BESSEMER'S PROCESS FOR REFINING IRON-BESSIERES.

greater part is left still in the iron. After the blast has been on for fifteen or twenty minutes, the jets of flame which issue from the molten mass elongate very much, and continue so for five or six minutes, when they subside by degrees, till they almost cease; and in thirty-five minutes from the commencement, the process is complete. During the progress of the operation, a copious discharge of slag takes place, which mostly remains as a scum on the surface of the pure iron. The tap-hole in the crucible being unstopped by driving an iron rod into the clay-stopper, the liquid iron is run into a mould or founder's ladle. For castings which require much carbon in the iron, Bessemer first refines the iron by the above operation, and then thrusts into the molten mass some wood, bituminous shale, carbonaceous matters in general, or a stream of carburetted hydrogen, till the requisite amount of carbon is obtained. Bessemer likewise lays claim of the air, as it gurgles to the introduction of dry carbonate of soda and through the molten dry carbonate of potash into the molten iron by iron, combines with means of the air-blast, whereby the silica is more the carbon and other easily removed, and a slag formed. impurities, and carries these rapidly away. The ladle being tilted round, the half-purified iron is then allowed to flow into a shallow iron trough, where it cools and becomes fine metal. This part of the operation is the equivalent of the ordinary finery furnace. The plate of fine metal is now broken in pieces, and introduced into a reverberatory or puddling furnace, somewhat similar in shape to that ordinarily employed, but pierced with a number of openings at each side, through which fire-clay nozzles are inserted, and air-hot or cold-driven into or upon the iron, when it becomes molten. Steam is likewise introduced, especially at the commencement of the process. The air being thus brought intimately in contact with the half-purified iron, the remaining impurities are rapidly carried away. Where great purity is required, Bessemer recommends that the spent gases from the fire-grate of the puddling furnace, which often contain sulphurous acid, should not be allowed to come in contact with the iron; and to obviate this contamination, the iron is enclosed in retorts similar to those used at a gaswork, and the air forced through the molten metal within the retorts.

BESSEMER'S PROCESS FOR REFINING phorus is oxidised into phosphoric acid, and in IRON. In the years 1856 and 1857, the iron world was startled by the announcement of a new and rapid process of purifying cast or pig iron, and obtaining therefrom bar or malleable iron, and steel. The patentee, Mr. Bessemer, takes the liquid iron as it flows from the blast-furnace, receives it in a large covered ladle (see fig.) made of malleable iron, lined with loam or clay, and inserts in the molten mass a fire-clay pipe, through which air is driven with great force. The hot blast is preferred to the cold blast, but the latter will do. The oxygen

Bessemer also suggested that the process of refining pig or crude iron should be accomplished by a single operation. For this purpose, an airfurnace is employed, in which there is placed a fire-clay or black-lead crucible, capable of holding, when three-fourths full, about seven cwt. of molten iron. Prior to the introduction of the metal, the crucible is surrounded by fuel; and when the vessel has attained a bright-red heat, the iron is run in by a funnel inserted at the upper part of the crucible, and thereafter the tube conveying the blast is thrust in. The air, or air and steam, act on the impure iron. The free oxygen carries off the carbon as carbonic acid, and the water acting upon the iron is decomposed; its hydrogen is set free, and the oxygen combining with the iron forms oxide of iron; which oxide is again decomposed by the carbon uniting with the oxygen to form carbonic oxide, and liberating the iron in the metallic condition. Besides the changes enumerated, a large amount of iron is converted into oxide of iron by the excess of oxygen thrust in. The sulphur present as impurity is burned away in part as sulphurous acid, by uniting with the oxygen of the air, and is partly acted on by the hydrogen derived from the steam, and carried off as sulphuretted hydrogen. The phos

