Noviodunum, or (later) Nevirnum, derived its name from two Celtic words nov, a river, and dun, a hill. The quantities of medals and other Roman antiquities found on the site indicate the importance of the place at the time when Cæsar chose it as a military depot for corn, money, and hostages. It had counts of its own as early as 987, and obtained a charter in 1194. Subject for a time to the dukes of Burgundy, it next passed to the German house of Cleves. In 1538 Francis I. erected the Nivernais into a ducal peerage, which, becoming in 1565 the property of the Gonzaga of Mantua, was purchased from them by Cardinal Mazarin, and remained in his family till the Revolution. For a short time in the 14th century the town was the seat of a university, afterwards transferred to Orleans.
NEVIANSK (Nevianskiy, or Neivinskiy Zavod), a town of Russia, in the government of Perm, 62 miles to the north-north-west of Ekaterinburg, is situated on the eastern slope of the Ural mountains, in the populous valley of the Neiva, surrounded by mountains composed of talc and chlorite schists and granites, in a district very rich in iron and also in auriferous sands. The population in 1881 numbered 13,980 (17,950 with its suburb, the Byngovskiy iron-work), all Great-Russians, and mostly Nonconformists (edinovyertsy), of whom about 3000 are employed at the iron-works, while the others carry on various small trades, such as the manufacture of boxes widely sold in Siberia, small iron-wares, and boots, or engage in agriculture. The merchants of the town carry on an active trade, and its fairs are very animated. The iron industry produced in 1879 96,000 cwts. of cast iron and 45,000 cwts. of wrought iron, and the average yearly yield of gold is about 400 .
The iron-work at Neviansk is the oldest on the Ural, having been founded in 1699. In 1702 Peter I. presented it to Demidoff, with 3,900,000 acres of land around it, of which 522,000 acres, besides 60,000 acres of forest, still belong to the present proprietors of the works, the merchants Yakovleffs. Five iron-mines, seven gold-washings, and two iron-works are its dependencies. Several other important iron-works are situated within short distances of Neviansk, on the Neiva river, and are usually comprised under the same name of Neivinsk iron-works, the chief being Verkhne-Neivinsk (Upper Neivinsk), situated 14 miles to the south (3960 inhabitants); Neivo-Rudyansk, 8 miles to the south (4020); Petrokamensk, 32 miles to the north-east (2200); Neivo-Shaytansk, 8 miles lower down the Neiva (3000) ; and Neivo-Alapaevsk (6000).
NEVIS, an island in the Federated Leeward group, British West Indies, in 17° 14′ N. lat. and 62° 33′ W. long., separated from St Christopher by a shallow strait 2 miles broad at the narrowest. It is a mountain rising gradually to a height of 3200 feet, the lower portion being cultivable; the total area is about 32,000 acres. The climate is healthy, the average height of the thermometer being 82° Fahr. Discovered by Columbus in 1498, and colonized by the English in 1628, it now forms one presidency with St Christopher, with one legislative council (meeting in St Kitts) of ten official and ten unofficial members, all nominated by the crown, Nevis sending three of the unofficial members. The revenue in 1882 was £9285, and the expenditure £8465. Its exports of sugar in the four years from 1879 to 1882 respectively were 3500, 1600, 1700, and 4000 tons,—the total exports in 1881 being £38,672, and in 1882 £75,000. The population is 11,864; the capital is Charlestown, on the shore of a wide bay on the south-west side of the island.
NEW ALBANY, a flourishing manufacturing city of the United States, in Floyd county, Indiana, occupies a good position on the left bank of the Ohio, nearly opposite the west end of Louisville, 156 miles below Cincinnati. It is handsomely built, with wide and well-shaded streets, and among its public edifices are a city-hall, a court-house, an opera-house capable of containing 2500 persons, a masonic hall, and an oddfellows hall. Abundant water-power is obtained from the falls about two miles up the river. Besides the glass-works, which rank as the largest in the United States, the industrial establishments comprise foundries, pork-packing factories, boatbuilding yards, rolling mills, cotton and woollen mills, and hosiery mills. Laid out in 1813, and incorporated as a city in 1839, New Albany increased its population from 4226 in 1840 to 16,423 in 1880, and is still rapidly growing.
