era of hollow and spheroidal shells. At present, when the varieties are so numerous, it is more usual to employ the terms BULLET and SHOT (q.v.). These, together with SHELL, are subdivided into numerous kinds, the most important of which will be found noticed under their proper designations. A particular class of spherical combustibles is described under BALLS. For BALL-CARTRIDGE, see CARTRIDGE.

BALL (Fr. bal), a dancing entertainment. In England there are county balls, attended by the gentry of the shire; military balls, court balls, subscription balls, besides balls on various festive occasions. Whether designated balls or assemblies, these entertainments are conducted with great decorum, according to certain established usages. If of a general kind, it is expected that those who avail themselves of tickets shall be of undoubted respectability; and, as a further voucher of propriety, a number of lady-patronesses (married ladies of distinction) take a lead in the management, and grace the assembly by their presence. Ordinarily, the charge for gentlemen's tickets at subscription balls is at least two-thirds higher than those for ladies. According to etiquette, no unmarried lady can attend a ball unless she accompany a gentleman, or a married lady. All, of both sexes, are expected to be in full dress-anything else would be held disrespectful. Fancy balls are entertainments at which every person attending is expected to be in a fancy or peculiar national costume; in other respects, they are conducted like ordinary balls. Masked balls, once so common, have now, for obvious reasons, lost their repute. At all high-class balls, there is an appointed master of the ceremonies, or" director," who superintends the proceedings, and, in the event of there being no programme, prescribes the dances.

BALL, GAME OF. See BASE BALL.

BALL, JOHN, an English preacher, well known from his connection with the Wat Tyler insurrection, (q.v.) 1381. He was executed, together with some of his fanatical companions, at Coventry in the same year.

BALL, SIR ROBERT STAWELL, F.R.S., astronomer; was born in 1840 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. After holding successively many important official and university positions, he became professor of geometry and astronomy at the university of Cambridge. He wrote Elements of Astronomy (1880); The Story of the Heavens (1885); The Story of the Sun (1894), besides many magazine articles, essays, lectures, and reviews. He was knighted in 1886.

BALL, THOMAS, sculptor, b. Charlestown, Mass., June 3, 1819; was in early life a singer in oratorios, distinguishing himself as a basso in Elijah, and while so employed began painting miniatures and then portraits. In 1852 he abandoned painting for sculpture, made busts of Jenny Lind and Daniel Webster, and a life-sized statue of the latter, and then spent many years in Florence, Italy, making occasional visits to Boston. He made the bronze equestrian statue of Washington in the Boston Public Garden, the heroic bronze of Webster in Central Park, New York, several busts and statues for public buildings in Boston, and the colossal group, Emancipation, in Washington, D. C. He published My Threescore Years and Ten (Boston, 1891).

BALLAD. The name is of Italian origin (ballate), and meant originally a dance-song, being derived from the mid. Lat. ballare or balare, corresponding to the Gr. ballizein, to dance. The B. is a kind of poem which it is very difficult to characterize. In the course of centuries it has undergone various transformations, and the name has been transferred to pieces which in extent, subject, and character have no longer anything in common with the primitive ballad. The confusion of ideas was rendered still worse from the circumstance that poems of exactly the same nature were styled sometimes romances, sometimes ballads, sometimes epic or lyrico-epic, or poetic narratives; so that it was left to the caprice of the poet which of these generic names he would give to his production. As early as the 12th c. the Italians gave the title of B. to short, purely lyrical pieces, allied to the sonnet or still more to the madrigal, and which generally had love-sorrows for their subject. Dante has such ballate. Akin to these are those French ballads which Molière set himself against, and which fell into disuse. The earliest ballads, as the word is now understood, are those of England and of Scotland, beginning about the 14th century. They in so far resemble the Spanish romances, that the subject in both is narrative, and handled lyrically. See LYRIC. The Spanish romance, however, has more of the lyrical element, and is of a gayer cast, reflecting the southern character of the people; while the northern B. took a more earnest, somber shape, especially among the Danes; though in the n. also, there are ballads of a cheerful and sportive

tone.

As far as subject is concerned, the B. is a species of minor epic (q.v.). The name is generally applied to a versified narrative, in a simple, popular, and often rude style, of some valorous exploit, or some tragic or touching story. Ballads are adapted to be sung or accompanied by an instrument. They are comparatively short, the story being circumscribed, and not embracing a combination of events, as the plan of the grand epic does. There can be little doubt that the B. has been the first form of poetry among all nations; and that the earlier epics or heroic poems of the higher kind, such as the Spanish Cid or the German Nibelungen, grew out of such simple beginnings. Of the popular B., Scotland, or more correctly the border-land of Scotland and England, is allowed to have produced the best examples-as Chory Chase, Fair Helen of Kirkconnel

Lee, and many others. As a B. of modern composition may be instanced Goldsmith's Edwin and Angelina.

