matter obtained from various kinds of lichens, the most important of which
are the _Roccella tinctoria_ and the _R. fuciformis_, natives of the rocks
of the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, Mozambique and Zanzibar, South
America, &c., and popularly called dyer's-moss. The dye is used for
improving the tints of other dyes, as from its want of permanence it cannot
be employed alone; but the aniline colours have largely superseded it.
Cudbear and litmus are of similar origin.
ARCHILOCHUS ([.a]r-kil'o-kus) OF PAROS, one of the earliest Ionian lyric
poets, the first Greek poet who composed iambic verses according to fixed
rules. He flourished about 700 B.C. His iambic poems were renowned for
force of style, liveliness of metaphor, and a powerful but bitter spirit of
satire. In other lyric poems of a graver character he was also considered
as a model. All his works are lost but a few fragments.
ARCHIMAN'DRITE, in the Greek Church, an abbot or abbot-general, who has the
superintendence of many abbots and convents. The title dates from the
fourth century.
ARCHIME'DEAN SCREW, a machine for raising water, said to have been invented
by Archimedes. It is formed by winding a tube spirally round a cylinder so
as to have the form of a screw, or by hollowing out the cylinder itself
into a double or triple-threaded screw and enclosing it in a water-tight
case. When the screw is placed in an inclined position and the lower end
immersed in water, by causing the screw to revolve, the water may be raised
to a limited extent.
ARCHIMEDES ([.a]r-ki-m[=e]'d[=e]z), a celebrated ancient Greek physicist
and geometrician, born at Syracuse, in Sicily, about 287 B.C. He devoted
himself entirely to science, and enriched mathematics with discoveries of
the highest importance, upon which the moderns have founded their
admeasurements of curvilinear surfaces and solids. Archimedes is the only
one among the ancients who has left us anything satisfactory on the theory
of mechanics and on hydrostatics. He first taught the hydrostatic principle
to which his name is attached, "that a body immersed in a fluid loses as
much in weight as the weight of an equal volume of the fluid", and
determined by means of it that an artist had fraudulently added too much
alloy to a crown which King Hiero had ordered to be made of pure gold. He
discovered the solution of this problem while bathing; and it is said to
have caused him so much joy that he hastened home from the bath undressed,
and crying out, _Eur[=e]ka! Eur[=e]ka!_ 'I have found it, I have found it!'
Practical mechanics also received a great deal of attention from
Archimedes, who boasted that if he had a fulcrum or stand-point he could
move the world. He is the inventor of the compound pulley, probably of the
endless screw, the Archimedean screw, &c. During the siege of Syracuse by
the Romans he is said to have constructed many wonderful machines with
which he repelled their attacks, and he is stated to have set on fire their
fleet by burning-glasses. At the moment when the Romans gained possession
of the city by assault (212 B.C.), tradition relates that Archimedes was
slain while sitting in the market-place contemplating some mathematical
figures which he had drawn in the sand.
ARCHIPEL'AGO, a term originally applied to the Aegean, the sea lying
between Greece and Asia Minor, then to the numerous islands situated
therein, and subsequently to any cluster of islands. In the Grecian
Archipelago the islands nearest the European coast lie together almost in a
circle, and for this reason are called the _Cyclades_ (Gr. _kyklos_, a
circle); those nearest the Asiatic, being farther from one another, the
_Sporades_ ('scattered'). (See these articles, and _Negropont_, _Scio_,
_Samos_, _Rhodes_, _Cyprus_, &c.) The Malay, Indian, or Eastern
Archipelago, on the east of Asia, includes Borneo, Sumatra, and other large
islands.
ARCHITEC'TURE, in a general sense, is the art of designing and constructing
houses, bridges, and other buildings for the purposes of civil life; or, in
a more limited but very common sense, that branch of the fine arts which
has for its object the production of edifices not only convenient for their
special purpose, but characterized by unity, beauty, and often
grandeur.--The first habitations of man were such as nature afforded, or
cost little labour to the occupant--caves, huts, and tents. But as soon as
men rose in civilization and formed settled societies they began to build
more commodious and comfortable habitations. They bestowed more care on the
materials, preparing bricks of clay or earth, which they at first dried in
the air, but afterwards baked by fire; and subsequently they smoothed
stones and joined them at first without, and at a later period with, mortar
or cement. After they had learned to build houses, they erected temples for
their gods on a larger and more splendid scale than their own dwellings.
