BRUNEL, Sir Marc Isambard (1769-1849), was born at Haqueville, in Normandy. His family had for several centuries held a respectable station in the province, living as farmers and small landowners on the estate on which he was born, and numbering among its members Nicholas Poussin. He was educated at the seminary of St Nicaise at Rouen, with the intention of his entering holy orders; but his predilection for the physical scieuces was so strong, and his genius for mathematics and mechanics so decided, that, on the advice of the superior of· ’ the establishment, he was removed to follow a more congenial career. His father then destined him for the naval service, which he entered on the appointment of the Marshal de Castries, the minister of marine, and made several voyages to the West Indies. In this position, although only in his seventeenth year, his mechanical talents developed themselves actively on many occasions, and he surprised his captain by the production of a sextant of his manufacture with which he took his observations. On his return to France in 1792, he found the Revolution at its height, and like all who entertained royalist principles, he was compelled to seek safety in emigration. He effected his flight with considerable difficulty, and found refuge in the United States of America, where, driven by necessity to the exercise of his talents as a means of support, he followed the bent of his inclination and became a civil engineer and architect. His first engagement was on the survey of a tract of land near Lake Erie; he then became engaged in cutting canals, and was employed to erect an arsenal and cannon foundry at New York, where he applied several new and ingenious machines. His highly ornamental design for the House of Assembly at Washington was rejected, as being inconsistent with the simplicity of a republic; he was, however, engaged to design and superintend the construction of Bowery Theatre, New York, since destroyed by fire, the roof of which was peculiar and original.

The idea of substituting machinery for manual labour in the making of ships’ blocks had long occupied his mind; and, in 1799, having matured his plans, he determined to visit England. Earl St Vincent was at that time at the head of the Admiralty, and after the usual delays and difficulties, which were ultimately overcome chiefly through the powerful influence of his steady friend and patron Earl Spencer, aided by the recommendation of BrigadierGeneral Sir Samuel Bentham, who at once perceived and appreciated the merit of the machines and the talent of the inventor, the system was adopted, and the machinery erected. The construction of the machines was entrusted to Mr Henry Maudslay, whom Brunel had selected with true discrimination, and by whom he was ably assisted. The beautiful simplicity of these machines, their perfect adaptation to their various purposes, and, notwithstanding the recent advances in mechanics, their continuing for nearly half a century in active work, without any improvements having ever been suggested, must rank them as among the most complete and ingenious pieces of mechanism ever invented.

The block machinery was completed in 1806, and it was estimated that the economy produced by it in the first year was about £24,000, two-thirds of which sum was awarded to the ingenious inventor, who was soon after engaged by the Government to erect extensive saw-mills, on improved principles, at Chatham and Woolwich. He there suggested modifications of the systems of stacking and seasoning timber, which were afterwards carried into effect. Some time previously, he had invented the ingenious little machine for winding cotton-thread into balls, which, simple as it may at first sight appear, has exercised great influence on the extension of the cotton trade.

He found time also to invent an instrument for combining the use of several pens, so as to produce simultaneously a number of copies of a manuscript; a simple and portable copying-machine; and a contrivance for making the small boxes used by druggists, which had been previously imported in large quantities from Holland. A nail-making machine also occupied his attention; and he discovered the system of giving the efflorescent appearance to tinfoil, by which it was fitted for ornamental purposes. Among other more important improvements may be mentioned that of cutting veneers by circular saw s of large diameter, to which is mainly due the present extensive application of veneers of wood to ornamental furniture. About the year 1812 he had devised a scheme for making shoes by machinery; and, under the countenance of the duke of York, the shoes so manufactured, in consequence of their strength, cheapness, and durability, were introduced for the use of the army; but at the peace in 1815, manual labour becoming cheaper, and the demand for military equipments having ceased, the machines were laid aside.

Steam navigation also attracted his attention, and he became deeply interested in establishing the Ramsgate steam vessels, which were among the first that plied successfully on the River Thames; and on board of them it is believed that the double engines were first used. About this period, after much labour and perseverance, he induced the Admiralty to permit the application of steam for towing vessels to sea, the practicability of which he had strenuously urged. The experiments were tried chiefly at his own expense; a small sum in aid had been promised, but it was eventually withdrawn before the completion of the trials, the Admiralty considering the attempt “too chimerical to be seriously entertained.” He introduced various improvements in the steam-engine, and for nearly ten years persevered in the attempt to use liquefied gases as the source of motive power, in which he was ably assisted by his son. The necessary experiments were most laborious, and needed all the persevering energy and resources of a mind determined not to be foiled; in spite, however, of his efforts, after a great sacrifice of time and money, the plan was abandoned.

