A curved handle.
Word of the Day: Catachrestical
Boulainvilliers
Encyclopedia Britannica
BOULAINVILLIERS, Henri de, Lord of St Saire, an eminent French writer, descended from a very ancient and noble family, was born at St Saire in Normandy in 1658. He received his education at the college of Juilli, where he early discovered the uncommon abilities for which he was afterwards distinguished. His historical writings are numerous and important, but deformed by an extravagant admiration of the feudal system, which he regarded as the chef d’oeuvre of the human mind. He misses no opportunity of regretting those “good old times,” when the people were enslaved by a few petty tyrants alike ignorant and barbarous. His philosophical writings have now lost all their value. His pretended refutation of the system of Spinoza is a weak and imperfect exposition of that writer’s opinions. He died at Paris in 1722.
His principal works (all published after his death) are— Histoire de l’ancien gouvemment de la France, &c., La Haye, 1727, 3 tom. 8vo; Etat de la France, avec des mémoires sur l’ancien gouvemment, &c., Lond., 1727, 3 tom. fol.; Histoire de la Pairie de France, &c., Lond., 1753; La Vie de Mahomet (a “Fable of Mahomet,” as Mosheim calls it); Histoire des Arabes, Amst. (Paris), 1731, 2 vols. 12mo.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4, p. 171
[209 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]
[209 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]
1. Same as Bowlder.
2. A large stone, worn smooth or rounded by the action of water; a large pebble.
Characterized by bowlders.
2. A public walk or street occupying the site of demolished fortifications. Hence: A broad avenue in or around a city.
Complete overthrow; disorder; a turning upside down.
Boulogne sur mer
Encyclopedia Britannica
BOULOGNE SUR MER, a fortified seaport of France, and the chief town of an arrondissement in Pas-de-Calais, is situated on the shore of the English Channel at the mouth of the River Liane (anciently Elna), in 50° 44' N. lat. and l 0 36' E. long., 157 miles from Paris by railway and 28 from Folkestone, Kent. It consists of two parts, the High or Old Town and the Lower or New Town. The former, situated on the top of the bill, is of comparatively small extent, and forms almost a parallelogram, surrounded by ramparts of the 15th century, and entered by ancient gateways. In this part are the Palais de Justice, the Chateau, the cathedral, and the Hotel de Ville,—the last built in 1774,—and the belfry tower of the 13th century is in the immediate neighbourhood. In the Chateau, now used as barracks, the Emperor Napoleon III. was confined after his famous attempt to effect a landing in 1840. At some distance north-west stands the cathedral church of Notro Dame, built (1827-1866) on the site of an old building destroyed in the Revolution, having underneath an extensive crypt which still remains. The New Town extends from the foot of the hill to the harbour and along the shore, and contains several good streets, some of which are, however, very steep. A main street, named successively Rue de la Lampe, St Nicholas, and Grande Rue, extends from the bridge across the Liane (near the railway station) to the promenade by the side of the ramparts and the Hôtel de Ville. This is intersected first by the shoreway named Quai de la Flotille, Quai de la Victoire, &c. (where there are numerous hotels), and further back by the Rue Napoléon and Rue Royale, the principal business part of the town, and where the best shops are situated. The principal buildings comprise a museum, formerly ...the great seminary, a hospital, a theatre, an elegant établissement (opened in 1863, containing ball-room, reading-room, &c.), a custom-house, barracks, various churches and convents, and a fish-market. Connected with the museum is a public library with 30,000 volumes and a large number of very valuable manuscripts, many of them richly illuminated. Boulogne has for a long time been one of the most Anglicized of French cities; and in the tourist season a continuous stream of English travellers reach the Continent at this point. There is regular steamboat service between the port and Folkestone, the average passage occupying 2∣ hours, or about three-quarters of an hour longer than from Calais to Dover. There are two English chapels in the town, and numerous boarding-schools intended for English pupils. Churchill, who died while on a visit to his friend Wilkes, in 1765, is buried in the cemetery, and the house is pointed out where Thomas Campbell expired in 1843. The shore is lined with extensive flat sands, where bathing is facilitated by the