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In some cases, instead of the small coal being charged through the roof of the oven and levelled by hand, it is formed into blocks by being stamped in a slightly moistened condition in a mould consisting of a bottom plate or peel on a racked rod like that of the ram, with movable sides and ends. This, when the ends are removed, is pushed forward into the oven, and the bottom plate is withdrawn by reversing the rack motion. The moulding box is mounted on a carriage like that of the ram, the two being sometimes carried on the same framing. The moulding is done at a fixed station in the centre of the range of ovens by a series of cast-iron stampers driven by an electric motor. This system is useful for coals low in volatile matter, which do not give a coherent coke under ordinary conditions.

Condensing ovens.

In the distilling or by-product ovens the gases, instead of being burned at the point of origin, pass by an uptake pipe in the roof about the centre of the oven into a water-sealed collecting trough or hydraulic main, whence they are drawn by exhausters through a series of air and water cooled condensers and scrubbers. In the first or atmospheric condensers the tar is removed, and in the second ammoniacal water, which is further enriched by a graduated system of scrubbing with weak ammoniacal liquor until it is sufficiently concentrated to be sent to the ammonia stills. The first treatment by scrubbing with creosote or heavy tar oil removes benzene, after which the permanent gaseous residue consisting chiefly of hydrogen and marsh gas is returned to the ovens as fuel.

In the Otto-Hoffmann oven, one of the most generally used forms, vertical side flues like those of Copp?e are adopted. The returned gas enters by a horizontal flue along the bottom of the coking chamber, divided into two parts by a mid-feather wall, and is fired by heated air from a Siemens regenerator on the substructure at one end, and the flame rising through one half of the side flues to a parallel collector at the top returns downwards through the flues of the other half and passes out to the chimney through a similar regenerator at the other end. The course of the gases is reversed at intervals of about an hour, as in the ordinary Siemens furnace, each end of the oven having its own gas supply. In the later modification known as the Otto-Hilgenstock, the regenerators are abandoned, but provision is made for more perfect distribution of the heat by a line of sixteen Bunsen burners in each wall; each of these serves two flues, the course of the flame being continuously upwards without reversal. In the newest Otto ovens the same system of burners is combined with regenerators. In the Bauer system, another vertical flue oven, each flue has its own burner, which is of a simplified construction.

In the Carv?s oven, the earliest of the by-product ovens, the heating flues are arranged horizontally in parallel series along the entire length of the side walls, the gas being introduced from both ends but at different levels. This system was further developed by H. Simon of Manchester, who added a continuous air "recuperator" heated by the spent flame; this Simon-Carv?s system has been extensively adopted in Great Britain. Another horizontal flue oven, the Semet-Solvay, is distinguished by the structure of the flues, which are independent of the dividing walls of the ovens, so that the latter can be made with thinner sides than those of the earlier systems, and are more readily repaired. In the horizontal ovens it is sometimes difficult to maintain the heat when the flues are continuous along the whole length of the wall, especially when the heating value of the gas is reduced by the removal of the heavy hydrocarbons. This difficulty is met by dividing the flues in the middle so as to shorten the length of travel of the flame, and working each end independently. The H?ssener and Koppers systems are two of the best-known examples of this modification.

Coke from retort ovens is not so dense or brilliant as that made in beehive ovens, but the waste being less there is a decided saving, apart from the value of the condensed products. In one instance the coke was found to be about 5% less efficient in the blast furnace, while the yield on the coal charged was increased 10%. In the further treatment of the condensed products by distillation the tar gives burning oil and pitch, the benzene is separated from the creosote oil by steam-heated stills, and the ammoniacal liquor, after some lime has been added to decompose fixed ammonium compounds, is heated to vaporize the ammonia, which is condensed in lead or copper-lined tanks containing strong sulphuric acid to produce a crystalline powder of ammonium sulphate, which accumulates in the receiver and is fished out from time to time. The yield of by-products averages about 1% of ammonium sulphate, about 3 1/2 % of tar, and 0.6 to 0.9% of benzene, of the weight of the coal carbonized. After the ovens have been heated and steam supplied for the machinery of the condensing plant and the coke ovens, there is usually a surplus of gas, which may be used for lighting or driving gas-engines. For the latter purpose, however, it is necessary to remove the last traces of tar, which acts very prejudicially in fouling the valves when the gas is not completely purified. The gas given off during the earlier part of the coking process is richer in heavy hydrocarbons and of a higher illuminating value than that of the later period when the temperature is higher. This property is utilized in several large coking plants in America, where the gas from the first ten hours' working is drawn off by a second hydraulic main and sent directly to town gas-works, where it passes through the ordinary purifying treatment, the gas from the second period being alone used for heating the ovens.