The whole power of his mind, however, was for many years concentrated on one great object, the construction of the tunnel for communication from shore to shore beneath the bed of the River Thames. It is said that the original idea occurred to him, as applied to the Neva at St Petersburg, in order to avoid the inconvenience arising from the floating ice,—a plan which he offered to the Emperor Alexander, on the occasion of his visit to England in 1814. Undismayed by previous signal failures in the attempt to construct a tunnel beneath the Thames, Brunel, confident in his own powers, persevered, and in 1824, under the auspices of the duke of Wellington, who always entertained a favourable view of the practicability of the scheme, a company was formed for its execution; and after numerous accidents and suspensions of the works, this great and novel undertaking was successfully accomplished, and the tunnel opened to the public in the year 1843.

In the prosecution of the work he received great assistance from his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and in a scientific point of view the construction of the tunnel will be regarded as displaying, at the same time, the highest professional ability, an amount of energy and skill rarely exceeded, and a fertility of invention and resources, under what were deemed insurmountable difficulties, which will secure to the memory of Sir Isambard Brunel a high position among the engineers of England.

He received the order of the Légion d’Honneur in 1829, and the honour of knighthood in 1841. He was a corresponding member of the French Institute, and a fellow of the Royal Society. He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in the year 1823, and constantly attended the meetings, took part in the discussions, and promoted the society’s interests by every means in his power.

He was unaffected and simple in his habits, and possessed indomitable courage, perseverance, and industry; whilst his benevolence constantly prompted him to kindly and considerate actions. His labours had so seriously impaired his health, that for some years after the completion of the tunnel he was unable to mix in active life. He died on the 12th of December 1849, in his 81st year. (See Richard Beamish, Memoirs of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, 1862.)

BRUNO, Giordano, the most genial and interesting of the Italian philosophers of the Renaissance, was born at Nola about the year 1548. Little is known of the life of this knight-errant of philosophy; the very date of his birth rests in obscurity. What we do know is attractive enough to render it matter of regret that the materials should be so scanty. In his fifteenth year he entered the order of the Dominicans at Naples, and is said to have composed a treatise on the ark of Noah. Why he should have submitted to the bonds of a discipline palpably unsuited to his fiery and vehement spirit, we cannot tell. He soon found the restraints intolerable, and became an outcast from his church and a wanderer on the face of the earth. His opinions with regard to some of the Romish mysteries seem to have been too liberal to find toleration with so strict an order as that of St Dominic. He was accused of impiety, and after enduring persecution for some years, he fled from Rome about 1576, and wandered through various cities, reaching Geneva in 1577. The home of Calvinism was no resting-place for him, and he travelled on through Lyons, Toulouse, and Montpellier, arriving at Paris in 1579. Everywhere he bent his irrepressible energies to the exposition of the new thoughts which were beginning to effect a revolution in the thinking world. He had drunk deeply of the very spirit of the Renaissance, the determination to open his eyes and see for himself this noble universe, unclouded by the mists of authoritative philosophy and church tradition. The discoveries of Copernicus, which were unhinging men’s minds and teaching them to look upon their little world in a new light, were eagerly accepted by him, and he used them as the lever by which to push aside the antiquated system that had come down from Aristotle, and which was loaded with the weight of that great thinker’s name. For Aristotle, indeed, he had a perfect hatred. Like Bacon and Telesius he infinitely preferred the older Greek philosophers, who had looked at nature for themselves, and whose speculations had more of reality in them. He had read widely and deeply, and in his own writings we come across many expressions familiar to us in earlier systems. Y et his philosophy is no eclecticism. He owed something to Lucretius, something to the Stoic nature-pantheism, something to Anaxagoras, to Heraclitus, to the Pythagoreans, and to the Neoplatonists, who were partially known to him; above all, he had studied deeply and profoundly the great German thinker Nicolas of Cusa, who was indeed a speculative Copernicus. But his own system has a distinct unity and originality; it breathes throughout the fiery spirit of Bruno himself.

