OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Belcher, John

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​BELCHER, JOHN (1841–1913), English architect, was the son of John Belcher, an architect of some position. He probably derived much of his artistic faculty from his family connexion with William Woollett, the 18th century engraver. Following his father's profession, his education included a couple of years in Germany. He further made a lengthy stay in Paris, studying and sketching modern French architecture, the result of which asserted itself in his first important commission—the Royal Insurance offices in Lombard Street—a French Renaissance building (since pulled down) in which he introduced much sculptured work from the hand of Thomas Thornycroft. Joining his father in the latter's practice John Belcher, Jun., received many commissions, principally, for the next 10 or 15 years, for business premises in the city and elsewhere. Amongst the earliest of these is the well-known block at the corner of Poultry and Queen Victoria Street, a building showing how strongly he was influenced at that period by the Gothic movement of which Street and Burges were the prominent exponents. After his father's retirement in 1875, Belcher associated himself at various times with a succession of partners—J. W. James, Beresford Pite and J. J. Joass. His most important work was that resulting from his partnership with the last, and it evidences a monumental strength and dignity of design to which his earlier achievements had been leading. His intense and always vividly expressed admiration for Norman Shaw was a great factor in his artistic evolution, but even a more powerful one was due to the preparation and study involved in his production of the important volumes on The Later Renaissance in England, in which he was associated with Mervyn Macartney as joint author. His Electra House, Finsbury, and Whiteley's vast store, Bayswater, are admirable examples of business premises based upon plans thoughtfully and practically conceived, and possessing a fine and dignified architectural treatment. Belcher was not responsible for many churches, but his Holy Trinity church, Kingsway (1909), is an interesting essay in the classic manner, and the Catholic Apostolic church in Maida Vale being on very similar lines, may compare with any of the Gothic town churches designed by Pearson. His domestic work—especially that at Stowell Park for the Earl of Eldon—had much grace and charm, and evidenced his sympathy, previously noted, with Norman Shaw's methods. Apart from his profession Belcher displayed considerable gifts as singer, composer and conductor. His talents received recognition in many directions and he was the holder of various distinctions in his own country and elsewhere. He was elected Royal Academician in 1909, and in 1907 received the gold medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he had been president in the preceding year. Russia, Belgium, Germany, Spain and the United States elected him a member of their several architectural societies. He died in London Nov. 8 1913. (C. H. To.)
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beeching, Henry Charles

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​BEECHING, HENRY CHARLES (1859–1919), English divine and author (see 3.640), who was appointed dean of Norwich in 1911, died at Norwich Feb. 25 1919.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beerbohm, Max

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BEERBOHM, MAX (1872–), English writer and caricaturist, was born in London Aug. 24 1872, the son of Julius Beerbohm and Eliza Draper, and half-brother of the actor, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. He was educated at Charterhouse and Merton College, Oxford, and afterwards became well known as a contributor to the Yellow Book and dramatic
critic on the Saturday Review. He married in 1910 Miss Florence Kahn, of Memphis, Tennessee, and afterwards took up his residence at Rapallo, Italy. His published writings include The Works of Max Beerbohm, containing the famous essay on George IV., and also A Defence of Cosmetics (1896); The Happy Hypocrite (1897); More (1899); Zuleika Dobson (1911); A Christmas Garland (1912); Seven Men (1919), and And Even Now (1920). He also contributed to and edited the Life of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, published in 1920. He is well known by his caricatures, of which exhibitions have been held in London at the Carfax Gallery (1906) and the Leicester Galleries (1911, 1913, 1921). In 1917, a Modern Loan Exhibition at the Grosvenor Galleries included a group of 15 caricatures entitled “Rossetti and His Friends.” Many of his caricatures have been published in Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen (1896); The Second Childhood of John Bull (1901); The Poets' Corner (1904); A Book of Caricatures (1907); Fifty Caricatures (1913). His delicate and incisive satire has found its best material in the peculiarities of individuals in every section of society. Movements he almost invariably typifies by some well-known personality. Pledged to no party, his friends have occasioned some of his most characteristic work, notably the series dealing with the New English Art Club and with Mr. Balfour. Like Forain and Steinlein in his detachment, he lacks their universality; and complete appreciation of his art implies an intimate knowledge of current affairs. As a draughtsman he is not faultless, and sometimes resorts to the veriest conventions; but his freedom of line, feeling for delicate colour and sense of design are remarkable, especially in his later work.  (W. G. C.)
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beilby, Sir George Thomas

