he lost his living at Long-Newton in 1690, and was compelled to resign his
fellowship on the accession of George I, but continued to reside at St.
John's College till his death in 1740. His _Reflections on Learning_
(1709-10) went through seven editions. He left in MS. forty-two folio
volumes of an _Athenae Cantabrigienses_, from which a _History of St.
John's College_ was edited by Professor Mayor in 1869.
BAKEWELL, an ancient market town, England, county of Derby, between Buxton
and Matlock, possessing a fine Gothic church, a chalybeate spring, a
cotton-mill erected by Arkwright, and a large marble-cutting industry. Pop.
3062.
BAKEWELL, Robert, an English agriculturist, celebrated for his improvements
in the breeding of sheep, cattle, and horses, was born in Leicestershire in
1725, and died in 1795. He commenced experiments in breeding sheep, about
1755, upon his father's farm at Dishley, and for fifty years devoted
himself to the acquisition and diffusion of information upon the subject.
He was the originator of the new Leicestershire breed of sheep, which has
since been so well known, and also of a breed of cattle very famous in
their day. The demand for his rams increased so considerably, that whereas
he let them for the season at L16 per head in 1755, by 1789 they were hired
at 6000 guineas. Various improvements in farm management were also
introduced by him.
BAKHMUT. See _Bachmut_.
BAKHUISEN. See _Backhuysen_.
BAKING, a term meaning 'to cook by dry heat', and primarily applied to the
baking of bread. A common application of the term is to a mode of cooking
food in a close oven, baking in this case being opposed to roasting or
broiling, in which an open fire is used. The oven should not be too close,
but ought to be properly ventilated. Baking is also applied to the
hardening of earthenware or porcelain by fire. See _Bread_.
BAKING POWDER, a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and tartaric acid, usually
with some flour added. The water of the dough causes the liberation of
carbonic acid, which makes the bread 'rise'.
BAKONY (b[.a]-kon'y[.e]) WALD, a thickly wooded mountain range dividing the
Hungarian plains, famous for the herds of swine fed on its mast.
BAKSHEESH', an Eastern term for a present or gratuity. A demand for
baksheesh meets travellers in the East everywhere from Turkey and Egypt to
Hindustan.
BAKU (bae-koe'), a Russian port on the western shore of the Caspian,
occupying part of the Peninsula of Apsheron. The naphtha or petroleum
springs of Baku have long been known; and the Field of Fire, so called from
emitting inflammable gases, has long been a place of pilgrimage with the
Guebres or Fire-worshippers. From the development of the petroleum
industry, Baku has greatly increased, and is now a large and flourishing
town. About 1500 oil-wells are in operation, producing immense quantities
of petroleum (6,448,000 tons in 1917), much of which is led direct in pipes
from the wells to the refineries in Baku, and it is intended to lay a pipe
for its conveyance all the way to the Black Sea at Batoum, which is already
connected with Baku by railway. Some of the wells have had such an outflow
of oil as to be unmanageable, and the Baku petroleum now competes
successfully with any other in the markets of the world. Baku, formerly the
station of the Caspian fleet, is strongly fortified, and has a large
shipping trade. The district of Baku lies within the limits of the new
Republic of Azerbaijan. Pop. 237,000; pop. of the province, 1,119,600.
BAKU'NIN, Michael, Russian anarchist, the founder of Nihilism, born 1814 of
a rich and noble family, entered the army, but threw up his commission
after two years' service, and studied philosophy at Moscow, with his
friends Hertzen, Turgeniev, Granovski (historian), and Byelinski (critic).
Having adopted Hegel's system as the basis of a new revolution, he went in
1841 to Berlin, and thence to Dresden, Geneva, and Paris, as the
propagandist of anarchism. Wherever he went he caused disturbance, and
after undergoing imprisonment in various States, was handed over to Russia
in 1851 by Austria, imprisoned for five years, and finally sent to Siberia.
Escaping thence through Japan, he joined Hertzen in London on the staff of
the _Kolokol_. His extreme views, however, ruined the paper and led to a
quarrel with Marx and the Internationale; and having fallen into disrepute
with his own party in Russia, he died suddenly and almost alone at Berne in
1878. He demanded the entire abolition of the State as a State, the
absolute equalization of individuals, and the extirpation of hereditary
rights and of religion, his conception of the next stage of social progress
being purely negative and annihilatory.
