Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/565

N I T N I Z 521 by the chemical change may lead to spontaneous explosions. But, when manufactured and purified according to the system originated and developed by Nobel, the liquid is possessed of great stability. The first attempts to utilize the explosive power of nitroglycerin were made by Nobel in 1863; they were only partially successful until the plan, first applied by General Pictot in 1854, of develop ing the force of gunpowder in the most rapid manner and to the maximum extent, through the agency of an initiative detonation (see "Detonation," art. EXPLOSIVES, vol. viii.), was applied by Nobel to the explosion of nitroglycerin. Even then, however, the liquid nature of the substance, though advantageous in one or two direc tions, constituted a serious obstacle to its safe transport and storage and to its efficient employment ; it was therefore not until Nobel hit upon the expedient of producing plastic solid preparations by mixing the liquid with solid substances, in a fine state of division, capable of absorbing and retaining considerable quantities of it, that the future of nitroglycerin as one of the most effective and convenient blasting agents was secured. Charcoal was the first absorbent used ; eventually the siliceous (infusorial) earth known as " kieselguhr " was selected by Nobel as the best material for pro ducing DYNAMITE (q.v.), as it absorbs, after calcination, from three to four times its weight of nitroglycerin, and does not part with it easily when the mixture is submitted to pressure or frequent altera tions of temperature. For work requiring the greatest sharpness and violence of action, the so-called No. 1 dynamite, consisting of about 75 parts of nitroglycerin and 25 parts of kieselguhr, is by far the most extensively used ; other inert absorbents have been used at times, and numerous other less violent forms of dynamite (Dynamitis a base action) are prepared by impregnating mixtures of oxidizable substances and oxidizing agents (e.g. , of nitrates and charcoal or carbonaceous bodies) with smaller proportions of nitro glycerin, or by using imperfectly nitrified wood-fibre, or other forms of cellulose, as the absorbent. Lithofradeur, dualin, glyoxilin, potentitc, atlas-dynamite, lignin-dynamitc, are examples. The last- named was employed by the Fenians in the attempted outrages in Glasgow and London in 1883. The only inert absorbent of nitro glycerin which compares in efficiency with kieselguhr is magnesia alba, which is extensively used for making dynamite in California. The application of nitroglycerin-preparations to industrial pur poses, especially for mining, tunnelling, and blasting work in which great cleaving and shattering effects are desired, has developed very rapidly since 1867. Thus, in that year 11 tons were produced at the various works with which Nobel is associated ; in 1870 the yield had increased to 424 ton^, in 1877 to 5500 tons, and in 1882 to 9500 tons, while considerable quantities are now manufactured independently of Nobel. The most recent and most perfect form in which nitroglycerin is now used is called Hasting gelatin. This material, also invented by Nobel, is composed of the liquid and of a small proportion of so-called nitre-cotton, which consists chiefly of those products of the action of nitric acid on cellulose which are intermediate between collodion-cotton and gun-cotton (trinitro-cellulose, &c. ). If the liquid is gently heated together with 5 to 7 per cent, of the finely-divided mtro-cotton, and the mixture kept stirred, the two gelatinize together, producing a translucent, plastic, and tenacious mass, which becomes hard when cooled to the freezing point of nitroglycerin, and may be kept in water for any length of time without an appreciable separation of nitroglycerin. When properly prepared, blasting gelatin is less sensitive to detonation than dynamite ; and, while its action as an explosive is somewhat more gradual, it is considerably superior to dynamite in explosive power, and even slightly more powerful than pure nitroglycerin, the reason being that the latter contains somewhat more oxygen than is required for the complete oxidation of the carbon and hydrogen, and that this excess is utilized in supplying the deficiency of oxygen existing in the feebly explosive nitro-cotton. Blasting gelatin is rapidly replacing dynamite in some of its applications, and is al ready extensively manufactured in different countries. (F. A. A. ) NITZSCH, KARL IMMAXUEL (1787-1868), theologian, was bora at the small Saxon town of Borna on September 21, 1787. His father, Karl Ludwig Nitzsch, who at that time was pastor and superintendent