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POUNCE 332 POWER artificial incubators are in general use in the United States and other countries. POUNCE, a fine powder, such as pounded gnms and arach and cuttlefish bonus, used to dry up the ink on a fresh written manuscript; now superseded in the United States by blotting paper, ex- cept in the case of parchment. The word is also applied to charcoal dust in- closed in some open stuff, as muslin, etc., to be passed over holes pricked in the work, to mark the lines or designs of a paper underneath. It is used to some extent by embroiderers to transfer pat- terns upon their stuff; also by fresco painters, sometimes by engravers, and in varnishing. POUND, a unit of weight. Pounds are of different kinds, as pounds Troy (containing 12 ounces), pounds avoirdu- pois (containing 16 ounces), etc. A cubic inch of distilled water, at 62° F., the barometer being 30 inches, weighs 252.458 Troy grains, and the Troy pound is equal to 5,760 of these grains. The avoirdupois pound is equal to 7,000 Troy grains, so that the Troy pound is to the avoirdupois as 144 to 175. Pound is also the principal English coin of account, and corresponding to the "coin of cir- culation" called a sovereign, of the value of about $4.80. It is divided into 20 shillings or 240 pence, and weighs 123.27447 Troy grains (7.98805 grammes), as determined by the British Mint regulation, in virtue of which a mass of gold weighing 40 pounds Troy is coined into 1,869 sovereigns. The name is derived from the fact that in the time of the Conqueror, one Tower pound of silver was coined into 240 silver pence ; whence the Tower pennyweight was really and truly the weight of % penny. The word is also applied to an inclosure, erected by authority, in which cattle or other beasts found straying are im- pounded or confined. POUNDAL, a name sometimes used for the absolute foot pound second unit of force, which will produce in one pound a velocity of one foot per second, after acting for one second. POUSHKIN, or PUSHKIN (posh'- kin), ALEXANDER, a Russian poet; born in Moscow, Russia, June 6, 1799. In 1817 he received a government ap- pointment, but was banished for writing an "Ode to Liberty"; was recalled and restored to office in 1825. A portion of his works have been translated into Ger- man, French and English. He wrote "Ruslan and Lindmilla"; "Fountain of Bakhtchisarai"; "Robber Brothers"; "Count Nuhm"; "Poltava"; "The House in Kolomna"; "Boris Godunoff"; "Eu- gene Onyegin." Among his novels are: "The Captain's Daughter"; and "The Queen of Spades." He died in St. Petersburg, Feb. 10, 1837. POUTER, a variety of fancy pigeon, the chief character of which is its very projecting breast. POWAN (Coregonus clupeoides), a fish inhabiting Loch Lomond, in Scotland, and also known as the fresh-water her>- ring. POWDER. See Gunpowder. POWELL, JOHN WESLEY, an Amer- ican geologist; born in Mount Morris, N. Y., March 24, 1834. He was educated at Oberlin College; was a lieutenant- colonel of artillery at the close of the Civil War; professor of geology in the Illinois Wesleyan University, 1865; ex- plored the canon of the Colorado river in 1867 and in 1870-1874. He was director of the United States Geological Survey in 1879-1896, and of the United States Bureau of Ethnology after 1879. The special volumes of reports written by Major Powell are: "Exploration of the Colorado River in 1869-1872" (1875); "Geology of the Uinta Moun- tains" (1876) ; "The Arid Regions of the United States" (1879); "Introduction to Study of Indian Languages" (1880); "Canons of the Colorado," etc. He died in 1902. POWELL, MAUD, an American violin- ist; born in 1868 in Peru, 111., she studied music first in Chicago. In 1880 she en- tered the Leipzig Conservatory, and later studied at Paris and Berlin. At a con- cert of the Berlin Philharmonic Society in 1885, she made her debut as a violin- ist, and from that time she was one of the acknowledged masters of the violin. She returned to the United States after having gained recognition abroad and was given triumphant receptions every- where. She excelled all violinists in the number of new compositions written for the violin, and in her ability to success- fully introduce novelties into her pro- grams. She died in 1920. POWER, the product arising from the multiplication of a quantity or number into itself. The first power of any quan- tity or number is the quantity or number itself; the second power is the square or product of the quantity or number multi- plied by itself; the third power is the cube or product of the square of the quantity or number multiplied by the original quantity or number; this again multiplied by the original quantity or number is the fourth power. Thus the powers of a are a (or a^,) , a^, a^, a*, that is a X a (a-),a^X a (a^) , etc. The