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

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​LONSDALE, WILLIAM (1794–1871), English geologist and palaeontologist, was born at Bath on the 9th of September 1794. He was educated for the army and in 1810 obtained a commission as ensign in the 4th (King’s Own) regiment. He served in the Peninsular War at the battles of Salamanca and Waterloo, for both of which he received medals; and he retired as lieutenant. Residing afterwards for some years at Batheaston he collected a series of rocks and fossils which he presented to the Literary and Scientific Institution of Bath. He became the first honorary curator of the natural history department of the museum, and worked until 1829 when he was appointed assistant secretary and curator of the Geological Society of London ​at Somerset House. There he held office until 1842, when ill-health led him to resign. The ability with which he edited the publications of the society and advised the council “on every obscure and difficult point” was commented on by Murchison in his presidential address (1843). In 1829 Lonsdale read before the society an important paper “On the Oolitic District of Bath” (Trans. Geol. Soc. ser. 2, vol. iii.), the results of a survey begun in 1827; later he was engaged in a survey of the Oolitic strata of Gloucestershire (1832), at the instigation of the Geological Society, and he laid down on the one-inch ordnance maps the boundaries of the various geological formations. He gave particular attention to the study of corals, becoming the highest authority in England on the subject, and he described fossil forms from the Tertiary and Cretaceous strata of North America and from the older strata of Britain and Russia. In 1837 he suggested from a study of the fossils of the South Devon limestones that they would prove to be of an age intermediate between the Carboniferous and Silurian systems. This suggestion was adopted by Sedgwick and Murchison in 1839, and may be regarded as the basis on which they founded the Devonian system. Lonsdale’s paper, “Notes on the Age of the Limestones of South Devonshire” (read 1840), was published in the same volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society (ser. 2, vol. v.) with Sedgwick and Murchison’s famous paper “On the Physical Structure of Devonshire,” and these authors observe that “the conclusion arrived at by Mr Lonsdale, we now apply without reserve both to the five groups of our North Devon section, and to the fossiliferous slates of Cornwall.” The later years of Lonsdale’s life were spent in retirement, and he died at Bristol on the 11th of November 1871. (H. B. Wo.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Loom (bird)

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​LOOM, or Loon (Icelandic, Lómr), a name applied to water-birds of three distinct families, remarkable for their clumsy gait on land. The first is the Colymbidae, to which the term diver (q.v.) is usually restricted in books; the second the Podicipedidae, or grebes (q.v.); and the third the Alcidae. The form loon is most commonly used both in the British Islands and in North America for all species of the genus Colymbus, or Eudytes according to some ornithologists, frequently with the prefix sprat, indicating the fish on which they are supposed to prey; though it is the local name of the great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) wherever that bird is sufficiently well known to have one; and, as appears from Grew (Mus. Reg. Soc. p. 69), it was formerly given to the little grebe or dabchick (P. fluviatilis or minor). The other form loom seems more confined in its application to the north, and is said by T. Edmonston (Etym. Gloss. Shetl. and Orkn. Dialect, p. 67) to be the proper name in Shetland of Colymbus septentrionalis; but it has come into use among Arctic seamen as the name of the guillemot (Alca arra or bruennichi) which throngs the cliffs of northern lands, from whose “loomeries” they obtain a wholesome food; while the writer believes he has heard the word locally applied to the razorbill (q.v.). (A. N.)
* ↑ The word also takes the form “lumme” (fide Montagu), and, as Professor Skeat observes, is probably connected with lame. The signification of loon, a clumsy fellow, and metaphorically a simpleton, is obvious to any one who has seen the attempt of the birds to which the name is given to walk.
* ↑ Dunn and Saxby, however, agree in giving “rain-goose” as the name of the species in Scotland.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Loom (weaving)

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​LOOM, a machine for weaving fabrics by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the “warp,” i.e. “that which is thrown across” (O.E. wearp, from weorpan, to throw, cf. Ger. werfen) with the transverse threads, the “weft,” i.e. “that which is woven” (O.E. wefta, from wefan, to weave, cf. Ger. weben). The O.E. geloma and M.E. lome meant an implement or tool of any kind. In the sense of property, furniture, &c., it appears in heirloom (q.v.). The earliest example with its specific meaning quoted by the New English Dictionary is from the Nottingham Records of 1404 (see Weaving).
“Loom” in the sense of “to appear indistinctly,” to come into view in an exaggerated indistinct shape, must be distinguished from the above word. This appears to have been a sailor’s term for the indistinct or exaggerated appearance of land, a vessel or other object through haze or darkness at sea. It is of obscure origin, but has been connected through the O. Fr. lumer, modern allumer, with Lat. lumen, light, and with the root seen in “lame,” in the sense of “moving slowly towards one.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Loot