Coke is essentially a partially graphitized carbon, its density being about midway between that of coal and graphite, and it should therefore occupy less space than the original coal; but owing to the softening of the charge a spongy structure is set up by the escaping gases, which acts in the other direction, so that for equal bulk coke is somewhat lighter than coal. It is this combination of properties that gives it its chief value in iron smelting, the substance being sufficiently dense to resist oxidation by carbon dioxide in the higher regions of the furnace, while the vesicular structure gives an extended surface for the action of heated air and facilitates rapid consumption at the tuyeres. Compact coke, such as that formed on the inner sides of gas retorts , can only be burned with great difficulty in small furnaces of special construction, but it gives out a great amount of heat.

The most deleterious constituents of coke are ash, sulphur and volatile constituents including water. As the coke yield is only from two-thirds to three-quarters of that of the coal, the original proportion of ash is augmented by one-third or one-half in the product. For this reason it is now customary to crush and wash the coal carefully to remove intermingled patches of shale and dirt before coking, so that the ash may not if possible exceed 10% in the coke. About one-half of the sulphur in the coal is eliminated in coking, so that the percentage in the coke is about the same. It should not be much above 1%. According to the researches of F. Wuest the sulphur is retained in a complex carbon compound which is not destroyed until the coke is actually consumed.

COL , in physical geography, generally any marked depression upon a high and rugged water-parting over which passage is easy from one valley to another. Such is the Col de Balme between the Trient and Chamounix valleys, where the great inaccessible wall crowned with aiguilles running to the massif of Mt. Blanc is broken by a gentle downward curve with smooth upland slopes, over which a footpath gives easy passage. The col is usually formed by the head-waters of a stream eating backward and lowering the water-parting at the head of its valley. In early military operations, the march of an army was always over a col, which has at all times considerable commercial importance in relation to roads in high mountain regions.

COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE , French statesman, was born at Reims, where his father and grandfather were merchants. He claimed to be the descendant of a noble Scottish family, but the evidence for this is lacking. His youth is said to have been spent in a Jesuit college, in the office of a Parisian banker, and in that of a Parisian notary, Chapelain, the father of the poet. But the first fact on which we can rely with confidence is that, when not yet twenty, he obtained a post in the war-office, by means of the influence that he possessed through the marriage of one of his uncles to the sister of Michel Le Tellier, the secretary of state for war. During some years he was employed in the inspection of troops and other work of the kind, but at length his ability, his extraordinary energy and his untiring laboriousness induced Le Tellier to make him his private secretary. These qualities, combined, it must be confessed, with a readiness to seize every opportunity of advancement, soon brought Colbert both wealth and influence. In 1647 we find him receiving the confiscated goods of his uncle Pussort, in 1648 obtaining 40,000 crowns with his wife Marie Charron, in 1649 appointed councillor of state.

In 1661 the death of Mazarin allowed Colbert to take the first place in the administration, and he made sure of the king's favour by revealing to him some of Mazarin's hidden wealth. It was some time before he assumed official dignities; but in January 1664 he obtained the post of superintendent of buildings; in 1665 he was made controller-general; in 1669 he became minister of the marine; and he was also appointed minister of commerce, the colonies and the king's palace. In short, he soon acquired power in every department except that of war.

