fine collection is kept in the Museum Isurianum in the grounds of the manor-house.
ALDEBURGH [Aldborough], a market town and municipal borough in the Eye parliamentary division of Suffolk, England, the terminus of a branch of the Great Eastern railway, 9912 m. N.E. by E. from London. Area, 1629 acres. Pop. (1901) 2405. The surrounding district is open and somewhat bleak, but a fine stretch of sand fringes the shallow inlet of the North Sea known as Aldeburgh Bay. To the W. the river Alde broadens as if into as estuary, but its outflow is here prevented by the sand, and it runs south for nearly 10 m. parallel with the shore. The sandbanks have arrested the encroachments of the sea, which submerged a former site of Aldeburgh. The church of St Peter and St Paul is Perpendicular, largely restored, and contains a monument to the poet George Crabbe, born here on the 24th of December 1754. A small picturesque Moot Hall of the 16th century is used for corporation meetings. Slaughden Quay on the Alde admits small vessels, and fishing is carried on. Aldeburgh is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors.
Aldeburgh (Aldburc) takes its name from the river Alde on which it stands. It is not mentioned in pre-Conquest records, but at the Domesday survey most of the land was held by Robert Malet, a Norman. In 1155 the manor was granted to the abbey of St John of Colchester, later to Cardinal Wolsey, and on his disgrace, to Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, to whom Elizabeth in 1567 granted a market on Saturday. In the 16th century Aldeburgh was a place of considerable commercial importance, due, no doubt, to its position on the sea-coast. Aldeburgh claims to be a borough by prescription; the earliest charter is that granted by Henry VIII, in 1529. Edward VI. in 1548 raised it to the rank of a free borough, granting a charter of incorporation and a market on Wednesday. Later charters were granted by Philip and Mary in 1553, by Elizabeth in 1558 and 1567, by James I. (who granted two annual fairs) in 1606, and by Charles I. in 1631 and 1637. The corporation included 2 bailiffs, 10 capital and 24 inferior burgesses, until the Municipal Corporations Act 1883. The fairs and markets became so unimportant that they were discontinued about the middle of the 19th century. The town returned two members to Elizabeth's parliament of 1572, and continued to be so represented till the Reform Bill of 1832 disfranchised it. Frequent disastrous incursions of the sea in the 18th century reduced Aldeburgh to a mere fishing village. In recent years it has grown as a seaside resort, with excellent golf-links.
See John Kirby, The Suffolk Traveller (2nd ed., 1764); N. F. Hele, Notes about Aldeburgh (1870); Victoria County History—Suffolk.
ALDEGREVER, or Aldegraf, HEINRICH (1502–1558), German painter and engraver, was born at Paderborn, from which he removed in early life to Soest, where he died. From the close resemblance of his style to that of Albrecht Dürer he has sometimes been called the Albert of Westphalia. His numerous engravings, chiefly from his own designs, are delicate and minute, though somewhat hard in style, and entitle him to a place in the front rank of the so-called “Little Masters.” There is a good collection in the British Museum. Specimens of his painting are exceedingly rare. Five pictures are in continental galleries, but the genuineness of the works in the Vienna and Munich collections attributed to him is at least doubtful, the only unchallenged example being a portrait of Engelbert Therlaen (1551) in the Berlin Museum.
ALDEHYDES, a class of chemical compounds of the general formula R·CHO (R＝an alkyl or an aryl group). The name is derived from alcohol dehydrogenatum in allusion to the fact that they may be prepared by the oxidation of alcohols. The lower members of the series are neutral liquids possessing a characteristic smell; they are soluble in water and are readily volatile (formaldehyde, however, is a gas at ordinary temperatures). As the carbon content of the molecule increases, they become less soluble in water, and their smell becomes less marked with the increase in boiling point, the highest members of the series being odourless solids, which can only be distilled without decomposition in vacuo.