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​LOOT, plunder or spoil taken from an enemy in war, especially the indiscriminate plunder taken by the victor after the capture of a city. The word came into English from India. It is adapted from the Hindi lūt, which is either from Sanskrit luṇṭ, to rob, plunder, or lōtra, lōptra, booty.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Loop

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​LOOP. (1) A curve or bend, particularly a bend in a string, rope, &c., formed by doubling back one part so as to leave an opening; similarly a ring of metal or other material leaving an aperture. (2) In architecture or fortification, “loop,” more usually in the form “loophole,” is an opening in the wall of a building, very narrow on the outside and splayed within, from which arrows or darts might be discharged on an enemy, or through which light might be admitted. They are often in the form of a cross, and generally have round holes at the ends (see Oillets). (3) The word is also a term in iron and steel manufacturing for a mass of metal ready for hammering or rolling, a “bloom.”
This last word is represented in French by loupe, from which it is probably adapted. The earlier English form was also loupe, and it was also applied to precious stones which were of inferior brilliancy; the same also appears in French. Of the word in its two first meanings, a bend or circle in a line of string, metal, rails, &c., and “loophole,” the derivation is uncertain. Skeat takes the word in both meanings to be the same and to be of Scandinavian origin, the old Norwegian hlaup, a leap, being the direct source. The base is the Teutonic hlaufan, to run, to leap, German laufen. The New English Dictionary considers the Swedish example, löp-knut, “running knot,” and others given by Skeat in support of his derivation to be Germanisms, and also that the pronunciation of the word would have been lowp rather than lūp. “Loop” in meaning (2) “loophole” is also taken to be a different word, and is derived from Dutch luipen, to peer, watch. In modern Dutch the word for a narrow opening is gluip.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Loosestrife

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​LOOSESTRIFE, in botany, the common name of Lysimachia vulgaris, an erect plant, 2 to 4 ft. high, common on river banks in England; the branched stem bears tapering leaves in pairs or whorls, and terminal panicles of rather large deep yellow flowers. It is a member of the primrose family. L. nemorum, yellow pimpernel, or wood loosestrife, a low-growing plant with slender spreading stem, and somewhat similar yellow flowers standing singly in the leaf-axils, is frequent in copses. L. Nummularia is the well-known creeping jenny or money-wort, a larger plant with widely creeping stem, pairs of shining leaves and large solitary yellow flowers; it is found on banks of rivers and damp woods, and is a common rockery plant. Purple loosestrife, Lythrum Salicaria, belongs to a different family, Lythraceae. It is a handsome plant growing 2 to 6 ft. high on river banks and ditches, with a branched angled stem bearing whorls of narrow pointed stalkless leaves and ending in tall tapering spikes of beautiful rose-purple flowers. The flowers are trimorphic, that is to say, exist in three forms which differ in the relative length of the styles and stamens and are known as long-styled, mid-styled and short-styled forms respectively; the size and colour of the pollen also differ. These differences play an important part in the pollination of the flower.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Germonius, Anastasius

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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Germiston

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​GERMISTON, a town of the Transvaal, 9 m. E. of Johannesburg. Pop. of the municipality (1904) 29,477, of whom 9123 were whites. It lies 5478 ft. above the sea, in the heart of the Witwatersrand gold-mining district, and is an important railway junction. The station, formerly called Elandsfontein Junction, is the meeting-point of lines from the ports of the Cape and Natal, and from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Delagoa Bay. Though possessing a separate municipality, Germiston is practically a suburb of Johannesburg (q.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gero

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​GERO (c. 900–965), margrave of the Saxon east mark, was probably a member of an influential Saxon family. In 937 he was entrusted by the German king Otto, afterwards the emperor Otto the Great, with the defence of the eastern frontier of Saxony against the Wends and other Slavonic tribes; a duty which he discharged with such ability and success that in a few years he extended the Saxon frontier almost to the Oder, and gained the chief credit for the suppression of a rising of the conquered peoples in a great victory on the 16th of October 955. In 963 he defeated the Lusatians, compelled the king of the Poles to recognize the supremacy of the German king, and extended the area of his mark so considerably that after his death it was partitioned into three, and later into five marks. Gero, who is said to have made a journey to Rome, died on the 20th of May 965, and was buried in the convent of Gernrode which he had founded on his Saxon estates. He is referred to by the historian Widukind as a preses, and is sometimes called the “great margrave.” He has been accused of treachery and cruelty, is celebrated in song and story, and is mentioned as the “marcgrâve Gêre” in the Nibelungenlied.
See Widukind, “Res gestae Saxonicae,” in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Band iii.; O. von Heinemann, Markgraf Gero (Brunswick, 1860).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Germersheim