The office of superintendent and many others dependent upon it being abolished the supreme control of the finances was vested in a royal council. The sovereign was its president; but Colbert, though for four years he only possessed the title of intendant, was its ruling spirit, great personal authority being conferred upon him by the king. The career on which Colbert now entered must not be judged without constant remembrance of the utter rottenness of the previous financial administration. His ruthlessness in this case, dangerous precedent as it was, was perhaps necessary; individual interests could not be respected. Guilty officials having been severely punished, the fraudulent creditors of the government remained to be dealt with. Colbert's method was simple. Some of the public loans were totally repudiated, and from others a percentage was cut off, which varied, at first according to his own decision, and afterwards according to that of the council which he established to examine all claims against the state.

Much more serious difficulties met his attempts to introduce equality in the pressure of the taxes on the various classes. To diminish the number of the privileged was impossible, but false claims to exemption were firmly resisted, and the unjust direct taxation was lightened by an increase of the indirect taxes, from which the privileged could not escape. The mode of collection was at the same time immensely improved.

Nor was the mercantile marine forgotten. Encouragement was given to the building of ships in France by allowing a premium on those built at home, and imposing a duty on those brought from abroad; and as French workmen were forbidden to emigrate, so French seamen were forbidden to serve foreigners on pain of death.

Even ecclesiastical affairs, though with these he had no official concern, did not altogether escape Colbert's attention. He took a subordinate part in the struggle between the king and Rome as to the royal rights over vacant bishoprics; and he seems to have sympathized with the proposal that was made to seize part of the wealth of the clergy. In his hatred of idleness, he ventured to suppress no less than seventeen f?tes, and he had a project for lessening the number of those devoted to clerical and monastic life, by fixing the age for taking the vows some years later than was then customary. With heresy he was at first unwilling to interfere, for he was aware of the commercial value of the Huguenots; but when the king resolved to make all France Roman Catholic, he followed him and urged his subordinates to do all that they could to promote conversions.

Indeed to everything that concerned the interests of France Colbert devoted unsparing thought and toil. Besides all that has been mentioned, he found time to do something for the better administration of justice and even for the improvement of the breed of horses and the increase of cattle. As superintendent of public buildings he enriched Paris with boulevards, quays and triumphal arches; he relaid the foundation-stone of the Louvre, and brought Bernin from Rome to be its architect; and he erected its splendid colonnade upon the plan of Claude Perrault, by whom Bernin had been replaced. He was not permitted, however, to complete the work, being compelled to yield to the king's preference for residences outside Paris, and to devote himself to Marly and Versailles.

Amid all these public labours his private fortune was never neglected. While he was reforming the finances of the nation, and organizing its navy, he always found time to direct the management of his smallest farm. He died extremely rich, and left fine estates all over France. He had been created marquis de Seignelay, and for his eldest son he obtained the reversion of the office of minister of marine; his second son became archbishop of Rouen; and a third son, the marquis d'Ormoy, became superintendent of buildings.

To carry out his reforms, Colbert needed peace; but the war department was in the hands of his great rival Louvois, whose influence gradually supplanted that of Colbert with the king. Louis decided on a policy of conquest. He was deaf also to all the appeals against the other forms of his boundless extravagance which Colbert, with all his deference towards his sovereign, bravely ventured to make. Thus it came about that, only a few years after he had commenced to free the country from the weight of the loans and taxes which crushed her to the dust, Colbert was forced to heap upon her a new load of loans and taxes more heavy than the last. Henceforth his life was a hopeless struggle, and the financial and fiscal reform which, with the great exception of the establishment of the navy, was the most valuable service to France contemplated by him, came to nought.

Depressed by his failure, deeply wounded by the king's favour for Louvois, and worn out by overwork, Colbert's strength gave way at a comparatively early age. In 1680 he was the constant victim of severe fevers, from which he recovered for a time through the use of quinine prescribed by an English physician. But in 1683, at the age of sixty-four, he was seized with a fatal illness, and on the 6th of September he expired. It was said that he died of a broken heart, and a conversation with the king is reported in which Louis disparagingly compared the buildings of Versailles, which Colbert was superintending, with the works constructed by Louvois in Flanders. He took to bed, it is true, immediately afterwards, refusing to receive all messages from the king; but his constitution was utterly broken before, and a post-mortem examination proved that he had been suffering from stone. His body was interred in the secrecy of night, for fear of outrage from the Parisians, by whom his name was cordially detested.

