The New Student's Reference Work/Encyclopædia
South Africa. European emigration has been, greatest in the 19th century, because the population has increased so enormously. Europeans are naturally attracted to counties of like climate, which have not already an over-large population and in which the chances of gaining wealth are good. For these reasons the greatest emigration has been to the United States, Australia, South Africa and the temperate parts of South America, for example, the Argentine Republic.
Emin Pasha or Bey, proper name Eduard Schnitzer, was born at Oppeln, Silesia, in 1840. He studied medicine, and in 1864 went to Turkey, where he became a well-known physician. He learned to speak Turkish and Arabic easily, and adopted Turkish habits and customs. He also adopted the name Emin, which means the faithful one. In 1876 he joined the Egyptian service, and proceeded as chief physician to the equatorial province, of which he was made governor in 1878 by “Chinese” Gordon. Here the sudden rising of the Mahdi shut him up and out of the world. The expedition sent under Stanley for his rescue reached him in May, 1888. In 1890 he entered the German service and at once made his way again to Central Africa. He was, however, killed in 1892 by Arabs near Nyangwe. See Stanley's In Darkest Africa.
Em'met, Robert, an ill-fated Irish patriot, was born at Dublin in 1778. At fifteen he entered Trinity College, where Moore, the poet, was his fellow-student, but soon left to join the United Irishmen. He next traveled in Europe, talked with Napoleon and Talleyrand in 1802 on behalf of the Irish cause, and came back the next year to expend $15,000 of his own fortune for muskets and pikes. With a small band he designed a plot to seize Dublin Castle and make a prisoner of the viceroy. The rising utterly failed, and Emmet, who had clothed himself for the occasion in a green coat, white breeches and cocked hat, saw nothing result from the enterprise but a few ruffianly murders. He escaped, but coming back for a last leave-taking from his sweetheart, Sarah Curran, the daughter of the great Irish orator, he was arrested, put on trial Sept. 20, 1803, condemned to death, and hanged on the following day. Just before receiving sentence he made a speech which still thrills the reader by its noble and pathetic eloquence. See Madden's Lives of the United Irishmen.
Empo'ria, county-seat of Lyon County, Kan., on Neosho River, 60 miles southwest of Topeka. It is the trade-center of the surrounding section, which is engaged in farming, dairying and fattening cattle for the eastern market. The city has carriage and canning-factories, flour and grist-mills, woolen mills and iron and marble-works. Emporia has several fine churches, good schools and school-buildings, a business college and railroad and public libraries. Besides, there are the State Normal School, the College of Emporia (Pres.) and the Western Conservatory of Music. The town was founded in 1856 and incorporated in 1870. Population, 9,058.
Ems or Bad-Ems, a bathing resort known to the Romans and famous in Germany as early as the 14th century. It is on the River Lahn, ten miles from Coblenz. Its warm mineral springs contain soda. The temperature of the different springs varies from 80° to 135° F. Population, about 7,500.
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Emu, a running bird of Australia, closely related to the cassowary. The emu lives on the plains, the cassowary only in the forest and dense scrub. The emus have no cap or helmet like the cassowaries. The head and neck are not bare as in the cassowaries, but are provided with feathers. The plumage is heavy and dull-brown in color. The wing-rudiments are very small. The bird stands about five feet high. Its food is exclusively vegetable, consisting of fruits, roots and herbage. It may be tamed, and breeds easily in captivity. It lays six or seven dark-green eggs, nearly as large as ostrich-eggs, in a cavity scooped in the earth, usually in sandy soil.
Ency′clopæ′dia, meaning general instruction, is a work professing to give information in regard to the whole circle of human knowledge or in regard to everything in some division of it. The older encyclopædias attempted to give everything then known on all subjects; but, as knowledge has increased, it has become more and more necessary, in order to say something about everything, to be content not to say everything about anything. The great Latin collections of Terentius Varro, dating from 30 B. C., and the Natural History of Pliny the Elder are the first works which can in any sense be called encyclopædias. In the 10th century the Arabian, Farabi, wrote an encyclopædia remarkable for the time. Vincent of Beauvais, under the patronage of Louis IX of France, gathered together the whole knowledge of the middle ages. The first modern English work of the kind was the anonymous Universal, Historical, Geographical, Chronological and Classical Dictionary, which appeared in 1803. The Cyclopædia of Ephraim Chambers, in 1728, was the first to use cross-references. It was a French translation of this work which Diderot used in making the famous Encyclopédie, which became the organ of the most advanced and revolutionary thought of the time, and gave a name, the Encyclopedists, to a party of philosophers and politicians. The great Encyclopedia Britannica first appeared at Edinburgh in 1768-71, and has since gone through ten editions. Other popular encyclopaedias are Charles Knight's Penny Cyclopedia and Chambers' New Encyclopedia. Of American works may be mentioned The Americana, the New International and the Universal Cyclopedia.
