OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axinite

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AXINITE, a mineral consisting of a complex aluminium and calcium boro-silicate with a small amount of basic hydrogen; the calcium is partly replaced in varying amounts by ferrous iron and manganese, and the aluminium by ferric iron: the formula is HCa$_3$BAl$_2$(SiO$_4$)$_4$. The mineral was named (from ἀξίνη, an axe) by R. J. Haüy in 1799, on account of the characteristic thin wedge-like form of its anorthic crystals. The colour is usually clove-brown, but rarely it has a violet tinge (on this account the mineral was named yanolite, meaning violet stone, by J. C. Delamétherie in 1792). The best specimens are afforded by the beautifully developed transparent glassy crystals, found with albite, prehnite and quartz, in a zone of amphibolite and chlorite-schists at Le Bourg d’Oisans in Dauphiné. It is found in the greenstone and hornblende-schists of Batallack Head near St Just in Cornwall, and in diabase in the Harz; and small ones in Maine and in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Large crystals have also been found in Japan. In its occurrence in basic rather than in acid eruptive rocks, axinite differs from the boro-silicate tourmaline, which is usually found in granite. The specific gravity is 3·28. The hardness of 61/2–7, combined with the colour and transparency, renders axinite applicable for use as a gemstone, the Dauphiné crystals being occasionally cut for this purpose. (L. J. S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axminster

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​AXMINSTER, a market-town in the Honiton parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on the river Axe, 27 m. E. by N. of Exeter by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 2906. The minster, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, illustrates every style of architecture from Norman to Perpendicular. There are in the chancel two freestone effigies, perhaps of the 14th century, besides three sedilia, and a piscina under arches. Axminster was long celebrated for the admirable quality of its carpets, which were woven by hand, like tapestry. Their manufacture was established in 1755. Their name is preserved, but since the seat of this industry was removed to Wilton near Salisbury, the inhabitants of Axminster have found employment in brush factories, corn mills, timber yards and an iron foundry. Cloth, drugget, cotton, leather, gloves and tapes are also made. Coaxdon House, the birthplace in 1602 of Sir Symonds d’Ewes, the Puritan historian, is about 2 m. distant, and was formerly known as St Calyst.
Axminster (Axemystre) derives its name from the river Axe and from the old abbey church or minster said to have been built by King Æthelstan. The situation of Axminster at the intersection of the two great ancient roads, Iknield Street and the Fosse Way, and also the numerous earthworks and hill-fortresses in the neighbourhood indicate a very early settlement. There is a tradition that the battle of Brunanburh was fought in the valley of the Axe, and that the bodies of the Danish princes who perished in action were buried in Axminster church. According to Domesday, Axminster was held by the king. In 1246 Reginald de Mohun, then lord of the manor, founded a Cistercian abbey at Newenham within the parish of Axminster, granting it a Saturday market and a fair on Midsummer day, and the next year made over to the monks from Beaulieu the manor and hundred of Axminster. The abbey was dissolved in 1539. The midsummer fair established by Reginald de Mohun is still held.
See Victoria County History—Devon; James Davidson, British and Roman Remains in the Vicinity of Axminster (London, 1833).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Awl

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​AWL (O. Eng. ael; at one time spelt nawl by a confusion with the indefinite article before it), a small hand-tool for piercing holes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axe

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​AXE (O. Eng. aex; a word common, in different forms, in the Teutonic languages, and akin to the Greek ἀξίνη; the New English Dictionary prefers the spelling “ax”), a tool or weapon, taking various shapes, but, when not compounded with some distinguishing word (e.g. in “pick-axe”), generally formed ​by an edged head fixed upon a handle for striking. A “hatchet” is a small sort of axe.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axiom