Colbert was a great statesman, who did much for France. Yet his insight into political science was not deeper than that of his age; nor did he possess any superiority in moral qualities. His rule was a very bad example of over-government. He did not believe in popular liberty;, the parlements and the states-general received no support from him. The technicalities of justice he never allowed to interfere with his plans; but he did not hesitate to shield his friends. He trafficked in public offices for the profit of Mazarin and in his own behalf. He caused the suffering of thousands in the galleys; he had no ear, it is said, for the cry of the suppliant. There was indeed a more human side to his character, as is shown in his letters, full of wise advice and affectionate care, to his children, his brothers, his cousins even. Yet to all outside he was "the man of marble." Madame de S?vign? called him "the North." To diplomacy he never pretended; persuasion and deceit were not the weapons he employed; all his work was carried out by the iron hand of authority. He was a great statesman in that he conceived a magnificent yet practicable scheme for making France first among nations, and in that he possessed a matchless faculty for work, neither shrinking from the vastest undertakings nor scorning the most trivial details.

FOOTNOTE:

COLBY, THOMAS FREDERICK , British major-general and director of ordnance survey, was born at St Margaret's, Rochester, on the 1st of September 1784, a member of a South Wales family. Entering the Royal Engineers he began in 1802 a life-long connexion with the Ordnance Survey department. His most important work was the survey of Ireland. This he planned in 1824, and was engaged upon it until 1846. The last sheets of this survey were almost ready for issue in that year when he reached the rank of major-general, and according to the rules of the service had to vacate his survey appointment. He was the inventor of the compensation bar, an apparatus used in base-measurements. He died at New Brighton on the 9th of October 1852.

COLCHAGUA, a province of central Chile, bounded N. by Santiago and O'Higgins, E. by Argentina, S. by Curic?, and W. by the Pacific. Its area is officially estimated at 3856 sq. m.; pop. 157,566. Extending across the great central valley of Chile, the province has a considerable area devoted to agriculture, but much attention is given to cattle and mining. Its principal river is the Rapel, sometimes considered as the southern limit of the Inca empire. Its greatest tributary is the Cachapoal, in the valley of which, among the Andean foothills, are the popular thermal mineral baths of Cauquenes, 2306 ft. above sea-level. The state central railway from Santiago to Puerto Montt crosses the province and has two branches within its borders, one from Rengo to Peumo, and one from San Fernando via Palmilla to Pichilemu on the coast. The principal towns are the capital, San Fernando, Rengo and Palmilla. San Fernando is one of the several towns founded in 1742 by the governor-general Jos? de Manso, and had a population of 7447 in 1895. Rengo is an active commercial town and had a population of 6463 in 1895.

COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT, 1ST BARON , born at Abingdon, was the son of Dr John Abbot, rector of All Saints, Colchester, and, by his mother's second marriage, half-brother of the famous Jeremy Bentham. From Westminster school Charles Abbot passed to Christ Church, Oxford, at which he gained the chancellor's medal for Latin verse as well as the Vinerian scholarship. In 1795, after having practised twelve years as a barrister, and published a treatise proposing the incorporation of the judicial system of Wales with that of England, he was appointed to the office previously held by his brother of clerk of the rules in the king's bench; and in June of the same year he was elected member of parliament for Helston, through the influence of the duke of Leeds. In 1796 Abbot commenced his career as a reformer in parliament by obtaining the appointment of two committees--the one to report on the arrangements which then existed as to temporary laws or laws about to expire, the other to devise methods for the better publication of new statutes. To the latter committee, and a second committee which he proposed some years later, it is owing that copies of new statutes were thenceforth sent to all magistrates and municipal bodies. To Abbot's efforts were also due the establishment of the Royal Record Commission, the reform of the system which had allowed the public money to lie for some time at long interest in the hands of the public accountants, by charging them with payment of interest, and, most important of all, the act for taking the first census, that of 1801. On the formation of the Addington ministry in March 1801 Abbot became chief secretary and privy seal for Ireland; and in the February of the following year he was chosen speaker of the House of Commons--a position which he held with universal satisfaction till 1817, when an attack of erysipelas compelled him to retire. In response to an address of the Commons, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Colchester, with a pension of ?4000, of which ?3000 was to be continued to his heir. He died on the 8th of May 1829. His speeches against the Roman Catholic claims were published in 1828.

