Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/73

STAINER, SLR JOHN 47 STAMFORD to his 16th year; appointed organist first at St. Michael's College, Tenbury, then in 1859 to Magdalen College, Oxford, and ultimately in 1872 to St. Paul's. While at Oxford he graduated both in arts and music. He was inspector of music to the Educational Department and the author of the oratorio "Gideon" (1865); the cantatas, "The Daughter of Jairus," "Mary Magdalene," "The Cruci- fixion" ; a treatise on the "Theory of Har- mony" (1871); "Music of the Bible" (1879) ; "Organ Playing"; etc.; joint au- thor with W. A. Barrett of "Dictionary of Musical Terms" (1876), and editor of "Music Primers." He died in 1901. STAIRS, a succession of steps raised one above the other, affording means of communication between two points at different heights in a building, etc. Originally the stairs were placed from story to story in straight flights, like ladders, and were often external, being sheltered by a projection from the roof, but to save space the spiral form was adopted, the stair being contained in a cylindrical building projecting from the outside of the edifice. In this construc- tion a central axis or newel reaching from the ground to the roof serves to support the inner ends of the steps, and the outer ends are let into the walls. The spiral form is still used in certain cir- cumstances, but the finest stairs are now constructed in straight sections separated from each other by a wide step or plat- form called a landing. STAKE NET, a form of net for catch- ing salmon, consisting of a sheet of net- work stretched on stakes fixed into the ground, generally in rivers or where the sea ebbs and flows, with contrivances for entangling and catching the fish. STALACTITE and STALAGMITE, formations of carbonate of lime. Stalac- titic formations occur chiefly in long and more or less fantastic-shaped masses sus- pended from the roofs of caverns in lime- stone rocks. The flatter deposits, called stalagmites, are formed on the floor of the cavern by the water there depositing that portion of the carbonate of lime which is not separated during the forma- tion of the stalactite. The most remark- able instances of their occurrence in Great Britain are in the cavern at Cas- tleton in Derbyshire, and Macallaster Cave in the Isle of Skye. The grotto of Antiparos in the Archipelago, the Wood- man's Cave in the Harz in Germany, that of Auxelle in France, and Luray (Vir- ginia) and Mammoth (Kentucky) Caves in the United States are striking in- stances of their formation in other coun- tries. STALYBRIDGE, a cotton town of Cheshire and Lancashire, England, 7% miles E. by N. of Manchester, Dating only from 1776, it has huge fac- tories for the spinning of cotton yarns and calico-weaving, iron foundries, and machine shops, a town hall, market build- ings, a mechanics' institute, an Odd Fel- lows' hall, and, between it and Ashton- under-Lyne to the W., the Stamford Park. Pop. (1918) 27,500. STAMEN, in botany, the male organ of a flower, called by the old botanists an apex and a chive. Morphologically it is a transformed leaf. It consists of a fila- ment, an anther, and pollen. The last two are essential, the first is not. When anther and pollen are wanting, the sta- men is called a sterile or abortive. If the stamens are equal in number to the petals then normally they alternate with them. They always originate from the space be- tween the base of the petals and the base of the ovary, but they may cohere with other organs, whence the terms epigy- nous, hypogynous, and perigynous. Cohe- sion among themselves may make them monadelphous, diadelphous, or polyadel- phous. They may be on different flowers, or even different plants, from the pistils, whence the terms monoecious or dioecious. Other terms used of stamens are ex- serted, included, declinate, didynamous, and tetradynamous. The stamens taken collectively form the andrceceum or male apparatus of the flower. STAMFORD, a city in Fairfield co.. Conn. ; on Long Island Sound, and on the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad; 34 miles E. of New York. Here are the Ferguson Library, high school, hospital, town hall, parks, waterworks, street railroad and electric light plants, several National and savings banks, and a number of daily and weekly newspa- pers. It is the residence place of many New York business men. The industries include woolen mills, lumber mills, and manufactories of carriages, chemicals, wire, pianos, paints, chocolate, hardware, stoves, straw hats, machinery, shoes, locks, dye-stuffs, pottery, etc. Pop. (1910) 25,138; (1920) 35,096. STAMFORD, a municipal borough of England, chiefly in Lincolnshire, but partly also in Northamptonshire; on the Welland, 12 miles W. N. W. of Peter- borough. Hengist is said to have here defeated the Picts and Scots in 449, and Stamford thereafter is notable as one of the Danish "five burghs," for the perse- cution of its Jews (1190), for its colony of Flemish Protestants (1572), as the birthplace of the earliest provincial news- paper, the Stamford "Mercury" (1695), and for its famous bull-running on Nov.