The Egyptians are the most ancient nation known to us among whom
architecture had attained the character of a fine art. Other ancient
peoples among whom it had made great progress were the Babylonians, whose
most celebrated buildings were temples, palaces, and hanging gardens; the
Assyrians, whose capital, Nineveh, was rich in splendid buildings; the
Phoenicians, whose cities, Sidon, Tyre, &c., were adorned with equal
magnificence; and the Israelites, whose temple was a wonder of
architecture. But comparatively few architectural monuments of these
nations have remained till our day.
This is not the case with the architecture of Egypt, however, of which we
possess ample remains in the shape of pyramids, temples, sepulchres,
obelisks, &c. Egyptian chronology is far from certain, but the greatest of
the architectural monuments of the country, the pyramids of Ghizeh, are at
least as old as 2800 or 2700 B.C. The Egyptian temples had walls of great
thickness and sloping on the outside from bottom to top; the roofs were
flat, and composed of blocks of stone reaching from one wall or column to
another. The columns were numerous, close, and very thick, generally
without bases, and exhibiting great variety in the designs of their
capitals. The principle of the arch, though known, was not employed for
architectural purposes. Statues of enormous size, sphinxes carved in stone,
and on the walls sculptures in outline of deities and animals, with
innumerable hieroglyphics, are the decorative objects which belong to this
style.
[Illustration: Egyptian--Restoration of Temple of Luxor]
The earliest architectural remains of Greece are of unknown antiquity, and
consist of massive walls built of huge blocks of stone. In historic times
the Greeks developed an architecture of noble simplicity and dignity. The
discoveries in Crete and Argolis have shown that Greek architecture owes
much less than was supposed to Egyptian and Chaldaean architecture. It is
considered to have attained its greatest perfection in the age of Pericles,
or about 460-430 B.C. The great masters of this period were Phidias,
Ictinus, Callicrates, &c. All the extant buildings are more or less in
ruins. The style is characterized by beauty, harmony, and simplicity in the
highest degree. Distinctive of it are what are called the _orders_ of
architecture, by which term are understood certain modes of proportioning
and decorating the column and its superimposed entablature. The Greeks had
three orders, called respectively the _Doric_, _Ionic_, and _Corinthian_.
(See articles under these names.) Greek buildings were abundantly adorned
with sculptures, and painting was extensively used, the details of the
structures being enriched by different colours or tints. Lowness of roofs
and the absence of arches were distinctive features of Greek architecture,
in which, as in that of Egypt, horizontality of line is another
characteristic mark. The most remarkable public edifices of the Greeks were
temples, of which the most famous is the Parthenon at Athens. Others exist
in various parts of Greece as well as in Sicily, Southern Italy, Asia
Minor, &c., where important Greek communities were early settled. Their
theatres were semicircular on one side and square on the other, the
semicircular part being usually excavated in the side of some convenient
hill. This part, the auditorium, was filled with concentric seats, and
might be capable of containing 20,000 spectators. A number exist in Greece,
Sicily, and Asia Minor, and elsewhere. By the end of the Peloponnesian War
(_c._ 400 B.C.) the best period of Greek architecture was over; a noble
simplicity had given place to excess of ornament. After the death of
Alexander the Great (323 B.C.) the decline was still more marked.