He was succeeded by his eldest son CHARLES , postmaster-general in 1858; and the latter by his son REGINALD CHARLES EDWARD , as 3rd baron.

The principal modern buildings are the town hall, corn exchange, free library, the Eastern Counties' asylum, Essex county hospital and barracks. The town has long been an important military centre with a large permanent camp. There are a free grammar school , a technical and university extension college, a literary institute and medical and other societies. Castle Park is a public ground surrounding the castle. Colchester is the centre of an agricultural district, and has extensive corn and cattle markets. Industries include founding, engineering, malting, flour-milling, rose-growing and the making of clothing and boots and shoes. The oyster fisheries at the mouth of the Colne, for which the town has been famous for centuries, belong to the corporation, and are held on a ninety-nine years' lease by the Colne Fishery Company, incorporated under an act of 1870. The harbour, with quayage at the suburb of Hythe, is controlled by the corporation. The parliamentary borough, which is co-extensive with the municipal, returns one member. The municipal corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area 11,333 acres.

COLCHESTER, a township of Chittenden county, Vermont, U.S.A., on Lake Champlain, immediately N.E. of Burlington, from which it is separated by the Winooski river. Pop. 5352; 6450. It is served by the Central Vermont railway. The surface is generally gently rolling, and in places along the banks of the Winooski or Onion river, the shore of the lake, and in the valleys, it is very picturesque. At Mallett's Bay, an arm of Lake Champlain, 2 m. long and 1 1/2 m. wide, several large private schools hold summer sessions. The soil is varied, much of it being good meadow land or well adapted to the growing of grain and fruit. The township has two villages: Colchester Centre, a small, quiet settlement, and Winooski on the Winooski river. This stream furnishes good water power, and the village has manufactories of cotton and woollen goods, lumber, woodenware, gold and silver plated ware, carriages, wagons and screens. Within the township there is a United States military reservation, Fort Ethan Allen. The village was founded in 1772 by Ira Allen and for many years it was known as "Allen's Settlement"; but later it was called Winooski Falls, and in 1866 it was incorporated as the Village of Winooski.

COLCHICUM, the Meadow Saffron, or Autumn Crocus , a perennial plant of the natural order, Liliaceae, found wild in rich moist meadow-land in England and Ireland, in middle and southern Europe, and in the Swiss Alps. It has pale-purple flowers, rarely more than three in number; the perianth is funnel-shaped, and produced below into a long slender tube, in the upper part of which the six stamens are inserted. The ovary is three-celled, and lies at the bottom of this tube. The leaves are three or four in number, flat, lanceolate, erect and sheathing; and there is no stem. Propagation is by the formation of new corms from the parent corm, and by seeds. The latter are numerous, round, reddish-brown, and of the size of black mustard-seeds. The corm of the meadow-saffron attains its full size in June or early in July. A smaller corm is then formed from the old one, close to its root; and this in September and October produces the crocus-like flowers. In the succeeding January or February it sends up its leaves, together with the ovary, which perfects its seeds during the summer. The young corm, at first about the diameter of the flower-stalk, grows continuously, till in the following July it attains the size of a small apricot. The parent corm remains attached to the new one, and keeps its form and size till April in the third year of its existence, after which it decays. In some cases a single corm produces several new plants during its second spring by giving rise to immature corms.

For medical purposes the corm should be collected in the early summer and, after the outer coat has been removed, should be sliced and dried at a temperature of 130? to 150? F.