Theoretically, the process of Bessemer is a correct one. By the older and ordinary methods the impurities were only slowly carried off, because air was only sparingly admitted to the iron; but without altering the agent which accomplishes the purification, Bessemer expedites the process by thrusting air in great abundance through the impure iron. Practically, however, it does not as yet seem possible by Bessemer's process to burn away the impurities, without at the same time oxidising or wasting much good iron. It is highly probable that the practical skill of our ironmasters will be found sufficient to surmount this difficulty, and that means will be discovered of admitting air in such minimum quantity, and so regulated, that, while it burns away the impurities, it will not be allowed to proceed so far as to burn the iron itself. The present system of refining and puddling iron is notoriously a primitive, time-devouring, and stationary one; and any inquiry having in view the shortening of the number of hours required, must be of advantage at all times. The process of Bessemer is far from being a perfect one, but it is a step in the right direction, which will doubtless be carried further; and Bessemer ought to receive the thanks of the iron world for having given impetus to thought on the subject.

BESSIÈRES, JEAN BAPTISTE, Duke of Istria, and Marshal of the French Empire, was born at Preissac, in the department of Lot, August 1768. After serving for a short time in the constitutional guard of Louis XVI., in November 1792, he entered the army of the Pyrenees as a private soldier. In less than two years, he had attained the rank of captain, and passing into the Army of Italy, he distinguished himself greatly in the battles of Roveredo and Rivoli. Having been made chief of a brigade in 1798, he in that year accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, and made himself conspicuous at the siege of St. Jean d'Acre, and at the battle of Aboukir. Afterwards, he took a prominent part in the battles of Marengo, Olmütz, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, and Eylau; and within five years (from 1800 to 1805), he was made successively general of brigade, general of division, and marshal of France. For his gallant behaviour in Spain, he was, in 1809, created Duke of Istria In the Russian campaign, he commanded the cavalry of the Guard, and during the disastrous retreat from Moscow, the services he rendered were of the utmost importance. In 1813, he received the command of the whole of the French cavalry. On the morning of the battle of Lützen,

BESTIARES-BETHANY.

while leading on foot the tirailleurs to reconnoitre | manufactures of linen, leather, and earthenware. Pop. the field from the defile of Rippach, he fell mortally between 4000 and 5000. wounded by a bullet. The news of his death was kept concealed from the army throughout the day; Bonaparte lost in B. one of his ablest officers and

his most faithful friend.

BESTIAIRES (Fr.), the name given to a class of written books of great popularity in the middle ages, describing all the animals of creation, real or fabled, and generally illustrated by drawings. They were most in fashion during the 11th, 12th, and 13th c. They served as encyclopædias of the zoology of those ages, but they had also another use. The symbolism which was then so much in vogue fastened spiritual meanings upon the several animals, until every quality of good or evil in the soul of man had its type in the brute world. It is in this way to the B. that we must look for explanation of the strange, grotesque creatures which are found sculptured on the churches and other buildings of the middle ages. There were B. both in prose and in verse, in Latin and in the vernacular. A few sentences from Le Bestiaire Divin de Guillaume, Clerc de Normandie, Trouvère du XIII Siècle (Caen 1852), may help to give some notion of the class of works of which it is a fair example. 'The unicorn,' he writes, has but one horn in the middle of its forehead. It is the only animal that ventures to attack the elephant; and so sharp is the nail of its foot, that with one blow it rips up the belly of that most terrible of all beasts. The hunters can catch the unicorn only by placing a young virgin in the forest which it haunts. No sooner does this marvellous animal descry the damsel, than it runs towards her, lies down at her feet, and so suffers itself to be taken by the hunters. The unicorn represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who, taking our humanity upon him in the Virgin's womb, was betrayed by the wicked Jews, and delivered into the hands of Pilate. Its own horn signifies the gospel truth, that Christ is one with the Father,' &c.