[Illustration: Byzantine--Church of St. Sophia, Constantinople]
Among the Romans there was no original development of architecture as among
the Greeks, though they early took the foremost place in the construction
of such works as aqueducts and sewers, the arch being in early and
extensive use among this people. As a fine art, however, Roman architecture
had its origin in copies of the Greek models, all the Grecian orders being
introduced into Rome, and variously modified. Their number, moreover, was
augmented by the addition of two new orders--the _Tuscan_ and the
_Composite_. The Romans became acquainted with the architecture of the
Greeks soon after 200 B.C., but it was not till about two centuries later
that the architecture of Rome attained (under Augustus) its greatest
perfection. Among the great works now erected were temples, aqueducts,
amphitheatres, magnificent villas, triumphal arches, monumental pillars,
&c. The _amphitheatre_ differed from the theatre in being a completely
circular or rather elliptical building, filled on all sides with ascending
seats for spectators and leaving only the central space, called the
_arena_, for the combatants and public shows. The Coliseum is a stupendous
structure of this kind. The _thermae_, or baths, were vast structures in
which multitudes of people could bathe at once. Magnificent tombs were
often built by the wealthy. Remains of private residences are numerous, and
the excavations at Pompeii in particular have thrown great light on the
internal arrangements of the Roman dwelling-house. Almost all the
successors of Augustus embellished Rome more or less, erected splendid
palaces and temples, and adorned, like Hadrian, even the conquered
countries with them. But after the period of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) Roman
architecture is considered to have been on the decline. The refined and
noble style of the Greeks was neglected, and there was an attempt to
embellish the beautiful more and more. This decline was all the more rapid
at a later time owing to the disturbed state of the Empire and the
incursions of the barbarians.
In Constantinople, after its virtual separation from the Western Empire,
arose a style of art and architecture which was practised by the Greek
Church during the whole of the Middle Ages. This is called the Byzantine
style. The church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, built by Justinian
(reigned 527-565), offers the most typical specimen of the style, of which
the fundamental principle was an application of the Roman arch, the dome
being the most striking feature of the building. In the most typical
examples the dome or cupola rests on four pendentives.
After the dismemberment of the Roman Empire the beautiful works of ancient
architecture were almost entirely destroyed by the Goths, Vandals, and
other barbarians in Italy, Greece, Asia, Spain, and Africa; or what was
spared by them was ruined by the fanaticism of the Christians. A new style
of architecture now arose, two forms of which, the Lombard and the Norman
Romanesque, form important phases of art. The Lombard prevailed in North
Italy and South Germany from the eighth or ninth to the thirteenth century
(though the Lombard rule came to an end in 774); the Norman Romanesque
flourished, especially in Normandy and England, from the eleventh to the
middle of the thirteenth century. The semicircular arch is the most
characteristic feature of this style. With the Lombard Romanesque were
combined Byzantine features, and buildings in the pure Byzantine style were
also erected in Italy, as the church of St. Mark at Venice.
ARCHITECTURE
[Illustration]
The conquests of the Moors introduced a fresh style of architecture into
Europe after the eighth century--the Moorish or Saracenic. This style
accompanied the spread of Mahommedanism after its rise in Arabia in the
seventh century. The edifices erected by the Moors and Saracens in Spain,
Egypt, and Turkey are distinguished, among other things, by a peculiar form
of the arch, which forms a curve constituting more than half a circle or
ellipse. A peculiar flowery decoration, called _arabesque_, is a common
ornament of this style, of which the building called the Alhambra (q.v.) is
perhaps the chief glory.
[Illustration: Norman Romanesque--Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathedral]
The Germans were unacquainted with architecture until the time of
Charlemagne. He introduced into Germany the Byzantine and Romanesque
styles. Afterwards the Moorish or Arabian style had some influence upon
that of the Western nations, and thus originated the mixed style which
maintained itself till the middle of the thirteenth century. Then began the
modern Gothic style, which grew up in France, England, and Germany. Its
striking characteristics are its pointed arches, its pinnacles and spires,
its large buttresses, clustered pillars, vaulted roofs, profusion of
ornament, and, on the whole, its lofty, bold character. Its most
distinctive feature, as compared with the Greek or the Egyptian style, is
the predominance in it of perpendicular or rising lines, producing forms
that convey the idea of soaring or mounting upwards. Its greatest
capabilities have been best displayed in ecclesiastical edifices. The
Gothic style is divided into four principal epochs: the Early Pointed, or
general style of the thirteenth century; the Decorated, or style of the
fourteenth century; the Perpendicular, practised during the fifteenth and
early part of the sixteenth centuries; and the Tudor, or general style of
the sixteenth century. This style lasted in England up to the seventeenth
century, being gradually displaced by that branch of the Renaissance or
modified revival of ancient Roman architecture which is known as the
_Elizabethan style_, and which is perhaps more purely an English style than
any other that can be named.
