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MONOGRAM 281 MONORAIL moreover, being oblique to the vertical axis and the other at right angles to it. MONOGRAM, a character or cipher composed of one, two, or more letters interv^oven, and used as a sign or ab- breviation of a name or word. The term is now applied to conjoined initials of a personal name on seals, trinkets, letter paper, etc., or employed by printers, painters, engravers, etc., to distinguish their work. MONO LAKE, a "sink," or lake, of Mono CO., Cal., on the E. slope of the Sierra Nevada, about 12 miles S. W. of Aurora; nearly circular in outline; area about 200 square miles. It receives sev- eral lai'ge streams, but has no apparent outlet. The waters are strongly alkaline, and contain no fish; but a species of in- sect deposit their ova on the surface in such immense quantities that they some- times appear like small islands. Insects and eggs are dried and eaten by the Digger Indians. MONOLITH (mon'-), a column or block formed of a single stone; the term is applied to such erections as the obe- lisks of Egypt. One at Baalbek, Syria, measures 70-21-14 ft. MONOMANIA (-ma'ni-a) , madness or derangement of the mind with regard to one subject only. _ MONOMETALLISM, the fact or prin- ciple of having only one metal as a standard for coinage. See Bimettallism. MONONGAHELA (-he'la), a river which rises in West Virginia and flows N. to Pittsburgh, where it unites with the Allegheny to form the Ohio. MONONGAHELA CITY, a city in Washington co., Pa., on the Monongahela river, and on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, and the Pennsylvania railroads; 21 miles S. of Pittsburgh. It is in a coal, natural gas, and petroleum region, and has electric lights, daily and weekly news- papers, and several private banks. It was the first city in the United States to engage in the manufacture of car- borundum. Other industries include foun- dry and machine shop products, paper, flour, and planing mills, etc. Pop. (1910) 7,598; (1920) 8,688. MONOPETALOUS (pet'a-lus) , in bot- any, having the petals united together into one piece by their edges. MONOPOLI (mo-nop'o-le) , a town of southern Italy, on the Adriatic, 43 miles N. W. of Brindisi, with a cathedral, an- cient walls, and a castle built in 1552 by Charles V. Pop. about 25,000. MONOPOLY, an exclusive trading right over; the exclusive right or privi- lege of production, sale, or purchase of any commodity; the sole right or power of selling any commodity; the exclusive right or privilege of trading in any com- munity, or with any country; license from the proper authority to any person or company to make, sell, export, import, buy, or otherwise deal in any commodity or number of commodities. Thus, a patent for an invention gives the patentee the exclusive right of making or dealing in the article patented. Also the assuming or claiming right to or possession of anything to the exclusion of others; as, He claims a monopoly of the conversa- tion. In law, the only monopolies that the laws of the United States and the indi- vidual States look on with favor consist of the PostofRce, which is a government monopoly, and the rights granted to in- dividuals under the Patent and Copyright laws; a patent covering a period of 17 years with no renewal except by a special act of Congress, and a copyright 28 years with a renewal of 14 years if certain conditions are complied with. Monopolies commonly known as trusts are looked on with odium, and various States h«ve enacted laws making a trust an illegal combination of individuals. See Trust. MONORAIL, a transportation system which utilizes but a single rail. Experiments have been along two dis- tinct lines — ^the type in which the car runs _ upon a single rail, but in which auxiliary guide rails of wheels are used, and the type which maintains its equilib- rium by use of the gyroscope. Various models of the former type have been designed, in some of which the track is laid on the ground, in others the track is suspended. These systems have been used largely as novelties at various amusement parks or expositions. Three names which stand out prominently in the development of the gyroscope type are Louis Brenan, an Englishman, Paul Froelich, a German, and a Russian named Schelowsky. While this has never oper- ated to any extent, in 1909 a model of the Brenan car, 14 feet long, with a car- rying capacity of forty passengers, went through a series of tests before the Royal Society. The car was run on a circular track 220 yards in circumference, and was able to maintain its equilibrium Avhile in motion in spite of the efforts of its forty passengers to overturn it. This car weighed twenty-two tons, and power for both locomotive and for the gyro- scopes was supplied by a gasoline motor. The gyroscope apparatus weighed less