Many of the old popular songs of the Germanic nations are just narratives of epic events and incidents in which the feelings of the composer manifest themselves. But the name of B. was not then in use, and such poetical narratives were called simply songs, or more specifically, perhaps, lays (Ger. lieder). It was not till the last half of the 18th c. that the foreign name was transferred to them.

The B. has, in recent times, been cultivated chiefly by the Germans, and in their hands it has assumed a more artificial development. Bürger may be said to be the creator of the modern ballad. He was intimately acquainted with the more simple Scotch and English B. poetry; but while adhering to its spirit, he gave to his own compositions a far wider extent, surrounded his narration with descriptions of scenery and other decorations, and by means of dialogue imparted to them the vivacity of the drama. His Leonore has become at once classical and popular. Bürger, Schiller, Göthe, and Uhland are the greatest German names in this department of composition. Following the practice of these writers, it has become common to confine the name B. to an epic narrative with something fabulous and supernatural in the background. In this sense, Göthe's Erlkönig is a ballad; and Coleridge's Ancient Mariner is perhaps the best exemplification in English. See Rolland, Recueil de Chansons Populaires (1888).

BALLADE, is a poem consisting of one or more terns or triplets of seven or eightlined stanzas, each ending with the same line as a refrain, as Chaucer's Compleynt of Venus and To His Purse. Though this is its strict application, the name ballade is now frequently used loosely of any poem divided into stanzas of equal length. The Ballade Royal is composed of stanzas of seven or eight lines, each of which has ten syllables. The ballade in its stricter form was a favorite with Villon and many of the older French poets and has been revived by De Banville, Swinburne, Andrew Lang and Austin Dobson, and other recent poets.

BALLANCHE, PIERRE SIMON, 1776-1847; a French writer on social theories, author of Antigone (a prose poem), Essai sur les Institutions Sociales dans leur Rapport avec les Idées nouvelles; Le Vieillard et le Jeune Homme; L'Homme sans Nom (a novel); Palingénésie Sociale; Vision d'Hebal, etc. The Palingénésie, which he did not finish, was to be an exposition of the workings of God in history, and is considered his greatest work. His system, termed "Ballanchism," attracted much attention.

BALLANTINE, JAMES (1808-77), artist and poet, was born in Edinburgh, and brought up as a house-painter, but afterwards learned drawing under sir William Allen, and was one of the first to revive the art of glass-painting. He was commissioned to execute the stained-glass windows for the House of Lords, and in 1845 published a treatise on Glass Staining, which was translated into German. Two prose volumes, The Gaberlunzie's Wallet (1843), and Miller of Deanhaugh (1845), contain some of his best known songs and ballads. He was the author of Poems (1856 and 1865); One Hundred Songs with Music (1865), and Lilias Lee (1871).

BALLANTINE, WILLIAM, b. London, 1812; called to the bar, 1834, and made a serjeant at law, 1856. He soon attained the foremost rank in his profession. Among other important cases he was engaged as counsel for the Tichborne claimant, 1871, and defended Mulhar Rao, the Gaikwar of Baroda, against the charge of poisoning, 1875, receiving for his services in the latter case about 20,000 guineas. He wrote Experiences of a Barrister's Life, 1882, and The Old World and the New, 1884. D. 1886.

BALLARAT, next to Melbourne the most important city in the province of Victoria, Australia, is in the centre of one of the richest gold fields in that part of the country, and owes its rise to the discovery of gold at Anderson's creek in 1851. It was made a city in 1870. It is 100 miles n. w. of Melbourne, with which it is connected by rail. It has many handsome buildings, hospitals, two colleges, two libraries, many churches and schools, and manufactures of various kinds. Pop. 1891, 46,033; estimated in 1895 at 45,336.

BALLARD, a co. in w. Kentucky, on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers; 250 sq. m.; pop. '90, 8390, including colored. Productions-tobacco, wheat, corn, and oats. Co. seat, Wickliffe.

BALLAST is weight carried by a ship or boat for the purpose of insuring the proper stability, both to avoid risk of capsizing and to secure the greatest effectiveness of the propelling power. A usual modern form of ballast in steamers is water which is pumped in or out of compartments arranged to receive it; lead is also much used, espe cially for craft of moderate size, and is often run into a space left for it between the plates of the keel, or cast into plates of appropriate form and bolted to the exterior of the keel. Gravel, stones, pig-iron and other weighty materials are in common use as ballast in cases where the requisite weight cannot be found in the regular cargo itself. The amount of ballast required by a ship depends not only on her size and cargo, but also on her build; some forms of construction requiring more ballast than others. It is not merely the quantity that is to be considered; its distribution enters largely. If a heavy mass be deposited within a small space close to the keel, it places the center of gravity