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​BEILBY, SIR GEORGE THOMAS (1850- ), British physicist, was born at Edinburgh Nov. 17 1850, his father being a physician. He was educated at Edinburgh University and trained as a civil engineer. When quite young he developed, in collaboration with the late William Young, a new method ​of retorting oil shale, in which by carrying out the operation in two stages, each at the most suitable temperature, most of the fixed nitrogen in the spent shale, which had previously been lost, was obtained as sulphate of ammonia. Between 1881 and 1894 this method entirely displaced the older methods of retorting, and the industry was enabled to hold its own in competition with imported petroleum products. In 1891 Beilby invented and developed a new synthetic process for the manufacture of the cyanides of potassium and sodium, by the use of which gold and silver are recovered from their ores. The cyanides are produced by passing ammonia gas through a molten mixture of the carbonates of the alkalis with charcoal, at a temperature of 850° C. An important British industry was founded on this process, the first factory being opened at Leith in 1891. Beilby was elected F.R.S. in 1906. He was president of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1899, of the chemical section of the British Association in 1905, of the Institute of Chemistry in 1909–12, and of the Institute of Metals in 1916-8. In 1912 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines for the Navy. During the World War he was a member of the Admiralty Board of Inventions and Re- search. He was knighted in 1916. He published many scientific and technical papers, and also The Aggregation and Flow of Solids (1921).
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beckwith, James Carroll

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​BECKWITH, J(AMES) CARROLL (1852–1917), American portrait painter (see 3.610). He exhibited at St. Louis in 1904 “The Nautilus” and a portrait of Mrs. Beckwith. Yale, Johns Hopkins, and West Point possess examples of his works, and the New York Public Library has a collection of his crayon and pencil drawings. He died in New York, Oct. 24 1917.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beecham, Sir Thomas

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​BEECHAM, SIR THOMAS, 2nd Bart. (1879–), English musical conductor, was born April 29 1879, son of Sir Joseph Beecham, 1st bart. (1848–1916), who had made a large fortune at St. Helens, Lancs., as proprietor of “Beecham’s Pills.” Young Beecham was educated at Rossall and for a time at Wadham College, Oxford. His father was keenly interested in music and had given financial support to a number of musical enterprises in the North of England, where the son acquired considerable experience as a conductor. In 1905 he gave his first concert in London with the Queen’s Hall orchestra. A little later he founded first the New Symphony orchestra and next the Beecham orchestra, both first-rate concerns. In 1909 he appeared in London as opera conductor, and in Feb. of the following year the Beecham Opera Co., consisting entirely of English-speaking singers, was inaugurated. The season was started at Covent Garden in the following year when among other operas produced for the first time in London were Strauss’s Elektra (Feb. 1910), Delius’s Romeo and Juliet in the Village and Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue. In the same year there was a further season at His Majesty’s theatre during which Strauss’s Feuersnot was given, its London première. Further London seasons followed in later years, all with decided artistic success. These led up to the great climax when in 1913 the Beecham season of opera and ballet at Covent Garden included the production of Strauss’s Rosenkavalier and The Legend of Joseph. Later in the same year there was a magnificent season at Drury Lane of Russian opera and ballet, made famous not only by the splendour of the productions of Russian opera in the vernacular, which in all probability would never otherwise have been heard in London, but by the remarkable singing and still more remarkable acting of Shaliapin, who then made his first appearance in England. During the second and third years of the World War there were Beecham seasons of opera at the Shaftesbury and Aldwych theatres, when pronounced success was achieved by performances of Valkyrie and Tristan and Isolde sung in English. Beecham’s own version of Bach’s cantata Phoebus and Pan was given at the latter theatre. In 1917 the Beecham Opera Co. were once more at Drury Lane, and in 1920 Beecham organized a somewhat ill-starred cosmopolitan “grand” season at Covent Garden, during which Puccini's so-called triptych, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, was given for the first time in Great Britain. From 1915 to 1918 Beecham was conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society, whose very existence during the World War he practically guaranteed. In 1916 he was knighted, and shortly afterwards he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy. The lavish expenditure of his private fortune upon opera in English ultimately led to financial embarrassments which in 1920–1 necessitated the suspension of his musical activities.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beere, Mrs. Bernard