BESTUSCHEW, ALEXANDER, a Russian novelist, born about 1795, was captain in a dragoon regiment, and adjutant to Alexander, Duke of Würtemberg. Having been involved with his friend Rylejew in the conspiracy of 1825, he was degraded to the ranks, and exiled to Yakutzk, but after long entreaty, permitted to enter the army of the Caucasus as a private in 1830. In June 1837, he fell in a skirmish with the as yet unconquered mountaineers. Two years before his exile he, together with his friend Rylejew, who was executed in 1825, had published the first Russian almanac, The Pole Star. His later works, consisting chiefly of novels and sketches written under the name of Cossack Marlinski, bore the impress of his own life and adventures in the Caucasus. They excell in depicting the wilder aspects of nature and the excitements of a soldier's life, but fail in the delineation of character, and are often exaggerated, and sometimes absurd. His principal works are the tale of Mullah Nur, and the romance of Ammalath Beg, which last relates the treachery of a Circassian chief, and gives interesting pictures of the scenery of the Caucasus. Several of his novels were translated into German by Seebach (Leipsic, 1837), and his collective works appeared at St Petersburg in 1840, under the name of Marlinski's Tales. His three brothers were implicated in the military conspiracy of 1825, and hanged by the special order of the emperor.

BETANZOS (anciently Brigantium Flavium), a town of Spain, province of Corunna, 10 miles southeast of the city of the same name. Ancient granite gateways still defend its narrow streets. It has

It causes

The

BE'TEL, BETLE, or PAWN, a narcotic stimulant, much used in the east, and particularly by all the tribes of the Malay race. It consists of a leaf of one or other of certain species of pepper, to which the name of betel-pepper is indiscrim inately applied, plucked green, spread over with moistened quick-lime (chunam) generally procured by calcination of shells, and wrapped around a few scrapings of the areca-nut (see ARECA), Sometimes called the betel-nut, and also known as Pinang. This is put into the mouth and chewed. giddiness in persons unaccustomed to it, excoriates the mouth, and deadens for a time the sense of It is so burning, that Europeans do not taste. readily become habituated to it, but the consumption in the East Indies is prodigious. Men and women, young and old, indulge in it from morning to night. The use of it is so general as to have become matter of etiquette; a Malay scarcely goes out without his betel-box, which one presents to another as Europeans do their snuff-boxes. chewing of B. is a practice of great antiquity, and can certainly be traced back to at least the 5th c. B. C. It gives a red colour to the saliva, so that the lips and teeth appear covered with blood; the lips and teeth are also blackened by its habitual use, and the teeth are destroyed, so that men of twenty-five years of age are often quite toothless. Whether the use of B. is to be regarded as having any advantages except the mere pleasure afforded to those who have acquired the habit of it, to counterbalance its obvious disadvantages, is a question upon which difference of opinion subsists. have represented it as beneficially promoting the secretion of saliva, strengthening the digestive powers, and warding off the attacks of fever: whilst others pronounce against it an unqualified condemnation. Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his valuable work on Ceylon, recently published, expresses the opinion that it is advantageous to a people of whose ordinary food flesh forms no part, and that it is at once the antacid, the tonic, and the carminative which they require.

Some

The name B. is often given to the species of pepper of which the leaves are ordinarily chewed in the manner just described, which are also called B.-PEPPER or PAWN. Some of them are very extensively cultivated, particularly Chavica Betle, C. Siraboa, and C. Malamiri, climbing shrubs with leathery leaves, which are heart-shaped in the first and second of these species, and oblong in the third. They are trained to poles, trellises, or the stems of palms, and require much heat with moisture and shade; upon which account, in the north of India, where the climate would not otherwise be suitable, they are cultivated with great attention in low sheds, poles being placed for their support at a few feet apart. Hooker mentions in his Himalayan Journal, that these sheds are much infested by dangerous snakes, and that lives are therefore not unfrequently lost in the cultivation of betel.-The genus Chavica is one of those into which the old genus Piper (see PEPPER) has recently been divided. The requisite qualities of B. are probably found in the leaves of numerous species not only of this but of other genera of the same family. The leaf of the Ava (q. v.) is sometimes used.