Bruno had been well received at Toulouse, where he had lectured on astronomy; even better fortune awaited him at Paris. He was offered a chair of philosophy, provided he would receive the Mass. He at once refused, but was permitted to deliver lectures. These seem to have been altogether devoted to expositions of a certain logical system which Bruno had taken up with great eagerness, the Ars Magna of Raymond Lully. With the exception of a comedy, Il Candelajo, all the works of this period are devoted to this logic. The most important of them is the treatise De Umbris Idearum. It has seemed to many a curious freak of Bruno’s that he should have so eagerly adopted a view of thought like that of Lully, but in reality it is in strict accordance with the principles of his philosophy. Like the Arabian logicians, and some of the scholastics, who held that ideas existed in a threefold form,— ante res, in rebus, and post res,— he laid down the principle that the archetypal ideas existed metaphysically in the ultimate unity or intelligence, physically in the world of things, and logically in signs, symbols, or notions. These notions were the shadows of the ideas, and the Ars Magna furnished him with a general scheme, according to which their relations and correspondences should be exhibited. It supplied not only a memoria technica, but an organon, or method by which the genesis of all ideas from unity might be represented intelligibly and easily. It provided also a substitute for either the Aristotelian or the Ramist logic, which was an additional element in its favour.

In the train and under the protection of the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, Bruno passed over in 1583 to England, where he resided for about two years. He was much disgusted with the brutality of the English manners, which he paints in no flattering colours, and he found in Oxford pedantry and superstition as rampant as at Geneva. But he indulges in extravagant eulogies of Elizabeth, and he formed the acquaintance at London of Sir Philip Sidney, Fulke Greville, and other eminent Englishmen. At Oxford he was allowed to hold a disputation with some learned doctors on the rival merits of the Copernican and so-called Aristotelian systems of the universe, and, according to his own report, had an easy victory. The best of his works were written in the freedom of English social life. The Cena de le Ceneri, or Ash Wednesday conversation, devoted to an exposition of the Copernican theory, was printed in 1584. In the same year appeared his two great metaphysical works, De la Causa, Principio, ed Uno, and De Γ Infinito, Universo, e Mondi μ in the year following the Eroici Furori and Cabala del Cavallo Pegaseo. In 1584 also appeared the strange dialogue, Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante, or Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, an allegory treating chiefly of moral philosophy, but giving at the same time the very essence and spirit of Bruno’s philosophy. The gods are represented as resolving to banish from the heavens the constellations, which served to remind them of their evil deeds. In their places are put the moral virtues. The first of the three dialogues contains the substance of the allegory, which, under the disguise of an assault on heathen mythology, is a direct attack on all forms of anthropomorphic religion. But in a philosophical point of view the first part of the second dialogue is the most important. Among the moral virtues which take the place of the beasts are Truth, Prudence, Wisdom, Law, and Universal Judgment, and in the explanation of what these mean Bruno unfolds the very inner essence of his system. Truth is the unity and substance which underlies all things; Prudence or providence is the regulating power of truth, and comprehends both liberty and necessity; Wisdom is providence itself in its supersensible aspect.—in man it is reason which grasps the truth of things; Law results from wisdom, for no good law is irrational, and its sole end and aim is the good of mankind; Universal Judgment is the principle whereby men are judged according to their deeds, and not according to their belief in this or that catechism. Mingled with his allegorical philosophy are the most vehement attacks upon the established religion. The monks are stigmatized as pedants who would destroy the joy of life on earth, who are avaricious, dissolute, and the breeders of eternal dissensions and squabbles. The mysteries of faith are scoffed at. The Jewish records are put on a level with the Greek myths, and miracles are laughed at as magical tricks. Through all this runs the train of thought resulting naturally from Bruno’s fundamental principles, and familiar in modern philosophy as Spinozism, the denial of particular providence, the doctrine of the uselessness of prayer, the identification in a sense of liberty and necessity, and the peculiar definition of good and evil. Altogether the Spaccio, as it is the most popular, is the most characteristic of Bruno’s works.

In 1586 he returned to Paris with Castelnau, but was soon driven from his refuge, and we next find him at Marburg and Wittenberg, the headquarters of Lutheranism. There is a tradition that here or in England he embraced the Protestant faith; nothing in his writings would lead one to suppose so. Several works, chiefly logical, appeared during his stay at Wittenberg. In 1588 he went to Prague, then to Helmstadt. In 1591 he was at Frankfort, and published three important metaphysical works, De Triplici Minimo et Mensura ; De Monade, Numero, et Figura; De Immenso et Innumerabilibus. He did not stay long at Prague, and we find him next at Zurich, whence he accepted an invitation to Venice. It was a rash step. The emissaries of the Inquisition were on his track; he was thrown into prison, and in 1593 was brought to Rome. Seven years were spent in confinement. On the 9th February 1600 he was excommunicated, and on the 17th was burned at the stake.

