OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ayrton, William Edward

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​AYRTON, WILLIAM EDWARD (1847–1908), English physicist, was born in London on the 14th of September 1847. He was educated at University College, London, and in 1868 went out to Bengal in the service of the Indian Government Telegraph department. In 1873 he was appointed professor of physics and telegraphy at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokio. On his return to London six years later he became professor of applied physics at the Finsbury College of the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute, and in 1884 he was chosen professor of electrical engineering at the Central Technical College, South Kensington. He published, both alone and jointly with others, a large number of papers on physical, and in particular electrical, subjects, and his name was especially associated, together with that of Professor John Perry, with the invention of a long series of electrical measuring instruments. He died in London on the 8th of November 1908. His wife, Mrs Hertha Ayrton, whom he married in 1885, assisted him in his researches, and became known for her scientific work on the electric arc and other subjects. The Royal Society awarded her one of its Royal medals in 1906.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caesura

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​CAESURA (Lat. for “cutting,” Gr. τομη), in prosody, a rest or pause, usually occurring about the middle of a verse, which is thereby separated into two parts (κωλα, members). In Greek and Latin hexameters the best and most common caesura is the penthemimeral (i.e. after the 5th half-foot):
Another caesura very common in Homer, but rare in Latin verse, is after the 2nd syllable of the 3rd dactyl:
On the other hand, the hephthemimeral caesura (i.e. after the 7th half-foot) is common in Latin, but rare in Greek:
The “bucolic” caesura, peculiar to Greek (so called because it is chiefly found in writers like Theocritus) occurs after the 4th dactyl:
In the pentameter verse of the elegiac distich the caesura is always penthemimeral. In the iambic trimeter (consisting of three dipodia or pairs of feet), both in Greek and Latin, the most usual caesura is the penthemimeral; next, the hephthemimeral:
The best treatise on Greek and Latin metre for general use is L. Müller, Die Metrik der Griechen und Römer (1885); see also the article Verse.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cagnola, Luigi, Marchese

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​CAGNOLA, LUIGI, Marchese (1762–1833), Italian architect, was born on the 9th of June 1762 in Milan. He was sent at the age of fourteen to the Clementine College at Rome, and afterwards studied at the university of Pavia. He was intended for the legal profession, but his passion for architecture was too strong, and after holding some government posts at Milan, he entered as a competitor for the construction of the Porta Orientale. His designs were commended, but were not selected on account of the expense their adoption would have involved. From that time Cagnola devoted himself entirely to architecture. After the death of his father he spent two years in Verona and Venice, studying the architectural structures of these cities. In 1806 he was called upon to erect a triumphal arch for the marriage of Eugene Beauharnais with the princess of Bavaria. The arch was of wood, but was of such beauty that it was resolved to carry it out in marble. The result was the magnificent Arco della Pace in Milan, surpassed in dimensions only by the Arc de l’Étoile at Paris. Among other works executed by Cagnola are the Porta di Marengo at Milan, the campanile at Urgnano, and the chapel of Santa Marcellina in Milan. He died on the 14th of August 1833, five years before the completion of the Arco del Sempione, which he designed for his native city.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caffeine

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​CAFFEINE, or Theine (1.3.7 trimethyl 2.6 dioxypurin), C$_8$H$_{10}$N$_4$O$_2$·H$_2$O, a substance found in the leaves and beans of the coffee tree, in tea, in Paraguay tea, and in small quantities in cocoa and in the kola nut. It may be extracted from tea or coffee by boiling with water, the dissolved tannin precipitated by basic lead acetate, the solution filtered, excess of lead precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen and the filtered liquid then evaporated to crystallization; or, tea is boiled with water, and the whole then evaporated to a syrup, which is mixed with slaked lime, evaporated to dryness on the water-bath and extracted with chloroform (P. Cazeneuve, Bull. de la soc. chim. de Paris, 1876–1877, 27, p. 199). Synthetically it may be prepared by the methylation of silver theobromine and silver theophyllin or by boiling heteroxanthine with methyl iodide and potash. E. Fischer and L. Ach (Berichte, 1895, 28, p. 3135) have synthesized it from dimethyl alloxan, whilst W. Traube (Berichte, 1900, 33, p. 3435) has obtained it from 1.3 diamethyl 4.5 diamino 2.6 dioxypyrimidine. On the constitution of caffeine see Purin and also E. Fischer (Annalen, 1882, 215, p. 253).
Caffeine crystallizes in long silky needles, which are slightly soluble in cold water. It becomes anhydrous at 100°C. and melts at 234° to 235°C. It has a faint bitter taste and gives salts with mineral acids. On oxidation with nitric acid caffeine gives cholesterophane (dimethyl parabanic acid), but if chlorine water be used as the oxidant, then it yields monomethyl urea and dimethyl alloxan (E. Fischer).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caftan