The sole but extremely important use of this drug is as a specific for gout. It has an extraordinary power over the pain of acute gout; it lessens the severity and frequency of the attacks when given continuously between them, and it markedly controls such symptoms of gout as eczema, bronchitis and neuritis, whilst it is entirely inoperative against these conditions when they are not of gouty origin. Despite the general recognition of these facts, the pharmacology of colchicum has hitherto thrown no light on the pathology of gout, and the pathology of gout has thrown no light upon the manner in which colchicum exerts its unique influence upon this disease. Veratrine is useless in the treatment of gout. A further curious fact, doubtless of very great significance, but hitherto lacking interpretation, is that the administration of colchicum during an acute attack of gout may often hasten the oncoming of the next attack; and this property, familiar to many gouty patients, may not be affected by the administration of small doses after the attack. Altogether colchicum is a puzzle, and will remain so until the efficient poison of gout is isolated and defined. When that is done, colchicine may be found to exhibit a definite chemical interaction with this hitherto undiscovered substance.

COLCHIS, in ancient geography, a nearly triangular district of Asia Minor, at the eastern extremity of the Black Sea, bounded on the N. by the Caucasus, which separated it from Asiatic Sarmatia, E. by Iberia, S. by the Montes Moschici, Armenia and part of Pontus, and W. by the Euxine. The ancient district is represented roughly by the modern province of Kutais . The name of Colchis first appears in Aeschylus and Pindar. It was inhabited by a number of tribes whose settlements lay chiefly along the shore of the Black Sea. The chief of those were the Lazi, Moschi, Apsilae, Abasci, Sagadae, Suani and Coraxi. These tribes differed so completely in language and appearance from the surrounding nations, that the ancients originated various theories to account for the phenomenon. Herodotus, who states that they, with the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, were the first to practise circumcision, believed them to have sprung from the relics of the army of Sesostris , and thus regarded them as Egyptians. Apollonius Rhodius states that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as heirlooms a number of wooden showing seas and highways with considerable accuracy. Though this theory was not generally adopted by the ancients, it has been defended, but not with complete success, by some modern writers. It is quite possible that there was an ancient trade connexion between the Colchians and the Mediterranean peoples. We learn that women were buried, while the corpses of men were suspended on trees. The principal coast town was the Milesian colony of Dioscurias , the ancient name being preserved in the modern C. Iskuria. The chief river was the Phasis . From Colchis is derived the name of the plant Colchicum .

From the beginning of the 14th to the end of the 17th century the district under the name Mingrelia was governed by an independent dynasty, the Dadians, which was succeeded by a semi-independent dynasty, the Chikovans, who by 1838 had submitted to Russia, though they retained a nominal sovereignty. In 1866 the district was finally annexed by Russia.

In nature the realms of space, on the probable assumption that the interstellar medium is perfectly transparent and diathermanous, must, as was pointed out by W. J. Macquorn Rankine, be incapable of acquiring any temperature, and must therefore be at the absolute zero. That, however, is not to say that if a suitable thermometer could be projected into space it would give a reading of -273?. On the contrary, not being a transparent and diathermanous body, it would absorb radiation from the sun and other stars, and would thus become warmed. Professor J. H. Poynting showed that as regards bodies in the solar system the effects of radiation from the stars are negligible, and calculated that by solar radiation alone a small absorbing sphere at the distance of Mercury from the sun would have its temperature raised to 483? Abs. , at the distance of Venus to 358? Abs. , of the earth to 300? Abs. , of Mars to 243? Abs. , and of Neptune to only 54? Abs. . The French physicists of the early part of the 19th century held a different view, and rejected the hypothesis of the absolute cold of space. Fourier, for instance, postulated a fundamental temperature of space as necessary for the explanation of the heat-effects observed on the surface of the earth, and estimated that in the interplanetary regions it was little less than that of the terrestrial poles and below the freezing-point of mercury, though it was different in other parts of space . C. S. M. Pouillet, again, calculated the temperature of interplanetary space as -142? C. , and Sir John Herschel as -150? .

To attain the absolute zero in the laboratory, that is, to deprive a substance entirely of its heat, is a thermodynamical impossibility, and the most that the physicist can hope for is an indefinitely close approach to that point. The lowest steady temperature obtainable by the exhaustion of liquid hydrogen is about -262? C. , and the liquefaction of helium by Professor Kamerlingh Onnes in 1908 yielded a liquid having a boiling-point of about 4.3? Abs., which on exhaustion must bring us to within about 2 1/2 degrees of the absolute zero.

