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BICYCLE—] SIELEFELD miles S.S.W. from Ulm. A monument to the poet Wie- railway in Norway, from Christiania to Eidsvold; he was land, born near here in 1733 (died 1813), was put up in engineer-in-chief of the Royal Danish railway; and he was 1881. Biberach has various textile industries, and manu- largely concerned with railways in India, where he strongly factures of toys and zinc wares; bell-casting; and its fruit and successfully opposed break of gauge on through-routes. markets are famous. Population (1900), 8390. But though he sometimes spoke of himself as a mere Bicycle. See Cycling. “ railway engineer,” he was in reality very much more; _ Biddeford, a city of York county, Maine, U.S.A., there was indeed no branch of engineering in which he did situated in the south-western part of the state, in 43° 30' not take an interest, as was shown by the assiduity with K lat. and 70° 27' W. long., on the west bank of the Saco which for half a century he attended the weekly meetings river, which is here not navigable. It is supplied with of the Institution of Civil Engineers and joined in the water from the Saco, and a fall in the river at this point discussions. He was one of the first to recognize the value affords excellent water-power, which has been utilized to of the electric telegraph. That invention was in its infancy a great extent, principally in the manufacture of cotton when, in 1837, jointly with R. Stephenson he recommended goods, in which Biddeford holds high rank. It is on its introduction on a portion of the London and Birmingham two branches of the Boston and Maine railway. Popula- and on the Blackwall lines, while three years later he advised that it should be adopted to facilitate the working tion (1880), 12,651; (1890), 14,443; (1900), 16,145. of the single line between Norwich and Yarmouth. It was Bidder, George Parker (1806-1878), English he, too, who persuaded Cooke, Stephenson, and others to engineer, was born at Moreton Hampstead, in Devonshire, join him in founding the Electric Telegraph Company, on 14th June 1806. From a very early age he manifested which enabled the public generally to enjoy the benefits of an extraordinary natural aptitude for calculation, which telegraphic communication. In hydraulic engineering, he induced his father, who was a stone-mason, to exhibit him was the designer of the Victoria Docks (London), being as a “ calculating boy.” In this way his talent was turned responsible not only for their construction, but also for to profitable account, but his general education was in what was regarded by some people at the time as the foolish danger of being completely neglected. Interest, however, idea of utilizing the Essex marshes for dock accommodation was taken in him by some of those who happened to witness on a large scale. It may be mentioned, too, that he was his performances, among them being Sir John Herschel, one of the engineers consulted in regard to the London and it was arranged that he should be sent to a school in main drainage scheme, and the Government of the day Camberwell. There he did not remain long, being removed frequently sought his advice on points both of naval and by his father, who wished to exhibit him again, but he was military engineering. He died at Dartmouth, 28th Sepsaved from this misfortune and enabled to attend classes tember 1878, retaining his remarkable powers of calculaat Edinburgh University, largely through the kindness of tion down to the very end of his life. (h. m. r.) Sir Henry Jardine, to whom he subsequently showed his Bideford, a municipal borough and market town gratitude by founding a “Jardine Bursary” at the university. On leaving college in 1824 he received a post in the Barnstaple parliamentary division of Devonshire, in the Ordnance Survey, but gradually drifted into England, on the Torridge, 9 miles S.W. of Barnstaple by engineering work. In 1834 Kobert Stephenson, whose rail. The customs port of Bideford was in 1882 included acquaintance he had made at Edinburgh, offered him an in the port of Barnstaple. Recent structures are an appointment on the London and Birmingham railway, and Anglican, a Wesleyan Methodist, and a Roman Catholic in the succeeding year or two he began to assist George church, a public hall, the post office, market buildings, an Stephenson in his parliamentary work, which at that time infirmary, and new buildings for the municipal, science, included schemes for railways between London and art, and technical schools. The water-works have been Brighton and between Manchester and Rugby vid the extended. Shipbuilding has ceased, but there are now Potteries. In this way he was introduced to engineering extensive cuff and collar manufactures, a foundry, and a and parliamentary practice at a period of great activity pottery. Area, 3398 acres; population (1881), 6512: which saw the establishment of the main features and (1901), 8732. Biebrich, a town of Prussia, province of Hesseprinciples that have since governed English railway construction. He is said to have been the best witness that Nassau, on the right bank of the Rhine, 3 miles S. from ever entered a committee-room. He was quick to discover Wiesbaden, of which it serves as the river port. It has a and take advantage of the weak points in an opponent’s non-commissioned officers’ school, and a castle of the grandcase, and his powers of mental calculation frequently stood duke of Luxemburg (1704-6). There are ironworks, and him in good stead, as when, for example, an apparently also cement, artificial wool, and other manufactures. casual glance at the plans of a railway enabled him to point Population, inclusive of the adjacent Mosbach, (1885), out errors in the engineering data that were sufficient to 9669; (1895), 12,292; (1900), 15,048. secure rejection of the scheme to which he was opposed. Biel or Bienne, a town in the Swiss Canton of Bern, In consequence there was scarcely an engineering proposal near the north end of the lake of the same name, and 21 of any importance brought before Parliament in connexion miles by rail from Bern. The parish church of St with which his services were not secured by one party or the Benedict was founded in 1451, and contains some good other. On the constructive side of his profession he was painted glass, dated 1457. In the town is the important also busily occupied. In 1837 he was engaged with R. Schwab Museum, containing many prehistoric and Roman Stephenson in building the Blackwall railway, and it was antiquities. At Biel is the technical school for West he who designed the peculiar method of disconnecting a Switzerland, as well as schools for watchmaking and carriage at each station while the rest of the train went railway science, the town being an important railway on without stopping, which was employed in the early days centre. There is a funicular railway from the town of that line when it was worked by means of a cable. north-west up to the hill of Magglingen or Macolin. Another series of railways with which he had much to Population (1880), 11,613; (1888), 15,289; (1900), 21,958. do were those in the eastern counties which afterwards In 1888 it numbered 12,782 Protestants and 2176 became the Great Eastern system. Nor was his practice Romanists, while 10,505 were German-speaking, and 4597 confined to England. He advised on the construction of French-speaking. the Belgian railways; with R. Stephenson he made the first Bielefeld, a town of Prussia, province of Westphalia,