As has been said, for an estimation of Bruno’s philosophy, the most important works are the two Italian dialogues and the three last-mentioned Latin treatises. It is not an easy matter to put his opinions into small compass, for the general form of exposition adopted by him, the dialogue, imposes a certain looseness on his own mode of thinking.

To Bruno as to all other great thinkers, the end of philosophy is the search for unity. Amid all the varying and contradictory phenomena of the universe there is something which givee coherence and intelligibility to them. Nor can this unity be something apart from the things; it must contain in itself the universe, which develops from it; it must be at once all and one. This unity is God, the universal substance,—the one and only principle, or causa immanens, — that which is in things and yet is distinct from them as the universal is distinct from the particular. He is the efficient and final cause of all, the beginning, middle, and end, eternal and infinite. By his action the world is produced, and his action is the law of his nature, his necessity is true freedom. He is living, active intelligence, the principle of motion and creation, realizing himself in the infinitely various forms of activity that constitute individual things. To the infinitely actual there is necessary the possible; that which determines involves somewhat in which its determinations can have existence. This other of God, which is in truth one with him, is matter. The universe, then, is a living cosmos, an infinitely animated system, whose end is the perfect realization of the variously graduated forms.

The unity which sunders itself into the multiplicity of things may be called the monas monadum, each thing being a monos or self-existent, living being, a universe in itself. Of these monads the number is infinite. The soul of man is a thinking monad, and stands mid-way between the divine intelligence and the world of external things. As a portion of the divine life, the soul is immortal. Its highest function is the contemplation of the divine unity, discoverable under the manifold of objects.

Such is a brief summary of the principal positions of Bruno’s philosophy. It seems quite clear that in the earlier works, particularly the two Italian dialogues, he approached more nearly to the pantheistic view of things than in his later Latin treatises. The unity expounded at first is simply an anima mundi, a living universe, but not intelligent. There is a distinct development traceable towards the later and final form of his doctrine, in which the universe appears as the realization of the divine mind.

The Italian works of Bruno, formerly exceedingly rare, have been collected and published in two volumes, by A. Wagner, 1830. An edition of the Latin works was begun by Gfrörer in 1834, but has not been completed. The most complete monograph on him is that by C. Bartholmess, 2 vols. 1846-47; the most recent life is that by Domenico Berti, 1868. The best systematic account of his philosophy is that by Carriere, Philosophische Weltanschauung der lleformationszeit, 1847, pp. 411-494. The relations between his philosophy and that of Cusanus are treated in Clemens, G. Bruno und Nicolaus von C , usa, 1847. An English translation by Morehead (not, as is generally supposed, by Toland) of the Spaccio is dated 1713. It was probably printed before that time, and it is now excessively rare. Toland translated the preface to De Γ Infinito ; it is found in his Posthumous Works. There is a French translation of part of the Spaccio, Le Ciel Reformé, 1750. Lasson has translated De la Caτιsa into German, 1872, with introduction and notes.

The earlier literature with regard to Bruno is copious; it will be found in Bayle, Buhle, and Tennemann.