very low down; the ship will sail sluggishly, and is said to be "stiff" If on the other hand, the ballast be located too high the ship becomes "crank and cannot carry much sail without danger of being upset. Under average circumstances it is considered that a ship is well ballasted when the water comes up to about the extreme breadth amidships. In ballasting a ship, the cargo and ballast are considered together, the quantity and distribution of the latter being made dependent on the former. In the English mercantile marine, in order to prevent the overloading of ships, a mark, called the Plimsoll mark, which is a circle painted white and having a horizontal line running through its center is placed on the midship frame of the ship in order to indicate a depth beyond which the vessel must not be loaded. In a vessel of war the ballast is made subservient to the requirements of the necessary stores and war equipment; in a merchant or passenger vessel, to the convenience of the passengers and the careful stowage of the cargo.-Bags of sand placed in the car of a balloon to steady it and enable the aeronaut to lighten the balloon, when necessary to effect a rise, by throwing part of the sand out. Gravel, broken stones, slag, or similar material, usually called road metal, placed between the sleepers or ties of a railroad, to prevent them from shifting and generally to give solidity to the road. Also applied to the stones, burnt clay, etc., used as a foundation in making new roads, concrete floors and so forth. IN BALLAST, without cargo, is said of a ship laden with ballast only.

The term B. is employed by civil engineers to signify the sand or gravelly material which is laid as a packing between railway-sleepers, in order to give them solidity. No modern railway is considered to be complete or safe for transit until it is dressed and finished by ballasting. The possibility of procuring B. at a cheap rate, considerably affects the course of railway undertakings.

BALLATER, a village of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the Banks of the Dee, 36 m. w.s.w. of Aberdeen. It is remarkable as the resort of numerous visitors, on account of the medicinal springs in the neighborhood.

BALLERINA, (Ital.) is the feminine form of ballerino (plur. ballerine), "a dancer." Hence, a female ballet dancer.

BALLET (of similar derivation with the word ball-see BALLAD), a species of dance usually forming an interlude in theatrical performances, but confined principally to operas. Properly, a B. is a theatrical exhibition of the art of dancing in its highest perfection, and must therefore, in general, comply with the rules of the drama as to its composition and form. The pantomimic sacrificial dances of antiquity, although they may be regarded as the source of Attic tragedy, are not to be considered as directly the origin of the ballet. The B., as known to us, undoubtedly originated in the service of the courts. We find it existing in Italy in the beginning of the 16th c., especially at the court of Turin, where it was enriched by the inventive genius of count Aglio; and where the princes and princesses of the court themselves took part in it, in song and declamation as well as in dance; for the B. at first appeared in combination with the other theatrical arts, and completed the chaotic medley exhibited in these spectacles, which were at once mythological, allegorical, fantastic, warlike, and pastoral. From these mingled elements the individual species of dramatic entertainments were gradually evolved in their distinct forms. Baltagerini, director of music to Catharine de' Medici, was the first to introduce the B. into France, where it soon became such a favorite, that Louis XIII. danced in one of these ballets, and his example was followed by Louis XIV. in his youth. The latter made his last appearance on the stage in 1699, in the B. of Flora. Hitherto. the B. had always appeared in combination with the characteristic features of the opera, and even of comedy, as is evident from the works of Quinault and Molière, arranged by Lully. The art of dancing possessed then little dramatic expression, and still required to be introduced and explained by singing and recitation. In 1697, Antoine Houbart de la Motte undertook to reform the B., to which he imparted both dramatic action and the expression of passionate feeling. About this time, women first made their appearance in the B., as well as in plays and operas, which had till then been performed exclusively by men. There is no mention of any female B.-dancer of note before 1790. About the middle of the 18th c., Noverre separated the B. from the opera, gave it an independent dramatic form, and laid the foundation in his writings of an ingenious theory on the subject. The mythological B., a relic of the magnificence of Versailles, came to an end during the consulate, when it gave place to the newly invented comic ballets Dansomanie, La Fille mal Gardée, and the Arlequinades. Vincenzo Galeotti, in Copenhagen, carried out the ideas of Noverre so far as to subordinate the dance to purely dramatic principles, instead of giving it the first place as formerly; and thus he gave to his ballets the character of great rhythmical pantomimes. These splendid and talented performances were longest kept up in the theater of Milan, where the most lifelike and magnificent tableaux were exhibited in pantomime; and subjects were attempted far beyond the limits of the ballet. The story of Hamlet was turned into a B., and the subjects of several other tragedies were similarly treated. In general, the B. has now become unfaithful to its original design and its true artistic signification; and exhausts itself in the exhibition of mere feats of bodily agility, tasteless displays of artificial dexterity, distortions of the person almost to dislocation, and balancings of the figure in attitudes often indelicate. Consisting as it does more of external show than internal meaning. it contributes gradu

Balloon.

ally to blunt the public taste for the enjoyment of the legitimate drama, which speaks more to the mind than to the eye.