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​GERMERSHEIM, a fortified town of Germany in Rhenish Bavaria, at the confluence of the Queich and the Rhine, 8 m. S.W. of Speyer. Pop. (1905) 5914. It possesses a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church, a synagogue, a progymnasium and a hospital. The industries include fishing, shipbuilding and brewing. Germersheim existed as a Roman stronghold under the name of Vicus Julius. The citadel was rebuilt by the emperor Conrad II., but the town itself was founded in 1276 by the emperor Rudolph I., who granted it the rights of a free imperial city. From 1330 to 1622, when it was conquered by Austria, the town formed part of the Palatinate of the Rhine. From 1644 to 1650 it was in the possession of France; but on the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia it was again joined to the Palatinate. In 1674 it was captured and devastated by the French under Turenne, and after the death of the elector Charles (1685) it was claimed by the French as a dependency of Alsace. As a consequence there ensued the disastrous Germersheim war of succession, which lasted till the peace of Ryswick in 1697. Through the intervention of the pope in 1702, the French, on payment of a large sum, agreed to vacate the town, and in 1715 its fortifications were rebuilt. On the 3rd of July 1744 the French were defeated there by the imperial troops, and on the 19th and 22nd of July 1793 by the Austrians. In 1835 the new town was built, and the present fortifications begun.
See Probst, Geschichte der Stadt und Festung Germersheim (Speyer, 1898).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Germanium

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​GERMANIUM (symbol Ge, atomic weight 72.5); one of the metallic elements included in the same natural family as carbon, silicon, tin and lead. It was discovered in 1886 by C. Winkler in argyrodite, a mineral found at Freiberg in Saxony. On examination of the metal and its salts it was shown to be identical with the hypothetical element ekasilicon, whose properties had been predicted by D. Mendeléeff many years previously. The element is of extremely rare occurrence, being met with only in argyrodite and, to a very small extent, in euxenite. It may be obtained from argyrodite by heating the mineral in a current of hydrogen; or by heating the dioxide to redness with carbon. It forms grey coloured octahedra of specific gravity 5.496 at 20° C., melting at 900° C.; it burns at a red heat, is insoluble in hydrochloric acid, but dissolves in aqua regia, and is also soluble in molten alkalis. Two oxides of germanium are known, the dioxide, GeO$_2$, being obtained by roasting the sulphide and treatment with nitric acid. It is a white powder, very slightly soluble in water, and possesses acid properties. By heating with a small quantity of magnesium it is converted into germanious oxide, GeO. By heating the metal with chlorine, germanic chloride, GeCl$_4$, is obtained as a colourless fuming liquid boiling at 86-87° C., it is decomposed by water forming a hydrated germanium dioxide. Germanium dichloride, GeCl$_2$, and germanium chloroform, GeHCl$_3$, have also been described.
Germanium compounds on fusion with alkaline carbonates and sulphur form salts known as thiogermanates. If excess of a mineral acid be added to a solution of an alkaline thiogermanate a white precipitate of germanium disulphide, GeS$_2$, is obtained. It can also be obtained by passing sulphuretted hydrogen through a solution of the dioxide in hydrochloric acid. It is appreciably soluble in water, and also in solutions of the caustic alkalis and alkaline sulphides. By heating the disulphide in a current of hydrogen, germanious sulphide, GeS, is formed. It sublimes in thin plates of a dark colour and metallic lustre, and is soluble in solutions of the caustic alkalis. Alkyl compounds of germanium such as germanium tetra-ethyl, Ge(C$_2$H$_5$)$_4$, a liquid boiling at 160° C., have been obtained. The germanium salts are most readily recognized by the white precipitate of the disulphide, formed in acid solutions, on passing sulphuretted hydrogen. The atomic weight of the element was determined by C. Winkler by analysis of the pure chloride GeCl$_4$, the value obtained being 72.32, whilst Lecoq de Boisbaudran (Comptes rendus, 1886, 103, 452), by a comparison of the lines in the spark spectrum of the element, deduced the value 72.3.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lucaris, Cyrillos

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​LUCARIS, CYRILLOS (1572–1637), Greek prelate and theologian, was a native of Crete. In youth he travelled, studying at Venice and Padua, and at Geneva coming under the influence of the reformed faith as represented by Calvin. In 1602 he was ​elected patriarch of Alexandria, and in 1621 patriarch of Constantinople. He was the first great name in the Orthodox Eastern Church since 1453, and dominates its history in the 17th century. The great aim of his life was to reform the church on Calvinistic lines, and to this end he sent many young Greek theologians to the universities of Switzerland, Holland and England. In 1629 he published his famous Confessio, Calvinistic in doctrine, but as far as possible accommodated to the language and creeds of the Orthodox Church. It appeared the same year in two Latin editions, four French, one German and one English, and in the Eastern Church started a controversy which culminated in 1691 in the convocation by Dositheos, patriarch of Jerusalem, of a synod by which the Calvinistic doctrines were condemned. Lucaris was several times temporarily deposed and banished at the instigation of his orthodox opponents and of the Jesuits, who were his bitterest enemies. Finally, when Sultan Murad was about to set out for the Persian War, the patriarch was accused of a design to stir up the Cossacks, and to avoid trouble during his absence the sultan had him killed by the Janissaries (June 1637). His body was thrown into the sea, recovered and buried at a distance from the capital by his friends, and only brought back to Constantinople after many years.
The orthodoxy of Lucaris himself continued to be a matter of debate in the Eastern Church, even Dositheos, in view of the reputation of the great patriarch, thinking it expedient to gloss over his heterodoxy in the interests of the Church.
See the article “Lukaris” by Ph. Meyer in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklop. (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1902), which gives further authorities.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lucarne

