OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bache, Francis Edward

See also Francis Edward Bache and Walter Bache on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACHE, FRANCIS EDWARD (1833–1888), English musical composer, was born in Birmingham on the 14th of September 1833. The pupil of Alfred Mellon for violin and Sterndale Bennett for composition, he afterwards went to Leipzig in 1853 and studied with Hauptmann and Plaidy. Considering the early age at which he died, his compositions are fairly numerous, and the best, a trio for piano and strings, is still held in high esteem. Two operettas, a piano concerto and a number of published pianoforte pieces and songs do little more than show how great was his promise. He died at Birmingham of consumption on the 24th of August 1858. His younger brother, Walter Bache (1842–1888), was born in Birmingham on the 19th of June 1842, and followed him to the Leipzig Conservatorium, where he became an excellent pianist. From 1862 to 1865 he studied with Liszt in Rome, and for many years devoted himself to the task of winning popularity for his master’s works in England. At his annual concerts in London nearly all Liszt’s larger works were heard for the first time in England, and on the occasion of Liszt’s last visit to England in 1886, he was entertained by Bache at a memorable reception at the Grosvenor Gallery. Walter Bache was professor of the pianoforte at the Royal Academy of Music for some years before his death, and the foundation of the Liszt scholarship at that institution was mainly due to his efforts. He died in London on the 26th of March 1888.
An interesting memoir of the two brothers, by Miss Constance Bache, appeared in 1901 under the title Brother Musicians.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bachian

See also Bacan Islands on Wikipedia; Bachian in the 9th Edition; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACHIAN (Dutch Batjan), one of the Molucca Islands, in the residency of Ternate, Dutch East Indies, in the Molucca Sea, in 0°13′–0°55′ S. and 127°22′–128° E. With its subordinate islands, Mandioli, Tawali and others, it lies west of the southern peninsula of the island of Halmahera or Jilolo, and has an area of 914 sq. m. It is of irregular form, consisting of two distinct mountainous parts, united by a low isthmus, which a slight subsidence would submerge. The island is in part of volcanic formation, and the existence of hot springs points to volcanic activity. There are, however, especially in the southern portion, ancient and non-volcanic rocks. The highest elevation occurs at the south of the island, the mountain of Labua reaching 6950 ft. Coal and other minerals have been discovered. A large portion of the island is richly wooded, and sago, cocoa-nuts and cloves (which are indigenous) are abundantly produced. Bachian is remarkable as the most eastern point on the globe inhabited by any of the Quadrumana, a black ape occurring here as in Celebes. The island is very rich in birds and insects. The interior of the island is uninhabited and none of the dwellers on the coast are indigenous. They consist of the Sirani or Christian descendants of the Portuguese, of Malays, with a Papuan element, Galela men from the north of Halmahera, immigrants from Celebes, with some Chinese and Arabs. The total number of inhabitants is about 13,000. The chief village, called Amasing by the inhabitants, but also called Bachian, is situated on the west side of the isthmus. Bachian is the most important island of a group formerly governed by a sultan, but since 1889 by a committee of chiefs under the control of a Dutch contrôleur. From 1882 onwards a Batjan company attempted to exploit the island, but ​unsuccessfully, owing to a deficient knowledge of the soil and its capabilities and a lack of labourers.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Back's River

See also Back River on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACK'S RIVER (Thlewechodyeth, or “Great Fish”), a river in Mackenzie and Keewatin districts, Canada, rising in Sussex lake, a small body of water in 108° 20′ W. and 64° 25′ N., and flowing with a very tortuous course N.E. to an inlet of the Arctic Ocean, passing through several large lake-expansions—Pelly, Carry, MacDougall and Franklin. Like the Coppermine, the only other large river of this part of Canada, it is rendered unnavigable by a succession of rapids and rocks. It was discovered and explored by Sir George Back in 1834. Its total length is 560 m.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bacharach, Yair

See also Yair Bacharach on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACHARACH, YAIR (1639–1702), German rabbi, was the author of Ḥawwoth Yaīr (a collection of Responsa) and other works. Bacharach was a man of wide culture, and holds an honourable place among the pioneers of the Jewish Renaissance which was inaugurated towards the end of the 18th century.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bache, Alexander Dallas