use of machines. Among the objects of interest in the neighbourhood the most remarkable is the Napoleon column or Colonne de la Grande Armée, erected on the high ground above the town, in honour of Napoleon L, on occasion of the projected invasion of England, for which he here made great preparations. The pillar, which is of the Doric order, 166 feet high, is surmounted by a statue of the emperor by Bosio. Though commenced in 1804, the monument was not completed till 1841. Ou the edge of the cliff to the east of the port are some rude brick remains of an old building called Tour d’Ordre, said to be the ruins of a tower built by Caligula at the time of his intended invasion of Britain. The entrance to the harbour of Boulogne, which is tidal, is formed by two long piers running out from the mouth of the river, and serving during fine weather as excellent promenades. On the western side is the basin excavated by Napoleon for his flotilla of flat-bottomed boats in 1804. A large wet dock, constructed at a cost of upwards of £250,000, was opened iu 1872, and adds greatly to the facilities of the port, its area being 17 acres and the length of its quay-wall 1150 yards. The depth of water in the harbour is 23 feet at spring-tide and nearly 20 at neap-tide; in the sluice of the floating basin the numbers are 29 j and 23⅜ respectively. The foreign commerce of Boulogne, which is almost wholly carried on in British ships, consists chiefly in the importation of manufactured goods, jute, silk, Australian wool, coal, machinery, hardwares, paper-hangings, malt, beer, and chemicals; and the exportation of wine, brandy, eggs, artificial flowers, haberdashery, and musical instruments. The total value of the exports in 1871 was £12,709,675, and of the imports £11,762,500. How rapid the development of the commerce with Britain has been may be seen from the fact, that while in 1840 the British sailing vessels thus engaged amounted only to 66, and the steam-ships to 678, in 1860 the corresponding numbers were 341 and 863, and in 1871, 541 and 1061. In the extent and value of its fisheries Boulogne is exceeded by no seaport in France. The most important branch is the herring-fishery, which is prosecuted northwards along the shores of Scotland; next in value is the mackerel fishery, and next again the Iceland cod. Large quantities of fresh fish are transmitted to Paris by railway, but an abundant supply is reserved to the town itself. The fishermen live for the most part in a separate quarter called La Beurière. Among the numerous industrial establishments in Boulogne and its environs may be mentioned several foundries, with blastfurnaces, cement-manufactories, flax-mills, steam saw-mills, steel-pen manufactories, carriage-works, tile-works, and a fishing-net factory. Shipbuilding is also carried on to some extent. The population of the town, which in 1821 was 16,607, amounted by the census of 1872 to 39,700.
Boulogne is usually, though on somewhat dubious grounds, identified with the Gesoriacum of the Romans. At an early period it began to be known as Bononia, a name which has been gradually modified into the present form. The town w as destroyed by the Normans in 882, but restored about 912. From about that time till 1477 it was the head of a separate countship, which was united to the crown of France by Louis XL, who ingeniously recognized the Holy Virgin as the superior, and declared himself her vassal. In 1544 Henry VIII.—more fortunate in this than Henry III. had been in 1347—took the town by siege; but it was restored to France in the following reign.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4, p. 171
[1,138 words — estimated reading time: 7 minutes]
[1,138 words — estimated reading time: 7 minutes]
BOULT , an incorrect orthography. [ See Bolt .]
A long, stout fishing line to which many hooks are attached.
1. A molding, the convexity of which is one fourth of a circle, being a member just below the abacus in the Tuscan and Roman Doric capital; a torus; an ovolo.
2. One of the shafts of a clustered column.
Boulton
Encyclopedia Britannica
BOULTON, Matthew, manufacturer and practical engineer, was born at Birmingham on the 14th of September 1728. He was called early into active life upon the death of his father in 1745, and soon found ample scope for the exercise of his inventive faculties in improving the manufactures of his native place. His first attempt was a new mode of inlaying steel; and he succeeded in obtaining a considerable demand for the products of his manufactory, which were principally exported to the Continent, and not uncommonly re-imported for domestic use as of foreign manufacture....
