t deg. C. 100 parts t deg. C. 100 parts t deg. C. 100 parts t deg. C. 100 parts
water water water water
dissolve dissolve dissolve dissolve
0 2.62 0 0.19 0 3.9 0 0.71
10 4.5 10 0.29 10 9.52 10 1.09
50 15.9 50 1.235 50 44.11 50 4.98
80 35.2 80 5.29 80 134.47 80 21.60
100 70.83 100 357.48
Poggiale C. Setterberg Poggiale C. Setterberg
Ann. Chim. phys. Ann. 1882,
[3] 8, p. 467 211, p. 104
ALUMINIUM (symbol Al; atomic weight 27.0), a metallic
chemical element. Although never met with in the free
state, aluminium is very widely distributed in combination,
principally as silicates. The word is derived from the
Lat. alumen (see ALUM), and is probably akin to the
Gr. als (the root of salt, halogen, &c.). In 1722
F. Hoffmann announced the base of alum to be an individual
substance; L. B. Guyton de Morveau suggested that this
base should be called alumine, after Sel alumineux, the
French name for alum; and about 1820 the word was changed
into alumina. In 1760 the French chemist, T. Baron de
Henouville, unsuccessfully attempted ``to reduce the base
of alum'' to a metal, and shortly afterwards various other
investigators essayed the problem in vain. In 1808 Sir Humphry
Davy, fresh from the electrolytic isolation of potassium and
sodium, attempted to decompose alumina by heating it with
potash in a platinum crucible and submitting the mixture
to a current of electricity; in 1809, with a more powerful
battery, he raised iron wire to a red heat in contact with
alumina, and obtained distinct evidence of the production of
an iron-aluminium alloy. Naming the new metal in anticipation
of its actual birth, he called it alumium; but for the
sake of analogy he was soon persuaded to change the word
to aluminum, in which form, alternately with aluminium,
it occurs in chemical literature for some thirty years.
Preparation.
In the year 1824, endeavouring to prepare itbychemicalmeans,
H. C. Oersted heated its chloride with potassium amalgam,
and failed in his object simply by reason of the mercury,
so that when F. Wohler repeated the experiment at Gottingen
in 1827, employing potassium alone as the reducing agent,
he obtained it in the metallic state for the first time.
Contaminated as it was with potassium and with platinum from
the crucible, the metal formed a grey powder and was far
from pure; but in 1845 he improved his process and succeeded
in producing metallic globules wherewith he examined its
chief properties, and prepared several compounds hitherto
unknown. Early in 1854, H. St Claire Deville, accidentally
and in ignorance of Wohler's later results, imitated the
1845 experiment. At once observing the reduction of the
chloride, he realized the importance of his discovery and
immediately began to study the commercial production of the
metal. His attention was at first divided between two
processes -- the chemical method of reducing the chloride
with potassium, and an electrolytic method of decomposing
it with a carbon anode and a platinum cathode, which was
simultaneously imagined by himself and R. Bunsen. Both
schemes appeared practically impossible; potassium cost about
L. 17 per lb, gave a very small yield and was dangerous to
manipulate, while on the other hand, the only source of
electric current then available was the primary battery, and
zinc as a store of industrial energy was utterly out of the
question. Deville accordingly returned to pure chemistry
and invented a practicable method of preparing sodium which,
having a lower atomic weight than potassium, reduced a larger
proportion. He next devised a plan for manufacturing pure
alumina from the natural ores, and finally elaborated a
process and plant which held the field for almost thirty
years. Only the discovery of dynamo-electric machines and
their application to metallurgical processes rendered it
possible for E. H. and A. H. Cowles to remove the industry from
the hands of chemists, till the time when P. T. L. Heroult
and C. M. Hall, by devising the electrolytic method now in
use, inaugurated the present era of industrial electrolysis.
Ores.
The chief natural compounds of aluminium are four in number:
oxide, hydroxide (hydrated oxide), silicate and fluoride.
Corundum, the only important native oxide (Al2O3),
occurs in large deposits in southern India and the United
States. Although it contains a higher percentage of metal
(52.9%) than any other natural compound, it is not at present
employed as an ore, not only because it is so hard as to be
crushed with difficulty, but also because its very hardness
makes it valuable as an abrasive. Cryolite (AlF3.5NaF) is
a double fluoride of aluminium and sodium, which is scarcely
known except on the west coast of Greenland. Formerly it was
used for the preparation of the metal, but the inaccessibility
of its source, and the fact that it is not sufficiently pure
to be employed without some preliminary treatment, caused it
to be abandoned in favour of other salts. When required in
the Heroult-Hall process as a solvent, it is sometimes made
artificially. Aluminium silicate is the chemical body of
which all clays are nominally composed. Haolin or China
clay is essentially a pure disilicate (Al2O3.2SiO2.2H2O),
occurring in large beds almost throughout the world, and
containing in its anhydrous state 24.4% of the metal,
which, however, in common clays is more or less replaced
by calcium, magnesium, and the alkalis, the proportion of
silica sometimes reaching 70%. Kaolin thus seems to be the
best ore, and it would undoubtedly be used were it not for
the fatal objection that no satisfactory process has yet
been discovered for preparing pure alumina from any mineral
silicate. If, according to the present method of winning the
metal, a bath containing silica as well as alumina is submitted
to electrolysis, both oxides are dissociated, and as silicon
is a very undesirable impurity, an alumina contaminated with
silica is not suited for reduction. Bauxite is a hydrated
oxide of aluminium of the ideal composition, Al2O3.2H2O.
It is a somewhat widely distributed mineral, being met within
Styria, Austria, Hesse, French Guiana, India and Italy; but
the most important beds are in the south of France, the north
of Ireland, and in Alabama, Georgia and Arkansas in North
America. The chief Irish deposits are in the neighbourhood
of Glenravel, Co. Antrim, and have the advantage of being
near the coast, so that the alumina can be transported by
water-carriage. After being dried at 100 deg. C., Antrim
bauxite contains from 33 to 60% of alumina, from 2 to 30% of
ferric oxide, and from 7 to 24% of silica, the balance being
titanic acid and water of combination. The American bauxites
contain from 38 to 67% of alumina, from 1 to 23% of ferric
oxide, and from 1 to 32% of silica. The French bauxites are
of fairly constant composition, containing usually from 58
to 70% of alumina, 3 to 15% of foreign matter, and 27% made
up of silica, iron oxide and water in proportions that
vary with the colour and the situation of the beds.
Before the application of electricity, only two compounds
were found suitable for reduction to the metallic
state. Alumina itself is so refractory that it cannot be
melted save by the oxyhydrogen blowpipe or the electric
arc, and except in the molten state it is not susceptible
of decomposition by any chemical reagent. Deville first
selected the chloride as his raw material, but observing
it to be volatile and extremely deliquescent, he soon
substituted in its place a double chloride of aluminium and
sodium. Early in 1855 John Percy suggested that cryolite
should be more convenient, as it was a natural mineral and
might not require purification, and at the end of March in
that year, Faraday exhibited before the Royal Institution
samples of the metal reduced from its fluoride by Dick and
Smith. H. Rose also carried out experiments on the decomposition
of cryolite, and expressed an opinion that it was the best
of all compounds for reduction; but, finding the yield of
metal to be low, receiving a report of the difficulties
experienced in mining the ore, and fearing to cripple his
new industry by basing it upon the employment of a mineral
of such uncertain supply, Deville decided to keep to his
chlorides. With the advent of the dynamo, the position of
affairs was wholly changed. The first successful idea of
using electricity depended on the enormous heating powers
of the arc. The infusibility of alumina was no longer
prohibitive, for the molten oxide is easily reduced by
carbon. Nevertheless, it was found impracticable to smelt
alumina electrically except in presence of copper, so that
the Cowles furnace yielded, not the pure metal, but an
alloy. So long as the metal was principally regarded as a
necessary ingredient of aluminium-bronze, the Cowles process was
popular, but when the advantages of aluminium itself became
more apparent, there arose a fresh demand for some chief
method of obtaining it unalloyed. It was soon discovered
that the faculty of inducing dissociation possessed by the
current might now be utilized with some hope of pecuniary
success, but as electrolytic currents are of lower voltage
than those required in electric furnaces, molten alumina
again became impossible. Many metals, of which copper, silver
and nickel are types, can be readily won or purified by the
electrolysis of aqueous solutions, and theoretically it may
be feasible to treat aluminium in an identical manner. In
practice, however, it cannot be thrown down electrolytically
with a dissimilar anode so as to win the metal, and certain
difficulties are still met with in the analogous operation
of plating by means of a similar anode. Of the simple
compounds, only the fluoride is amenable to electrolysis
in the fused state, since the chloride begins to volatilize
below its melting-point, and the latter is only 5 deg. below its
boiling-point. Cryolite is not a safe body to electrolyse,
because the minimum voltage needed to break up the aluminium
fluoride is 4.0, whereas the sodium fluoride requires only
4.7 volts; if, therefore, the current rises in tension,
the alkali is reduced, and the final product consists of
an alloy with sodium. The corresponding double chloride
is a far better material; first, because it melts at about
180 deg. C., and does not volatilize below a red heat, and
second, because the voltage of aluminium chloride is 2.3 and
that of sodium chloride 4.3, so that there is a much wider
margin of safety to cover irregularities in the electric
pressure. It has been found, however, that molten cryolite
and the analogous double fluoride represented by the formula
Al2F6.2NaF are very efficient solvents of alumina, and that
these solutions can be easily electrolysed at about 800 deg. C.
by means of a current that completely decomposes the oxide
but leaves the haloid salts unaffected. Molten cryolite
dissolves roughly 30% of its weight of pure alumina, so
that when ready for treatment the solution contains about
the same proportion of what may be termed ``available''
aluminium as does the fused double chloride of aluminium and
sodium. The advantages lie with the oxide because of its easier
preparation. Alumina dissolves readily enough in aqueous
hydrochloric acid to yield a solution of the chloride, but
neither this solution, nor that containing sodium chloride, can
be evaporated to dryness without decomposition. To obtain the
anhydrous single or double chloride, alumina must be ignited
with carbon in a current of chlorine, and to exclude iron
from the finished metal, either the alumina must be pure or
the chloride be submitted to purification. This preparation
of a chlorine compound suited for electrolysis becomes more
costly and more troublesome than that of the oxide, and in
addition four times as much raw material must be handled.
At different times propositions have been made to win the
metal from its sulphide. This compound possesses a heat
of formation so much lower that electrically it needs but a
voltage of 0.9 to decompose it, and it is easily soluble in
the fused sulphides of the alkali metals. It can also be
reduced metallurgically by the action of molten iron. Various
considerations, however, tend to show that there cannot be
so much advantage in employing it as would appear at first
sight. As it is easier to reduce than any other compound, so
it is more difficult to produce. Therefore while less energy is
absorbed in its final reduction, more is needed in its initial
preparation, and it is questionable whether the economy possible
in the second stage would not be neutralized by the greater
cost of the first stage in the whole operation of winning the
metal from bauxite with the sulphide as the intermediary.
Chemical reductions.
The Deville process as gradually elaborated between 1855 and
1859 exhibited three distinct phases: -- Production of metallic
sodium, formation of the pure double chloride of sodium and
aluminium, and preparation of the metal by the interaction
of the two former substances. To produce the alkali metal,
a calcined mixture of sodium carbonate, coal and chalk was
strongly ignited in flat retorts made of boiler-plate; the sodium
distilled over into condensers and was preserved under heavy
petroleum. In order to prepare pure alumina, bauxite and
sodium carbonate were heated in a furnace until the reaction
was complete; the product was then extracted with water to
dissolve the sodium aluminate, the solution treated with
carbon dioxide, and the precipitate removed and dried. This
purified oxide, mixed with sodium chloride and coal tar, was
carbonized at a red heat, and ignited in a current of dry
chlorine as long as vapours of the double chloride were given
off, these being condensed in suitable chambers. For the
production of the final aluminium, 100 parts of the chloride
and 45 parts of cryolite to serve as a flux were powdered
together and mixed with 35 parts of sodium cut into small
pieces. The whole was thrown in several portions on to the
hearth of a furnace previously heated to low redness and
was stirred at intervals for three hours. At length when the
furnace was tapped a white slag was drawn off from the top,
and the liquid metal beneath was received into a ladle and
poured into cast-iron moulds. The process was worked out by
Deville in his laboratory at the Ecole Normale in Paris.
Early in 1855 he conducted large-scale experiments at Javel
in a factory lent him for the purpose, where he produced
sufficient to show at the French Exhibition of 1855. In the
spring of 1856 a complete plant was erected at La Glaciere,
a suburb of Paris, but becoming a nuisance to the neighbours,
it was removed to Nanterre in the following year. Later it
was again transferred to Salindres, where the manufacture
was continued by Messrs. Pechiney till the advent of the
present electrolytic process rendered it no longer profitable.
When Deville quitted the Javel works, two brothers C. and A.