See also Alexander Dallas Bache on Wikipedia; Alexander Dallas Bache in the 9th Edition; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACHE, ALEXANDER DALLAS (1806–1867), American physicist, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was born at Philadelphia on the 19th of July 1806. After graduating at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1825, he acted as assistant professor there for some time, and as a lieutenant in the corps of engineers he was engaged for a year or two in the erection of coast fortifications. He occupied the post of professor of natural philosophy and chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania in 1828–1841 and in 1842–1843. For the trustees of what in 1848 was to become Girard College, but had not yet been opened, he spent the years 1836–1838 in Europe, examining European systems of education, and on his return published a very valuable report. In 1843, on the death of Professor F. R. Hassler (1770–1843), he was appointed ​superintendent of the United States coast survey. He succeeded in impressing Congress with a sense of the great value of this work, and by means of the liberal aid it granted, he carried out a singularly comprehensive plan with great ability and most satisfactory results. By a skilful division of labour, and by the erection of numerous observing stations, the mapping out of the whole coast proceeded simultaneously under the eye of the general director, and in addition a vast mass of magnetic and meteorological observations was collected. He died at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 17th of February 1867.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Back-Bond

See also Back-bond on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACK-BOND, or Back-Letter, in Scots law, a deed qualifying the terms of another deed, or declaratory of the purposes for which another deed has been granted. Thus an ex facie absolute disposition, qualified by a back-bond expressing the limited nature of the right actually held by the person to whom the disposition is made, would constitute what in England is termed a deed of trust.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bacharach

See also Bacharach on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BACHARACH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, romantically situated on the left bank of the Rhine, 30 m. above Coblenz on the railway to Mainz. Pop. 2000. There is an interesting church, a basilica, dating from the beginning of the 13th century. There are also ruins of a Gothic church of the 13th and 15th centuries. The ruined castle of Stahleck, crowning the heights above the town, is celebrated in history as the scene of the marriage between Henry, eldest son of Henry the Lion (shortly before the latter’s death in 1195) and Agnes of Hohenstaufen, which effected a temporary reconciliation between the houses of Welf and Hohenstaufen. Other ruined castles are those of Fürstenberg and Stahlberg. All three belonged to the counts palatine. The wines of Bacharach were once held in the greatest esteem, and it is still one of the chief markets of the Rhenish wine trade.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bound

See also Boundaries in landscape history and Boundary (real estate) on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOUND, or Boundary (from O. Fr. bonde, Med. Lat. bodena or butina, a frontier line), that which serves to indicate the limit or extent of land. It is usually defined by a certain mark, such as a post, ditch, hedge, dyke, wall of stones, &c., though on the other hand it may have to be ascertained by reference to a plan or by measurement. In law, the exact boundary of land is always a matter of evidence; where no evidence is available, the court acts on presumption. For example, the boundary of land on opposite sides of a road, whether public or private, is presumed to be the middle line of the road. Where two fields are separated by a hedge and ditch the boundary line will run between the hedge and the ditch. Boundaries of parishes, at common law, depended upon ancient and immemorial custom, and in many parishes great care was taken to perpetuate the boundaries of the parish by perambulations from time to time. The confusion of local boundaries in England was the subject of several commissions and committees in the 19th century, and much information will be found in their reports (1868, 1870, 1873, 1888). The Local Government Act 1888, ss. 50-63, contains provisions for the alteration of local areas.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulder Clay

See also Boulder clay on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOULDER CLAY, in geology, a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and America. Boulder clay is variously known as “till” or “ground moraine” (Ger. Blocklehme, Geschiebsmergel or Grundmoräne; Fr. argile à blocaux, moraine profonde; Swed. Krosstenslera). It is usually a stiff, tough clay devoid of stratification; though some varieties are distinctly laminated. Occasionally, within the boulder clay, there are irregular lenticular masses of more or less stratified sand, gravel or loam. As the boulder clay is the result of the abrasion (direct or indirect) of the older rocks over which the ice has travelled, it takes its colour from them; thus, in Britain, ​over Triassic and Old Red Sandstone areas the clay is red, over Carboniferous rocks it is often black, over Silurian rock it may be buff or grey, and where the ice has passed over chalk the clay may be quite white and chalky (chalky boulder clay). Much boulder clay is of a bluish-grey colour where unexposed, but it becomes brown upon being weathered.
The boulders are held within the clay in an irregular manner, and they vary in size from mere pellets up to masses many tons in weight. Usually they are somewhat oblong, and often they possess a flat side or “sole”; they may be angular, sub-angular, or well rounded, and, if they are hard rocks, they frequently bear grooves and scratches caused by contact with other rocks while held firmly in the moving ice. Like the clay in which they are borne, the boulders belong to districts over which the ice has travelled; in some regions they are mainly limestones or sandstones; in others they are granite, basalts, gneisses, &c.; indeed, they may consist of any hard rock. By the nature of the contained boulders it is often possible to trace the path along which a vanished ice-sheet moved; thus in the Glacial drift of the east coast of England many Scandinavian rocks can be recognized.
With the exception of foraminifera which have been found in the boulder clay of widely separated regions, fossils are practically unknown; but in some maritime districts marine shells have been incorporated with the clay. See Glacial Period; and Glacier.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulevard

See also Boulevard on Wikipedia; wiktionary:boulevard; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOULEVARD (a Fr. word, earlier boulevart, from Dutch or Ger. Bollwerk, cf. Eng. “bulwark”), originally, in fortification, an earthwork with a broad platform for artillery. It came into use owing to the width of the gangways in medieval walls being insufficient for the mounting of artillery thereon. The boulevard or bulwark was usually an earthen outwork mounting artillery, and so placed in advance as to prevent the guns of a besieger from battering the foot of the main walls. It was as a rule circular. Semicircular demi-boulevards were often constructed round the bases of the old masonry towers with the same object. In modern times the word is most frequently used to denote a promenade laid out on the site of a former fortification, and, by analogy, a broad avenue in a town planted with rows of trees.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulogne-sur-Seine

See also Boulogne-Billancourt on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOULOGNE-SUR-SEINE, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on the right bank of the Seine, S.W. of Paris and immediately outside the fortifications. Pop. (1906) 49,412. The town has a Gothic church of the 14th and 15th centuries (restored in 1863) founded in honour of Notre-Dame of Boulogne-sur-Mer. To this fact is due the name of the place, which was previously called Menus-lès-St Cloud. Laundrying is extensively carried on as well as the manufacture of metal boxes, soap, oil and furniture, and there are numerous handsome residences. For the neighbouring Bois de Boulogne see Paris.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulogne

See also our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOULOGNE, or Boullongne, the name of a family of French painters. Louis (1609–1674), who was one of the original members of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), became celebrated under Louis XIV. His traditions were continued by his children: Genevieve (1645–1708), who married the sculptor Jacques Clerion; Madeleine (1646–1710), whose work survives in the Trophies d’armes at Versailles; Bon (1649–1717), a successful teacher and decorative artist; and Louis the younger (1654–1733), who copied Raphael’s cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry, and besides taking a high place as a painter was also a designer of medals.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulton, Matthew

See also Matthew Boulton on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOULTON, MATTHEW (1728–1809), English manufacturer and engineer, was born on the 3rd of September 1728, at Birmingham, where his father, Matthew Boulton the elder, was a manufacturer of metal articles of various kinds. To this business he succeeded on his father’s death in 1759, and in consequence of its growth removed his works in 1762 from Snowhill to what was then a tract of barren heath at Soho, 2 m. north of Birmingham. Here he undertook the manufacture of artistic objects in metal, as well as the reproduction of oil paintings by a mechanical process in which he was associated with Francis Eginton (1737–1805), who subsequently achieved a reputation as a worker in stained or enamelled glass. About 1767, Boulton, who was finding the need of improving the motive power for his machinery, made the acquaintance of James Watt, who on his side appreciated the advantages offered by the Soho works for the development of his steam-engine. In 1772 Watt’s partner, Dr John Roebuck, got into financial difficulties, and Boulton, to whom he owed £1200, accepted the two-thirds share in Watt’s patent held by him in satisfaction of the debt. Three years later Boulton and Watt formally entered into partnership, and it was mainly through the energy and self-sacrifice of the former, who devoted all the capital he possessed or could borrow to the enterprise, that the steam-engine was at length made a commercial success. It was also owing to Boulton that in 1775 an act of parliament was obtained extending the term of Watt’s 1769 patent to 1799. In 1800 the two partners retired from the business, which they handed over to their sons, Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt junior. In 1788 Boulton turned his attention to coining machinery, and erected at Soho a complete plant with which he struck coins for the Sierra Leone and East India companies and for Russia, and in 1797 produced a new copper coinage for Great Britain. In 1797 he took out a patent in connexion with raising water on the principle of the hydraulic ram. He died at Birmingham on the 18th of August 1809.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bounds, Beating the