BETHANY, meaning a 'boat-house;' called 'Lazariyeh,' or 'Town of Lazarus,' by the natives of Palestine, in reference to the event narrated in Scripture. It is a retired spot, beautifully situated on the southern Slope of the Mount of Olives, 3 miles from Jerusalem, with a population of about 500,

BETHEL-BETHSHEMESH.

principally Latins. There is nothing remarkable which encloses the supposed manger, &c., is a about the village except some ruins, among which are some which are said to have been the house of Martha and Mary, and the cave or grave of Lazarus, the descent into which is effected by 26 steps cut in the solid rock, leading to a small chamber, about 5 feet square, also excavated. The appearance of the cave certainly corresponds with what is said about it in Scripture-'It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it' (St. John xi. 38). Near to the cave are the ruins of a fort built by Queen Melisinda in 1132, to protect the nunnery founded by her in honour of Martha and Mary. BETHEL, called Betein by the natives, about 10 miles from Jerusalem, mentioned in Scripture as the scene of Jacob's dream. Here also Abraham pitched Now a heap of ruins, almost entirely deserted, or only inhabited by a few straggling

his tent.

Arabs.

BETHELL, Sir RICHARD, an eminent lawyer, born at Bradford, Wiltshire, in 1800, son of a physician at Bristol. From Bristol Grammar School he went, at the age of 14, to Wadham College, Oxford, where he was first class in classics, and second class in mathematics, and took his degree of B.A. at the early age of 18. After being a private tutor at Oxford, he studied law, and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in November 1823. In 1840, he was made a Queen's counsel. Elected, in April 1851, M.P. for Aylesbury, on the formation of the Aberdeen ministry in December 1852, he was named Solicitor-general, and shortly after knighted. From November 1856 to March 1858 he was Attorney-general. For several years he was Vice-chancellor of the county Palatine of Lancaster, and standing counsel to the university of Oxford. He has also been conspicuous for his exertions in the cause of law reform, in improving the system of education for the bar, and in abolish ing the ecclesiastical courts, and facilitating the transfer of land.

BETHESDA, POOL OF, meaning 'House of Pity.' The scene of Christ's cure of the impotent man (St. John v. 2-9), and resort of the 'impotent, blind, halt, and withered,' once filled with water, which an angel went down at certain seasons and troubled,' is now dry and used as a deposit for dirt and rubbish. It is situated within the gates of Jerusalem, near the St. Stephen's gate and the Temple of Omar measures 460 feet in length, by 130 in breadth, and 75 in depth.

large square building, more resembling a fortress than the quiet habitation of the recluse, was built by the Empress Helena, 327 A.D., but destroyed by the Moslems in 1236, and, it is supposed, restored by the Crusaders. Within it is the Church of the Nativity, which, like and in connection with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, is subdivided among the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, each community having a separate portion of the edifice for devotional purposes. The church is built in the form of a cross; the nave, which is by far the finest part of the building, belongs to the Armenians, and is supported by 48 beautiful Corinthian columns of solid granite, each between 2 and 3 feet in thickness, and about 17 in height. The other portions of the church, forming end of that section, which forms the head of the the arms of the cross, are walled up. At the further cross, and on the threshold, is a sculptured marble star, which the Bethlehemites say covers the central point of the earth! Here a long intricate passage descends to the crypt below, where the blessed Virgin is said to have been delivered. The walls of the chamber are hung with draperies of the gayest colours; and a silver star, with the words,' Hic de virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est,' marks the spot of the nativity. The manger stands in a low recess cut in the rock, a few feet from this star.

The other objects of interest in the church are the chapel and tomb of St. Jerome, who became a monk of this convent towards the end of the 4th c.; the chapel and tomb of Santa Paula, a Roman lady, and the founder of several nunneries at Bethlehem; the tomb of St. Eudosia; and the pit into which it is supposed the bodies of the murdered innocents were cast. B. is under the jurisdiction of the pasha of Jerusalem. The Bethlehemites chiefly gain their subsistence by the manufacture and sale of crucifixes, beads, boxes, shells, &c., of motherof-pearl and olive-wood. Much wine is made at B. which is considered all over Palestine next best to the Lebanon wine.