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BEERE, MRS. BERNARD [Fanny Mary] (1856-1915), English actress, was born at Norwich Oct. 5 1856. She was the daughter of Wilby Whitehead and was trained for the stage by Herman Vezin, appearing first in the Opéra Comique, London, in 1877. Later she played Emilia in Othello and various old English comedy parts at the St. James's theatre. In 1883 she was engaged by the Bancrofts to play leading parts in Fédora and other dramas at the Haymarket. In 1891 she played Lady Teazle in Charles Wyndham's production of School for Scandal, and two years later Mrs. Arbuthnot with Herbert Tree in Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance. She was three times married, but for stage purposes retained the name of her second husband. In 1900 she married Mr. A. C. S. Olivier. She died in London March 25 1915.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Belasco, David

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​BELASCO, DAVID (1859–), American playwright and manager, was born at San Francisco, Cal., July 25 1859. After graduating from Lincoln College, Cal., in 1875, he was stage-manager at several theatres and then went to New York where he owned and managed the prosperous Belasco theatre. He wrote or adapted some 200 plays, largely melodramatic, and owing to his mastery of stage-craft he was eminently successful as a producer and stage director. He presented E. H. Sothern in Lord Chumley (1887); Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Heart of Maryland (1895); Blanche Bates in Naughty Anthony (1899); Henrietta Crosman in Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1903); and David Warfield in The Music Master (1904).
Of his numerous other productions may be mentioned: May Blossom (1884); The Charity Ball (1887, with H. C. De Mille); Men and Women (1890); The Girl I Left Behind Me (1893, with Franklin Fyles); Madame Butterfly (1900); Madame Du Barry (1901); The Darling of the Gods (1902, with John Luther Long); The Girl of the Golden West (1905); The Return of Peter Grimm (1911); The Governor's Lady (1912); The Temperamental Journey (1913); The Secret (1914); A Celebrated Case (1915); The Boomerang (1915) and Polly with a Past (1917).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Torell, Otto Martin

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​TORELL, OTTO MARTIN (1828–1900), Swedish geologist, was born in Varberg on the 5th of June 1828. He was educated at Lund for the medical profession, but became interested in zoological and geological studies, and being of independent means he devoted himself to science. He gave his attention first especially to the invertebrate fauna and the physical changes of pleistocene and recent times. He studied the glacial phenomena of Switzerland, Spitzbergen and Greenland, making two Arctic expeditions in company with A. E. Nordenskiöld. In 1866 he became professor of zoology and geology in the University at Lund, and in 1871 he was appointed chief of the Swedish Geological Survey. In the latter capacity he laboured until 1897. His published contributions, though of much interest and importance, were not large, but his influence in promoting a knowledge of geology in Sweden was of great service. His Arctic experiences enabled him to interpret the method of origin of the drift deposits in northern Europe, and to show that they were largely of glacial or fluvio-glacial origin. In the English drifts he recognized many boulders of Scandinavian origin. He died on the 11th of September 1900.
His publications include: Bidrag till Spitsbergens molluskfauna (1859); and memoirs to accompany several sheets of the Geological Survey map of Sweden.
Obituary with portrait, in Geol. Mag. (May 1902), reproduced in abridged form from memoir by L. Holmström, in Geologiska foreningen i Stockholm’s forhandlingar, xxiii.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Torgau