Brunswick also possesses in Prussian Silesia the principality of Oels, which from 1647 to 1792 belonged to Wurtemberg. A portion of the Hartz Mountains is common to Brunswick and Hanover, and is consequently known as the Communion-Hartz. Various minor arrangements have been made with Prussia for the more convenient organization of this district since the formation of the new German empire. The highest point of the mountains in the Brunswick territory is the Wormberg, 3230 feet in height. The principal rivers by which the duchy is watered are the Ocker, the Weser, the Aller, and the Leine. The lower parts of the country are generally fertile and well cultivated; the higher are mostly covered with forests of fir, oak, and beech. A very extensive improvement has been effected in the circle of Helmstedt by the draining of the Drömling swamp, and the rectification of the courses of the Aller and the Ohre. Of the whole duchy 32 ’ 7 per cent, is arable, 27’3 consists of meadow and pasture, and 31’8 is under wood. Agricultural and pastoral pursuits constitute the principal employment of the inhabitants; and the peasant class are usually well to do. The principal articles of cultivation are grain, potatoes, beetroot, flax, hops, and fruits. The growing of tobacco, which was formerly of great importance, is now very limited. In 1870 there were in the duchy 25,344 horses, 83,558 head of cattle, 386,757 sheep, 75,616 swine, 39,167 goats, 55,829 geese, and 8385 bee stocks. The mineral wealth of the country, which is chiefly derived from the Hartz Mountains, consists of copper, lead, iron, gold, silver, sulphur, coal, salt, and alum. In 1867 the total yield of coal was 219,400 tons, of iron ore 58,400, of pig-iron 143,000, of cast-iron 1584; the copper amounted to 383 tons; the lead to 710, and the vitriol to 1339. The manufactures, which are comparatively small, comprise (besides the preparation of the ores) spinning, weaving, and brewing. The principal iron-works are at Rübeland, Wieda, Delligsen, and Oker; and the chief centres of general industry are Brunswick and Schöningen. An active trade is carried on by means of the extensive railway communication with the rest of Germany.

The educational institutions comprise two ecclesiastical seminaries, an anatomical and surgical college, an architectural school at Holzminden, an agricultural school at Schöppenstedt, 5 gymnasiums, 25 burgher schools, and upwards of 400 village schools, besides several important establishments in the capital (see below). There is an extensive lunatic asylum at Königslutter, opened in 1865.

According to the constitution of 1832, which has been frequently modified, the Government is an hereditary monarchy, with a legislative assembly of representatives. These are chosen, by the law of 1851, twenty-one by those citizens who pay the largest amount of taxes, ten by the towns, three by the clergy, and a certain number by the communes. They hold office for six years, one-half going out triennially; and when they are not in session, they are represented by a standing committee of seven members. In the federal council the duchy has two votes, and it sends three deputies to the imperial diet. The ducal contingent, which still wears its famous black uniform, forms part of the 10th federal army corps. The state is the proprietor not only of a large proportion of the mines and forests in the duchy, but also of its railways. From these sources it derives a considerable part of its revenue, which in recent years has been augmented by the farming out of lotteries. By the budget for the period 1873-5, the annual receipts were fixed at 7,429,400 marks, or £371,470. The total debt, which had been mainly incurred for the formation of the railways, amounted to 65,400,000 marks, or £3,270,000.

The people of Brunswick are, with comparatively few exceptions, of Saxon race. The country people speak dialects of Low German, while High German is employed by the educated classes in the cities.

The more immediate ancestor of the house of Brunswick was Henry the Lion, who, in the 12th century, held the united duchies of Bavaria and Saxony; but having refused to aid the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in his wars with the Pope, he was, by decree of the diet in 1180, deprived of both duchies, and only left the possession of his allodial domains of Brunswick and Lüneburg. His grandson, Otho, was invested in 1235 with these domains as a fief of the empire, and thus became the first duke of Brunswick. The two principalities which had been severed were united by Ernest the Confessor, but on his death in 1546, they were again divided between his two sons; the elder (or rather his son Augustus) receiving Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, or Brunswick, and the younger Brunswick-Lüneburg, or Hanover. The ducal residence, which had before been at Wolfenbüttel, was in 1754 removed to Brunswick by Duke Charles. His successor, Duke Charles William Ferdinand, married Augusta, daughter of George III. of England ^e commanded the Prussian troops at Auerstädt in 1806, and soon after died of the wounds he had received in the battle. His possessions were immediately seized by Napoleon, and formed part of the kingdom of Westphalia till after the battle of Leipsic, when the duchy was restored to its rightful possessor, Frederick William, youngest son of the preceding duke. This prince fell at the head of his troops at Quatre Bras, and was succeeded by Charles Frederick, the elder of his two sons,who, being at that time a minor, was placed under the tutelage of George IV. of England, then prince-regent. The duke entered on the exercise of his authority in October 1823, but in consequence of a revolution in 1830 was obliged to abdicate in 1831 in favour of his brother William, the present duke. During the long reign of duke William many important changes have taken place in the internal organization of the duchy, and most of them have been in the direction of greater civil liberty. Of great moment was the establishment of a new criminal code in 1840; and publicity of parliamentary discussion, the freedom of the press, the introduction of jury-trials in criminal cases, and the legitimation of Christian-Je wish marriages were secured in 1849. In 1851 military service was recognized as binding on all, and the election of members of parliament was placed more directly in the hands of the people. In 1864 the Stolgebühren, or taxes paid to the established clergy on the occasion of a baptism, a marriage, or a burial, were made no longer leviable on Jews, Roman Catholics, or other dissenters. The introduction of the German commercial code was effected in 1864, and freedom of trade was introduced in the same year. Treaties of mutual inheritance exist between the houses of Hanover and Brunswick; and should the present duke, who is still unmarried, die without issue, the duchy will pass to the house of Hanover. The ex-duke, to whose sons the right would first have descended, died childless at Geneva in August 1873. He had spent his life in pitiable devotion to certain hobbies, the most remarkable of which was the collection of valuable diamonds. His various treasures were bequeathed to the city of Geneva, but the will is disputed by the present duke.