The aldehydes may be prepared by the careful oxidation of primary alcohols with a mixture of potassium dichromate and sulphuric acid,—3R·CH2OH＋K2Cr2O7＋4H2SO4＝K2SO4＋Cr2(SO4)3＋7H2O＋3R·CHO; by distilling the calcium salts of the fatty acids with calcium formate; and by hydrolysis of the acetals. L. Bouveault (Bull. soc. chim., 1904 [3], 31, p. 1306) prepares aldehydes by the gradual addition of disubstituted formamides (dissolved in anhydrous ether) to magnesium alkyl haloids, the best yields being obtained by the use of diethyl formamide. Secondary reactions take place at the same time, yielding more particularly hydrocarbons of the paraffin series. G. Darzens (Comptes Rendus, 1904, 139, p. 1214) prepares esters of disubstituted glycidic acids, by condensing the corresponding ketone with monochloracetic ester, in the presence of sodium ethylate. These esters on hydrolysis yield the free acids, which readily decompose, with loss of carbon dioxide and formation of an aldehyde,
OC
|
R R1 |
＋Cl·CH2·COOC2H5 → O
|
CRR1 | CH·COOC2H5 |
→ O
|
CRR1 | CH·COOH |
→ CO2＋CHRR1·CHO. |
In the German Patent 157573 (1904) it is shown that by the action of at least two molecular proportions of an alkyl formate on two molecular proportions of a magnesium alkyl or aryl haloid, a complex addition compound is formed, which readily decomposes into a basic magnesium salt and an aldehyde,
C6H5MgBr＋HCOOR → RO·CH·C6H5·OMgBr → MgBr·OR＋C6H5CHO.
The aldehydes are characterized by their great chemical reactivity. They act as reducing agents, silver nitrate in the presence of ammonia being rapidly reduced to the condition of metallic silver. They are easily oxidized to the corresponding fatty acid, in many cases simply by exposure to air. Nascent hydrogen reduces them to primary alcohols, and phosphorus pentachloride replaces the carbonyl oxygen by chlorine. They form many addition compounds, combining with ammonia to form aldehyde ammonias of the type R·CH(OH)·NH2. These are colourless crystalline compounds, which are most readily prepared by passing ammonia gas into an ethereal solution of the aldehyde. With sodium bisulphite they form the so-called bisulphite compounds R·CH(OH)·SO3Na, which are readily resolved into their components by distillation with dilute acids, and are frequently used for the preparation of the pure aldehyde.
With hydrocyanic acid aldehydes form the cyanhydrins R·CH(OH)·CN. They react with hydroxylamine and phenylhydrazine, with the formation of aldoximes and hydrazones. (For the isomerism of the aldoximes see Oximes). The hydrazones are crystalline substances which are of value in the characterization of the aldehydes. Both oximes and hydrazones, on boiling with dilute acid, regenerate the parent aldehyde. The hydrazones are best prepared by mixing the aldehyde with phenylhydrazine in dilute acetic acid solution, in the absence of any free mineral acid. Semioxamazid, NH2·CO·CO·NH·NH2, has also been employed for the identification of aldehydes (W. Kerp and K. Unger, Berichte, 1897, 30. p. 585). Aldehydes are converted into resins by the action of caustic alkalies. On heating with alcohols to 100° C. they form acetals, and they also form condensation products with para-amido-di-methyl-aniline (A. Calm, Berichte, 1884, 17, p. 2939). They react with the zinc alkyls to form addition products, which are decomposed by water with formation of secondary alcohols (K. Thurnlach, Annalen, 1882, 213, p. 369) thus:—
| Zn(C2H5)2 | H2O | ||||
| CH3·CHO | → | CH3·CH |
C2H5 | →CH3·CH |
C2H5＋ZnO＋C2H6. |
| OZnC2H5 | OH | ||||
The reaction is a general one for all aldehydes with zinc methyl and zinc ethyl, but not with the higher zinc alkyls. V. Grignard (Comptes Rendus, 1900 et seq.) showed that aldehydes combine with magnesium alkyl iodides (in absolute ether solution) to form addition products, which are decomposed by water with the