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​CAFTAN, or Kaftan (a Turkish word, also in use in Persia), a tunic or under-dress with long hanging sleeves, tied with a girdle at the waist, worn in the East by persons of both sexes. The caftan was worn by the upper and middle classes in Russia till the time of Peter the Great, when it was generally discarded.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cagli

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​CAGLI, a town and (with Pergola) an episcopal see of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, 18 m. S. of the latter town by rail, and 830 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) of town, 4628; commune, 12,533. The church of S. Domenico contains a good fresco (Madonna and saints) by Giovanni Santi, the father of Raphael. The citadel of the 15th century, constructed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena, is on the S.E. of the modern town. Cagli occupies the site of an ancient vicus (village) on the Via Flaminia, which seems to have borne the name Cale, 24 m. N. of Helvillum (mod. Sigillo) and 18 m. S.W. of Forum Sempronii (mod. Fossombrone). Below the town to the north is a single arched bridge of the road, the arch having the span of 381/4 ft. (See G. Mochi, Storia di Cagli, Cagli, 1878.) About 5 m. to the N.N.W. of Cagli and 21/2 m. W. of the Via Flaminia at the mod. Acqualagna is the site of an ancient town; the place is now called piano di Valeria, and is scattered with ruins. Inscriptions show that this was a Roman municipium, perhaps Pitinum Mergens (Corp. Inscr. Lat. xi. [Berlin, 1901] p. 876). Three miles north of Acqualagna the Via Flaminia, which is still in use as the modern high-road, traverses the Furlo Pass, a tunnel about 40 yds. long, excavated by Vespasian in A.D. 77, as an inscription at the north end records. There is another tunnel at lower level, which belongs to an earlier date; this seems to have been in use till the construction of the Roman road, which at first ran round the rock on the outside, until Vespasian cut the tunnel. In repairing the modern road just outside the south entrance to the tunnel, a stratum of carbonized corn, beans, &c., and a quantity of burnt wood, stones, tiles, pottery, &c., was found under and above the modern road, for a distance of some 500 yds. This débris must have belonged to the castle of Petra Pertusa, burned by the Lombards in 570 or 571 on their way to Rome. The castle itself is mentioned by Procopius (Bell. Goth. ii. 11, iii. 6, iv. 28, 34). Here also was found the inscription of A.D. 295, relating to the measures taken to suppress brigandage in these parts. (See Apennines.)
See A. Vernarecci in Notizie degli Scavi, 1886, 411 (cf. ibid. 227); Corp. Inscr. Lat. (Berlin, 1901), Nos. 6106, 6107. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cagniard de la Tour, Charles

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​CAGNIARD DE LA TOUR, CHARLES (1777–1859), French engineer and physicist, was born in Paris on the 31st of March 1777, and after attending the École Polytechnique became one of the ingénieurs géographiques. He was made a baron in 1818, and died in Paris on the 5th of July 1859. He was the author of numerous inventions, including the cagniardelle, a blowing machine, which consists essentially of an Archimedean screw set obliquely in a tank of water in such a way that its lower end is completely and its upper end partially immersed, and operated by being rotated in the opposite direction to that required for raising water. In acoustics he invented, about 1819, the improved siren which is known by his name, using it for ascertaining the number of vibrations corresponding to a sound of any particular pitch, and he also made experiments on the mechanism of voice-production. In course of an investigation in 1822–1823 on the effects of heat and pressure on certain liquids he found that for each there was a certain temperature above which it refused to remain liquid but passed into the gaseous state, no matter what the amount of pressure to which it was subjected, and in the case of water he determined this critical temperature, with a remarkable approach to accuracy, to be 362° C. He also studied the nature of yeast and the influence of extreme cold upon its life.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aspiroz, Manuel de

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​ASPIROZ, MANUEL DE (1836–1905), Mexican statesman and diplomatist, was born at Puebla, and educated at the university of Mexico, where he took his degree in 1855. He took part in the war against the emperor Maximilian, and in 1867, on the establishment of the republic, was appointed assistant secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1873 he became Mexican consul at San Francisco, where he remained till his election to the Senate in 1875. He was professor of jurisprudence at the college of Puebla from 1883 to 1890, when he was again appointed assistant secretary of foreign affairs. From 1899 till he died in 1905 he was Mexican ambassador to the United States. Among his writings may be mentioned; Código de extranjeria de los Estados-Unidos Mexicanos (1876), and La liberdad civil como base del derecho internacional privado (1896).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ass, Feast of the