In 1762, his fortune being already considerable, he purchased a tract of barren heath in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, with a single house on it, and there founded, at the expense of £9000, the manufactory which flourished so long and was so well known under the name of Soho. His workmen were at first principally employed in the imitation of ormolu, ard in copying oil paintings with great accuracy, by means of a mechanical process which was invented by a Mr Eggington, who afterwards distinguished himself by various works in stained glass. Boulton finding the horse-power inadequate to the various purposes of his machinery erected, in 1767, a steam-engine, upon the original construction of Savary, which, notwithstanding the inconvenience of a great loss of steam from condensation, by its immediate contact with the water raised, has still some advantages from the simplicity of the apparatus it requires, and has been found to succeed well upon a small scale. But Boulton’s objects required a still more powerful machine, and he had the discernment to perceive that they might be very completely attained by the adoption of the various improvements made in the steam-engine by James Watt of Glasgow, who had obtained a patent for them in 1769, the privileges of which were extended in 1775, by an Act of Parliament, to a term of twenty-five years. Boulton induced the great inventor to remove to Birmingham. They commenced a partnership in business, and established a manufactory of steam-engines, in which accurate execution kept pace so well with judicious design, that its productions continued to be equally in request with the public after the expiration of the term of that legal privilege which at first gave the proprietors the exclusive right of supplying them, and which had been confirmed in 1792 by a decision of the Court of King’s Bench against some encroachment on the right of the patentee. It was principally for the purpose of carrying on this manufactory with greater convenience, that the proprietors established an iron-foundry of their own at Smethwick, in the neighbourhood of Soho.
In 1785 Boulton was made a fellow of the Royal Society, about the same time with Withering, and several others of his scientific neighbours. In 1788 he turned his attention to the subject of coining, and erected machinery for the purpose, so extensive and complete, that the operation was performed with equal economy and precision, and the coins could not be imitated by any single artist for their nominal value,—each of the stamps coining, with the attendance of a little boy only, about eighty pieces in a minute. The preparatory operation of laminating and cutting out the metal was performed in an adjoining room; and all personal communication between the workmen was rendered unnecessary by the mechanical conveyance of the work from one part of the machinery to another. A coinage of silver was executed at this mint for the Sierra Leone Company, and another of copper for the East Indiee, besides the pence and half-pence at one time in circulation throughout England, and a large quantity of money of all kinds for Russia. In acknowledgment of Boulton’s services, and in return for some specimens of his different manufactures, the Emperor Paul made him a present of a valuable collection of medals and minerals.
In 1797 he obtained a patent for a mode of raising water by impulse, the specification of which is published in the ninth volume of the Repertory of Arts, p. 145. It had been demonstrated by Daniel Bernouilli, in the beginning of the century, that water flowing through a pipe, and arriving at a part in which the pipe is suddenly contracted, would have its velocity at first very greatly increased; but no practical application of the principle appears to have been attempted, until an apparatus was set up in 1792 by Mr Whitehurst for Mr Egerton of Oult∩n, in Cheshire, consisting of an air-vessel communicating with a water-pipe by a valve, which was forced open by the pressure or rather impulse of the water, when its passage through the pipe was suddenly stopped by turning the cock in the ordinary course of domestic economy; and although the pipe through which the water was forced up was of moderate height, the air-vessel, which was at first made of lead, was soon burst by the “momentous force,” as Whitehurst termed it. The apparatus had excited much attention in France, under the name of Montgolfier’s hydraulic ram; and Boulton added to it a number of ingenious modifications, some of which, however, are more calculated to display the vivid imagination of a projector than the sound judgment of a practical engineer, which had in general so strongly characterized all his productions.
He died, August 17,1809, after a long illness, in possession of considerable affluence and of universal esteem. (See Smiles’s Lives of Boulton and Watt, 1865.)
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4, p. 172
[925 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]
[925 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]
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