); The Book of Dragons (1900); The Would-be Goods'; 'Nine Unlikely Tales'; 'Thirteen Ways Home (1901); Five Children and It' (1902); The Red House' (1902); with Hubert Bland, (The Butler in Bohemia (1894). The Prophet's Mantle' (1889); with Barron,

Bland, Richard Parks, American legislator: b. near Hartford, Ky., 19 Aug. 1835; d. Lebanon, Mo., 15 June 1899. He received an academical education, and, between 1855 and 1865, practised law in Missouri, California, and Nevada, and was engaged for some time in mining. In 1865 he settled in Rolla, Mo., and practised there till he removed to Lebanon in the same State. He was a member of Congress in 1873-95 and from 1897 till his death. In 1896 he was a conspicuous candidate for the presidential nomination in the Democratic National Convention, but on the fourth ballot his name was withdrawn, and the vote of his State was cast for William J. Bryan. Mr. Bland was best known as the leader in the Lower House of Congress of the Free-Silver Bill. At the time of his death he was a member movement, and the author of the Bland Silver of the committees on coinage, weights and measures, and expenditures on public buildings.

Bland, Theodoric, American military officer: b. Prince George County, Va., 1742; d. I June 1790; he studied medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and for a time practised in England. He returned home in 1764, wrote against Gov. Dunmore under the name of Casthe outbreak of the Revolutionary War, when he sius; and was active in his profession until sided with the Colonists, and became captain of the first troop of Virginia cavalry. In 1777 he joined the main army as a lieutenant-colonel, and later became a colonel. He distinguished himself at the battle of Brandywine, and was placed in command of the prisoners taken at Saratoga, who were marched to Charlotteville, Va. In 1780-3 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and was a representative from Virginia to the First Federal Congress in 1789.

BLANK VERSE - BLANQUI

Blank Verse, verse without rhyme. This was the invariable form of the poetry of the ancients, but it is now peculiar to the Italian, English, and German languages. The poetry of the Anglo-Saxons and the earliest English poetry was not rhymed, yet it is not generally called blank verse, as their versification had a peculiarity of its own called alliteration. When rhyme, however, was once introduced into English verse, it was for a long time regarded as the exclusive form of versification, and the Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded by order of Henry VIII. in 1547, is said to have been the first to use blank verse in England, namely, in his translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil's 'Eneid.' The most common form of blank verse in English poetry is the decasyllabic, such as that of Milton's Paradise Lost' and the dramas of Shakespeare. From Shakespeare's time it has been the kind of verse almost universally used by dramatic writers. Dryden, indeed, after the Restoration, introduced ryhme into his tragedies, in imitation of the French rhymed plays; but after keeping the stage for a number of years, they became intolerable to the English ear, and the introduction of rhyme into the drama has never since been attempted in England. Shakespeare not uncommonly ends a scene with a few lines of rhyme, although the rest of the scene is in blank verse, and in the subordinate play interwoven with the action of Hamlet blank verse is used throughout. The first use of the term blank verse is said to be in Hamlet, ii. 2: "The lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't."

Blanket (that is "fine white" goods), a heavy bed or horse cover, of a fabric with a thick soft nap on both sides. Originally made entirely of wool, and still so in the finest grades, the bulk of medium and cheap blankets are now made with a cotton chain or warp and a wool filling, as cheaper, stiffer, and little less durable in good condition. In the finest grades of American blankets, the filling is Australian wool, the longest and softest fibre known; the warp of American wool. The cheapest ones have for filling the shorter combings of wool, shoddy, etc.; ordinary horse blankets the same or still coarser half-cleaned wool, and largely animal hair. Of late also an immense quantity of allcotton blankets are made, the nap being cotton wool; these have competed less with wool blankets than with comfortables, whose sale for

a time they cut in half. They are used for economy, where heavy blankets are not needed, and to replace cotton sheeting in cold rooms, for children, etc. The most famous blankets in the world are those of the Mysore in India, so delicate that one 18 feet long can be rolled inside a hollow bamboo. In the United States they are a specialty in southwestern Indian domestic manufacture, especially among the quite civilized Navajos (q.v.), whose rough

hand looms and stick shuttles turn out blankets weighing 20 pounds or more, and selling for $1 and $2 a pound, much prized by Alaskan and Klondike gold-seekers. But of civilized manufacture, the finest are from California, Nevada, and Oregon, and from Minneapolis; some of these retail for $25 per pair with a weight of less than 10 pounds. Maine, Ohio, and West Virginia also produce very fine goods. Below the above fancy price, of which