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​TORGAU, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Saxony, situated on the left bank of the Elbe, 30 m. N.E. of Leipzig and 26 m. S.E. of Wittenberg by rail. Pop. (1905), 12,299. Its most conspicuous building is the Schloss Hartenfels, on an island in the Elbe, which was built, or at least was finished, by the elector of Saxony, John Frederick the Magnanimous. This castle, which is now used as a barracks, is one of the largest Renaissance buildings in Germany. It was for some time the residence of the electors of Saxony and contains a chapel consecrated by Martin Luther. The town hall, a 16th-century building, houses a collection of Saxon antiquities. Torgau has two Evangelical churches and a Roman Catholic church. One of the former, the Stadt Kirche, contains paintings by Lucas Cranach and the tomb of Catherine von Bora, the wife of Luther. The chief industries of the town are the manufacture of gloves, carriages, agricultural machinery, beer and bricks; there is a trade in grain both on the Elbe and by rail. The fortifications, begun in 1807 by order of Napoleon, were dismantled in 1889–1891. In the vicinity is the royal stud farm of Graditz.
Torgau is said to have existed as the capital of a distinct principality in the time of the German king Henry I., but early in the 14th century it was in the possession of the margraves of Meissen and later of the electors of Saxony, who frequently resided here. The town came into prominence at the time of the Reformation. In 1526 John, elector of Saxony, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and other Protestant princes formed a league against the Roman Catholics, and the Torgau articles, drawn up here by Luther and his friends in 1530, were the basis of the confession of Augsburg. Torgau is particularly celebrated as the scene of a battle fought on the 3rd of November 1760, when Frederick the Great defeated the Austrians (see Seven Years' War). In January 1814 Torgau was taken by the Germans after a siege of three months and it was formally ceded to Prussia in 1815.
See Grulich and Bürger, Denkwürdigkeiten der altszichsischen Residenz Torgau aus der Zeit der Reformation (Torgau, 1855); Knabe, Geschichte der Stadt Torgau bis zur Reformation (Torgau, 1880); and the publications of the Alterturnvereiri zu Torgau (Torgau, 1884 sqq.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Toro

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​TORO, a town of Spain, in the province of Zamora, on the right bank of the river Duero (Douro), and on the Zamora-Medina del Campo railway. Pop. (1900), 8379. Toro is an ancient fortified town, with picturesque narrow streets, among which are many medieval churches, convents and palaces, besides modern schools and public buildings. A fine bridge of twenty-two arches spans the river. The cathedral church is Romanesque; it dates from the 12th century but has been partially restored. The palace of the marquesses of Santa. Cruz was the meeting place of the Cortes of 1371, 1442 and 1505, which made Toro and its code of laws celebrated. Toro is first mentioned in documents of the 10th century. It played an important, part in the development of the kingdoms of Leon and Castile and in the reconquest of Spain from the Moors.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tornado

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​TORNADO (Span, tornado, a turning about, cf. “turn”), a local whirlwind of extreme violence, usually formed within a. thunderstorm. In appearance it consists of a funnel-shaped cloud, depending from the mass of storm-cloud above, and when fully developed tapering downwards to the earth. Besides its whirling motion, a tornado has an advancing movement of from 20 to 40 m. an hour—and along its own narrow path it carries destruction. Its duration is usually from half an hour to an hour. Tornadoes are most common in America, especially in the Mississippi Valley and the Southern states; in Europe and elsewhere they are comparatively rare. Owing to their association with thunderstorms they generally occur in warm weather. A tornado is the result of a condition of local instability in the atmosphere, originating high above the earth. A current of air is induced to ascend with a rapid spiral motion round a central core of low pressure. The moisture in the ascending air is condensed by cooling both as it ascends and as it expands into the low-pressure core. The cloud-funnel appears to grow downwards because the moisture in the air is condensed more rapidly than the air itself, following a spiral course, ascends.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Toreno, Queipo de Llano y Gayoso de, Count