Tissier, formerly his assistants, who had devised an improved
sodium furnace and had acquired a thorough knowledge of their
leader's experiments, also left, and erected a factory at
Amfreville, near Rouen, to work the cryolite process. It
consisted simply in reducing cryolite with metallic sodium
exactly as in Deville's chloride method, and it was claimed
to possess various mythical advantages over its rival. Two
grave disadvantages were soon obvious -- the limited supply of
ore, and, what was even more serious, the large proportion
of silicon in the reduced metal. The Amfreville works
existed some eight or ten years, but achieved no permanent
prosperity. In 1858 or 1859 a small factory, the first
in England, was built by F. W. Gerhard at Battersea, who
also employed cryolite, made his own sodium, and was able
to sell the product at 3s. 9d. per oz. This enterprise
only lasted about four years. Between 1860 and 1874 Messrs
Bell Brothers manufactured the metal at Washington, near
Newcastle, under Deville's supervision, producing nearly
2 cwt. per year. They took part in the International
Exhibition of 1862, quoting a price of 40s. per lb troy.
In 1881 J. Webster patented an improved process for making
alumina, and the following year he organized the Aluminium
Crown Metal Co. of Hollywood to exploit it in conjunction
with Deville's method of reduction. Potash-alum and pitch
were calcined together, and the mass was treated with
hydrochloric acid; charcoal and water to form a paste were
next added, and the whole was dried and ignited in a current
of air and steam. The residue, consisting of alumina and
potassium sulphate, was leached with water to separate
the insoluble matter which was dried as usual. All the
by-products, potassium sulphate, sulphur and aluminate of
iron, were capable of recovery, and were claimed to reduce
the cost of the oxide materially. From this alumina the
double chloride was prepared in essentially the same manner
as practised at Salindres, but sundry economies accrued in
the process, owing to the larger scale of working and to the
adoption of W. Weldon's method of regenerating the spent
chlorine liquors. In 1886 H. Y. Castner's sodium patents
appeared, and The Aluminium Co. of Oldbury was promoted to
combine the advantages of Webster's alumina and Castner's
sodium. Castner had long been interested in aluminium, and
was desirous of lowering its price. Seeing that sodium was
the only possible reducing agent, he set himself to cheapen
its cost, and deliberately rejecting sodium carbonate for
the more expensive sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), and
replacing carbon by a mixture of iron and carbon -- the
so-called carbide of iron -- he invented the highly scientific
method of winning the alkali metal which has remained in
existence almost to the present day. In 1872 sodium prepared
by Deville's process cost about 4s. per lb, the greater
part of the expense being due to the constant failure of
the retorts; in 1887 Castner's sodium cost less than 1s.
per lb, for his cast-iron pots survived 125 distillations.
In the same year L. Grabau patented a method of reducing the
simple fluoride of aluminium with sodium, and his process
was operated at Trotha in Germany. It was distinguished
by the unusual purity of the metal obtained, some of his
samples containing 99.5 to 99.8%. In 1888 the Alliance
Aluminium Co., organized to work certain patents for winning
the metal from cryolite by means of sodium, erected plant
in London, Hebburn and Wallsend, and by 1889 were selling
the metal at 11s. to 15s. per lb. The Aluminium Company's
price in 1888 was 20s. per lb and the output about 250
lb per day. In 1889 the price was 16s., but by 1891 the
electricians commenced to offer metal at 4s. per lb, and
aluminium reduced with sodium became a thing of the past.
Electric reduction.
About 1879 dynamos began to be introduced into metallurgical
practice, and from that date onwards numerous schemes for
utilizing this cleaner source of energy were brought before the
public. The first electrical method worthy of notice is
that patented by E. H. and A. H. Cowles in 1885, which was
worked both at Lockport, New York, U.S.A., and at Milton,
Staffordshire. The furnace consisted of a flat, rectangular,
firebrick box, packed with a layer of finely-powdered charcoal
2 in. thick. Through stuffing-boxes at the ends passed the
two electrodes, made after the fashion of arc-light carbons,
and capable of being approached together according to the
requirements of the operation. The central space of the
furnace was filled with a mixture of corundum, coarsely-powdered
charcoal and copper; and an iron lid lined with firebrick was
luted in its place to exclude air. The charge was reduced
by means of a 50-volt current from a 300-kilowatt dynamo,
which was passed through the furnace for 1 1/2 hours till
decomposition was complete. About 100 lb of bronze, containing
from 15 to 20 lb of aluminium, were obtained from each run,
the yield of the alloy being reported at about 1 lb per 18
e.h.p.-hours. The composition of the alloys thus produced
could not be predetermined with exactitude; each batch was
therefore analysed, a number of them were bulked together
or mixed with copper in the necessary proportion, and melted
in crucibles to give merchantable bronzes containing between
1 1/4 and 10% of aluminium. Although the copper took no part
in the reaction, its employment was found indispensable,
as otherwise the aluminium partly volatilized, and partly
combined with the carbon to form a carbide. It was also
necessary to give the fine charcoal a thin coating of calcium
oxide by soaking it in lime-water, for the temperature was
so high that unless it was thus protected it was gradually
converted into graphite, losing its insulating power and
diffusing the current through the lining and walls of the
furnace. That this process did not depend upon electrolysis,
but was simply an instance of electrical smelting or
the decomposition of an oxide by means of carbon at the
temperature of the electric arc, is shown by the fact that
the Cowles furnace would work with an alternating current.
In 1883 R. Cratzel patented a useless electrolytic process
with fused cryolite or the double chloride as the raw
material, and in 1886 Dr E. Kleiner propounded a cryolite
method which was worked for a time by the Aluminium
Syndicate at Tyldesley near Manchester, but was abandoned in
1890. In 1887 A. Minet took out patents for electrolysing
a mixture of sodium chloride with aluminium fluoride, or
with natural or artificial cryolite. The operation was
continuous, the metal being regularly run off from the bottom
of the bath, while fresh alumina and flouride were added as
required. The process exhibited several disadvantages,
the electrolyte had to be kept constant in composition lest
either fluorine vapours should be evolved or sodium thrown
down, and the raw materials had accordingly to be prepared
in a pure state. After prolonged experiments in a factory
owned by Messrs Bernard Freres at St Michel in Savoy,
Minet's process was given up, and at the close of the 19th
century the Heroult-Hall method was alone being employed
in the manufacture of aluminium throughout the world.
The original Deville process for obtaining pure alumina
from bauxite was greatly simplified in 1889 by K. T. Bayer,
whose improved process is exploited at Larne in Ireland and
at Gardanne in France. New works on the same process have
recently been erected near Marseilles. Crude bauxite is
ground, lightly calcined to destroy organic matter, and
agitated under a pressure of 70 or 80 lb per sq. in. with
a solution of sodium hydroxide having the specific gravity
1.45. After two or three hours the liquid is diluted
till its density falls to 1.23, when it is passed through
filter-presses to remove the insoluble ferric oxide and
silica. The solution of sodium aluminate, containing aluminium
oxide and sodium oxide in the molecular proportion of 6 to 1,
is next agitated for thirty-six hours with a small quantity
of hydrated alumina previously obtained, which causes the
liquor to decompose, and some 70% of the aluminium hydroxide
to be thrown down. The filtrate, now containing roughly
two molecules of alumina to one of soda, is concentrated to
the original gravity of 1.45, and employed instead of fresh
caustic for the attack of more bauxite; the precipitate is
then collected, washed till free from soda, dried and ignited
at about 1000 deg. C. to convert it into a crystalline oxide
which is less hygroscopic than the former amorphous variety.
The process of manufacture which now remains to be described
was patented during 1886 and 1887 in the name of C. M. Hall
in America, in that of P. T. L. Heroult in England and
France. It would be idle to discuss to whom the credit of
first imagining the method rightfully belongs, for probably
this is only one of the many occasions when new ideas have
been born in several brains at the same time. By 1888 Hall
was at work on a commercial scale at Pittsburg, reducing
German alumina; in 1891 the plant was removed to New
Kensington for economy in fuel, and was gradually enlarged
to 1500 h.p.; in 1894 a factory driven by water was erected
at Niagara Falls, and subsequently works were established at
Shawenegan in Canada and at Massena in the United States.
In 1890 also the Hall process operated by steam power was
installed at Patricroft, Lancashire, where the plant had a
capacity of 300 lb per day, but by 1894 the turbines of the
Swiss and French works ruined the enterprise. About 1897
the Bernard factory at St Michel passed into the hands of
Messrs Pechiney, the machinery soon being increased, and
there, under the control of a firm that has been concerned
in the industry almost from its inception, aluminium is
being manufactured by the Hall process on a large scale.
In July 1888 the Societe Metallurgique Suisse erected
plant driven by a 500 h.p. turbine to carry out Heroult's
alloy process, and at the end of that year the Allgemeine
Elektricitats Gesellschaft united with the Swiss firm in
organizing the Aluminium Industrie Action Gesellschaft of
Neuhasen, which has factories in Switzedand, Germany and
Austria. The Societe Electrometallurgique Francaise,
started under the direction of Heroult in 1888 for the
production of aluminium in France, began operations on a
small scale at Froges in Isere; but soon after large works
were erected in Savoy at La Praz, near Modane, and in 1905
another large factory was started in Savoy at St Michel.
In 1895 the British Aluminium Company was founded to mine
bauxite and manufacture alumina in Ireland, to prepare the
necessary electrodes at Greenock, to reduce the aluminium
by the aid of water-power at the Falls of Foyers, and to
refine and work up the metal into marketable shapes at the
old Milton factory of the Cowles Syndicate, remodelled to
suit modern requirements. In 1905 this company began works
for the utilization of another water-power at Loch Leven.
In 1907 a new company, The Aluminium Corporation, was started in
England to carry out the production of the metal by the Heroult
process, and new factories were constructed near Conway in North
Wales and at Wallsend-on-Tyne, quite close to where, twenty
years before, the Alliance Aluminium Co. had their works.
The Heroult cell consists of a square iron or steel box
lined with carbon rammed and baked into a solid mass; at the
bottom is a cast-iron plate connected with the negative pole
of the dynamo, but the actual working cathode is undoubtedly
the layer of already reduced and molten metal that lies in
the bath. The anode is formed of a bundle of carbon rods
suspended from overhead so as to be capable of vertical
adjustment. The cell is filled up with cryolite, and the
current is turned on till this is melted; then the pure
powdered alumina is fed in continuously as long as the operation
proceeds. The current is supplied at a tension of 3 to 5
volts per cell, passing through 10 or 12 in series; and it
performs two distinct functions: -- (1) it overcomes the
chemical affinity of the aluminium oxide, (2) it overcomes
the resistance of the electrolyte, heating the liquid at the
same time. As a part of the voltage is consumed in the latter
duty, only the residue can be converted into chemical work,
and as the theoretical voltage of the aluminium fluoride
in the cryolite is 4.0, provided the bath is kept properly
supplied with alumina, the fluorides are not attacked. It
follows, therefore, except for mechanical losses, that one
charge of cryolite lasts indefinitely, that the sodium and
other impurities in it are not liable to contaminate the
product, and that only the alumina itself need be carefully
purified. The operation is essentially a dissociation of
alumina into aluminium, which collects at the cathode, and
into oxygen, which combines with the anodes to form carbon
monoxide, the latter escaping and being burnt to carbon dioxide
outside. Theoretically 36 parts by weight of carbon are oxidized
in the production of 54 parts of aluminium; practically the
anodes waste at the same rate at which metal is deposited. The
current density is about 700 amperes per sq. ft. of cathode
surface, and the number of rods in the anode is such that
each delivers 6 or 7 amperes per sq. in. of cross-sectional
area. The working temperature lies between 750 deg. and 850 deg.
C., and the actual yield is 1 lb of metal per 12 e.h.p.
hours. The bath is heated internally with the current rather
than by means of external fuel, because this arrangement
permits the vessel itself to be kept comparatively cool;
if it were fired from without, it would be hotter than the
electrolyte, and no material suitable for the construction
of the cell is competent to withstand the attack of nascent
aluminium at high temperatures. Aluminium is so light
that it is a matter requiring some ingenuity to select a
convenient solvent through which it shall sink quickly,
for if it does not sink, it short-circuits the electrolyte.
The molten metal has a specific gravity of 2.54, that of
molten cryolite saturated with alumina is 2.35, and that
of the fluoride Al2F6.2NaF saturated with alumina 1.97.
The latter therefore appears the better material, and was
originally preferred by Hall; cryolite, however, dissolves
more alumina, and has been finally adooted by both inventors.
Properties.
Aluminium is a white metal with a characteristic tint
which most nearly resembles that of tin; when impure, or
after prolonged exposure to air it has a slight violet
shade. Its atomic weight is 27 (26.77, H=I, according to J.
Thomson). It is trivalent. The specific gravity of cast
metal is 2.583, and of rolled 2.688 at 4 deg. C. It melts at 626 deg.
C. (freezing point 654.5 deg. , Heycock and Neville). It is the
third most malleable and sixth most ductile metal, yielding
sheets 0.000025 in. in thickness, and wires 0.004 in. in
diameter. When quite pure it is somewhat harder than tin, and
its hardness is considerably increased by rolling. It is not
magnetic. It stands near the positive end of the list of
elements arranged in electromotive series, being exceeded only
by the alkalis and metals of the alkaline earths; it therefore
combines eagerly, under suitable conditions, with oxygen and
chlorine. Its coefficient of linear expansion by heat is
0.0000222 (Richards) or 0.0000231 (Roberts Austen) per 1 deg.