BALL-FLOWER, so named from its resembling a ball placed in a circular flower; an ornament peculiar to the decorated style of Gothic architecture which prevailed in the 14th century. The B.-F. is supposed by some to be an imitation of a pomegranate, by others of a hawk's bell.

BALLINA', a seaport t. on the confines of Mayo and Sligo counties, Ireland, but chiefly in Sligo, on the Moy, 7 m. s. of its entrance into Killala bay. The Moy runs through the town, is crossed by two bridges, and separates the two counties. B. proper is on the Mayo side, the Sligo portion being a suburb called Ardnaree. The tide runs up to the town, but the river is only navigable from the sea up to a mile and a half below B. B. has a brisk trade in agricultural produce, salmon, and cured provisions. Coarse linens and snuff are manufactured here. Many anglers resort to the river Moy and lough Conn. Killala bay was the rendezvous of the French invaders in 1798. They landed and took B., but were, three weeks afterwards, defeated at Killala. Pop. about 5000.

BALLINASLOE', a small inland t. on the borders of Galway and Roscommon counties, near the center of Ireland, on both sides of the river Suck-which divides the two counties-8 m. from its confluence with the Shannon, and 81 m. w. of Dublin. It is on the Midland Great Western railway, and is the terminus of the Grand Canal. A great horse, sheep and cattle fair is held at B. annually, lasting five days, one of the largest in the kingdom. Population between 4000 and 5000.

BALLINROBE', a small t. of Ireland, co. Mayo, picturesquely seated on the Robe, about 3 m. from its mouth in lough Mask, and 17 miles s.e. by e. of Westport. It has a weekly market and two annual fairs. Pop. '71, 2408; '81, 2286; has declined to less than 2000.

BAL'LIOL COLLEGE, Oxford, was founded between 1263 and 1268 by John de Balliol, father of John Balliol, king of Scotland. The original foundation consisted of 16 poor scholars, and the revenue for their maintenance amounted for many years to only 8d. per week for each. In 1340, the establishment was enriched by benefactions from sir William Fenton and sir Philip Somervyle, the latter of whom gave the college a new body of statutes. Its most important subsequent benefactors were Bell, bishop of Worcester, in 1566; William Hammond, esq., in 1575; Peter Blundell's executors in 1615 and 1676; lady Periam, 1620; Warner, bishop of Rochester, 1667; John Snell, esq., 1677; and Mrs. Williams, 1830. The society consists of a master, 13 fellows, and 24 scholars. The number of members on the books in 1890 was 243. The master and fellows enjoy the privilege of electing their own visitor. John Wycliffe was master of this college in 1361; among its scholars have been John Evelyn, and Bradley the astronThe Snell exhibitions for students of Glasgow university attract annually to this college a few distinguished Scottish students. Among these have been sir William Hamilton, J. G. Lockhart, and Dr. Tait, archbishop of Canterbury.

omer.

BALLISTA. See BALISTA.

BALLISTIC PENDULUM. An instrument so named was invented by Robins, in the latter part of last century, to ascertain the velocity of projectiles, and to prove the quality of gunpowder. It consists of a large block of wood suspended from a strong horizontal axis; and it is so solidly constructed as to bear the heaviest blow of the heaviest shot without injury. An excavated center on one side of the block is filled with sand, packed in leather upon an iron frame; four bags form a filling or core. The core, forming the place of impact, is easily replaced after each firing. Straps of wrought iron suspend the block from the wrought-iron axis or shaft. The shaft-ends have knife-edges, which rest on V. supports. The construction is such, that a violent percussion makes only a very slight oscillatory movement in the block. A brass graduated limb measures the arc of vibration; and a brass slide is pushed forward by an index attached to a bar connected with the suspension straps. Another form of instrument for similar purposes is described under EPROUVETTE; and some of the results of these experiments are noticed under GUNNERY.

BAL LIUM. See BAILEY.

BALLOON (Fr. ballon, a large ball). According to the principle of Archimedes (q.v.), bodies immersed in a fluid are buoyed upwards with a force equivalent to the weight of the fluid displaced by them. If their own weight is not sufficient to counterbalance this force that is, if they are lighter than the fluid-they rise upwards with a force equal to the difference of the weight of the displaced fluid and of their own weight. A B., therefore, which consists of an integument inclosing a gas within it, will rise in air in the same way that a cork rises in water, provided that the weight of the whole be less than that of an equal volume of air. If one, for instance, occupy as much space as 1000 lbs. of air, but weigh itself-covering, gas, and appendages-600 lbs., it will be impelled upwards with a force of 400 lbs. The gases employed for filling balloons are either hydrogen or ordinary coal-gas. The former, when pure, is between 14 and 15 times lighter than atmospheric air, and the latter generally about two and a half.