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​TORENO, QUEIPO DE LLANO Y GAYOSO DE, Count (1840–1890), Spanish politician, son of the preceding, was born in Madrid in 1840. He was educated at the Madrid Institute and University, entered parliament in 1864 as a Moderado, and sat in all the Cortes of Queen Isabella's reign as a deputy for his ancestral province, Asturias. Loyal to the Bourbons all through the revolution, he nevertheless became a deputy in the Cortes of 1871–1873, and founded an Alphonsist paper, El Tiempo, in 1873. When the Restoration took place, its first cabinet made Count de Toreno mayor of the capital, and in 1875 minister of public works, in which capacity he improved the public libraries, museums, academies and archives, and caused many important works to be published, including the Cartas de Indias. In 1879 he became minister for foreign affairs, in 1880 president of the House of Deputies, in 1884 again governor of Madrid, and in 1885 again president of the House of Deputies. During the reign of Alphonso XII. and the first years of the regency of Queen Christina Count de Toreno was one of the most prominent Conservative leaders, and was often consulted by the Crown. He died on the 31st of January 1890. He was a patron of the turf, and established a race-course in Madrid, where the first races took place in the reign of Alphonso XII.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Torquay

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​TORQUAY, a municipal borough, seaport and watering place, in the Torquay parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on Tor Bay of the English Channel, 26 m. S. of Exeter, by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901), 33,625. Owing to the beauty of its site and the equability of its climate, and to its being screened by lofty hills on the north, east and west, and open to the sea-breezes of the south, it has a high reputation as a winter residence. The temperature seldom rises as high as 70° F. in summer or falls below freezing-point in winter. To the north lies the populous suburb of St Mary Church. There are some remains of Tor or Torre Abbey, founded for Praemonstratensians by William, Lord Brewer, in 1196. They stand north of the modern mansion, but, with the exception of a beautiful pointed arch portal, are of small importance. On the south of the gateway is a 13th-century building, known as the Spanish barn. On Chapel Hill are the remains of a chapel of the 12th century, dedicated to St Michael, and supposed to have formerly belonged to the abbey. St Saviour’s parish church of Tor-Mohun, or Tormoham, an ancient stone structure, was restored in 1874. The old church at St Mary Church, north of Torquay, was rebuilt in Early Decorated style; and in 1871 a tower was erected as a memorial to Dr Phillpotts, bishop of Exeter, who with his wife is buried in the churchyard. St John’s Church, by G. E. Street, is a fine example of modern Gothic. Among the principal buildings and institutions are the town-hall, museum of the natural history society, theatre and opera-house (1880), market, schools of art and science, the Torbay infirmary and dispensary, the Western hospital for consumption, Crypt House institution for invalid ladies and the Mildmay home for incurable consumptives. The control of the harbour, piers, pleasure grounds, &c., was acquired from the lord of the manor by the local board in 1886. The harbour has a depth of over 20 ft. at low water. The principal imports are coal, timber and slates, and the principal export stone of the Transition limestone or Devonshire marble. In the town are a number of marble-polishing works. Terra-cotta ware of fine quality is also manufactured from a deposit of clay at Watcombe and at Hele. The town is governed by a mayor, 9 aldermen and 27 councillors. Area, 3588 acres.
There was a village at Torre even before the foundation of the abbey, and in the neighbourhood of Torre evidence has been found of Roman occupation. The manor was granted by William the Conqueror to Richard de Bruvere or de Brewere, and was subsequently known as Tor Brewer. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Don Pedro’s galley was brought into Torbay; and William, prince of Orange, landed at Torbay on the 5th of November 1688. Until the middle of the 10th century it was an insignificant fishing village. It was incorporated in 1892.