C. Its mean specific heat between 0 deg. and 100 deg. is 0.227,
and its latent heat of fusion 100 calories (Richards). Only
silver, copper and gold surpass it as conductors of heat, its
value being 31.33 (Ag= 100, Roberts-Austen). Its electrical
conductivity, determined on 99.6% metal, is 60.5% that of
cooper for equal volumes, or double that of copper for equal
weights, and when chemically pure it exhibits a somewhat
higher relative efficiency. The average strength of 98%
metal is approximately shown by the following table:--
Elastic limit, Ultimate strength, Reduction
tons per sq. in. tons per sq. in. of Area %
Cast . . . 3 7 15
Sheet . . . 5 1/2 11 35
Bars . . . 6 1/2 12 40
Wire . . . 7-13 13-29 60
Weight for weight, therefore, aluminium is only exceeded in
tensile strength by the best cast steel, and its own alloy,
aluminium bronze. An absolutely clean surface becomes
tarnished in damp air, an almost invisible coating of oxide
being produced, just as happens with zinc; but this film
is very permanent and prevents further attack. Exposure to
air and rain also causes slight corrosion, but to nothing
like the same extent as occurs with iron, copper or brass.
Commercial electrolytic aluminium of the best quality contains
as the average of a large number of tests, 0.48% of silicon
and 0.46% of iron, the residue being essentially aluminium
itself. The metal in mass is not affected by hot or cold water,
the foil is very slowly oxidized, while the amalgam decomposes
rapidly. Sulphuretted hydrogen having no action upon it,
articles made of it are not blackened in foggy weather or in
rooms where crude coal gas is burnt. To inorganic acids, except
hydrochloric, it is highly resistant, ranking well with tin
in this respect; but alkalis dissolve it quickly. Organic
acids such as vinegar, common salt, the natural ingredients
of food, and the various extraneous substances used as food
preservatives, alone or mixed together, dissolve traces of
it if boiled for any length of time in a chemically clean
vessel; but when aluminium utensils are submitted to the
ordinary routine of the kitchen, being used to heat or cook
milk, coffee, vegetables, meat and even fruit, and are also
cleaned frequently in the usual fashion, no appreciable
quantity of metal passes into the food. Moreover, did it do
so, the action upon the human system would be infinitely
less harmful than similar doses of copper or of lead.
The highly electro-positive character of aluminium is most
important. At elevated temperatures the metal decomposes nearly
all other metallic oxides, wherefore it is most serviceable
as a metallurgical reagent. In the casting of iron, steel and
brass, the addition of a trifling proportion (0.005%) removes
oxide and renders the molten metal more fluid, causing the
finished products to be more homogeneous, free from blow-holes
and solid all through. On the other hand, its electro-positive
nature necessitates some care in its utilization. If it be
exposed to damp, to sea-water or to corrosive influences of
any kind in contact with another metal, or if it be mixed
with another metal so as to form an alloy which is not a true
chemical compound, the other metal being highly negative to
it, powerful galvanic action will be set up and the structure
will quickly deteriorate. This explains the failure of boats
built of commercially pure aluminium which have been put
together with iron or copper rivets, and the decay of other
boats built of a light alloy, in which the alloying metal
(copper) has been injudiciously chosen. It also explains
why aluminium is so difficult to join with low-temperature
solders, for these mostly contain a large proportion of
lead. This disadvantage, however, is often overestimated since
in most cases other means of uniting two pieces are available.
Alloys.
The metal produces an enormous number of useful alloys, some of
which, containing only 1 or 2% of other metals, combine the
lightness of aluminium itself with far greater hardness and
strength. Some with 90 to 99% of other metals exhibit
the general properties of those metals conspicuously
improved. Among the heavy alloys, the aluminium bronzes
(Cu, 90-97.5%; Al, 10-2.5%) occupy the most important
position, showing mean tensile strengths increasing from
20 to 41 tons per sq. in. as the percentage of aluminium
rises, and all strongly resisting corrosion in air or
sea-water. The light copper alloys, in which the proportions
just given are practically reversed, are of considerably less
utility, for although they are fairly strong, they lack power
to resist galvanic action. This subject is far from being
exhausted, and it is not improbable that the alloy-producing
capacity of aluminium may eventually prove its most valuable
characteristic. In the meantime, ternary light alloys
appear the most satisfactory, and tungsten and copper, or
tungsten and nickel, seem to be the best substances to add.
Uses.
The uses of aluminium are too numerous to mention. Probably
the widest field is still in the purification of iron and
steel. To the general public it appeals most strongly as
a material for constructing cooking utensils. It is not
brittle like porcelain and cast iron, not poisonous like
lead-glazed earthenware and untinned copper, needs no enamel
to chip off, does not rust and wear out like cheap tin-plate,
and weighs but a fraction of other substances. It is largely
replacing brass and copper in all departments of industry
-- especially where dead weight has to be moved about, and
lightness is synonymous with economy -- for instance, in
bed-plates for torpedo-boat engines, internal fittings for
ships instead of wood, complete boats for portage, motor-car
parts and boiling-pans for confectionery and in chemical
works. The British Admiralty employ it to save weight in
the Navy, and the war-offices of the European powers equip
their soldiers with it wherever possible, As a substitute for
Solenhofen stone it is used in a modified form of lithography,
which can be performed on rotary printing machines at a high
speed. With the increasing price of copper, it is coming
into vogue as an electrical conductor for uncovered mains;
it is found that an aluminium wire 0.126 in. in diameter will
carry as much current as a copper wire 0.100 in. in diameter,
while the former weighs about 79 lb and the latter 162 lb per
mile. Assuming the materials to be of equal tensile strength
per unit of area -- hard-drawn copper is stronger, but has a
lower conductivity -- the adoption of aluminium thus leads
to a reduction of 52% in the weight, a gain of 60% in the
strength, and an increase of 26% in the diameter of the
conductor. Bare aluminium strip has recently been tried
for winding-coils in electrical machines, the oxide of the
metal acting as insulators between the layers. When the
price of aluminium is less than double the price of copper
aluminium is cheaper than copper per unit of electric
current conveyed; but when insulation is necessary, the
smaller size of the copper wire renders it more economical.
Aluminium conductors have been employed on heavy work in
many places, and for telegraphy and telephony they are in
frequent demand and give perfect satisfaction. Difficulties
were at first encountered in making the necessary joints,
but these have been overcome by practice and experience.
Two points connected with this metal are of sufficient
moment to demand a few words by way of conclusion. Its
extraordinary lightness forms its chief claim to general
adoption, yet is apt to cause mistakes when its price is
mentioned. It is the weight of a mass of metal which governs
its financial value; its industrial value, in the vast majority
of cases, depends on the volume of that mass. Provided it be
rigid, the bed-plate of an engine is no better for weighing
30 cwt. than for weighing 10 cwt. A saucepan is required to
have a certain diameter and a certain depth in order that it
may hold a certain bulk of liquid: its weight is merely an
encumbrance. Copper being 3 1/3 times as heavy as aluminium,
whenever the latter costs less than 3 1/2 times as much as
copper it is actually cheaper. It must be remembered,
too, that electrolytic aluminium only became known during
the last decade of the 19th century. Samples dating from
the old sodium days are still in existence, and when they
exhibit unpleasant properties the defect is often ascribed
to the metal instead of to the process by which it was
won. Much has yet to be learnt about the practical qualities
of the electrolytic product, and although every day's
experience serves to place the metal in a firmer industrial
position, a final verdict can only be passed after the lapse of
time. The individual and collective influence of the several
impurities which occur in the product of the Heroult cell
is still to seek, and the importance of this inquiry will
be seen when we consider that if cast iron, wrought iron and
steel, the three totally distinct metals included in the
generic name of ``iron'' -- which are only distinguished
one from another chemically by minute differences in the
proportion of certain non-metallic ingredients -- had only
been in use for a comparatively few years, attempts might
occasionally be made to forge cast iron, or to employ
wrought iron in the manufacture of edge-tools. (E. J. R.)
Compounds of Aluminium.
Aluminium oxide or alumina, Al2O3, occurs in nature
as the mineral corundum (q.v.), notable for its hardness
and abrasive power (see EMERY), and in well-crystallized
forms it constitutes, when coloured by various metallic
oxides, the gem-stones, sapphire, oriental topaz, oriental
amethyst and oriental emerald. Alumina is obtained as a
white amorphous powder by heating aluminium hydroxide.
This powder, provided that it has not been too strongly
ignited, is soluble in strong acids; by ignition it becomes
denser and nearly as hard as corundum; it fuses in the
oxyhydrogen flame or electric arc, and on cooling it assumes
a crystalline form closely resembling the mineral species.
Crystallized alumina is also obtained by heating the fluoride
with boron trioxide; by fusing aluminium phosphate with
sodium sulphate; by heating alumina to a dull redness in
hydrochloric acid gas under pressure; and by heating alumina
with lead oxide to a bright red heat. These reactions are
of special interest, for they culminate in the production
of artificial ruby and sapphire (see GEMS, ARTIFICIAL).
Aluminium Hydrates. -- Several hydrated forms of aluminium
oxide are known. Of these hydrargillite or gibbsite, Al(OH)3,
diaspore, AlO(OH), and bauxite, Al2O(OH)4, occur in the
mineral kingdom. Aluminium hydrate, Al(OH)3, is obtained
as a gelatinous white precipitate, soluble in potassium or
sodium hydrate, but insoluble in ammonium chloride, by adding
ammonia to a cold solution of an aluminium salt; from boiling
solutions the precipitate is opaque. By drying at ordinary
temperatures, the hydrate Al(OH)3.H2O is obtained; at
300 deg. this yields AlO(OH), which on ignition gives alumina,
Al2O3. Precipitated aluminium hydrate finds considerable
application in dyeing. Soluble modifications were obtained
by Waiter Crum (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1854, vi. 216), and
Thomas Graham (Phil. Trans., 1861, p. 163); the first
named decomposing aluminium acetate from lead acetate and
aluminium sulphate) with boiling water, the latter dialysing
a solution of the basic chloride (obtained by dissolving
the hydroxide in a solution of the normal chloride).
Both these soluble hydrates are readily coagulated by
traces of a salt, acid or alkali; Crum's hydrate does
not combine with dye-stuffs, neither is it soluble in
excess of acid, while Graham's compound readily forms
lakes, and readily dissolves when coagulated in acids.
In addition to behaving as a basic oxide, aluminium oxide (or
hydrate) behaves as an acid oxide towards the strong bases
with the formation of aluminates. Potassium aluminate,
K2Al2O4, is obtained in solution by dissolving aluminium
hydrate in caustic potash; it is also obtained, as crystals
containing three molecules of water, by fusing alumina
with potash, exhausting with water, and crystallizing the
solution in vacuo. Sodium aluminate is obtained in the
manufacture of alumina; it is used as a mordant in dyeing,
and has other commercial applications. Other aluminates
(in particular, of iron and magnesium), are of frequent
occurrence in the mineral kingdom, e.g. spinel, gahnite, &c.
Salts of Aluminium. -- Aluminium forms one series of
salts, derived from the trioxide, Al2O3. These exhibit, in
certain cases, marked crystallographical and other analogies
with the corresponding salts of chromium and ferric iron.
Aluminium fluoride, AlF3, obtained by dissolving the
metal in hydrofluoric acid, and subliming the residue
in a current of hydrogen, forms transparent, very obtuse
rhombohedra, which are insoluble in water. It forms a
series of double fluorides, the most important of which
is cryolite (q.v.); this mineral has been applied to the
commercial preparation of the metal (see above). Aluminium
chloride, AlCl3, was first prepared by Oersted, who heated
a mixture of carbon and alumina in a current of chlorine, a
method subsequently improved by Wohler, Bunsen, Deville and
others. A purer product is obtained by heating aluminium
turnings in a current of dry chlorine, when the chloride
distils over. So obtained, it is a white crystalline solid,
which slowly sublimes just below its melting point (194 deg. ).