BALA, a lake 4 miles long, and an urban district of N. Wales, in
Merionethshire. Pop. 1408.
BALAAM (b[=a]'lam), a prophet, invited by Balak, King of Moab, to curse the
Israelites, but compelled by miracle to bless them instead (_Num._
xxii-xxiv). In another account he is represented as aiding in the
perversion of the Israelites to the worship of Baal, and as being,
therefore, slain in the Midianitish war (_Num._ xxxi; _Josh._ xiii). He is
the subject of many rabbinical fables, the Targumists and Talmudists
regarding him, as most of the fathers did, in the light of an impious and
godless man.
BALA BEDS, or BALA SERIES, a deposit of Upper Ordovician Age, named from
the Bala district, North Wales, consisting of slates, grits, sandstones,
and limestones, there being two limestones separated by sandy and slaty
rocks about 1400 feet thick. They contain trilobites of many species, and
other marine fossils. The lower Bala limestone (25 feet thick) may be
traced over a large area in North Wales. See _Caradoc Series_, _Ordovician
System_.
BALACHONG', an Oriental condiment, composed of small fishes, or shrimps,
pounded up with salt and spices and then dried.
BALAE'NA, the genus which includes the Greenland or right whale, type of
the family Balaenidae, or whale-bone whales.
BALAE'NICEPS ('whale-head'), a genus of wading birds belonging to the
Sudan, intermediate between the herons and storks, and characterized by an
enormous bill, broad and swollen, giving the only known species (_B. rex_),
also called shoe-bird, a peculiar appearance. It feeds on fishes,
water-snakes, carrion, &c., and makes its nest in reeds or grass adjoining
water. The bill is yellow, blotched with dark-brown, the general colour of
the plumage dusky-grey, the head, neck, and breast slaty, the legs
blackish.
BALAENOP'TERA. See _Rorqual_.
BALAGARH (bae-lae-g_a_r'), town of Hindustan, in the Punjab. Pop. 11,233.
BALAGHAT', a district of India, in the Central Provinces, Nagpur division;
area, 3146 sq. miles; capital, Burha, a small place. The surface is
diversified, comprising extensive uplands as well as lowlands; forests are
extensive, and a comparatively small part of the area is under cultivation,
rice being the chief crop. Iron exists in considerable quantities, and it
is worked in a small way; gold is also worked. Pop. 330,000, almost
entirely rural.
BALAGUER (b[.a]-l[.a]-g[=a]r'), Victor, Spanish author and politician,
important writer in the Catalonian dialect, born 1824, died 1901. Born at
Barcelona, he studied law there, and, becoming learned in Catalonian
history, was appointed archivist and soon after professor of history. In
1869 he entered the Cortes as a Liberal; in 1872 was Minister of Public
Works; from 1886 to 1888 Colonial Minister. He wrote much both in prose and
verse, his prose comprising historical works, novels, &c., his verse
lyrics, ballads, tragedies, odes, &c. His tragedies were partly on subjects
taken from Catalonian history, partly on subjects connected with Greek and
Roman history or literature. Among his lyrical and other poems are: _El
Trovador de Montserrat_; _Primavera de Ultimo Trovador Catalan_; _Poesias
Completas_ (1874); _Obras Poeticas_ (1880). _Don Juan de Serrallonga_ is
the most popular of his novels. Among other works of his are: _Historia
Politica y Literaria de los Trovadores_; _Historia de Cataluna_; _Los
Pirineos_; _Cristobal Colon_; _Estudios Historicos y Politicos_; _Historias
y Tradiciones_; _Instituciones y Reyes de Aragon_. As a poet he was
imitative, reminding us of Quintana, Zorilla, and Byron.
BALAKLAVA (b[.a]-l[.a]-klae'va), a small seaport in the Crimea, 8 miles
S.S.E. Sevastopol. In the Crimean war it was captured by the British, who
used the harbour as a base of supplies. The famous battle of Balaklava was
fought some distance to the north of the seaport, on 25th Oct., 1854. The
Russians brought a force of 25,000 men against the allies, a much larger
force than they had to encounter, and the chief incidents in the battle
were as follows: The Russians captured a series of positions occupied by
the Turks in front of the British position; a Russian cavalry charge was
repulsed by the 93rd Highlanders; a great mass of Russian cavalry was
defeated by a charge of British heavy cavalry; the British light cavalry
brigade charged and took a Russian battery, and put to flight the cavalry
behind it, but were compelled by overpowering force to retreat with heavy
loss, their retreat being covered by a brilliant charge of the French. The
celebrated charge of the light brigade, or of the 'six hundred', though a
brilliant feat of arms, was made under an erroneous interpretation of
orders; that of the heavy brigade was equally glorious, and contributed far
more to the final repulse of the enemy.