See also Beating the bounds on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOUNDS, BEATING THE, an ancient custom still observed in many English parishes. In former times when maps were rare it was usual to make a formal perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension day or during Rogation week. The latter is in the north of England still called “Gang Week” or “Ganging Days” from this “ganging” or procession. The priest of the parish with the churchwardens and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, beat with them the parish border-stones. Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys was obviously to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible. In England the custom is as old as Anglo-Saxon days, as it is mentioned in laws of Alfred and Aethelstan. It is thought that it may have been derived from the Roman Terminalia, a festival celebrated on the 22nd of February in honour of Terminus, the god of landmarks, to whom cakes and wine were offered, sports and dancing taking place at the boundaries. In England a parish-ale or feast was always held after the perambulation, which assured its popularity, and in Henry VIII.’s reign the occasion had become an excuse for so much revelry that it attracted the condemnation of a preacher who declared “these solemne and accustomable processions and supplications be nowe growen into a right foule and detestable abuse.” Beating the bounds had a religious side in the practice which originated the term Rogation, the accompanying clergy being supposed to beseech (rogare) the divine blessing upon the parish lands for the ensuing harvest. This feature originated in the 5th century, when Mamercus, bishop of Vienne, instituted special prayers and fasting and processions on these days. This clerical side of the parish bounds-beating was one of the religious functions prohibited by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth; but it was then ordered that the perambulation should continue to be performed as a quasi-secular function, so that evidence of the boundaries of parishes, &c. might be preserved (Gibson, Codex juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani (1761) pp. 213-214). Bequests were sometimes made in connexion with bounds-beating. Thus at Leighton Buzzard on Rogation Monday, in accordance with the will of one Edward Wilkes, a London merchant who died in 1646, the trustees of his almshouses accompanied the boys. The will was read and beer and plum rolls distributed. A remarkable feature of the bequest was that while the will is read one of the boys has to stand on his head.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Belit

See also Bêlit on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BELIT (signifying the “lady,” par excellence), in the Babylonian religion, the designation of the consort of Bel (q.v.). Her real name was Nin-lil, i.e. the “lady of power,” if the explanation suggested in Bel for the second element is correct. She is also designated as Nin-Khar-sag, “Lady of the mountain,” which name stands in some relationship to Im-Khar-sag, “storm mountain”—the name of the staged tower or sacred edifice to Bel at Nippur. As the consort of En-lil, the goddess Nin-lil or Belit belongs to Nippur and her titles as “ruler of heaven and earth,” and “mother of the gods” are all due to her position as the wife of Bel. While recognized by a temple of her own in Nippur and honoured by rulers at various times by having votive offerings made in her honour and fortresses dedicated in her name, she, as all other goddesses in Babylonia and Assyria with the single exception of Ishtar, is overshadowed by her male consort. The title Belit was naturally transferred to the great mother-goddess Ishtar after the decline of the cult at Nippur, and we also find the consort of Marduk, known as Sarpanit, designated as Belit, for the sufficient reason that Marduk, after the rise of the city of Babylon as the seat of his cult, becomes the Bel or “lord” of later days. (M. Ja.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beljame, Alexandre

See also Alexandre Beljame on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BELJAME, ALEXANDRE (1842–1906), French writer, was born at Villiers-le-Bel, Seine-et-Oise, on the 26th of November 1842. He spent part of his childhood in England and was a frequent visitor in London. His lectures on English literature at the Sorbonne, where a chair was created expressly for him, did much to promote the study of English in France. In 1905–1906 he was Clark lecturer on English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge. He died at Domont (Seine-et-Oise) on the 19th of September 1906. His best known book was a masterly study of the conditions of literary life in England in the 18th century illustrated by the lives of Dryden, Addison and Pope. This book, Le Public et les hommes de lettres en Angleterre au XVIIIᵉ siècle (1881), was crowned by the French Academy on the appearance of the second edition in 1897. He was a good Shakespearian scholar, and his editions of Macbeth, Othello and Julius Caesar also received an academic prize in 1902.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Belgian Congo

See also Belgian Congo on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BELGIAN CONGO, a Belgian colony in Equatorial Africa occupying the greater part of the basin of the Congo river. Formerly the Independent State of the Congo, it was annexed to Belgium in 1908. (See Congo Free State.)