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​AXIOM (Gr. ἀξίωμα), a general proposition or principle accepted as self-evident, either absolutely or within a particular sphere of thought. Each special science has its own axioms (cf. the Aristotelian ἀρχαί, “first principles”) which, however, are sometimes susceptible of proof in another wider science. The Greek word was probably confined by Plato to mathematical axioms, but Aristotle (Anal. Post. i. 2) gave it also the wider significance of the ultimate principles of thought which are behind all special sciences (e.g. the principle of contradiction). These are apprehended solely by the mind, which may, however, be led to them by an inductive process. After Aristotle, the term was used by the Stoics and the school of Ramus for a proposition simply, and Bacon (Nov. Organ. i. 7) used it of any general proposition. The word was reintroduced in modern philosophy probably by René Descartes (or by his followers) who, in the search for a definite self-evident principle as the basis of a new philosophy, naturally turned to the familiar science of mathematics. The axiom of Cartesianism is, therefore, the Cogito ergo sum. Kant still further narrowed the meaning to include only self-evident (intuitive) synthetic propositions, i.e. of space and time. The nature of axiomatic certainty is part of the fundamental problem of logic and metaphysics. Those who deny the possibility of all non-empirical knowledge naturally hold that every axiom is ultimately based on observation. For the Euclidian axioms see Geometry.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axholme

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​AXHOLME, an island in the north-west part of Lincolnshire, England, lying between the rivers Trent, Idle and Don, and isolated by drainage channels connected with these rivers. It consists mainly of a plateau of slight elevation, rarely exceeding 100 ft., and comprises the parishes of Althorpe, Belton, Epworth, Haxey, Luddington, Owston and Crowle; the total area being about 47,000 acres. At a very early period it would appear to have been covered with forest; but this having been in great measure destroyed, it became in great part a swamp. In 1627 King Charles I., who was lord of the island, entered into a contract with Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutchman, for reclaiming the meres and marshes, and rendering them fit for tillage. This undertaking led to the introduction of a large number of Flemish workmen, who settled in the district, and, in spite of the violent measures adopted by the English peasantry to expel them, retained their ground in sufficient numbers to affect the physical appearance and the accent of the inhabitants to this day. The principal towns in the isle are Crowle (pop. 2769) and Epworth. The Axholme joint light railway runs north and south through the isle, connecting Goole with Haxey junction; and the Great Northern, Great Eastern and Great Central lines also afford communications. The land is extremely fertile. The name, properly Axeyholm (cf. Haxey), is hybrid, Ax being the Celtic uisg, water; ey the Anglo-Saxon for island; and holm the Norse word with the same signification.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axis

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​AXIS (Lat. for “axle”), a word having the same meaning as axle, and also used with many extensions of this primary meaning. It denotes the imaginary line about which a body or system of bodies rotates, or a line about which a body or action is symmetrically disposed. In geometry, and in geometrical crystallography, the term denotes a line which serves to aid the orientation of a figure. In anatomy, it is, among other uses, applied to the second cervical vertebra, and in botany it means the stem.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axile

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​AXILE, or Axial, a term (＝related to the axis) used technically in science; in botany an embryo is called axile when it has the same direction as the axis of the seed.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Axle

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​AXLE (in Mid. Eng. axel-tre, from O. Norweg. öxull-tre, cognate with the O. Eng. æxe or eaxe, and connected with Sansk. áksha, Gr. ἄξων, and Lat. axis), the pin or spindle on which a wheel turns. In carriages the axle-tree is the bar on which the wheels are mounted, the axles being strictly its thinner rounded prolongations on which they actually turn. The pins which pass through the ends of the axles and keep the wheels from slipping off are known as axle-pins or “linch-pins,” “linch” being a corruption, due to confusion with “link,” of the Old English word for “axle,” lynis, cf. Ger. Lünse.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birkbeck, George