BALAKO'VO, a river-port of South-Eastern Russia, on the left bank of the
Volga, government of Samara, with a very important trade in grain. Pop.
16,000.
BALALAI'KA, a musical instrument of very ancient Slavonic origin, common
among the Russians and Tartars. It is a narrow, shallow guitar with only
two strings.
BAL'ANCE, an instrument for determining the relative weights of bodies.
Balances are of various forms; in that most commonly used a horizontal beam
rests so as to turn easily upon a fulcrum in the middle. From the
extremities of the beam, called the centres of suspension, hang the scales;
and a slender metal pointer between them, and in front of the fulcrum,
indicates when the beam is level. The characteristics of a good balance
are: (1) that the beam should rest in a horizontal position when the scales
are either empty or loaded with equal weights; (2) that a very small
addition of weight put into either scale should cause the beam to deviate
from the level, which property is denominated the sensibility of the
balance; (3) that when the beam is deflected from the horizontal position
by inequality of the weights on the scales, it should have a tendency
speedily to restore itself and come to rest in the level, which property is
called the stability of the balance. To secure these qualities the arms of
the beam should be exactly similar, equal in weight and length, and as long
as possible; the centres of gravity and suspension should be in one
straight line, and the fulcrum immediately above the centre of gravity; and
the fulcrum and the centres of suspension should cause as little friction
as possible. The fulcrum ought to be a knife-edge; and if the balance
requires to be very delicate, the centres of suspension ought to be
knife-edges also. If the balance has no tendency to one position more than
another, when the scales are either loaded, empty, or off altogether, it is
proof that the centre of gravity and the fulcrum coincide, and the remedy
is to lower the centre of gravity. If the beam is disturbed by a small
addition of weight to either scale, and exhibits no tendency to resume the
horizontal position, we may infer that the centre of gravity is above the
fulcrum. If it requires a considerable excess of weight to deflect the beam
from the level, we may infer either that there is too much friction at the
fulcrum, or that the centre of gravity is too low. If two weights are found
to be in equipoise, one being in each scale, and if, when that which is in
one scale is put into the other, there is no longer equilibrium, then we
may infer that the arms of the beam are of unequal lengths. For purposes of
accuracy, balances have occasionally means of raising or depressing the
centre of gravity, of regulating the length of the arms, &c., and the whole
apparatus is usually enclosed in a glass case, to prevent the heat from
expanding the arms unequally, or currents of air from disturbing the
equilibrium. A refinement in weighing is obtained by the use of the
milligram rider, a short bent wire which can be moved along a scale
engraved on the beam.
Of the other forms of balance, the Roman balance, or steel-yard, consists
of a lever moving freely upon a suspended fulcrum, the shorter arm of the
lever having a scale or pan attached to it, and the longer arm, along which
slides a weight, being graduated to indicate quantities. It is commonly
used for weighing loaded carts, for luggage at railway stations, &c. A
variety of this, the Danish balance, has the weight fixed at the end of the
lever, the fulcrum being movable along the graduated index. The
spring-balance registers the weight of an article by the extent to which it
draws out or compresses a spiral spring. It is of service where a high
degree of exactness is not required, as in its domestic use, and it also
finds application in the dynamometer for measuring horse-power of
machinery. An extremely ingenious balance, used in the Mint and the Bank of
England, for weighing 'blanks' and sovereigns, distributes them
automatically into three compartments according as they are light, heavy,
or the exact weight. The Roberval balance is a form in common use for
weighing letters and parcels.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. A. Brauer, _The
Construction of the Balance_; E. Nicholson, _Men and Measures: a history of
weights and measures, ancient and modern_.