Its vapour density at temperatures above 750 deg. corresponds
to the formula AlCl3; below this point the molecules are
associated. It is very hygroscopic, absorbing water with the
evolution of hydrochloric acid. It combines with ammonia to
form AlCl3.3NH3; and forms double compounds with phosphorus
pentachloride, phosphorus oxychloride, selenium and tellurium
chlorides, as well as with many metallic chlorides; sodium
aluminium chloride, AlCl3.NaCl, is used in the production
of the metal. As a synthetical agent in organic chemistry,
aluminium chloride has rendered possible more reactions
than any other substance; here we can only mention the
classic syntheses of benzene homologues. Aluminium bromide,
AlBr3, is prepared in the same manner as the chloride. It
forms colourless crystals, melting at 90 deg. , and boiling at
265 deg. -270 deg. . Aluminium iodide, AlI3, results from the
interaction of iodine and aluminium. It forms colourless
crystals, melting at 185 deg. , and boiling at 360 deg. . Aluminium
sulphide, Al2S3, results from the direct union of the metal
with sulphur, or when carbon disulphide vapour is passed over
strongly heated alumina. It forms a yellow fusible mass,
which is decomposed by water into alumina and sulphuretted
hydrogen. Aluminium sulphate Al(SO4)3, occurs in the
mineral kingdom as keramohalite, Al2(SO4)3.18H2O, found
near volcanoes and in alum-shale; aluminite or websterite is
a basic salt, Al3(SO4)(OH)4.7H2O. Aluminium sulphate,
known commercially as ``concentrated alum'' or ``sulphate of
alumina,'' is manufactured from kaolin or china clay, which,
after roasting (in order to oxidize any iron present), is
heated with sulphuric acid, the clear solution run off, and
evaporated. ``Alum cake'' is an impure product. Aluminium
sulphate crystallizes as Al2(SO4)3.18H2O in tablets
belonging to the monoclinic system. It has a sweet astringent
taste, very soluble in water, but scarcely soluble in
alcohol. On heating, the crystals lose water, swell up, and
give the anhydrous sulphate, which, on further heating, gives
alumina. It forms double salts with the sulphates of the
metals of the alkalis, known as the alums (see ALUM.)
Aluminium nitride (AlN) is obtained as small yellow crystals
when aluminium is strongly heated in nitrogen. The nitrate,
Al(NO3)3, is obtained as deliquescent crystals (with 8H2O)
by evaporating a solution of the hydroxide in nitric acid.
Aluminium phosphates may be prepared by Precipitating a
soluble aluminium salt with sodium phosphate. Wavellite
Al8(PO4)3(OH)15.9H2O, is a naturally occurring
basic phosphate, while the gem-stone turquoise (q.v.)
is Al.(PO4).(OH)2.H2O, coloured by traces of copper.
Aluminium silicates are widely diffused in the mineral
kingdom, being present in the commonest rock-forming minerals
(felspars, &c.), and in the gem-stones, topaz, beryl,
garnet, &c. It also constitutes with sodium silicate the
mineral lapis-lazuli and the pigment ultramarine (q.v..)
Forming the basis of all clays, aluminium silicates play a
prominent part in the manufacture of pottery and porcelain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. -- The metallurgy and uses of aluminium are
treated in detail in P. Moissonnier, L'Aluminium (Paris,
1903); in J. W. Richards, Aluminium (1896); and in A. Miner,
Production of Aluminium, Eng. trans. by L. Waldo (1905);
reference may also be made to treatises on general metallurgy,
e.g. C. Schnabel, Handbook of Metalurgy, vol. ii. (1907).
For the chemistry see Roscoe and Schlorlemmer, Treatise on
Inorganic Chemistry, vol. ii. (1908); H. Moissan, Traite
de chimie minerale; Abegg, Handbuch der anorgenischen
Chemie; and O. Dammer, Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie.
Aluminium alloys have been studied in detail by Guillet.
ALUNITE, or ALUMSTONE, a mineral first observed in the
15th century at Tolfa, near Rome, where it is mined for the
manufacture of alum. Extensive deposits are also worked
in Tuscany and Hungary, and at Bulladelah in New South
Wales. By repeatedly roasting and lixiviating the mineral,
alum is obtained in solution, and this is crystallized out
by evaporation. Alunite occurs as seams in trachytic and
allied volcanic rocks, having been formed by the action
of sulphureous vapours on these rocks. The white, finely
granular masses somewhat resemble limestone in appearance,
and the more compact kinds from Hungary are so hard and
tough that they are used for millstones. Distinct crystals
of alunite are rarely met with in cavities in the massive
material; these are rhombohedra with interfacial angles of
90 deg. 50', so that they resemble cubes in. appearance. Minute
glistening crystals have also been found loose in cavities
in altered rhyolite. The hardness is 4 and the specific
gravity 2.6. The mineral is a hydrated basic aluminium and
potassium sulphate, KAl3(SO4)2(OH)6. It is insoluble
in water, but soluble in sulphuric acid. First called
aluminilite by J. C. Delametherie in 1797, this name was
contracted by F. S. Beudant in 1824 to alunite. (L. J. S.)
ALUR (Lur, Luri, Lurem), a Negro people of the Nile valley,
living on the north-west coast of Albert Nyanza. They are akin
to the Acholi (q.v.), speaking practically the same language.
ALURE (O. Fr., from aller, to walk), an architectural term for
an alley, passage, the water-way or flat gutter behind a parapet,
the galleries of a clerestory, sometimes even the aisle itself of a
church. The term is sometimes written valure or valoring.
ALVA, or ALBA, FERNANDO ALVAREX DE TOLEDO, DUKE OF,
(1508-1583), Spanish soldier, descended from one of the
most illustrious families in Spain, was born in 1508. His
grandfather, Ferdinand of Toledo, educated him in military
science and politics; and he was engaged with distinction
at the battle of Pavia while still a youth. Selected for a
military command by Charles V., he took part in the siege of
Tunis (1535), and successfully defended Perpignan against the
dauphin of France. He was present at the battle of Muhlberg
(1547), and the victory gained there over John of Saxony was
due mainly to his exertions. He took part in the subsequent
siege of Wittenberg, and presided at the court-martial which
tried the elector and condemned him to death. In 1552 Alva
was intrusted with the command of the army intended to invade
France, and was engaged for several months in an unsuccessful
siege of Metz. In consequence of the success of the French
arms in Piedmont, he was made commander-in-chief of all the
emperor's forces in Italy, and at the same time invested
with unlimited power. Success did not, however, attend
his first attempts, and after several unfortunate attacks
he was obliged to retire into winter quarters. After the
abdication of Charles he was continued in the command by Philip
II., who, however, restrained him from extreme measures.
Alva had subdued the whole Campagna and was at the gates of
Rome, when he was compelled by Philip's orders to negotiate a
peace. One of its terms was that the duke of Alva should in
person ask forgiveness of the haughty pontiff whom he had
conquered. Proud as the duke was by nature, and accustomed
to treat with persons of the highest dignity, he confessed
his voice failed him at the interview and his presence of
mind forsook him. Not long after this (1559) he was sent at
the head of a splendid embassy to Paris to espouse, in the
name of his master, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, king of
France. In 1567, Philip, who was a bigoted Catholic,
sent Alva into the Netherlands at the head of an army of
10,000 men, with unlimited powers for the extirpation of
heretics. When he arrived he soon showed how much he
merited the confidence which his master reposed in him,
and instantly erected a tribunal which soon became known
to its victims as the ``Court of Blood,'' to try all persons
who had been engaged in the late commotions which the civil
and religious tyranny of Philip had excited. He imprisoned
the counts Egmont and Horn, the two popular leaders of the
Protestants, brought them to an unjust trial and condemned
them to death. In a short time he totally annihilated every
privilege of the people, and with unrelenting cruelty put
multitudes of them to death. The executioner was employed
in removing all those friends of freedom whom the sword had
spared. In most of the considerable towns Alva built
citadels. In the city of Antwerp he erected a statue of
himself, which was a monument no less of his vanity than of
his tyranny: he was figured trampling on the necks of two
smaller statues, representing the two estates of the Low
Countries. His attempt to raise money by imposing the Spanish
alcabala, a tax of 5% on all sales, aroused the opposition
of the Catholic Netherlands themselves. The exiles from
the Low Countries, encouraged by the general resistance
to his government, fitted out a fleet of privateers, and
after strengthening themselves by successful depredations,
ventured upon the bold exploit of seizing the town of
Brielle. Thus Alva by his cruelty became the unwitting
instrument of the future independence of the seven Dutch
provinces. The fleet of the exiles, having met the Spanish
fleet, totally defeated it, and reduced North Holland and
Mons. Many cities hastened to throw off the yoke; while the
states-general, assembling at Dordrecht, openly declared
against Alva's government, and marshalled under the banners
of the prince of Orange. Alva's preparations to oppose
the gathering storm were made with his usual vigour, and
he succeeded in recovering Mons, Mechlin and Zutphen, under
the conduct of his son Frederick. With the exception of
Zealand and Holland, he regained all the provinces; and at
last his son stormed Naarden, and massacring its inhabitants,
proceeded to invest the city of Haarlem, which, after
standing an obstinate siege, was taken and pillaged. Their
next attack was upon Alkmaar; but the spirit of desperate
resistance was raised to such a height in the breasts of
the Hollanders that the Spanish veterans were repulsed
with great loss and Frederick constrained reluctantly to
retire. Alva's feeble state of health and continued disasters
induced him to solicit his recall from the government of
the Low Countries; a measure which, in all probability,
was not displeasing to Philip, who was now resolved to make
trial of a milder administration. In December 1573 the
much-oppressed country was relieved from the presence of the
duke of Alva, who, returning home accompanied by his son,
made the infamous boast that during the course of six years,
besides the multitudes destroyed in battle and massacred after
victory, he had consigned 18,000 persons to the executioner.
On his return he was treated for some time with great distinction
by Philip. A tardy and imperfect justice, however, overtook
him, when he was banished from court and confined in the
castle of Uzeda for complicity in certain disgraceful conduct
of his son. Here he had remained two years, when the success
of Don Antonio in assuming the crown of Portugal determined
Philip to turn his eyes towards Alva as the person in whose
fidelity and abilities he could most confide. A secretary was
instantly despatched to Alva to ascertain whether his health
was sufficiently vigorous to enable him to undertake the
command of an army. The aged chief returned an answer full
of loyal zeal, and was immediately appointed to the supreme
command in Portugal. It is a striking fact, however, that
the liberation and elevation of Alva were not followed by
forgiveness. In 1581 Alva entered Portugal, defeated Antonio,
drove him from the kingdom, and soon reduced the whole
under the subjection of Philip. Entering Lisbon he seized
an immense treasure, and suffered his soldiers, with their
accustomed violence and rapacity, to sack the suburbs and
vicinity. It is reported that Alva, being requested to give
an account of the money expended on that occasion, sternly
replied, ``If the king asks me for an account, I will make
him a statement of kingdoms preserved or conquered, of signal
victories, of successful sieges and of sixty years' service.''
Philip deemed it proper to make no further inquiries. Alva,
however, did not enjoy the honours and rewards of his last
expedition, for he died in January 1583 at the age of 74.
AUTHORITIES. -- See the Life, by Rustant (Madrid,
1751). His correspondence during his Flemish government
has been published by M. Gachard (Brussels, 1850). See
also Coleccion de documentos ineditos para la historial de
Espana, vols. iv., vii., viii., xiv., xaxii. and xxxv.
(Madrid); and Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856).
ALVA, a police burgh of Clackmannanshire, Scotland, 3 1/2 m.
N. of Alloa, terminus of a branch line of the North British
railway. Pop. (1891) 5225; (1901) 4624. It is situated at
the foot of three front peaks of the Ochils -- West Hill (1682
ft.), Middle Hill (1436 ft.) and Wood Hill (1723 ft.). There
are spinning-mills, and manufactures of tweeds, tartans and
other woollen goods. Silver, lead and other metals have been
found in the hills, but not in paying quantities. The glen
to the east of the town, in which are abandoned workings,
is called the Silver Glen. Alva House is the seat of the
Johnstones, a family which has been intimately connected
with the district since the latter half of the 18th century.
ALVARADO, PEDRO DE (1495-1541), one of the Spanish leaders
in the discovery and conquest of America, was born at Badajoz
about 1495. He held a command in the expedition sent from
Cuba against Yucatan in the spring of 1518, and returned in
a few months, bearing reports of the wealth and splendour of
Montezuma's empire. In February 1519 he accompanied Hernando
Cortes in the expedition for the conquest of Mexico, being
appointed to the command of one of the eleven vessels of the
fleet. He acted as Cortes's principal officer, and on the
first occupation of the city of Mexico was left there in
charge. When the Spaniards had temporarily to retire before
the Mexican uprising, Alvarado led the rear-guard (1st of
July 1520), and the Salto de Alvarado -- a long leap with
the use of his spear, by which he saved his life -- became
famous. He was engaged (1523-24) in the conquest of
Guatemala, of which he was subsequently appointed governor
by Charles V. In 1534 he attempted to bring the province of
Quito under his power, but had to content himself with the
exaction of a pecuniary indemnity for the expenses of the
expedition. During a visit to Spain, three years later,
he had the governorship of Honduras conferred upon him in
addition to that of Guatemala. He died in Guatemala in 1541.
ALVAREZ, FRANCISCO (c. 1465-1541?), Portuguese missionary
and explorer, was born at Coimbra. He was a chaplain-
priest and almoner to Dom Manuel, king of Portugal, and
was sent in 1515 as secretary to Duarte Galvao and Rodrigo
da Lima on an embassy to the negus of Abyssinia (Lebna
Dengel Dawit (David) II.). The expedition having been
delayed by the way, it was not until 152O that he reached
Abyssinia, where he remained six years, returning to Lisbon in
1526-1527. In 1533 he was sent to Rome on an embassy to
Pope Clement VII. The precise date of his death, like that
of his birth, is unknown, but it must have been later than
1540, in which year he published at Lisbon under the king's
patronage an account of his travels in one volume folio,
entitled Yerdadera Informacam das terras do Preste
Joam. This curious work was translated into Italian (G.