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​BIRKBECK, GEORGE (1776–1841), English physician and philanthropist, was born at Settle in Yorkshire on the 10th of January 1776. He early evinced a strong predilection for scientific pursuits; and in 1799, after graduating as doctor of medicine, he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy at the Andersonian Institution of Glasgow. In the following year he delivered, for the benefit of the working-classes, a gratuitous course of scientific lectures, which were continued during the two following years and proved eminently successful. He removed to London in 1804, and there he endeavoured to prosecute his philanthropic schemes, at first without much encouragement, but ultimately with marked success. In 1823 he contributed to found the Mechanics’ Institute, the name of which was afterwards changed to Birkbeck Institution or College, in honour of its founder. He was appointed director of the institute, which he had originally endowed with the sum of £3700, and held the office till his death on the 1st of December 1841. The sphere of usefulness of the institution was gradually enlarged, and an enlargement of the buildings was carried out in 1883–1885. The college now holds day and evening classes in many of the sciences, in literature, languages and art.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Biribi

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​BIRIBI, or Cavagnole, a French game of chance, prohibited by law since 1837. It is played on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked. The players put their stakes on the numbers they wish to back. The banker is provided with a bag from which he draws a case containing a ticket, the tickets corresponding with the numbers on the board. The banker calls out the number, and the player who has backed it receives sixty-four times his stake; the other stakes go to the banker. In the French army “to be sent to Biribi” is a cant term for being sent to the disciplinary battalion in Algeria.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birger

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​BIRGER (?-1266), Swedish statesman, nephew of Birger Brosa, and the most famous member of the ancient noble family of the Folkungeätten, which had so much to say for itself in early Swedish history, was created jarl of Bjälbo by King Erik Eriksson in 1248 and married the king’s sister. On Erik’s death (1250) Birger’s son Valdemar was elected king while his father acted as regent. During the sixteen years of his sway Sweden advanced greatly in fame and prosperity. In 1249 he led an expedition to Finland, built the fortress of Tavastehus, and thus laid the foundations of Sweden’s oversea empire. He also built Stockholm, and enriched it by making it the chief mart for the trade of Lübeck, with which city he concluded a commercial treaty. As a lawgiver also Birger laboured strenuously in the interests of civilization. In his old age he married the daughter of King Abel. There is a fine statue of the great jarl in the Riddarholm church at Stockholm, erected by Fogelberg at the expense of the Stockholm magistracy in 1884. He is also the central figure of Fr. Hedberg’s drama Bröllopet på Ulfåsa (1865).
See Sveriges Historia, vol. i. (Stockholm, 1879–1883).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birkenfeld

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​BIRKENFELD, a town of Germany, capital of the principality of the same name, on the Zimmerbach, 25 m. S.E. of Trier and on the main line of railway from Bingerbrück to Neunkirchen. Pop. 2500. Close by, on an eminence, lie the ruins of the castle of Birkenfeld, dating from the 14th century, once the residence of the counts palatine of Zweibrücken. The town has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a grand-ducal high school and a hospital. Besides brewing and tanning, its industries include the manufacture of tobacco and chicory. There is also a considerable trade in cattle.
The Principality of Birkenfeld is hilly and well-forested; agriculture prospers on the cleared lands, and fruit is grown in the valley of the Nahe, the principal stream. Ironstone and roofing slates are quarried, and there is some industry in agate-polishing and the manufacture of trinkets. The principality ​has an area of 312 sq. m. and a population (1900) of 43,409, chiefly Protestants. It is formed out of the former lordships of Dachstuhl and Oberstein, of part of the ancient countship of Sponheim, and sections of the duchy of Jülich, which were granted to the grand-duke of Oldenburg by the congress of Vienna in 1815. It is entirely an enclave in Prussian territory, and though it is represented in the Oldenburg diet, it is governed by a separate Regierungskollegium, consisting of a president and two members, who are responsible to the Oldenburg ministry.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birejik