Brunswick, the capital of the above duchy, is situated on the Ocker, 37 miles E.S.E. of Hanover by rail, and 52 W.N.W. of Magdeburg, in 52° 16'N. lat. and 10° 32 z E. long. In spite of the numerous alterations effected during the present century, the city is still of an antiquated appearance, and is for the most part contained within the limits of its old fortifications. These, which were dismantled in 1797, have given place to a regular circle of gardens and promenades, which rank among the finest in Germany.

The ducal palace is a handsome modern structure, erected since 1865, when the most of the previous building, which only dated from 1831, was destroyed by fire. The famous Quadriga of Rietschel, which perished at the same time, has been replaced by a copy by Howald. Among the ten or twelve churches in the town the most important are the cathedral of St Blaise, built by Henry the Lion in 1173; St Magnus’s, which is the oldest, dating from 1031; St Andreas, with a spire 318 feet high; and St Catherine’s, a building of the 13th century. The educational and charitable institutions of Brunswick are numerous and important. Of the former may be mentioned the Collegium, Carolinum, founded in 1745, the great United Gymnasiums (which include the former commercial gymnasium, the Martineum, and the Catherineum), the Medico-Chirurgical College, and the Academy of Forestry; while among the latter are a deaf and dumb institution, a blind asylum, an orphanage, and various hospitals and infirmaries. There are also two public libraries, a museum, a theatre, and several scientific societies. A monument, 60 feet high, to Duke Frederick William, who was slain at Quatre Bras, gives its name to Monuments-Platz, and another to the S.E. of the town perpetuates the memory of Schill and his companions. The trade of Brunswick, formerly restricted by obsolete legislation, is gradually increasing. The principal articles of manufacture are coarse cloth and leather; and, to a smaller extent, gloves, papier-maché, and paper wares. The town has long been famous for a special kind of beer, called Mumme, from the name of the Brunswick brewer who invented it in 1492. In 1867 the population amounted to 50,369, inhabiting 3487 houses, and divided into 10,850 families. In 1871 it had increased to 57,883.

Brunswick is said to have been founded about 861 by Bruno, duke of Saxony, from whom it was named Bτunonis Vicus. Afterwards enlarged and fortified by Henry thé Lion, it became one of the most important cities of Northern Germany. For a long time its constitution was rather peculiar, as it consisted of five separate townlets, each with its own walls and gates, its own council and Rathhaus,—a condition of which traces are still evident. In the 13th century it ranked among the first cities of the Hanseatic league, but it never succeeded in obtaining imperial freedom. After this, however, it declined, in consequence of the many divisions of territory among the branches of the reigning house, the jealousy of the neighbouring states, the Thirty Years’ War, and more recently the French occupation. In 1830 it was the scene of a violent revolution, which led to the removal of the reigning duke.

BRUNSWICK, a town of the United States of America, in Cumberland County, Maine, 27 miles N.N.E. of Portland, on the right bank of the Androscoggin River, which, with a fall of about 50 feet in half-a-mile, supplies a large amount of water-power. Numerous industrial establishments have been erected, the most important being a cotton factory, flour-mills, and bleach-works. The lumber-trade, which was formerly of great extent, has been in great measure replaced by the building and owning of ships. Besides possessing an excellent system of graduated schools, Brunswick is the seat of Bowdoin College, founded in 1802, and of the Maine Medical School, which dates from 1820. The river is crossed by two bridges, one of which unites the town with Topsham, and the other belongs to the Kennebec and Portland railway. Population in 1850, 4927; in 1870, 4687, or including the neighbouring village, 6136.