B. Ramusio, Navagationi, vol. i., Venice, 1550); into
Spanish (Historia de las Cosas de Etiopia, by Fray Thomas de
Padilla, Antwerp, 1557); into French (Historiale Description
de l'Ethiopie, Christ. Plantin, Antwerp, 1558); into German
(Wahrhaftiger Bericht von ... Ethiopien, Eisieben, 1566);
into English (Sam. Purchas, Pilgrimes, part ii., London,
1625). The information it contains must, however, be received
with caution, as the author is prone to exaggerate, and does
not confine himself to what came within his own observation.
ALVAREZ, DON JOSE (1768-1827), Spanish sculptor, was born
at Priego, in the province of Cordova, in 1768. His full
name was Jose Alvarez de Pereira y Cubero. Bred to his
father's trade of a stone-mason, he devoted all his spare
time to drawing and modelling. His education in art was due
partly to the teaching of the French sculptor Verdiguier at
Cordova, and partly to lessons at Madrid, where he attended
the lectures of the academy of San Fernando. In 1799 he
obtained from Charles IV. a pension of 12,000 reals to enable
him to visit Paris and Rome. In the former city he executed
in 1804 a statue of Ganymede, which placed him at once in the
front rank of the sculptors of his time, and which is now in
the sculpture gallery of the Prado. Shortly afterwards his
pension was more than doubled, and he left Paris for Rome,
where he remained till within a year of his death. He had
married in Paris Elizabeth Bougel, by whom he had a son in
1805. This son, known as Don Jose Alvarez y Bougel, also
distinguished himself as a sculptor and a painter, but he
died at Burgos before he had reached the age of twenty-five,
a little more than two years after his father's death in
Madrid in 1827. One of the most successful works of the
elder Alvarez was a group representing Antilochus and Memnon,
which was commissioned in marble (1818) by Ferdinand VII.,
and secured for the artist the appointment of court-sculptor.
It is now in the museum of Madrid. He also modelled a few
portrait busts (Ferdinand VII., Rossini, the duchess of
Alba), which are remarkable for their vigour and fidelity.
ALVAREZ, DON MANUEL (1727--1797), Spanish sculptor, was born at
Salamanca. He followed classical models so closely that he was
styled by his countrymen El Griego, ``The Greek.'' His works,
which are very numerous, are chiefly to be found at Madrid.
ALVARY, MAX (1858-1898), German singer, was born at
Dusseldorf. Gifted with a fine tenor voice and handsome
presence he speedily made a reputation in Germany in
the leading roles in Wagnerian opera, and from 1885
onwards appeared also in America and England. He was at
his best in 1892, when his performances as Tristan and
Siegfried at Covent Garden aroused great enthusiasm.
ALVEARY (from the Lat. alvearium), a beehive; used, like
apiarium in the same sense, figuratively for a collection of
hard-working people, or a scholarly work (e.g. dictionary)
involving bee-like industry. By analogy the term is
used for the hollow of the ear, where the wax collects.
ALVENSLEBEN, CONSTANTIN VON (1809-1892), Prussian general,
was born on the 26th of August 1809 at Eichenbarleben in
Prussian Saxony, and entered the Prussian guards from the
cadet corps in 1827. He became first lieutenant in 1842,
captain in 1849, and major on the Great General Staff in
1853, whence after seven years he went to the Ministry of
War. He was soon afterwards promoted colonel, and commanded
a regiment of Guard infantry up to 1864, when he became a
major-general. In this rank he commanded a brigade of guards
in the war of 1866. At the action of Soor (Burkersdorf)
on the 28th of June he distinguished himself very greatly,
and at Koniggratz, where he led the advanced guard of
the Guard corps, his energy and initiative were still more
conspicuous. Soon afterwards he succeeded to the command
of his division, General Hiller v. Gartringen having
fallen in the battle; he was promoted lieutenant-general,
and retained this command after the conclusion of peace,
receiving in addition the order pour le merite for his
services. In 1870, on the outbreak of war with France, von
Alvensleben succeeded Prince Frederick Charles in command
of the III army corps which formed part of the II German
Army commanded by the prince. Under their new general, the
Brandenburg regiments forming the III corps proved themselves
collectively the best in the whole German army, with the
possible exception of the Prussian guards, and, if Prince
Frederick Charles is entitled to the chief credit in training
the III corps, Alvensleben had contributed in almost equal
degree to the efficiency of the Guard infantry, while his
actual leadership of the III corps in the battles of 1870 and
1871 showed him afresh as a fighting general of the very first
rank. The battle of Spicheren, on the 6th of August, was
initiated and practically directed throughout by him, and
in the confusion which followed this victory, for which the
superior commanders were not prepared, Alvensleben showed his
energy and determination by resuming the advance on his own
responsibility. This led to the great battles of the 14th,
16th and 18th of August around Metz, and again the III corps
was destined, under its resolute leader, to win the chief
credit. Crossing the Moselle the instant that he received
permission from his army commander to do so, Alvensleben
struck the flank of Bazaine's whole army (August 16th) in
movement westward from Metz. The III corps attacked at once,
and for many hours bore the whole brunt of the battle at
Vionville. By the most resolute leading, and at the cost
of very heavy losses, Alvensleben held the whole French
army at bay while other corps of the I and II German Armies
gradually closed up. In the battle of Gravelotte, on the
18th, the corps took little part. Its work was done, and it
remained with the II Army before Metz until the surrender of
Bazaine's army. Prince Frederick Charles then moved south-west
to co-operate with the grand-duke of Mecklenburg on the
Loire. At the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande, the corps,
with its comrades of Vionville, the X corps under General
v. Voigts-Rhetz, won new laurels, and it participated in
the advance on Le Mans and the battle at that place on the
12th of January 1871. At the close of the war Alvensleben
received the oak-leaves of the order pour le merite,
the first class of the Iron Cross and a grant of 100,000
thalers. He became full general of infantry in 1873 and
retired immediately afterwards. In 1889 the emperor William
II. ordered that the 52nd infantry regiment (one of the
distinguished regiments of Vionville) should thereafter bear
Alvensleben's name, and in 1892, on the anniversary of the
battle of Le Mans, the old general received the order of the
Black Eagle. He died on the 28th of March 1892 at Berlin.
His brother, GUSTAV VON ALVENSLEBEN (1803-1881), Prussian
general of infantry, was born at Eichenbarleben on the 30th of
September 1803, entered the Guard infantry in 1821, and took
part as a general staff officer in the suppression of the Baden
insurrection of 1849. He became a major-general in 1858,
aide-de-camp to the king in 1861, and lieutenant-general in
1863, and in the campaign of 1866 performed valuable military
and political services. He was promoted general of infantry in
1868. In the war of 1870 he commanded the IV army corps,
which took a conspicuous part in the action of Beaumont
and afterwards served in the siege of Paris. He received
the Iron Cross, the order pour le merite, and a money
grant, as a reward for his services, and retired in 1872.
He died at Gernrode in the Harz on the 30th of June 1881.
Another brother, ALBRECHT, COUNT von ALVENSLEBEN
(1794- 1858), was a distinguished Prussian statesman.
ALVEOLATE (from Lat. alveolus), honeycombed, a word used
technically in biology, &c., to mean pitted like a honeycomb.
ALVERSTONE, RICHARD EVERARD WEBSTER, IST BARON (1842-
), lord chief justice of England, was born on the 22nd
of December 1842, being the second son of Thomas Webster,
Q.C. He was educated at King's College and Charterhouse
schools, and Trinity College, Cambridge; was called to the
bar in 1868, and became Q.C. only ten years afterwards. His
practice was chiefly in commercial, railway and patent cases
until (June 1885) he was appointed attorney-general in the
Conservative Government in the exceptional circumstances
of never having been solicitor-general, and not at the time
occupying a seat in parliament. He was elected for Launceston
in the following month, and in November exchanged this seat
for the Isle of Wight, which he continued to represent until
his elevation to the House of Lords. Except under the brief
Gladstone administration of 1886, and the Gladstone-Rosebery
cabinet of 1892-1895, Sir Richard Webster was attorney-general
from 1885 to 1900. In 1890 he was leading counsel for The
Times in the Parnell inquiry; in 1893 he represented Great
Britain in the Bering Sea arbitration; in 1898 he discharged
the same function in the matter of the boundary between
British Guiana and Venezuela; and in 1903 was one of the
members of the Alaska Boundary Commission. He was well
known as an athlete in his earlier years, having represented
his university as a runner, and his interest in cricket
and foot-racing was kept up in later life. In the House of
Commons, and outside it, he was throughout his political
career prominently associated with church work; and his
speeches were distinguished for gravity and earnestness.
In 1900 he succeeded Sir Nathaniel Lindley as Master of the
Rolls, being raised to the peerage as Baron Alverstone, and
in October of the same year he was elevated to the office of
lord chief justice upon the death of Lord Russell of Killowen.
ALWAR, or ULWAR, a native state of India in the Rajputana
agency. It is bounded on the E. by the state of Bharatpur
and the British district of Gurgaon, on the N. by Gurgaon
district and the state of Patiala, on the W. by the
states of Nabha and Jaipur, and on the S. by the state of
Jaipur. Its configuration is irregular, the greatest length
from north to south being about 80 m., and breadth from
east to west about 60 m., with a total area of 3141 sq.
m. The eastern portion of the state is open and highly
cultivated; the western is diversified by hills and peaks,
which form a continuation of the Aravalli range, from 12 to
20 m. in breadth. These hills run in rocky and precipitous
parallel ridges, in some places upwards of 2200 ft. in
height. The Sabhi river flows through the north-western part
of the state, the only other stream of importance being the
Ruparel, which rises in the Alwar hills, and flows through
the state into the Bharatpur territory. The population
in 1901 was 828,487, showing an increase of 8% during the
decade. When compared with a heavy decrease elsewhere
throughout Rajputana, this increase may be attributed to the
successful administration of famine relief, under British
officials. The revenue is L. 185,000. The maharaja Jai
Singh, who succeeded in 1892 at the age of ten, was educated
at the Mayo college, where he excelled both in sports and in
knowledge of English. He came of age in 1903, when he was
invested by the viceroy with full ruling powers. Alwar was
the first native state to accept a currency struck at the
Calcutta mint, of the same weight and assay as the imperial
rupee, with the head of the British sovereign on the obverse.
Imperial service troops are maintained, consisting of both
cavalry and infantry, with transport. The state is traversed
by the Delhi branch of the Rajputana railway. A settlement of
the land revenue has been carried out by an English civilian.
The state was founded by Pratap Singh (1740-1791), a Rajput
of ancient lineage, and increased by his adopted son Bakhtawar
Singh. The latter joined the British against the Mahrattas,
and in 1803, after the battle of Laswari (Nov. 1), signed a
treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with the British
government. In 1811, owing to his armed intervention in Jaipur,
a fresh engagement was made, prohibiting him from political
intercourse with other states without British consent. In 1857
the raja Binni Singh sent a force of Mussulmans and Rajputs
to relieve the British garrison in Agra; the Mussulmans,
however, deserted, and the rest were defeated by the mutineers.
The CITY OF ALWAR has a railway station on the Rajputana
line, 98 m. from Delhi; pop. (1901) 56,771, showing a steady
increase. It stands in a valley overhung by a fortress 1000 ft.
above. It is surrounded by a rampart and moat, with five gates,
and contains fine palaces, temples and tombs. The water-supply
is brought from a lake 9 m. distant. It has a high school,
affiliated to the Allahabad university; and a school for the
sons of nobles, founded to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee
of Queen Victoria. The Lady Dufferin hospital is under the
charge of an English lady doctor, with two female assistants.
ALYATTES, king of Lydia (609-560 B.C.), the real founder
of the Lydian empire, was the son of Sadyattes, of the house
of the Mermnadae. For several years he continued the war
against Miletus begun by his father, but was obliged to turn
his attention to the Medes and Babylonians. On the 28th
of May 585, during a battle on the Halys between him and
Cyaxares, king of Media, an eclipse of the sun took place;
hostilities were suspended, peace concluded, and the Halys
fixed as the boundary between the two kingdoms. Alyattes
drove the Cimmerii (see SCYTIHA) from Asia, subdued the
Carians, and took several Ionian cities (Smyrna, Colophon).
He was succeeded by his son Croesus. His tomb still exists on
the plateau between lake Gygaea and the river Hermus to the
north of Sardis -- a large mound of earth with a substructure
of huge stones. It was excavated by Spiegelthal in 1854,
who found that it covered a large vault of finely-cut marble
blocks approached by a flat-roofed passage of the same stone
from the south. The sarcophagus and its contents had been
removed by early plunderers of the tomb, all that was left
being some broken alabaster vases, pottery and charcoal.
On the summit of the mound were large phalli of stone.
See A. von Olfers, ``Uber die lydischen
Konigsgraber bei Sardes,'' Abh. Berl. Ak., 1858.