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​ASS, FEAST OF THE, formerly a festival in northern France, primarily in commemoration of the biblical flight into Egypt, and usually held on the 14th of January. A girl with a baby at her breast and seated on an ass splendidly caparisoned was led through the town to the church, and there placed at the gospel side of the altar while mass was said. The ceremony degenerated into a burlesque in which the ass of the flight became confused with Balaam’s ass. So scandalous became the popular revels associated with it, that the celebration was prohibited by the church in the 15th century. (See Fools, Feast of.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Assab

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​ASSAB, a bay and port on the African shore of the Red Sea, 60 m. N. of the strait of Bab-el Mandeb. Assab Bay was the first territory acquired by Italy in Africa. Bought from the sultan of Raheita in 1870, it was not occupied until 1880. (See Eritrea, and Italy: History.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Assamese

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​ASSAMESE, the Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Assam valley. In 1901 the number of its speakers was 1,350,846. It is closely related to Bengali and Oriya, forming with them and with Bihari the Eastern Group of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars. For further particulars see Bengali.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aspidistra

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​ASPIDISTRA, a small genus of the lily order (Liliaceae), native of the Himalayas, China and Japan. Aspidistra lurida is a favourite pot-plant, bearing large green or white-striped leaves on an underground stem, and small dark purplish, cup-shaped flowers close to the ground.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aspirotrichaceae

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​ASPIROTRICHACEAE (O. Bütschli), an order of Ciliate Infusoria, characterized by an investment, general or partial, of nearly uniform cilia, without any distinct adoral wreath, and one or two adoral endoral undulating membranes. With the Gymnostomaceae it formed the Holotricha of Stein.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aspromonte

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​ASPROMONTE, a mountain of Calabria, Italy, rising behind Reggio di Calabria, the west extremity of the Sila range. The highest point is 6420 ft. and the slopes are clad with forest. Here Garibaldi was wounded and taken prisoner by the Italian troops under Pallavicini in 1862.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ass

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​ASS (O.E. assa; Lat. asinus), a common name (the synonym “donkey” is supposed to be derived either by analogy from “monkey,” or from the Christian name Duncan; cf. Neddy, Jack, Dicky, &c.) for different varieties of the sub-genus Asinus, belonging to the horse tribe, and especially for the domestic ass; it differs from the horse in its smaller size, long ears, the character of its tail, fur and markings, and its proverbial dulness and obstinacy. The ancient Egyptians symbolized an ignorant person by the head and ears of an ass, and the Romans thought it a bad omen to meet one. In the middle ages the Germans of Westphalia made the ass the symbol of St Thomas, the incredulous apostle; the boy who was last to enter school on St Thomas’ day was called the “Ass Thomas” (Gubernatis’s Zoological Mythology, i. 362). The foolishness and obstinacy of the ass has caused the name to be transferred metaphorically to human beings; and the fifth proposition of Book i. of Euclid is known as the Pons Asinorum, bridge of asses.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gnomes

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​GNOMES (Fr. gnomes, Ger. Gnomen), in folk-lore, the name now commonly given to the earth and mountain spirits who are supposed to watch over veins of precious metals and other hidden treasures. They are usually pictured as bearded dwarfs clad in brown close-fitting garments with hoods. The word “gnome” as applied to these is of comparatively modern and somewhat uncertain origin. By some it is said to have been coined by Paracelsus (so Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Dictionnaire), who uses Gnomi as a synonym of Pygmaei, from the Greek γνώμη, intelligence. The New English Dictionary, however, suggests a derivation from genomus, i.e. a Greek type γηνόμος, “earth-dweller,” on the analogy of θαλασσονόμος, “dwelling in the sea,” adding, however, that though there is no evidence that the term was not used before Paracelsus, it is possibly “a mere arbitrary invention, like so many others found in Paracelsus” (N.E.D. s.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Go