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​BIREJIK (Arab. Bir; classical, Apamea-Zeugma), a town of North-West Mesopotamia, in the Aleppo vilayet, altitude 1170 ft., built on a limestone cliff 400 ft. high on the left bank of the Euphrates. Pop. about 10,000, three-quarters Moslem. It is situated at one of the most important crossings of the Euphrates, where there was, in ancient times, a bridge of boats, and is now a ferry on the road from Aleppo to Urfa, Diarbekr and Mosul. Birejik corresponds actually to Apamea, which lay opposite Zeugma, and commanded the bridge with its strong castle (Kala Beda) now much ruined. The place seems to have had a pre-Seleucid existence as Birtha, a name which revived under Roman rule (we hear of the emperor Julian resting there on his march into Mesopotamia, A.D. 363), and is preserved to this day. The ferry over an unusually deep and narrow part of the Euphrates has been used from time immemorial in the passage from North Syria to Haran (Charrae), Edessa and North Mesopotamia, and was second in importance only to that at Thapsacus, by which crossed the route to Babylon and South Mesopotamia. Birejik was the scene of an unusually cruel massacre and persecution of Armenians in 1895.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birjend

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​BIRJEND, the capital of Káïn, a sub-province of Khorasan in Persia, in 32° 53′ N. 59° 10′ E., and at an elevation of 4550 ft. Pop. about 25,000. It is situated 328 m. from Meshed by the direct road, in a fertile valley running east and west, of which the southern boundary is a lofty range of barren hills known as Kuh i Bakeran. Through the valley runs the Khusp river, which loses itself in the desert towards the west; it is, however, generally dry. The water-supply of the town and of the 70 or 80 villages under its jurisdiction is very scanty. On the east of the town at the foot of a hill stands a dilapidated fort. Birjend has six good caravanserais, a college and some mosques; post and telegraph offices were established there in 1902.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Avaray

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​AVARAY, a French territorial title belonging to a family some of whose members have been conspicuous in history. The Béarnaise family named Bésiade moved into the province of Orléanais in the 17th century, and there acquired the estate of Avaray. In 1667 Théophile de Bésiade, marquis d’Avaray, obtained the office of grand bailiff of Orleans, which was held by several of his descendants after him. Claude Antoine de Bésiade, marquis d’Avaray, was deputy for the bailliage of Orleans in the states-general of 1789, and proposed a Declaration of the Duties of Man as a pendant to the Declaration of the Rights of Man; he subsequently became a lieutenant-general in 1814, a peer of France in 1815, and duc d’Avaray in 1818. Antoine Louis François, comte d’Avaray, son of the above, distinguished himself during the Revolution by his devotion to the comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII., whose emigration he assisted. Having nominally become king in 1799, that prince created the estate of Ile-Jourdain a duchy, under the title of Avaray, in favour of the comte d’Avaray, whom he termed his “liberator.” (M. P.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Avars

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​AVARS, or Avari, an East Caucasian people, the most renowned of the Lesghian tribes, inhabiting central Daghestan (see Lesghians). They are the only Lesghian tribe who possess a written language, for which they make use of the Arabic characters. They are often confused with the Avars whose empire on the Danube was broken by Charlemagne; but Komarov asserts that they are of more recent origin as a tribe, their name being Lowland Turki for “vagrant” or “refugee.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Avella

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​AVELLA (anc. Abella), a city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Avellino, 23 m. N.E. of Naples by rail. Pop. (1901) 4107. It is finely situated in fertile territory and its nuts (nuces Abellanae) and fruit were renowned in Roman days. About 2 m. to the north-east lies Avella Vecchia, the ancient Abella, regarded ​by the ancients as a Chalcidian colony. An important Oscan inscription relates to a treaty with Nola, regarding a joint temple of Hercules, attributable to the 2nd century B.C. Under the early empire it had already become a colony and had perhaps been one since the time of Sulla. It has remains of the walls of the citadel and of an amphitheatre, and lay on the road from Nola to Abellinum, which was here perhaps joined by a branch from Suessula.
See J. Beloch, Campanien (2nd ed., Breslau, 1890), 411 seq. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aveia