ALYPIUS, a Greek writer on music whose works, with those of
six others, were collected and published with a commentary and
explanatory notes (Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem, Amstel.,
1652), by Mark Meibomius (1630-1711). He is said to have
written before Euclid and Ptolemy; and Cassiodorus arranges
his Introduction to Music between those of Nicomachus and
Gaudentius. The work consists solely of a list of symbols of
the various scales and modes, and is probably only a fragment.
ALYPIUS OF ANTIOCH, a geographer of the 4th century, who
was sent by the emperor Julian into Britain as first prefect,
and was afterwards commissioned to rebuild the temple of
Jerusalem. Among the letters of Julian are two (29 and 30)
addressed to Alypins; one inviting him to Rome, the other thanking
him for a geographical treatise, which no longer exists.
See also Ammianus Marcellinus xxiii. 1, sec. 2.
ALYTES, the midwife toad, first discovered by P. Demours in
1741, on the border of a small pond in the Jardin des Plantes,
in the very act of parturition which has rendered it famous,
and described as Petit crapaud male accoucheur de sa femelle.
Alytes obstetricans is of special interest as the first known
example of paternal solicitude in Batrachians, and although
many no less wonderful cases of nursing instinct have since been
revealed to us, it remains the only one among European forms.
Alytes obstetricans is a small toad-like Batrachian, two inches
in length, of dull greyish coloration, plump form with warty
skin and large eyes with vertical pupils. Although toad-like
it is not really related to the toads proper, but belongs to the
family Discoglossidae, characterized by a circular, adherent
tongue, teeth in the upper jaw and on the palate, short but
distinct ribs on the anterior vertebrae, and convex-concave
vertebrae. It inhabits France, Belgium, Switzerland, Western
Germany (eastwards to the Weser), Spain and Portugal. A second
species, A. cisternasii, occurs in Spain and Portugal.
Alytes is nocturnal and slow in its movements. It is
thoroughly terrestrial, selecting for its retreat in the daytime
holes made by small mammals, or interstices between stones.
Towards evening it reveals its presence by a clear whistling
note, which has often been compared to the sound of a little
bell, or to a chime when produced by numerous individuals.
The breeding season lasts throughout spring and summer, and the
female is able to spawn two, three or even four times in the
year. Pairing and oviposition take place on land; the male
seizes the female round the waist. The eggs are large and
yellow, and produced in two rosary-like strings, as if strung
together by elastic filaments continuous with the gelatinous
capsules. After impregnation, the male twists them round his
legs and returns to his usual retreat, going about at night
in order to feed himself and to keep up the moisture of the
eggs, even resorting to a short immersion in the water during
exceptionahy dry nights. The development of the embryo
within the egg takes about three weeks. When the time for
eclosion has come, the male enters the water with his burden;
the larvae, in the full tadpole condition, measuring 14 to 17
millimetres, bite their way through their tough envelope, which
is not abandoned by the father until all the young are liberated,
and complete in the ordinary way their metamorphosis. The
tadpoles grow to a large size considering that of the adult,
the body equalling in size a sparrow's or even a small pigeon's
egg, and they often remain more than a year in that condition.
See A. de l'Isle, ``Memoire sur les moeurs et
l'accouchement de l'Alytes obstetricans,'' Ann.
Sci. Nat. (6) iii. 1876; G. A. Boulenger. Tailless
Batrachians of Europe (Ray Society, 1897). (G. A. B.)
ALZEY, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Hesse-
Darmstadt, 18 m. S. of Mainz by rail. Pop. (1900) 6893.
There are a Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches, several
high-grade schools and a teachers' seminary. Alzey has industries
of dyeing and weaving, breweries, and does a considerable
trade in wine. It is immortalized in the Nibelungenlied
in the person of ``Volker von Alzeie,'' the warrior who in
the last part of the epic plays a part second only to that of
Hagen, and who ``was called the minstrel (spilman) because
he could fiddle.'' It became an imperial city in 1277. In
1620 it was sacked by the Spaniards and in 1689 burnt by the
French. Annexed to France during the Napoleonic wars,
it passed in 1815 to the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.
ALZOG, JOHANN BAPTIST (1808-1878), German theologian,
was born at Ohlau, in Silesia, on the 29th of June 1808.
He studied at Breslau and Bonn and was ordained priest at
Cologne in 1834. In the following year he accepted the
chairs of exegesis and church history at the seminary of
Posen. He removed in 1844 to Hildesheim, where he had been
appointed rector of the seminary. He became professor of
church history at the university of Freiburg in the Breisgau
in 1853 and held that post till his death on the 1st of March
1878. Together with Dollinger, Alzog was instrumental in
convoking the famous Munich assembly of Catholic scholars in
1863. He also took part, with Bishops Hefele and Haseberg,
in the preparatory work of the Vatican Council and voted in
favour of the doctrine of papal infallibility but against
the opportuneness of its promulgation. Alzog's fame rests
mainly on his Handbuch den Caniversal-Kirchengeschichte
(Mainz, 1841, often reprinted under various titles; Eng.
trans. by Pabisch and Byrne, A Manual of Church History, 4
vols. Cincinnati, 1874). Based upon the foundations laid
by Mohler, this manual was generally accepted as the best
exposition of Catholic views, in opposition to the Protestant
manual by C. A. Hase, and was translated into several
languages. Besides a host of minor writings on ecclesiastical
subjects, and an active collaboration in the great Kirchen-
lexicon of Wetzer and Welte, Alzog was also the author of
Grundriss der Patrologic (Freiburg, 1866, 4th ed. 1888), a
scholarly work, though now superseded by that of O. Bardenhewer.
A full list of Alzog's writings is given in H. Hurter's Nomenclator
titerarius recentioris theologiae catholicae, vol. iii. For
an account of his life see the funeral oration by F. X. Kraus,
entitled: Gedachtnissrede auf Johannes Alzog (Freiburg, 1879).
AMADIS DE GAULA. This famous romance of chivalry survives
only in a Castilian text, but it is claimed by Portugal as
well as by Spain. The date of its composition, the name of its
author, and the language in which it was originally written
are not yet settled. It is not even certain when the romance
was first printed, for though the oldest known edition (a
unique copy of which is in the British Museum) appeared at
Saragossa in 1508, it is highly probable that Amadis was
in print before this date: an edition is reported to have
been issued at Seville in 1496. As it exists in Spanish,
Amadis de Gaula consists of four books, the last of which
is generally believed to be by the regidor of Medina del
Campo, Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo (whose name is given as
Garci Ordonez de Montalvo in all editions of Amadis later
than that of 1508, and as Garci Gutierrez de Montalvo in some
editions of the Sergas de Esplandian). Montalvo alleges
that the first three books were arranged and corrected by
him from ``the ancient originals,'' and a reference in the
prologue to the siege of Granada points to the conclusion
that the Spanish recast was made shortly after 1492; it is
possible, however, that the prologue alone was written after
1492, and that the text itself is older. The number of these
``ancient originals'' is not stated, nor is there any mention
of the language in which they were composed; Montalvo's
silence on the latter point might be taken to imply that
they were in Castilian, but any such inference would be
hazardous. Three hooks of Areadis de Gaula are mentioned
by Pero Ferrus who was living in 1379, and there is evidence
that the romance was current in Castile more than a quarter
of a century earlier; but again there is no information as
to the language in which they were written. Gomes Eannes de
Azurara, in his Chronica de Conde D. Pedro de Menezes (c.
1450), states that Amadis de Gaula was written by Vasco de
Lobeira in the time of king Ferdinand of Portugal who died
in 1383: as Vasco de Lobeira was knighted in 1385, it would
follow that he wrote the elaborate romance in his earliest
youth. This conclusion is untenable, and the suggestion that
the author was Pedro de Loboira (who flourished in the 15th
century) involves a glaring anachronism. A further step was
taken by the historian Joao de Barros, who maintained in
an unpublished work dating between 1540 and 1550 that Vasco
de Lobeira wrote Amadis de Gaula in Portuguese, and that
his text was translated into Castilian; this is unsupported
assertion. Towards the end of the 16th century Miguel Leite
Ferreira, son of the Portuguese poet, Antonio Ferreira,
declared that the original manuscript of Amadis de Gaula
was then in the Aveiro archives, and an Amadis de Gaula
in Portuguese, which is alleged to have existed in the conde
de Vimeiro's library as late as 1586, had vanished before
1726. In the absence of corroboration, these dubious details
must be received with extreme reserve. A stronger argument in
favour of the Portuguese case is drawn from the existing Spanish
text. In book I, chapters 40 and 42, it is recorded that
the Infante Alphonso of Portugal suggested a radical change
in the narrative of Briolanja's relations with Amadis. This
prince has been identified as the Infante Alphonso who died in
1312, or as Alphonso IV. who ascended the Portuguese throne
in 1325. Were either of these identifications established,
the date of composition might be referred with certainty to
the beginning of the 14th century or the end of the 13th.
But both identifications are conjectural. Nevertheless the
passage in the Spanish text undeniably lends some support
to the Portuguese claim, and recent critics have inclined to
the belief that Areadis de Gaula was written by Joao de
Lobeira, a Galician knight who frequented the Portuguese
court between 1258 and 1285, and to whom are ascrihed two
fragments of a poem in the Colocci-Brancuti Canzoniere
(Nos. 240 and 240b) which reappears with some unimportant
variants in Amadis de Gaula (book II, chapter 11). The
coincidence may be held to account in some measure for the
traditional association of a Lobeira with the authorship of
Amadis de Gaula; but, though curious, it warrants no
definite conclusion being drawn from it. Against the Portuguese
claim it is argued that the Villancico corresponding to
Joao de Lobeiro's poem is an interpolation in the Spanish
text, that Portuguese prose was in a rudimentary stage of
development at the period when -- ex hypothesi -- the
romance was composed, and that the book was very popular
in Spain almost a century before it is even mentioned in
Portugal. Lastly, there is the incontrovertible fact that
Amidis de Gaula exists in Castilian, while it remains
to be proved that it ever existed in Portuguese. As to its
substance, it is beyond dispute that much of the text derives
from the French romances of the Round Table; but the evidence
does not enable us to say (1) whether it was pieced together
from various French romances; (2) whether it was more or
less literally translated from a lost French original; or
(3) whether the first Peninsular adapter or translator was a
Castilian or a Portuguese. On these points judgment must be
suspended. There can, however, be no hesitation in accepting
Cervantes' verdict on Amadis de Gaula as the ``best of
all the books of this kind that have ever been written.''
It is the prose epic of feudalism, and its romantic spirit,
its high ideals, its fantastic gallantry, its ingenious
adventures, its mechanism of symbolic wonders, and its
flowing style have entranced readers of such various types
as Francis I. and Charles V., Ariosto and Montaigne.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. -- Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos and
Gottfried Baist in the Grundriss der romanischen Philologie
(Strassburg, 1897 ), ii. Band, 2. Abteiluna, pp. 216-226
and 440-442: Ludwig Braunfels, Kritischer Versuch uber den
Roman Annadie von Glallien (Leipzig, 1876); Theophilo Braga,
Historia das novelas portuguezas de cavalleria (Porto,
1873), Curso de litteratura e arte portugueza (Lisboa,
1881), and Questoes de litteratura e arte portugueza
(Lisboa, 1885); Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, Origenes de
la novela (Madrid, 1905); Eugene Baret, De l,Amadis de
Glaule et de son influence sur les moeurs et la litterature
au XVIe et au XVIIe siecle (Paris, 1873). (J. F. K.)
AMADOU, a soft tough substance used as tinder, derived
from Polyporus fomentarius, a fungus belonging to the
group Basidiomycetes and somewhat resembling a mushroom in
manner of growth. It grows upon old trees, especially the
oak, ash, fir and cherry. The fungus is cut into slices
and then steeped in a solution of nitre. Amadou is prepared
on the continent of Europe, chiefly in Germany, but the
fungus is a native of Britain. Polyporus igniarius and
other species are also used, but yield an inferior product.
AMAKUSA, an island belonging to Japan, 26 1/2 m. long and 13 1/2
in extreme width, situated about 32 deg. 20' N., and 130 deg. E.
long., on the west of the province of Higo (island of Kiushiu),
from which it is separated by the Yatsushiro-kai. It has
no high mountains, but its surface being very hilly -- four
of the peaks rise to a height over 1500 ft. -- the natives
resort to the terrace system of cultivation with remarkable
success. A number of the heads of the Christians executed
in connexion with the Shimabara rebellion in the first half
of the 17th century were buried in this island. Amakusa
produces a little coal and fine kaolin, which was largely
used in former times by the potters of Hirado and Satsuma.
AMAL, the name of the noblest family among the Ostrogoths,
and that from which nearly all their kings were chosen.
AMALARIC (d. 531), king of the Visigoths, son of Alaric II.,
was a child when his father fell in battle against Clovis,
king of the Franks (507). He was carried for safety into
Spain, which country and Provence were thenceforth ruled by
his maternal grandfather, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, acting
through his vice- gerent, an Ostrogothic nobleman named
Theudis. In 522 the young Amalaric was proclaimed king,
and four years later, on Theodoric's death, he assumed full
royal power in Spain and a part of Languedoc, relinquishing
Provence to his cousin Athalaric. He married Clotilda,
daughter of Clovis; but his disputes with her, he being
an Arian and she a Catholic, brought on him the penalty
of a Frankish invasion, in which he lost his life in 531.