En'dicott, John, colonial governor of Massachusetts, was born in 1589, at Dorchester, England, and landed as manager of the Plantation of Naumkeag (Salem) in 1628. In 1630 London's Plantation became a part of the government of New England, and Endicott gave place to John Winthrop as governor. Six years later he headed a bloody but useless expedition against the Block Island and Pequot Indians. Except for five years, he was deputy-governor or governor of the Massachusetts colony from 1641 to 1665. Endicott was a zealous Puritan, high-tempered, kind and brave. He manifested some personal peculiarities: He cut out the cross from the military standard, had four Quakers put to death, forced the women to wear veils at public assemblies and was opposed to long hair. He died at Boston, March 15, 1665.
En'dosperm (in plants). A food-tissue within the embryo-sac (which see) of seed-plants and used by the embryo. It makes up the bulk of many seeds, as in pines and the cereals, and contains stored food of various kinds, prominent among which is starch. It is sometimes soft and mealy, and in other cases it is horny. In the so-called vegetable ivory it is as hard as the name suggests. An obsolete name for it is albumen. In the alternation of generations (which see) it is a gametophyte, and being associated with the egg it evidently is a female gametophyte. See Seed.
Endym'ion, in Greek myth, a youth famous for his beauty and never-ending sleep. As he slept on Mt. Latmos in Caria, his beauty warmed the cold heart of Selene (the moon) who came down to kiss him and to lie by his side. It was said that Selene had sent him to sleep that she might kiss him without his knowing. On this story Keats wrote his well-known poem Endymion.
Enfield Rifle. See Rifle.
Engine. See Steam-Engine.
Engineering, the work of constructing, designing or operating machines or other structures or equipment having for their aim the economic and scientific utilization of the various forces and resources of nature for the purposes of man. Originally engineering could be classified under the two main headings of civil and military engineering, but modern developments have been so great as to bring into prominence many different forms, such as mechanical, mining, electrical, chemical and sanitary engineering, leaving the term civil engineering to such phases, exclusive of strictly military and marine work, as are not included under these special headings. The old distinction between the civil and military engineer is rapidly disappearing.
The work of engineers is in connection with such things as canals, harbors, bridges, railways, mining and metallurgical plants, factories, sewage-systems, city water-works, lighting and power-plants, machines of various kinds, submarine boats etc. In fact the services of the engineer are required in nearly all modern industrial, municipal and military operations which are to be economically, methodically and scientifically carried out on an extensive scale. All of the discoveries and laws of science and mathematics are here practically applied and utilized for the improvement of man's material wellbeing so far as the ingenuity of the engineer will permit. Thus the utilization by modern engineers of steam-power discovered by Watt now enables one man to do as much work as formerly required thirteen or fourteen hundred men.
The military engineer in the field has to see to such things as the overcoming of obstructions to the marching or transportation of troops, military surveys, construction of maps, selection of camping-grounds, communication, field-fortifications, methods of siege etc. The term ordnance-engineer is often given to those officers whose work consists in designing or constructing cannon or firearms. Engineers of all kinds are now employed in connection with military and naval works, but they are not usually called military engineers unless given a military commission.
The preliminary training for engineers is given in the various technical schools, but one can scarcely hope to be entrusted with important engineering works until he has had several years of practical experience. For the degree of C. E. or M.E. most engineering schools of repute require four years of undergraduate work, about three years of successful experience and one year of graduate work. The four-year courses for the most part aim to give a thorough grounding in mathematics and physics, with special reference to the various forms and applications of power, the strength and qualities of the ordinary materials used in construction, freehand and mechanical drawing and the use of the common engineering instruments. A considerable amount of time is also expected to be spent in practical shopwork.
As the work of the engineer requires a considerable amount of maturity and ability to secure a firm, accurate grasp of fundamental relations, it is best that one