BALANCE OF POWER, a political principle which first came to be recognized
in modern Europe in the sixteenth century, though it appears to have been
also acted on by the Greeks in ancient times, in preserving the relations
between their different States. The object in maintaining the balance of
power is to secure the general independence of nations as a whole, by
preventing the aggressive attempts of individual States to extend their
territory and sway at the expense of weaker countries. The first European
monarch whose ambitious designs induced a combination of other States to
counteract them was the Emperor Charles V, similar coalitions being formed
in the end of the seventeenth century, when the ambition of Louis XIV
excited the fears of Europe, and a century later against the exorbitant
power and aggressive schemes of the first Napoleon. Since that time we have
the instance of the Crimean War, entered into to check the ambition of
Russia. Of late years there has been a marked tendency among British
politicians to decry and impugn the principle of the balance of power, as
calculated only to propagate a system of mutual hostility, and retard the
cause of progress, by the expenditure both of money and life thus
occasioned. An equilibrium between the various Powers is, of course,
essential to the very existence of international law. The war of 1914-8 has
proved to the world that in the absence of any central authority neither
treaties nor signatures could prevent a State sufficiently powerful from
ignoring the law and acting solely according to its interests and ambitious
designs. See _Society of Nations_.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hume, _Essay on the
Balance of Power_; Von Gentz, _Fragments on the Balance of Power_;
Professor L. Oppenheim, _International Law_, vol. i; Vattel, _Le droit des
gens_.
BALANCE OF TRADE, the difference between the stated money values of the
exports and imports of a country. The balance is erroneously said to be 'in
favour' of a country when the value of the exports is in excess of that of
the imports, and 'against it' when the imports are in excess of the
exports. The phrases date from the days of the mercantile system, the
characteristic doctrine of which alleged the desirability of regulating
commerce with a view to amassing treasure by exporting produce largely,
importing little merchandise in return, and receiving the balance in
bullion. In certain conceivable political and industrial conditions this
may have had beneficial results; but its importance was greatly
overestimated, and the state of this balance came to be regarded as an
invariable criterion of the industrial condition of a country. The false
analogy of the successful merchant who gains more than he spends became the
basis of popular reasoning, the products of a country being mistakenly
identified with its exports, its consumption with its importation. It is
now generally recognized that if bullion be exported from a country it is
because it is at the time the cheapest commodity available for export; and
further, that there are certain natural limits to its undue exportation, in
that the increased scarcity of money is attended with a fall in the
money-value of other commodities, which thus in turn become preferable
objects of exportation, while bullion flows back. The excess of the value
of imports over that of exports, which is regarded by some as an adverse
and alarming symptom in British trade, is in large part readily accounted
for on the ground of shipping receipts, insurance returns, interest on
capital employed in foreign trade, merchants' profits, and the income
derived from foreign investments.
[Illustration: Group of _Bal[)a]nus tintinnab[)u]lum_]
BAL'ANUS ('acorn-shells'), a genus of sessile cirripeds, family Balanidae,
of which colonies are to be found on rocks at low water, on timbers,
crustaceans, shells of mollusca, &c. They differ from the barnacles in
having a symmetrical shell, and being destitute of a flexible stalk. The
shell consists of six plates, with an operculum of four valves. They pass
through a larval state, in which they are not fixed, moving by means of
swimming feet which disappear in the final state. All the Balanidae are
hermaphrodite. A South American species (_Bal[)a]nus psitt[)a]cus_) is
eaten on the coast of Chile, the _Bal[)a]nus tintinnab[)u]lum_ by the
Chinese. The old Roman epicures esteemed the larger species.
BALAPUR', town of India, in Akola district, Berar, with strong fort and
fine pavilion of black stone. Pop. 10,500.
BAL'AS, a name used to distinguish the rose-coloured species of ruby from
the ruby proper.
BALASOR', a seaport town, Hindustan, presidency of Bengal, province of
Orissa, head-quarters of a district and subdivision bearing the same name.
It carries on a considerable traffic with Calcutta. Pop. 21,362.
BALA'TA, a gum yielded by _Mim[=u]sops Balata_, a tree growing abundantly
in British, French, and Dutch Guiana, Honduras and Brazil, obtained in a
milky state by 'tapping' the tree, and hardening to a substance like
leather. Used for similar purposes to india-rubber, and in the United
States chewed as a masticatory.
BAL'ATON, or PLATTENSEE, a lake of Hungary, 55 miles S.W. of Pesth; length,
50 miles; breadth, 3 to 10 miles; area, about 390 sq. miles. Of its
thirty-two feeders the Szala is the largest, and the lake communicates with
the Danube by the Rivers Sio and Sarviz. It abounds with a species of
perch.