AMALASUNTHA or AMALASUENTHA, queen of the Ostrogoths (d.
535), daughter of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, was
married in 515 to Eutharic, an Ostrogoth of the old Areal
line, who had previously been living in Spain. Her husband
died, apparently in the early years of her marriage, leaving
her with two children, Athalaricand Matasuentha. On the
death of her father in 526, she succeeded him, acting as
regent for her son, but being herself deeply imbued with the
old Roman culture, she gave to that son's education a more
refined and literary turn than suited the ideas of her Gothic
subjects. Conscious of her unpopularity she banished, and
afterwards put to death, three Gothic nobles whom she suspected
of intriguing against her rule, and at the same time opened
negotiations with the emperor Justinian with the view of
removing herself and the Gothic treasure to Constantinople.
Her son's death in 534 made but little change in the posture of
affairs. Amalasuntha, now queen, with a view of strengthening
her position, made her cousin Theodahad partner of her throne
(not, as sometimes stated, her husband, for his wife was
still living). The choice was unfortunate. Theodahad,
notwithstanding a varnish of literary culture, was a coward
and a scoundrel. He fostered the disaffection of the Goths,
and either by his orders or with his permission, Amalasuntha
was imprisoned on an island in the Tuscan lake of Bolsena,
where in the spring of 535 she was murdered in her bath.
The letters of Cassiodorus, chief minister and literary adviser of
Amalasuntha, and the histories of Procopius and Jordanea, give
us our chief information as to the character of Amalauentha.
AMALEKITES, an ancient tribe, or collection of tribes,
in the south and south-east of Palestine, often mentioned
in the Old Testament as foes of the Israelites. They were
regarded as a branch of the Edomites (Gen. xxxvi. 12, see
EDOM), and appear to have numbered among their divisions
the Kenites. When the Israelites were journeying from Egypt
to the land of Canaan, the Amalekites are said to have taken
advantage of their weak condition to harry the stragglers
in the rear, and as a judgment for their hostility it was
ordained that their memory should be blotted out from under
heaven (Deut. xxv. 17-19). An allusion to this appears
in the account of Israel's defeat on the occasion of the
attempt to force a passage from Kadesh through Hormah,
evidently into Palestine (Num. xiv. 43-45, cp. Deut. i.
44-46). The statements are obscure, and elsewhere Hormah
is the scene of a victory over the Canaanites by Israel
(Num. xxi. 1-3), or by the tribes Judah and Simeon (Judg.
i. 17). The question is further complicated by the account
of Joshua's overthrow of Amalek apparently in the Sinaitic
peninsula. The event was commemorated by the erection of the
altar ``Yahwehnissi'' (``Yahweh my banner'' or ``memorial''),
and rendered even more memorable by the utterance, ``Yahweh
hath sworn: Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation'' (Ex. xvii. 8-16, on its present position, see
EXODUS [BOOK]). The same sentiment recurs in Yahweh's
command to Saul to destroy Amalek utterly for its hostility
to Israel (1 Sam. xv.), and in David's retaliatory expedition
when he distributed among his friends the spoil of the
``enemies of Yahweh'' (xxx. 26). Saul himself, according to one
tradition, was slain by an Amalekite (2 Sam. i., contrast 1
Sam. xxxi.). A similar spirit appears among the prophecies
ascribed to Balaam: ``Amalek, first (or chief) of nations,
his latter end [will be] destruction'' (Num. xxiv. 20).
The district of Amalek lay to the south of Judah (cp. I
Chron. iv. 42 seq.), probably between Kadesh and Hormah (cp.
Gen. xiv. 7; 1 Sam. xv. 7, xxvii. 8), and the interchange of
the ethnic with ``Canaanites'' and ``Amorites'' suggests that
the Amalekites are merely one of Israel's traditional enemies
of the older period. Hence we find them taking part with
Ammonites and Midianites (Judg. iii. 13, vi. 3), and their king
Agag, slain by Samuel as a sacrificial offering (1 Sam. xv.
9), was a byword for old-time might and power (Num. xxiv. 7).
Even in one of the Psalms (lxxxiii. 7) Amalek is mentioned
among the enemies of Israel -- just as Greek writers of the 6th
century of this era applied the old term Scythians to the Goths
(Noldeke), -- and the traditional hostility between Saul and
Amalek is reflected still later in the book of Esther where
Haman the Agagite is pitted against Mordecai the Benjamite.
Twice Amalek seems to be mentioned as occupying central
Palestine (Judg. v. 14, xii. 15), but the passages are
textually uncertain. The name is celebrated in Arabian
tradition, but the statements regarding them are confused and
conflicting, and for historical purposes are practically
worthless, as has been proved by Th. Noldeke (Uleber
die Amalekiter, Gottingen, 1864). On the biblical
data, see also E. Meyer, Die Israeliten (Index, s.v..)
(S. A. C.)
AMALFI, a town and archiepiscopal see of Campania, Italy, in
the province of Salerno, from the town of which name it is
distant 12 m. W.S.W. by road, on the N. coast of the Gulf of
Salerno. Pop. (1901) 6681. It lies at the mouth of a deep
ravine, in a sheltered situation, at the foot of Monte Cerreto
(4314 ft.), in the centre of splendid coast scenery, and is
in consequence much visited by foreigners. The cathedral
of S. Andrea is a structure in the Lombard-Norman style, of
the 11th century; the facade in black and white stone was
well restored in 1891; the bronze doors were executed at
Constantinople before 1066. The campanile dates from 1276.
The interior is also fine, and contains ancient columns and
sarcophagi. The conspicuous Capuchin monastery on the
W. with fine cloisters (partly destroyed by a landslip in
1899) is now used as an hotel. Amalfi is first mentioned
in the 6th century, and soon acquired importance as a naval
power; in the 9th century it shared with Venice and Gaeta
the Italian trade with the East, and in 848 its fleet went
to the assistance of Pope Leo IV. against the Saracens.
It was then an independent republic with a population of
some 70,000, but in 1131 it was reduced by King Roger of
Sicily. In 1135 and 1137 it was taken by the Pisans, and
rapidly declined in importance, though its maritime code,
known as the Tavole Amalfitane, was recognized in the
Mediterranean until 1570. In 1343 a large part of the town was
destroyed by an inundation, and its harbour is now of little
importance. Its industries too, have largely disappeared,
and the paper manufacture has lost ground since 1861.
AMALGAM, the name applied to alloys which contain mercury.
It is said by Andreas Libavius to be a corruption of
malagma; in the alchemists the form algamala is also
found. Many amalgams are formed by the direct contact of a
metal with mercury, sometimes with absorption, sometimes with
evolution, of heat. Other methods are to place the metal
and mercury together in dilute acid, to add mercury to the
solution of a metallic salt, to place a metal in a solution
of mercuric nitrate, or to electrolyse a metallic salt using
mercury as the negative electrode. Some amalgams are liquids,
especially when containing a large proportion of mercury;
others assume a crystalline form. In some cases definite
compounds have been isolated from amalgams which may be regarded
as mixtures of one or more of such compounds with mercury in
excess. In general these compounds are decomposable by heat,
but some of them, such as those of gold, silver, copper and
the alkali metals, even when heated above the boiling point
of mercury retain mercury and leave residues of definite
composition. Tin amalgam is used for ``silvering'' mirrors,
gold and silver amalgam in gilding and silvering, cadmium and
copper amalgam in dentistry, and an amalgam of zinc and tin for
the rubbers of electrical machines; the zinc plates of electric
batteries are amalgamated in order to reduce polarization.
AMALRIC, the name of two kings of Jerusalem. AMALRIC I.,
king from 1162 to 1174, was the son of Fulk of Jerusalem, and
the brother of Baldwin III. He was twice married: by his first
wife, Agnes of Edessa, he had issue a son and a daughter,
Baldwin IV. and Sibylla, while his second wife, Maria Comnena,
bore him a daughter Isabella, who ultimately carried the
crown of Jerusalem to her fourth husband, Amalric of Lusignan
(Amalric II.). The reign of Amalric I. was occupied by the
Egyptian problem. It became a question between Amalric and
Nureddin, which of the two should control the discordant
viziers, who vied with one another for the control of the
decadent caliphs of Egypt. The acquisition of Egypt had
been an object of the Franks since the days of Baldwin I.
(and indeed of Godfrey himself, who had promised to cede
Jerusalem to the patriarch Dagobert as soon as he should
himself acquire Cairo). The capture of Ascakm by Baldwin
III. in 1153 made this object more feasible; and we find
the Hospitallers preparing sketch-maps of the routes best
suited for an invasion of Egypt, in the style of a modern war
office. On the other hand, it was natural for Nureddin to
attempt to secure Egypt, both because it was the terminus
of the trading route which ran from Damascus and because the
acquisition of Egypt would enable him to surround the Latin
kingdom. For some five years a contest was waged between
Amalric and Shirguh (Shirkuh), the lieutenant of Nureddin,
for the possession of Egypt. Thrice (1164, 1167, 1168)
Amalric penetrated into Egypt: but the contest ended in the
establishment of Saladin, the nephew of Shirguh, as vizier
-- a position which, on the death of the puppet caliph in
1171, was turned into that of sovereign. The extinction of
the Latin kingdom might now seem imminent; and envoys were
sent to the West with anxious appeals for assistance in
1169, 1171 and 1173. But though in 1170 Saladin attacked
the kingdom, and captured Aila on the Red Sea, the danger
was not so great as it seemed. Nureddin was jealous of
his over-mighty subject, and his jealousy bound Saladin's
hands. This was the position of affairs when Amalric died,
in 1174; but, as Nureddin died in the same year, the position
was soon altered and Saladin began the final attack on the
kingdom. Amalric I., the second of the native kings of
Jerusalem, had the qualities of his brother Baldwin III.
(q.v.) He was something of a scholar, and it was he who
set William of Tyre to work. He was perhaps still more of
a lawyer: his delight was in knotty points of the law, and
he knew the Assises better than any of his subjects.
The Church had some doubts of him, and he laid his hands on
the Church. William of Tyre was once astonished to find him
questioning, on a bed of sickness, the resurrection of the
body; and his taxation of clerical goods gave umbrage to the
clergy generally. But he maintained the state of his kingdom
with the resources which he owed to the Church; and he is
the last in the fine list of the early kings of Jerusalem.
William of Tyre is our original authority: see xix. 2-3 for
his sketch of Amalric. Rohricht narrates the reign of Amalric
I., Geschichte des Konigreichs Jerusalem, c. xvii.-xviii.
Amalric II., king from 1197 to 1205, was the brother of Guy of
Lusignan. He had been constable of Jerusalem, but in 1194, on
the death of his brother, he became king of Cyprus, as Amalric
I. He married Isabella, the daughter of Amalric I. by his second
marriage, and became king of Jerusalem in right of his wife in
1197. In 1198 he was able to procure a five years' truce
with the Mahommedans, owing to the struggle between Saladin's
brothers and his sons for the inheritance of his territories.
The truce was disturbed by raids on both sides, but in 1204
it was renewed for six years. Amalric died in 1205, just
after his son and just before his wife. The kingdom of Cyprus
passed to Hugh, his son by an earlier marriage, while that
of Jerusalem passed to Maria, the daughter of Isabella by
her previous marriage with Conrad of Montferrat. (E. B. R.)
AMALRIC (Fr. AMAURY) OF BENA (d.c. 1204-1207), French
theologian, was born in the latter part of the 12th century
at Bena, a village in the diocese of Chartres. He taught
philosophy and theology at the university of Paris and enjoyed
a great reputation as a subtle dialectician; his lectures
developing the philosophy of Aristotle attracted a large
circle of hearers. In 1204 his doctrines were condemned by
the university, and, on a personal appeal to Pope Innocent
III., the sentence was ratified, Amalric being ordered to
return to Paris and recant his errors. His death was caused,
it is said, by grief at the humiliation to which he had been
subjected. In 1209 ten of his followers were burnt before
the gates of Paris, and Amalric's own body was exhumed
and burnt and the ashes given to the winds. The doctrines
of his followers, known as the Amalricians, were formally
condemned by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Amalric
appears to have derived his philosophical system from Erigena
(q.v.), whose principles he developed in a one-sided and
strongly pantheistic form. Three propositions only can with
certainty be attributed to him: (1) that God is all; (2) that
every Christian is bound to believe that he is a member of
the body of Christ, and that this belief is necessary for
salvation: (3) that he who remains in love of God can commit no
sin. These three propositions were further developed by
his followers, who maintained that God revealed Himself
in a threefold revelation, the first in Abraham, marking
the epoch of the Father; the second in Christ, who began
the epoch of the Son; and the third in Amalric and his
disciples, who inaugurated the era of the Holy Ghost. Under
the pretext that a true believer could commit no sin, the
Amalricians indulged in every excess, and the sect does
not appear to have long survived the death of its founder.