The rise of the Renaissance style in Italy is the greatest event in the
history of architecture after the introduction of the Gothic style. The
Gothic style had been introduced into the country and extensively employed,
but had never been thoroughly naturalized. The Renaissance is a revival of
the classic style based on the study of the ancient models; and having
practically commenced in Florence about the beginning of the fifteenth
century, it soon spread with great rapidity over Italy and the greater part
of Europe. The most illustrious architects of this early period of the
style were Brunelleschi, who built at Florence the dome of the cathedral,
the Pitti Palace, &c., besides many edifices at Milan, Pisa, Pesaro, and
Mantua; Alberti, who wrote an important work on architecture, and erected
many beautiful churches; Bramante, who began the building of St. Peter's,
Rome, and Michael Angelo, who erected its magnificent dome. On St. Peter's
were also employed Raphael, Peruzzi, and San Gallo. The noblest building in
this style of architecture in Britain is St. Paul's, London, the work of
Sir Christopher Wren.
[Illustration: Italian Gothic--Doges' Palace, Venice]
Since the Renaissance period there has been no architectural development
requiring special note. In buildings erected at the present day some one of
the various styles of architecture is employed according to taste. Modern
dwelling-houses have necessarily a style of their own as far as stories and
apartments and windows and chimneys can give them one. In general the
Grecian style, as handed down by Rome and modified by the Italian
architects of the Renaissance, from its right angles and straight
entablatures, is more convenient, and fits better with the distribution of
our common buildings, than the pointed and irregular Gothic. But the
occasional introduction of the Gothic outline and the partial employment of
its ornaments has undoubtedly an agreeable effect both in public and
private edifices; and we are indebted to it, among other things, for the
spire, a structure exclusively Gothic, which, though often misplaced, has
become an object of general approbation and a pleasing landmark to cities
and villages. The works most characteristic of the present day are the
large bridges, viaducts, &c., in many of which iron is the sole or most
characteristic portion of the material.
[Illustration: Renaissance--St. Peter's, Rome]
A few words may be added on the architecture of India and China. Although
many widely-differing styles are to be found in India, the oldest and only
true native style of Indian ecclesiastical architecture is the Buddhist,
the earliest specimens dating from 250 B.C. Among the chief objects of
Buddhist art are _stupas_ or _topes_, built in the form of large towers,
and employed as _dagobas_ to contain relics of Buddha or of some noted
saint. Other works of Buddhist art are temples or monasteries excavated
from the solid rock, and supported by pillars of the natural rock left in
their places. Buddhist architecture is found in Ceylon, Tibet, Java, &c.,
as well as in India. The most remarkable Hindu or Brahmanical temples are
in Southern India. They are pyramidal in form, rising in a series of
stories. The Saracenic or Mohammedan architecture afterwards introduced
into India is, of course, of foreign origin. The Chinese have made the
_tent_ the elementary feature of their architecture; and of their style any
one may form an idea by inspecting the figures which are depicted upon
common chinaware. Chinese roofs are concave on the upper side, as if made
of canvas instead of wood. (For further information see _Greek_, _Roman_,
_Gothic_, _English_, _French_, _Russian Architecture_; and _Building_,
_Fine Arts_, _Arch_, _Column_, _Aqueduct_, _Corinthian_, _Doric_, _Ionic_,
_Theatre_, &c.)--BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Ruskin, _Seven Lamps of Architecture_;
E. A. Freeman, _History of Architecture_; Viollet-le-Duc, _How to build a
House_; J. T. Micklethwaite, _Modern Parish Churches_; H. H. Statham,
_Architecture for General Readers_ and _Critical History of Architecture_;
J. Fergusson, _History of Architecture in all Countries_; F. M. Simpson, _A
History of Architectural Development_; _Cyclopedia of Architecture_.
ARCHITRAVE (aer'ki-traev), in architecture, the part of an entablature
which rests immediately on the heads of the columns, being the lowest of
its three principal divisions, the others being the _frieze_ and the
_cornice_.