in Borna, and after wards became professor at Wittenberg, has also left a name of some distinction in the theological world by a number of writings, among which may be mentioned a work entitled De discrimine revelationis imperatorix et didacticse prolusiones academical (2 vols., 1830). Karl Immanuel, after receiving his elementary education at home, was sent to Schulpforta in 1803, whence he pro ceeded to the university of Wittenberg in 1806. In 1809 he graduated, when the subject of his thesis was De evanyeliorum apocryphorum in explicandis canonicis usu et abusu, and in the following year he " habilitated " with a dissertation De testamentis patriarcharum, libra vet<-rtx testamenti pseudepigrcqiho. Having been ordained deacon in 1811, he showed remarkable energy and zeal during the bombardment and siege of the city in 1813 ; and in 1817 he was appointed one of the preceptors in the preachers seminary which had been established after the suppression of the university. From 1820 to 1822 he was superintendent in Kemberg, and in the latter year he was appointed professor ordinarius of systematic and practical theology at Bonn. Here he remained until called to succeed Marheineke at Berlin in 1847; subsequently/ he became university preacher, provost of St Kicolai (in 1855), and member of the supreme council of the church, in which last capacity he was one of the ablest and most active promoters of the Evangelical Union. He died on August 21, 1868. His principal works are System der Christliclicn Lehre (1829, 6th- ed. 1851), Praktisclie Theologie (1847-60, 2d. ed. 1863-68), Akadc* misclie Vortrage uber Christliche Glaubenslehre (1858), and severaV series of Prcdigten. His Protcstantische JBcantivortung, a reply to N , the Symbolik of MiJhler, which originally appeared in the Studien u. Kritikcn, may also be mentioned. Nitzsch, whose work in dog matic theology has been already characterized (see vol. vii. p. 342), still stands out as one of the ablest and most genial and accom plished representatives of the " Vermittelungstheologie " (media tion theology), or what may be called the broad evangelical school of modern Germany. Gregor "Wilhehn Nitzsch (1790-1861), brother of Karl Immanuel, chose philology as his province, and held pro fessorships of ancient literature successively at Kiel (from 1827) and at Leipsic (1852). He published various works, chiefly connected with the elucidation of the Homeric poems. NIVELLES (Flem., Nyvel], a manufacturing town of South Brabant, Belgium, stands on the Thines, a small sub-tributary of the Scheldt, 18 miles by rail to the south of Brussels. The Romanesque church of St Gertrude, dating from the llth century, is interesting, but the exterior suffered defacement in the 18th century, and the restoration of the tower, which suffered from fire in 1859, has not been successful. The treasury contains some valuable works of art. Nivelles has manufactures of woollen, cotton, linen, and paper, as well as a railway loco motive and carriage work, and does a considerable trade in corn and live stock, especially swine. The town owes its origin to a convent founded in 645 by Ida or Ita, the wife of Pippin of Landen. The population was 9825 in 1876, but is said to have been much larger in the 16th century. NIZiMl (1141-1203). Shaikh Nizami or Nizam-uddin Abu Mohammed Ilyas bin Yusuf, the unrivalled master of the romantic epopee in Persia, who ranks in poetical genius as next to Firdausi, was born 535 A.H. (1141 A.D.). His native place, or at any rate the abode of his father, was in the hills of Kumm, but as he spent almost all his days in Ganjah in Arran (the present Elisabethpol) he is generally known as Nizdmi of Ganjah or Ganjawi. The early death of his parents, which illustrated to him in the most forcible manner the unstableness of all human existence, threw a gloom over his whole life, and fostered in him that earnest piety and fervent love for solitude and meditation which have left numerous traces in his poetical writings, and served him throughout his literary career as a powerful antidote against the enticing favours of princely courts, for which he, unlike most of his contemporaries, never sacrificed a tittle of his self-esteem. The religious atmosphere of Ganjah, besides, was most favourable to such a state of mind ; the inhabitants, being zealous Sunnites, allowed nobody to dwell among them who did not come up to their standard of orthodoxy, and it is therefore not sur prising to find that Nizdmi abandoned himself at an early age to a stern ascetic life, as full of intolerance to others as dry and unprofitabh to himself. He was rescued at last from this monkioh idleness by his inborn genius, XVII. 66