See W. Preger, Gleschichte der deutschen Mystik im
Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1874, i. 167-173); Haureau, Hist.
de la phil. scol. (Paris, 1872); C. Schmidt, Hist. de
l'Eglise d'Occident itendant le moyen age (Paris, 1885);
Hefele, Conciliengesch. (2nd ed., Ereiburg, 1886).
AMALTEO, the name of an Italian family belonging to Oderzo,
Treviso, several members of which were distinguished in
literature. The best known are three brothers, Geronimo
(1507-1574), Giambattista (1525-1573) and Cornelio (1530-1603),
whose Latin poems were published in one collection under
the title Trium Fralrum Amaltheorum Carmina (Venice,
1627; Amst., 1689). The eldest brother, Geronimo, was a
celebrated physician; the second, Giambattista, accompanied
a Venetian embassy to England in 1554, and was secretary
to Pius IV. at the council of Trent; the third, Cornelio,
was a physician and secretary to the republic of Ragusa.
AMALTEO, POMPONIO (1505-1584), Italian painter of the Venetian
school, was born at San Vito in Friuli. He was a pupil and
son-in-law of Pordenone, whose style he closely imitated. His
works consist chiefly of frescoes and altar-pieces and many
of them (e.g. in the church of Santa Maria de' Battisti, at
San Vito) have suffered greatly from the ravages of time.
AMALTHEIA, in Greek mythology, the foster-mother of Zeus.
She is sometimes represented as the goat which suckled
the infant-god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph of
uncertain parentage (daughter of Oceanus, Haemonius, Olen,
Melisseus), who brought him up on the milk of a goat. This
goat having broken off one of its horns, Amaltheia filled it
with flowers and fruits and presented it to Zeus, who placed
it together with the goat amongst the stars. According to
another story, Zeus himself broke off the horn and gave it to
Amaltheia, promising that it would supply whatever she desired
in abundance. Amaltheia gave it to Acholous (her reputed
brother), who exchanged it for his own horn which had been
broken off in his contest with Heracles for the possession of
Deianeira. According to ancient mythology, the owners of
the horn were many and various. Speaking generally, it was
regarded as the symbol of inexhaustible riches and plenty,
and became the attribute of various divinities (Hades,
Gaea, Demeter, Cybele, Hermes), and of rivers (the Nile) as
fertilizers of the land. The term ``horn of Amaltheia'' is
applied to a fertile district, and an estate belonging to
Titus Pomponius Atticus was called Amaltheum. Cretan coins
represent the infant Zeus being suckled by the goat; other
Greek coins exhibit him suspended from its teats or carried in
the arms of a nymph (Ovid, Fasti, v. 115; Metam. ix. 87).
AMANA, a township in Iowa county, Iowa, U.S.A., 19 m.
S.W. (by rail) of Cedar Rapids. Pop. (1900) 1748; (1910)
1729. It is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and
the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railways. The township is
the home of a German religious communistic society, the Amana
Society, formerly the True Inspiration Society (so called
from its belief in the present inspiration of the truly
godly and perfectly pious), whose members live in various
villages near the Iowa river. These villages are named Amana,
West Amana, South Amana, East Amana, Middle Amana, High
Amana and Homestead. The houses are of brick or unpainted
wood. The society has in all 26,000 acres of land, of which
about 10,000 acres are covered with forests. The principal
occupation of the members is farming, although they also have
woollen mills (their woollens being of superior quality),
a cotton print factory, flour mills, saw mills and dye
shops. Each family has its own dwelling-place and a small
garden; each member of a family has an annual allowance of
credit at the common store and a room in the dwelling-house;
and each group of families has a large garden, a common
kitchen and a common dining hall where men and women eat
at separate tables. Between the ages of five and fourteen
education is compulsory for the entire year. In the schools
nature study and manual training are prominent; German
is used throughout and English is taught in upper classes
only. No man is permitted to marry until twenty-four years
of age, and no woman until twenty. The society's views and
practices are nearly related to the teachings of Schwenkfeld
and Boehme. Baptism is not practised; the Lord's Supper is
celebrated only once in two years; foot-washing is held as a
sacrament. At an annual spiritual examination of the
members, there are mutual criticisms and public confessions of
sin. The Inspirationists are opposed to war and to taking of
oaths. The Society became attached to the Separatist
leader, Eberhard Ludwig Gruber (d. 1728) in Wetterau in
1714; in 1842-1844 about 600 members, led by Christian
Metz, the ``divine instrument'' of the Society, emigrated
from Germany to the United States and settled in a colony
called Ebenezer, in Erie county, near Buffalo, N.Y.; in 1855
the colony began to remove to its present home, which it
named from the mountain mentioned in the Song of Solomon,
iv. 8, the Hebrew word meaning ``remain true'' (or, more
probably, ``fixed''), and in 1859 it was incorporated under
the, name of the Amana Society. Metz died in 1864 and was
succeeded by Barbara Landmann, since whose death in 1884
the community has lacked an inspired leader. Amana was the
strongest in numbers of the few sectarian communities in
America which outlived the 19th century. A few new members
have joined the community from Switzerland and Germany in
recent years. In 1905 the community won a suit brought
against it for its dissolution on the ground that, having
been incorporated solely as a benevolent and religious
body, it was illegally carrying on a general business.
See W. R. Perkins and B. L. Wick, History of the Amana Society
or Community of True Inspiration, Historical Monograph, No. 1,
in State University of Iowa publications (Iowa City, 1891); R.
T. Ely, ``Amana: A Study of Religious Communism,'' in Harper's
Magazine for October 1902; and Bertha M. H. Shambaugh, Amana,
the Community of True Inspiration (Iowa City, 1908).
AMANITA. The amanitas include some of the most showy
representatives of the Agaricineae or mushroom order of fungi
(q.v.). In the first stages of growth, they are completely
enveloped by an outer covering called the veil. As the plant
develops the veil is ruptured; the lower portion forms a sheath
or volva round the base of the stem, while the upper portion
persists as white patches or scales or warts on the surface of
the cap. The stem usually bears an upper ring of tissue, the
Amanita muscaria. A, the young plant. g, the gills.
B, the mature plant. a, the annulus, or remnant of
C, longitudinal section of mature velum partiale.
plant. v, remains of volva or velum
p, the pileus. universale. s, the stalk.
remains of an inner veil, that stretched from the stem to the
edge of the cap and broke away from the cap as the latter
expanded. The presence of the volva, and the clear white
gills and spores, distinguish this genus from all other
agarics. They are beautiful objects in the autumn woods;
Amanita muscaria, the fly fungus, formerly known as Agaricus
muscarius, being especially remarkable by its bright red
cap covered with white warts. Others are pure white or
of varying shades of yellow or green. There are sixteen
British species of Amanita; they grow on the ground in
or near woods. Several of the species are very poisonous.
AMANUENSIS (a Latin word, derived from the phrase servus
a manu, slave of the hand, a secretary), one who writes,
from dictation or otherwise, on behalf of another.
AMAPALA, the only port on the Pacific coast of Honduras, on the
northern shore of Tigre island, in the Bay of Fonseca (q.v.);
in 13 deg. 3, N., and 87 deg. 94 W. Pop. (1905) about 4000. Amapala
was founded in 1838, and its port was opened and declared free
in 1868. The roadstead is perfectly sheltered and so deep
that the largest vessels can lie within a few yards of the
shore. It is the natural outlet for the commerce of some of
the richest parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador; and
during the 19th century it exported large quantities of gold,
silver and other ores, although its progress was retarded by the
delay in constructing a transcontinental railway from Puerto
Cortes. Its depots on the mainland, both about 30 m. distant,
are La Brea, for the line to Puerto Cortes, and San Lorenzo, for
Tegucigalpa. Silver is still exported, in addition to hides,
timber, coffee and indigo, and there are valuable fisheries.
AMARANTH, or AMARANG (from the Gr. amarantos, unwithering),
a name chiefly used in poetry, and applied to
certain plants which, from not soon fading, typified
immortality. Thus Milton (Paradise Lost, iii. 353) --
``Immortal amarant, a flower which once
In paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,
And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven
Rolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks.''
It should be noted that the proper spelling of the word is amarant;
the more common spelling seems to have come from a hazy notion
that the final syllable is the Greek word anthos, ``flower,''
which enters into a vast number of botanical names.
The plant genus Amarantus (natural order Amarantaceae)
contains several well-known garden plants, such as love-lies-
bleeding (A. caudatus), a native of India, a vigorous hardy
annual, with dark purplish flowers crowded in handsome drooping
spikes. Another species A. hypochondriacus, is prince's
feather, another Indian annual, with deeply-veined lance-shaped
leaves, purple on the under face, and deep crimson flowers
densely packed on erect spikes. ``Globe amaranth'' belongs
to an allied genus, Gomphrena, and is also a native of
India. It is an annual about 18 in. high, with solitary
round heads of flowers; the heads are violet from the
colour of the bracts which surround the small flowers.
In ancient Greece the amaranth (also called chrusanthemon
and elichrusos) was sacred to Ephesian Artemis. It was
supposed to have special healing properties, and as a symbol of
immortality was used to decorate images of the gods and tombs.
In legend, Amarynthus (a form of Amarantus) was a hunter of
Artemis and king of Euboea; in a village of Amarynthus, of which
he was the eponymous hero, there was a famous temple of Artemis
Amarynthia or Amarysia (Strabo x. 448; Pausan. i. 31, p. 5).
See Lenz, Botanik der alt. Greich. und Rom. (1859); J.
Murr, Die Pflanzenwelt in der griech. Mythol. (1890).
AMARAPURA (``the city of the gods''), formerly the capital
of the Burmese kingdom, now a suburb of Mandalay, Burma,
with a population in 1901 of 9103. The town was founded
in 1783 to form a new capital about 6 m. to the north-east
of Ava. It increased rapidly in size and population, and in
1810 was estimated to contain 170,000 inhabitants; but in
that year the town was destroyed by fire, and this disaster,
together with the removal of the native court to Ava in 1823,
caused a decline in the prosperity of the place. In 1827
its population was estimated at only 30,000. It suffered
severe calamity from an earthquake, which in 1839 destroyed
the greater part of the city. It was finally abandoned in
1860, when king Mindon occupied Mandalay, 5 or 6 m. farther
north. Amarapura was laid out on much the same plan as Ava.
The ruins of the city wall, now overgrown with jungle, show
it to have been a square with a side of about three-quarters
of a mile in length. At each corner stood a solid brick
pagoda about 100 ft. high. The most remarkable edifice
was a celebrated temple, adorned with 250 lofty pillars
of gilt wood, and containing a colossal bronze statue of
Buddha. The remains of the former palace of the Burmese
monarchs still survive in the centre of the town. During the
time of its prosperity Amarapura was defended by a rampart
and a large square citadel, with a broad moat, the walls
being 7000 ft. long and 20 ft. high, with a bastion at each
corner. The Burmans know it now as Myohaung, ``the old
city.'' It has a station on the Rangoon-Mandalay railway,
and is the junction for the line to Maymyo and the Kunlong
ferry and for the Sagaing-Myitkyina railway. The group of
villages called Amarapura by Europeans is known to the Burmans
as Taung-myo, ``the southern city,'' as distinguished from
Mandalay, the Myauk-myo, or ``northern city,'' 3 m. distant.
AMARAR, a tribe of African ``Arabs'' inhabiting the
mountainous country on the west side of the Red Sea from
Suakin northwards towards Kosseir. Between them and the
Nile are the Ababda and Bisharin tribes and to their south
dwell the Hadendoa. The country of the Amarar is called the
Etbai. Their headquarters are in the Ariab district. The
tribe is divided into four great famines: (1) Weled Gwilei,
(2) Weled Aliab, (3) Woled Kurbab Wagadab, and (4) the
Amarar proper of the Ariab district. They claim to be of
Koreish blood and to be the descendants of an invading Arab
army. Possibly some small bands of Koreish Arabs may have
made an inroad and converted some of the Amarar to Islam.
Further than this there is little to substantiate their claim.
See Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London,
1905): Sir F. R. Wingate, Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan (London,
1891); A. H. Keane, Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan (London, 1884).
AMARA SINHA (c. A.D. 375), Sanskrit grammarian and poet,
of whose personal history hardly anything is known. He is said
to have been ``one of the nine gems that adorned the throne
of Vikramaditya,'' and according to the evidence of Hsuan
Tsang, this is the Chandragupta Vikramaditya that flourished
about A.D. 375. Amara seems to have been a Buddhist; and an
early tradition asserts that his works, with one exception,
were destroyed during the persecution carried on by the
orthodox Brahmins in the 5th century. The exception is the
celebrated Amara-Xosha (Treasury of Amara), a vocabulary
of Sanskrit roots, in three books, and hence sometimes
called Trikanda or the ``Tripartite.'' It contains 10,000
words, and is arranged, like other works of its class, in
metre, to aid the memory. The first chapter of the Kosha
was printed at Rome in Tamil character in 1798. An edition
of the entire work, with English notes and an index by H. T.
Colebrooke, appeared at Serampore in 1808. The Sanskrit text
was printed at Calcutta in 1831. A French translation by A.
L. A. Loiseleur-Deslongchamps as published at Paris in 1839.