ARCHIVES (aer'k[=i]vz). See _Records_.
ARCHIVOLT (aer'ki-volt), in architecture, the ornamental band of mouldings
on the face of an arch and following its contour.
ARCHONS (aer'konz), the chief magistrates of ancient Athens, chosen to
superintend civil and religious concerns. They were nine in number; the
first was properly the _arch[=o]n_, or _arch[=o]n ep[=o]n[)y]mos_, by whose
name the year was distinguished in the public records; the second was
called _arch[=o]n basileus_, or king archon, who exercised the functions of
high priest; the third, _polemarchos_, or general of the forces. The other
six were called _thesmoth[)e]tai_, or legislators.
ARCHYTAS ([.a]r-k[=i]'tas), an ancient Greek mathematician, statesman, and
general, who flourished about 400 B.C., and belonged to Tarentum in
Southern Italy. The invention of the analytic method in mathematics is
ascribed to him, as well as the solution of many geometrical and mechanical
problems. He constructed various machines and automata, among the most
celebrated of which was his flying pigeon. He was a Pythagorean in
philosophy, and Plato and Aristotle are said to have been both deeply
indebted to him. Only inconsiderable fragments of his works are extant.
ARCIS-SUR-AUBE ([.a]r-s[=e]-s[.u]r-[=o]b), a small town of France,
department Aube, at which, in 1814, was fought a battle between Napoleon
and the Allies, after which the latter marched to Paris. Pop. 3000.
ARC-LIGHT, a certain kind of electric light in which the illuminating
source is the current of electricity passing between two sticks of carbon
kept a short distance apart, one of them being in connection with the
positive, the other with the negative terminal of a battery or dynamo.
ARCO, a town of Tyrol, near Lake Garda, a favourite winter resort of
invalids. Pop. 3800.
ARCOLE ([.a]r'ko-l[.a]), a village in North Italy, 15 miles S.E. of Verona,
celebrated for the battles of 15th, 16th, and 17th Nov., 1796, fought
between the French under Bonaparte and the Austrians, in which the latter
were defeated with great slaughter.
ARCOS' DE LA FRONTE'RA, a city of Spain, 30 miles E. by N. from Cadiz, on
the Guadalete, here crossed by a stone bridge, on a sandstone rock 570 feet
above the level of the river. On the highest part of the rock stands the
castle of the dukes of Arcos, partly in ruins. The principal manufactures
are leather, hats, and cordage. Pop. 13,980.
AR'COT, two districts and a town of India, within the Presidency of
Madras.--_North Arcot_ is an inland district with an area of 7616 sq.
miles. The country is partly flat and partly mountainous, where intersected
by the Eastern Ghats. Pop. 2,200,000.--_South Arcot_ lies on the Bay of
Bengal, and has two seaports, Cuddalor and Porto Novo. Area 5217 sq. miles.
Pop. 2,170,000.--The town _Arcot_ is in North Arcot, on the Palar, about 70
miles W. by S. of Madras. There is a military cantonment at 3 miles'
distance. The town contains handsome mosques, a nabob's palace in ruins,
and the remains of an extensive fort. Arcot played an important part in the
wars which resulted in the ascendancy of the British in India. It was taken
by Clive, 31st Aug., 1751, and heroically defended by him against an
apparently overwhelming force under Raja Sahib. Pop. 11,475.
ARCTIC ([.a]rk'tik), an epithet given to the north pole from the proximity
of the constellation of the Bear, in Greek called _arktos_. The _Arctic
Circle_ is an imaginary circle on the globe, parallel to the equator, and
23deg 28' distant from the north pole. This and its opposite, the
_Antarctic_, are called the two polar circles.
ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. See _North Polar Expeditions_.
ARCTIC OCEAN, that part of the water surface of the earth which surrounds
the north pole, and washes the northern shores of Europe, Asia, and
America; its southern boundary roughly coinciding with the Arctic Circle
(lat. 66deg 30' N.). It encloses many large islands, and contains large
bays and gulfs which deeply indent the northern shores of the three
continents. Its great characteristic is ice, which is perpetual nearly
everywhere.