much is loading for short runs, prices range for all-wool blankets from $20, the highest usually kept in stock, down to $7.50, and for cotton-warp down to $2, all-cotton, $1. Few blankets have been imported into this country since 1860. The early manufacture here was "a series of costly and futile experiments," except a few coarse ones for army or navy use, and for slaves on plantations, for which in 1831 a mill was started in Pendleton, S. C.; another to make "Indian" blankets was opened in Buffalo the same year. But the first effective attempt was under the sharp tariff of 1842, soon swept away by the moderate one of 1847. The tariff bill of 1857, however, which formed one of the southern counts for secession, taxed imported blankets so heavily that by 1861 importations had practically ceased. In 1860 the United States' total manufacture was 616,400 pairs, mainly in New England, Pennsylvania, and California. In 1880 this had increased to 4,400,000, gross value $6,840,000, and the prices had dropped so much that the cheaper grades had gone out of use; the foreign commissioners at the Centennial of 1876 reported that for weight, thickness, softness, and perfection of surface, nothing in Europe compared with the American, and that the European cheaper grades could not be sold even to the Indians. But competition had so glutted the market that in 1878 a great auction was held in New York to clear them off, at heavy sacrifice. In 1890 the manner of report was changed to square yards,-20,793,644 of "house blankets," valued at $7,153,900, and 5,507,074 of horse blankets, $1,721,516. For some reason, probably the larger use of comfortables, the use of the all or part-wool article fell off heavily in the last decade-to 18,155,505 square yards, valued at 7.315.304, valued at $1,740,988 or about the same $5.200,959; though horse blankets increased to as before. The chief seats of manufacture were

Pennsylvania for all-wool, and Massachusetts for cotton-warp, though Indiana, Minnesota, California, and several other States furnished large quantities.

till recently was so altogether, by pulling up the The nap is formed in the finest grades, and fibre with teazles; these have now been replaced in the cheaper makes with steel teeth or brushes inflexible and liable to tear the goods to be on revolving cylinders, which, however, are too The use of Jacquard patterns with two or three colors, in trusted with expensive ones. place of printed ones, is another change which has popularized blankets by increasing their beauty.

Blanqui, blän-ke, Jérôme Adolphe, French economist: b. Nice, 1798; d. 1854. While studying medicine at Paris he made acquaintance with Jean Baptiste Say, and was induced to devote himself to the study of economics. He succeeded Say in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers as professor of industrial economy. Blanqui, who favored a free-trade policy, published, among other works, 'Précis Elémentaire d'Economie Politique' and 'Histoire de l'Économie Politique en Europe.'

Blanqui, Louis Auguste, French revolutionist: b. Nice, 7 Feb. 1805; d. 1 Jan. 1881. He made himself conspicuous chiefly by his passionate advocacy of the most extreme political opin

BLANQUILLO - BLASPHEMY

ions, for which he suffered with the pride of a martyr. He was one of the foremost fighters in all the French revolutions of the 19th century. In 1830 he was decorated for his valor at the barricades. In 1848 he figured as the chief organizer of the popular movement under the provisional government. He took the lead also in the revolutionary attentat of 15 May, the aim of which was to overthrow the Constituent Assembly. At the head of an excited mob he demanded of the French representatives the resuscitation of the Polish nationality, while one of his friends pronounced the dissolution of the Assembly. For his share in these disturbances he was rewarded with a 10 years' imprisonment in Belleisle. In 1861 Blanqui was sentenced to another imprisonment of four years. After the downfall of the second empire in 1870, Blanqui resumed his revolutionary activity, and, in 1871, took a prominent part in forming the Commune. Being too unwell to endure transportation to New Caledonia, he was condemned to imprisonment for life, from which he was released in 1879. He spent nearly half of his life in prison. Blanquillo, blan-kel'yō, a fish of the Gulf of Mexico (Caulolatilus chrysops), related to the tile-fish. The name is also given in southern California to the yellow-tail (q.v.).

Blarney, Ireland, a village four miles northwest of the city of Cork, near the stream of same name, here crossed by a handsome bridge of three arches. It is a small but wellbuilt place; and besides the parish church, contains a national school. Flax and cotton were formerly manufactured to some extent, but both of these branches have now decayed. Spinning and dyeing woolen yarn is, however, still carried on; and there is an extensive tweed manufactory employing a number of people. Blarney Castle stands on an isolated limestone rock at the junction of the Blarney and Comane. Erected in the 15th century, it was the scene of several interesting historical events; but derives its chief notoriety from a stone in its northeast angle, several feet from the top, bearing a Latin inscription, recording the date of the erection, and called the "Blarney Stone." To this stone tradition ascribes the faculty of communicating to all who kiss it that species of most persuasive fluency of speech commonly called "blarney." The "groves of Blarney are extensive and interesting, and beneath the castle

there are also some curious natural caves.