BETHLEHEM is the name of the chief settlement of Moravians or United Brethren in Pennsylvania, U. S.

or BETHLEHEMITE

BETHLEHEMITES, BROTHERS, the name of an order of monks at in Guatemala, 1673. The followers of Jerome Huss Cambridge in the 13th c.; also of an order founded were styled B., from Bethlehem church in Prague, where their leader preached.

eastern suburb of

BETHNAL GREEN, an
London, in Middlesex, including Victoria Park.
Pop. 90,192, many being silk-weavers.

BETHLEHEM, or BEIT-LAHAM, meaning 'House of Bread,' celebrated in Scripture as the birthplace of our blessed Saviour, and of King David, is now a small unwalled village, situated at a distance of 5 miles south of Jerusalem. The BETHSAI'DA, on the lake of Galilee, mentioned population, about 3000 souls, is wholly Christian- in Scripture as the city of Peter and Andrew and that is, Latin, Greek, and Armenian. The village Philip, now a heap of ruins almost overgrown with is situated in the centre of a most interesting grass. country; and the roof of the Latin monastery-the only public building of any importance, enclosing the cave which is the alleged place of our Lord's nativity-commands a beautiful and extensive view of the surrounding country. In the distance, east, are the mountains of Moab and the plains of the Jordan; south, stands the hill of Tekoah, familiar as the scene of the pastoral life of the prophet Amos; beyond, and rather more to the east, lies the wilderness of Engedi, to which David retreated for the purpose of concealing himself against the pursuit of Saul, and where the allied armies of the Amorites, Moabites, and others, encamped when they came forth against Jehoshaphat; north, is the road to Jerusalem, with the mountains of Judea and Rachel's tomb. The Convent of the Nativity,

BETHSHE'MESH ('House of the Sun,' or 'Sun Town;' modern name, Ain-esh-Shems, Fountain of the Sun,' now distinguishable by neither house nor fountain from which it was likely to derive its name), a ruined city of Palestine, 15 miles westsouth-west of Jerusalem, finely situated on the point of a low ridge, commanding an extensive view of the country, rendered interesting by the exploits of Samson. B. was a sacerdotal city belonging to the tribe of Judah, bordering alike on the possessions of Dan and of the Philistines, and fixed by Eusebius ten Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, on the Nicopolis road. It is interesting as the place where the Ark of the Lord first rested, after the Philistines. had sent it back (1 Sam. vi.). One of Solomon's twelve purveyors resided at B., where also was

BETHUNE-BEUKELZOON.

fought the battle between Judah and Israel, in which Jehoash captured Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 11, 13). B. was taken by the Philistines during the reign of Ahaz, and from that time disappears from Bacred history.

BETHUNE, a town of France, in the department Pas-de-Calais, situated on a rock overlooking the river Brette, and the canals of Lawe and Aire, 16 miles north-north-west of Arras. It is strongly fortified, part of the works and the citadel having been constructed by Vauban. It has manufactures of linen and cloth, and a considerable trade in the agricultural produce of the surrounding country. Taken by the French in 1645, it was retaken by the allies in 1710, but was restored to France by the treaty of Utrecht. The first artesian wells are said to have been bored here. Pop. 7273. BE TICK, or BETIK, on the river Oxus, Central Asia, one of the greatest ferries between Persia and Turkistan.' Lieutenant Burnes, who in 1834 published an account of his travels in Central Asia, says the Oxus is here 650 yards broad and 25 to 29 feet deep.

BEVEL-BEWICK.

life, belonging to the small town of Biervliet, in | wished to betake himself. On his return to the Holland, was the first who succeeded in salting Hague, he wrote De Stolatæ Virginitatis Jure (The and preserving herrings in a satisfactory manner. This improvement, which is said to have taken place in the year 1386, communicated a great impetus to the industry of the fisheries of Holland. It is related that the emperor, Charles V., made a pilgrimage to the tomb of B., and there ate a herring in expression of his gratitude for the invention. B.'s name, which is otherwise written as Beukels, Bökel, &c., is said to be the origin of the word pickle. B. died in 1397.