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​GO, or Go-bang (Jap. Go-ban, board for playing Go), a popular table game. It is of great antiquity, having been invented in Japan, according to tradition, by the emperor Yao, 2350 B.C., but it is probably of Chinese origin. According to Falkener the first historical mention of it was made about the year 300 B.C., but there is abundant evidence that it was a popular game long before that period. The original Japanese Go is played on a board divided into squares by 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines, making 361 intersections, upon which the flat round men, 181 white and 181 black, are placed one by one as the game proceeds. The men are placed by the two players on any intersections (me) that may seem advantageous, the object being to surround with one’s men as many unoccupied intersections as possible, the player enclosing the greater number of vacant points being the winner. Completely surrounded men are captured and removed from the board. This game is played in England upon a board divided into 361 squares, the men being placed upon these instead of upon the intersections.
A much simpler variety of Go, mostly played by foreigners, has for its object to get five men into line. This may have been the earliest form of the game, as the word go means five. Except in Japan it is often played on an ordinary draughts-board, and the winner is he who first gets five men into line, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
See Go-Bang, by A. Howard Cady, in Spalding’s Home Library (New York, 1896); Games Ancient and Oriental, by Edward Falkener (London, 1892); Das japan.-chinesische Spiel Go, by O. Korschelt (Yokohama, 1881); Das Nationalspiel der Japanesen, by G. Schurig (Leipzig, 1888).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gnesen

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​GNESEN (Polish, Gniezno), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Posen, in an undulating and fertile country, on the Wrzesnia, 30 m. E.N.E. of Posen by the railway to Thorn. Pop. (1905) 23,727. Besides the cathedral, a handsome Gothic edifice with twin towers, which contains the remains of St Adalbert, there are eight Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church, a synagogue, a clerical seminary and a convent of the Franciscan nuns. Among the industries are cloth and linen weaving, brewing and distilling. A great horse and cattle market is held here annually. Gnesen is one of the oldest towns in the former kingdom of Poland. Its name, Gniezno, signifies “nest,” and points to early Polish traditions. The cathedral is believed to have been founded towards the close of the 9th century, and, having received the bones of St Adalbert, it was visited in 1000 by the emperor Otto III., who made it the seat of an archbishop. Here, until 1320, the kings of Poland were crowned; and the archbishop, since 1416 primate of Poland, acted as protector pending the appointment of a new king. In 1821 the see of Posen was founded and the archbishop removed his residence thither, though its cathedral chapter still remains at Gnesen. After a long period of decay the town revived after 1815, when it came under the rule of Prussia.
See S. Karwowski, Gniezno (Posen, 1892).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gnu

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​GNU, the Hottentot name for the large white-tailed South African antelope (q.v.), now nearly extinct, know to the Boers as the black wildebeest, and to naturalists as Connochaetes (or Catoblepas) gnu. A second and larger species is the brindled gnu or blue wildebeest (C. taurinus or Catoblepas gorgon), also known by the Bechuana name kokon or kokoon; and there are several East African forms more or less closely related to the latter which have received distinct names.
White-tailed Gnu, or Black Wildebeest (Connochaetes gnu).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gnomon

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GNOMON, the Greek word for the style of a sundial, or any object, commonly a vertical column, the shadow of which was observed in former times in order to learn the altitude of the sun, especially when on the meridian. The art of constructing a sundial is sometimes termed gnomonics. In geometry, a gnomon is a plane figure formed by removing a parallelogram from a corner of a larger parallelogram; in the figure ABCDEFA is a gnomon. Gnomonic projection is a projection of a sphere in which the centre of sight is the centre of the sphere.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gallienus, Publius Licinius Egnatius

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​GALLIENUS, PUBLIUS LICINIUS EGNATIUS, Roman emperor from A.D. 260 to 268, son of the emperor Valerian, was born about 218. From 253 to 260 he reigned conjointly with his father, during which time he gave proof of military ability and bravery. But when his father was taken prisoner by Shapur I. of Persia, in 260, Gallienus made no effort to obtain his release, or to withstand the incursions of the invaders who threatened the empire from all sides. He occupied part of his time in dabbling in literature, science and various trifling arts, but gave himself up chiefly to excess and debauchery. He deprived the senators of their military and provincial commands, which were transferred to equites. During his reign the empire was ravaged by a fearful pestilence; and the chief cities of Greece were sacked by the Goths, who descended on the Greek coast with a fleet of five hundred. His generals rebelled against him in almost every province of the empire, and this period of Roman history came to be called the reign of the Thirty Tyrants. Nevertheless, these usurpers probably saved the empire at the time, by maintaining order and repelling the attacks of the barbarians. Gallienus was killed at Mediolanum by his own soldiers while besieging Aureolus, who was proclaimed emperor by the Illyrian legions. His sons Valerianus and Saloninus predeceased him.
Life by Trebellius Pollio in Script. Hist. Aug.; on coins see articles in Numism. Zeit. (1908) and Riv. ital. d. num. (1908).