Bläser ble'zer, Gustav, German sculptor: b. Düsseldorf, 9 May 1813; d. Cannstatt, 20 April 1874. He was associated 11 years with Rauch and for that time shared in all his work. In 1845 he went to Rome, but returned to Berlin when appointed to design one of the groups for the "Schlossbrücke.' His group, Minerva Leading a Young Warrior to Battle,' is thought to be the best of the series. Among his other works are a statue of St. Matthew in the church at Helsingfors; the Prophet Daniel'; Barussia in the new museum at Berlin; the statues of Jeremiah, Daniel, and Charlemagne for the church at Potsdam; the equestrian statue of Frederick William III. at Cologne; Hospitality); and many busts, including one of Lincoln and one of Washington.

Blashfield, Edwin Howland, American artist: b. New York, 15 Dec. 1848; studied in Paris under Léon Bonnat; and began exhibiting

in the Paris Salon in 1874. He returned to the United States in 1881, and has since distinguished himself by the execution of large decorative works. Among his noteworthy productions in this line are one of the domes of the Manufacturers' building in the World's Columbian Exposition, the great central dome of the Library of Congress, and the new apartment of the appellate court in New York; besides ceiling and panel work in the residences of C. P. Huntington, W. K. Vanderbilt, and George W. C. Drexel, and in the Astoria ballroom and several clubhouses in New York.

baste, in Armenia, is said to have suffered Bla'sius, St., or St. Blaise, Bishop of Semartyrdom about 316, by order of Agricola, holds a place both in the Latin and Greek calengovernor of Cappadocia and Little Armenia. He dars, his day being 3 February. He is the patron saint of wool-combers, his flesh having been torn by iron combs. He is especially invoked in diseases of children and animals, and ailments connected with the throat are more particularly in his province.

Blasphemy, is somewhat variously defined. According to the most general definition, it means the denying of the existence of God;

assigning to him false attributes, or denying his mysteries of religion; and formerly, in Roman true attributes; speaking irreverently of the Catholic countries, it also included the speaking contemptuously or disrespectfully of the Holy Virgin or the saints. Public blasphemy has been pardonable sin, and it was formerly punished considered by the Catholic Church as an unwith death by the municipal laws. The 77th novel of Justinian assigned this punishment to ishment upon such as, knowing of an act of it; and the capitularies inflicted the same punblasphemy, did not denounce the offender. The fine, corporal punishment, the gallows, and former laws of France punished this crime with death, according to the degree and aggravation of the offense. The records of the parliaments supply numerous instances of condemnation for this crime, and many of punishment by death; others of branding and mutilation. A man was have his tongue afterward cut out, and the senfor this offense condemned to be hanged, and to tence was executed at Orleans as late as 1748. Encyclopédie Moderne,' that we should form an But it is remarked by a writer in the French erroneous opinion from the present state of society of the effect of this offense, and the disorders it might introduce in former times; for religion was once so intimately blended with the government and laws, that to treat the received articles of faith or religious ceremonies with disrespect was in effect to attack civil institutions.

By the common law of England, as stated by Blackstone, blasphemy consists in denying the being and providence of God, contumelious reproaches of Jesus Christ, profane scoffing at Holy Scripture, etc., and is punishable by fine and imprisonment, or corporal punishment; the offense is also statutory, the statute 9 and 10 William III. cap. xxxii., declaring that if any one shall deny any of the persons of the Trinity to be God, or assert that there are more gods than one, or deny the truth of Christianity or of the Scriptures, he shall be incapable of holding any office; and for a second offense be

BLAST FURNACE

disabled from suing any action, or being an executer, and suffer three years' imprisonment. By the law of Scotland, as it stood under acts of 1661 and 1695, the punishment of blasphemy was death. Blasphemy consisted of railing at or cursing God, or of obstinately persisting in denying the existence of the Supreme Being, or any of the persons of the Trinity.

The early legislation of the American colonies followed that of the mother country, and in some of them the crime of blasphemy was punished with death; but the penalty was mitigated before the establishment of independence, and imprisonment, whipping, setting on the pillory, having the tongue bored with a red-hot iron, etc., were substituted. Several penalties against blasphemy are to be found in the laws of some of the New England States, according to which it is provided that, if any person shall blaspheme, by denying, cursing, or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government, or final judging of the world, or by cursing or reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or contumeliously reproaching the Word of God, consisting of the commonly received books of the Old and New Testament, he is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. But the most direct and public violations of these laws are passed over without punishment or prosecution, due probably to the provisions of the National and State Constitutions, guaranteeing religious liberty, and the freedom of speech. In many States, the offense of blasphemy, not being a subject of special statutory provision, is only punishable either as an offense at common law, or a violation of the statute laws against profane swearing.