BALBEC. See _Baalbek_.
BALBI, Adrien, geographer and statistician, born at Venice in 1782. In 1808
his first work on geography, _Prospetto Politico-Geografico_, procured his
appointment as professor of geography in the College of San Michele at
Murano, and he became in 1811 professor of natural philosophy in the Lyceum
at Fermo. In 1820 he proceeded to Portugal, and collected there materials
for his _Essai Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal et d'Algarve_ and
_Varietes Politiques et Statistiques de la Monarchie Portugaise_, both
published in 1822 at Paris, where he resided till 1832. He then settled in
Padua, where he died in 1848. Balbi's admirable _Abrege de Geographie_ was
written at Paris, and translated into the principal European languages.
BALBI, Gasp[=a]ro, a Venetian dealer in precious stones, born about the
middle of the sixteenth century, who travelled first to Aleppo and thence
down the Euphrates and Tigris to the Malabar coast, sailing finally for
Pegu, where he remained for two years. His _Viaggio all' Indie Orientale_,
published on his return to Venice in 1590, contains the earliest account of
India beyond the Ganges.
BALBO, Ces[=a]re, Italian author and statesman, born in 1789 at Turin.
After holding one or two posts under the patronage of Napoleon, he devoted
himself to history, publishing a history of Italy prior to the period of
Charlemagne, a compendium of Italian history, &c. His _Speranze d'Italia_
(1843), a statement of the political condition of Italy, and of the
practicable ideals to be kept in view, gave him a wide reputation. He died
in 1853.
BALBO'A, Vasco Nunez de, one of the early Spanish adventurers in the New
World, born 1475. Having dissipated his fortune, he went to America, and
was at Darien with the expedition of Francisco de Enciso in 1510. An
insurrection placed him at the head of the colony, but rumours of a western
ocean and of the wealth of Peru led him to cross the isthmus. On 25th
Sept., 1513, he saw for the first time the Pacific, and after annexing it
to Spain, and acquiring information about Peru, returned to Darien. Here he
found himself supplanted by a new governor, Pedrarias Davila, with much
consequent grievance on the one side, and much jealousy on the other.
Balboa submitted, however, and in the following year was appointed Viceroy
of the South Sea. Davila was apparently reconciled to him, and gave him his
daughter in marriage, but shortly after, in 1517, had him beheaded on a
charge of intent to rebel. Pizarro, who afterwards completed the discovery
of Peru, served under Balboa.
BALBRIGGAN, a seaport and favourite watering-place, Ireland, county of
Dublin; celebrated for its hosiery. Pop. 2273.
BAL'CONY, in architecture, is a gallery projecting from the outer wall of a
building, supported by columns or brackets, and surrounded by a balustrade.
Balconies were not used in Greek and Roman buildings, and in the East the
roof of the house has for centuries served similar purposes on a larger
scale. Balconies properly so styled came into fashion in Italy in the
Middle Ages, and were introduced into Britain in the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: Baldachin: Church of St. Ambrogio, Milan]
BAL'DACHIN (-kin; It. _baldachino_), a canopy or tent-like covering of any
material, either suspended from the roof, fastened to the wall, or
supported on pillars over altars, thrones, pulpits, beds, portals, &c.
Portable baldachins of rich materials were formerly used to shield the
heads of dignitaries in processions, and are still so used in the
processions of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the East. The enormous
bronze baldachin designed by Bernini for Pope Urban VIII, and placed over
the tomb of the apostles in St. Peter's at Rome, is one of the most famous,
though surpassed in beauty by many in other European cathedrals and
churches.
BALDER, or BALDUR, a Scandinavian divinity, represented as the son of Odin
and Frigga, beautiful, wise, amiable, and beloved by all the gods. His
mother took an oath from every creature, and even from every inanimate
object, that they would not harm Balder, but omitted the mistletoe. Balder
was therefore deemed invulnerable, and the other gods in sport flung stones
and shot arrows at him without harming him. But the evil god Loki fashioned
an arrow from the mistletoe and got Balder's blind brother H[=o]der to
shoot it, himself guiding his aim. Balder fell dead, pierced to the heart,
to the deep grief of all the gods. He is believed to be a personification
of the brightness and beneficence of the sun.