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​AVEIA, an ancient town of the Vestini, on the Via Claudia Nova, 6 m. S.E. of Aquila, N.E. of the modern village of Fossa. Some remains of ancient buildings still exist, and the name Aveia still clings to the place. The identification was first made by V. M. Giovenazzi, Della Città di Aveia ne’ Vestini (Rome, 1773). Paintings in the church of S. Maria ad Cryptas, of the 12th to 15th centuries, are important in the history of art. An inscription of a stationarius of the 3rd century, sent here on special duty (no doubt for the suppression of brigandage), was found here in 1902 (A. von Domaszewski, Röm. Mitt., 1902, 330).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Avatar

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​AVATAR, a Sanskrit word meaning “descent,” specially used in Hindu mythology (and so in English) to express the incarnation of a deity visiting the earth for any purpose. The ten Avatars of Vishnu are the most famous. The Hindus believe he has appeared (1) as a fish, (2) as a tortoise, (3) as a hog, (4) as a monster, half man half lion, to destroy the giant Iranian, (5) as a dwarf, (6) as Rāma, (7) again as Rāma for the purpose of killing the thousand-armed giant Cartasuciriargunan, (8) as Krishna, (9) as Buddha. They allege that the tenth Avatar has yet to occur and will be in the form of a white-winged horse (Kalki) who will destroy the earth.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Avellino

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​AVELLINO, a city and episcopal see of Campania, Italy, the capital of the province of Avellino, 1150 ft. above sea-level, 28 m. direct and 59 m. by rail E.N.E. of Naples, at the foot of Monte Vergine. Pop. (1901) 23,760. There are ruins of the castle constructed in the 9th or 10th century, in which the antipope Anacletus II. crowned Count Roger II. king of Sicily and Apulia. Avellino is the junction of lines to Benevento and Rocchetta S. Antonio. The name is derived from the ancient Abellinum, the ruins of which lie 21/2 m. north-east, close to the village of Atripalda, and consist of remains of city walls and an amphitheatre in opus reticulatum, i.e. of the early imperial period, when Abellinum appears to have been the chief place of a tribe, to which belonged also the independent communities of the Abellinates cognomine Protropi among the Hirpini, and the Abellinates cognominati Marsi among the Apulians (Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, ii. 822). It lay on the boundary of Campania and the territory of the Hirpini, at the junction of the roads from Nola (and perhaps also from Suessula) and Salernum to Beneventum.
The Monte Vergine (4165 ft.) lies 4 m. to the N.W. of Avellino; upon the summit is a sanctuary of the Virgin, founded in 1119, which contains a miraculous picture attributed to S. Luke (the greatest festival is on the 8th of September). The present church is baroque in style, but contains some works of art of earlier periods. The important archives have been transported to Naples. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aveiro

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​AVEIRO, a seaport, episcopal see, and the capital of an administrative district, formerly included in the province of Beira, Portugal; on the river Vouga, and the Lisbon-Oporto railway. Pop. (1900) 9979. Aveiro is built on the southern shore of a marshy lagoon, containing many small islands, and measuring about 15 m. from north to south, with an average breadth of about 1 m. The Barra Nova, an artificial canal about 33 ft. deep, was constructed between 1801 and 1808, and gives access to the Atlantic ocean. The local industries include the preparation of sea-salt, the catching and curing of fish, especially sardines and oysters, and the gathering of aquatic plants (moliço). There is also a brisk trade in wine, oil and fruit; while the Aveiro district contains copper and lead mines, besides much good pasture-land.
Aveiro is probably the Roman Talabriga. In the 16th century it was the birthplace of João Affonso, one of the first navigators to visit the fishing-grounds of Newfoundland; and it soon became famous for its fleet of more than sixty vessels, which sailed yearly to that country, and returned laden with dried codfish. During the same century the cathedral was built, and the city was made a duchy. The title “duke of Aveiro” became extinct when its last holder, Dom José Mascarenhas e Lancaster, was burned alive for high treason, in 1759. The administrative district of Aveiro coincides with the north-western part of the province of Beira; pop. (1900) 303,169; area, 1065 sq. m.