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​LUCARNE, a French architectural term for a garret window, also for the lights or small windows in spires.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Luang-Prabang

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​LUANG-PRABANG, a town of French Indo-China, capital of the Lao state of that name, on the left bank of the Me Kong river. It lies at the foot of the pagoda hill which rises about 200 ft. above the plain on the promontory of land round which the Nam Kan winds to the main river. It has a population of about 9000 and contains the “palace” of the king of the state and several pagodas. In 1887 it was taken and sacked by the Haw or Black Flags, robber bands of Chinese soldiery, many of them survivors of the Taiping rebellion. In 1893 Siam was compelled to renounce her claims to the left bank of the Me Kong, including Luang-Prabang and the magnificent highlands of Chieng Kwang. That portion of the state which was on the right bank of the Me Kong was not affected by the treaty, except in so far as a portion of it fell within the sixteen miles’ zone within which Siam agreed not to keep troops. Trade is in the hands of Chinese or Shan traders; hill rice and other jungle products are imported from the surrounding districts by the Kha or hill people. The exports, which include rubber, gum benjamin, silk, wax, sticklac, cutch, cardamon, a little ebony, cinnamon, indigo, rhinoceros and deer horns, ivory and fish roe, formerly all passed by way of Paklai to the Me Nam, and so to Bangkok, but have now almost entirely ceased to follow that route, the object of the French government being to deflect the trade through French territory. Luang-Prabang is the terminus of navigation on the upper Me Kong and the centre of trade thereon.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lublin (government)

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​LUBLIN, a government of Russian Poland, bounded N. by Siedlce, E. by Volhynia (the Bug forming the boundary), S. by Galicia, and W. by Radom (the Vistula separating the two). Area, 6499 sq. m. The surface is an undulating plain of Cretaceous deposits, 800 to 900 ft. in altitude, and reaching in one place 1050 ft. It is largely covered with forests of oak, beech and lime, intersected by ravines and thinly inhabited. A marshy lowland extends between the Vistula and the Wieprz. The government is drained by the Vistula and the Bug, and by their tributaries the Wieprz, San and Tanev. Parts of the government, being of black earth, are fertile, but other parts are sandy. Agriculture is in good condition. Many Germans settled in the government before immigration was stopped in 1887; in 1897 they numbered about 26,000. Rye, oats, wheat, barley and potatoes are the chief crops, rye and wheat being exported. Flax, hemp, buckwheat, peas, millet and beetroot are also cultivated. Horses are carefully bred. In 1897 the population was 1,165,122, of whom 604,886 were women. The Greek Orthodox (chiefly Little Russians in the south-east) amounted to 20.1% of the whole; Roman Catholics (i.e. Poles) to 62.8%; Jews to 14.2%; and Protestants to 2.8%. The urban population was 148,196 in 1897. The estimated population in 1906 was 1,362,500. Industrial establishments consist chiefly of distilleries, sugar-works, steam flour-mills, tanneries, saw-mills and factories of bent-wood furniture. Domestic industries are widely developed in the villages. River navigation employs a considerable portion of the population. The government is divided into ten districts, the chief towns of which, with their populations in 1897, are—Lublin, capital of the province (50,152); Biegoray (6286); Cholm (19,236); Hrubieszow (10,699); Yanów (7927); Krasnystaw or Kraznostav (8879); Lubartow (5249); Nova-Alexandrya or Pulawy (3892); Samostye (12,400); and Tomaszów (6224).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lubao

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​LUBAO, a town in the south-western part of the province of Pampanga, Luzon, Philippine Islands, about 30 m. N.W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 19,063. Lubao is served by the Manila & Dagupan railway, and has water communication with Manila by tidal streams and Manila Bay. Its products are, therefore, readily marketed. It lies in a low, fertile plain, suited to the growing of rice and sugar. Many of the inhabitants occupy ​themselves in the neighbouring nipa swamps, either preparing the nipa leaves for use in house construction, or distilling “nipa-wine” from the juice secured by tapping the blossom stalks. The language is Pampangan.