Blast Furnace, a modern mechanical appliance, or structure built of refractory material in which metallic ores are smelted in contact with fuel and flux, the combustion of the fuel being accelerated by air under pressure. The materials are fed in at the top of the furnace, and after the ores are reduced, the metal, or in some cases the matte, and the resulting slag are tapped in a molten state at or near the bottom; as a rule, the slags, being of less specific gravity than the metal, float upon it. The sizes of blast furnaces vary from a few feet to over 100 feet in height, a horizontal section through the structure showing either circular or rectangular interiors, the circular form being adopted for the larger sizes, while those of smaller height are often made rectangular to permit of introducing a number of tuyeres with air nozzles into a narrow hearth.

A vertical section of a modern American blast furnace shows at the lower part, the hearth or crucible of the shape desired, into which the air is admitted under pressure through tuyeres. On this hearth is superposed an inverted frustum of a cone forming the boshes, and above these the shaft of the furnace ascends in the form of a right cone. The shafts are inclosed by shells of sheet steel or by crinolines formed of bands and beams, and carried on columns. The boshes are usually secured by bands and the crucibles by sheet and metal jackets. The materials are charged into the shaft so that layers of fuel alternate with layers of ore and flux, the taper of the shaft being sufficient to permit of expansion as the materials are heated, and facilitate their delivery to the hopper formed by the boshes,

where reduction of the ores takes place. The reduced ore, meeting the burning fuel near the tuyeres, is melted, and the liquid slag and metal drop into the hearth or crucible (the cinder or slag floating on the liquid metal), from which they are tapped out from time to time. By heating the blast before it enters the tuyeres combustion is accelerated, and the furnaces produce increased quantities of metal with reduced fuel consumption per unit of product.

The large blast furnaces smelt ores of iron or manganese, or of iron and manganese, and are from 40 to 106 feet in height, a cross section at the top of the boshes showing a circle from 10 feet to 23 feet in diameter. The blast is heated to 1,000, and sometimes to 1,200°, or 1,400° F., and is forced into the crucibles or hearth through from 6 to 20 tuyeres, at pressures from 5 to 15, and, at times, exceeding 20 pounds per square inch. The blast furnaces smelting silver or copper ores seldom exceed 30 feet in height, the horizontal section being rectangular, and the blast pressure but a fraction of a pound. A modern blast furnace will produce from 300 to 600 tons of pig iron daily, requiring from 1,000 to 2,000 tons of ore, fuel and flux to be fed into it. The cost for construction and equipment of one of these modern furnaces, with its necessary railroad tracks, storage room and bins for receiving the raw material, the mechanism for elevating it to the top of the stack, with sufficient blowing engines, boilers, hot blast stoves, etc., ranges from $400,000 to $800,000.

As a rule, blast furnaces smelting other ores than those of iron have the top of the furnace stack open, while, in those producing iron, the top is usually sealed by a bell closing against a hopper, to distribute the stock in the wide throat of the furnace and to control the gases which are the result of the smelting operation, so as to employ the calorific value of these gases for heating the blast or for generating steam in boilers to operate machinery. The practicability of using these gases in engines, where the gas, in exploding, gives impetus to a piston, has also been demonstrated. The blast is heated in hot blast stoves, generally cylinders from 14 to 25 feet in diameter and from 50 to 115 feet high, filled with checker work of fire brick. These stoves are placed in series; the gas being admitted to and burned in a stove raises the temperature of the masonry, after which the gas is shut off and the blast forced through the highly heated checkers. By alternating a series of stoves on gas or blast, at intervals of one or two hours, a nearly uniform temperature is maintained.

The blast, after passing through the hot blast stoves, is conveyed in iron or steel conduits, lined with fire brick, to tuyeres, set in the walls of the crucible. These tuyeres are formed of an inner and outer shell with closed ends, water circulating between the two shells. The tuyeres are mostly made of bronze or copper and are set in larger tuyere blocks (also water cooled) of iron or bronze. Nozzles connect the lined air conduits to the tuyeres. The cooling water required by a modern blast furnace amounts to millions of gallons daily. A large furnace requires a boiler equipment of from 3,000 to 3,500 horse power for its blowing, pumping and elevating machinery, electric plant, etc.

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Copyright by the Scientific American. MODERN BLAST FURNACE, SHOWING AUTOMATIC HOISTING AND CHARGING EQUIPMENT.

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