COLDWATER, a city and county-seat of Branch county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Coldwater Stream , about 80 m. S.S.E. of Grand Rapids. Pop. 5247; 6216, of whom 431 were foreign-born; 6225; 5945. It is served by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway. It is the seat of a state public school and temporary home for dependent, neglected or ill-treated children, who are received at any age under twelve. The city is situated in a fine farming region, has an important flouring and grist mill industry, and also manufactures Portland cement, liniment, lumber, furniture, sashes, doors and blinds, brass castings, sleighs, shoes, &c. The municipality owns and operates the water-works and electric lighting plant. Coldwater was settled in 1829, was laid out as a town under the name of Lyons in 1832, received its present name in the following year, was incorporated as a village in 1837, was reached by railway and became the county-seat in 1851, and was chartered as a city in 1861.

COLE, SIR HENRY , English civil servant, was born at Bath on the 15th of July 1808, and was the son of an officer in the army. At the age of fifteen he became clerk to Sir Francis Palgrave, then a subordinate officer in the record office, and, helped by Charles Buller, to whom he had been introduced by Thomas Love Peacock, and who became chairman of a royal commission for inquiry into the condition of the public records, worked his way up until he became an assistant keeper. He largely assisted in influencing public opinion in support of Sir Rowland Hill's reforms at the post office. A connexion with the Society of Arts caused him to drift gradually out of the record office: he was a leading member of the commission that organized the Great Exhibition of 1851, and upon the conclusion of its labours was made secretary to the School of Design, which by a series of transformations became in 1853 the Department of Science and Art. Under its auspices the South Kensington Museum was founded in 1855 upon land purchased out of the surplus of the exhibition, and Cole practically became its director, retiring in 1873. His proceedings were frequently criticized, but the museum owes much to his energy. Indefatigable, genial and masterful, he drove everything before him, and by all sorts of schemes and devices built up a great institution, whose variety and inequality of composition seemed imaged in the anomalous structure in which it was temporarily housed. He also, though to the financial disappointment of many, conferred a great benefit upon the metropolis by originating the scheme for the erection of the Royal Albert Hall. He was active in founding the national training schools for cookery and music, the latter the germ of the Royal College of Music. He edited the works of his benefactor Peacock; and was in his younger days largely connected with the press, and the author of many useful topographical handbooks published under the pseudonym of "Felix Summerly." He died on the 18th of April 1882.

COLE, THOMAS , American landscape painter, was born at Bolton-le-Moors, England, on the 1st of February 1801. In 1819 the family emigrated to America, settling first in Philadelphia and then at Steubenville, Ohio, where Cole learned the rudiments of his profession from a wandering portrait painter named Stein. He went about the country painting portraits, but with little financial success. Removing to New York , he displayed some landscapes in the window of an eating-house, where they attracted the attention of the painter Colonel Trumbull, who sought him out, bought one of his canvases, and found him patrons. From this time Cole was prosperous. He is best remembered by a series of pictures consisting of four canvases representing "The Voyage of Life," and another series of five canvases representing "The Course of Empire," the latter now in the gallery of the New York Historical Society. They were allegories, in the taste of the day, and became exceedingly popular, being reproduced in engravings with great success. The work, however, was meretricious, the sentiment false, artificial and conventional, and the artist's genuine fame must rest on his landscapes, which, though thin in the painting, hard in the handling, and not infrequently painful in detail, were at least earnest endeavours to portray the world out of doors as it appeared to the painter; their failings were the result of Cole's environment and training. He had an influence on his time and his fellows which was considerable, and with Durand he may be said to have founded the early school of American landscape painters. Cole spent the years 1829-1832 and 1841-1842 abroad, mainly in Italy, and at Florence lived with the sculptor Greenough. After 1827 he had a studio in the Catskills which furnished the subjects of some of his canvases, and he died at Catskill, New York, on the 11th of February 1848. His pictures are in many public and private collections. His "Expulsion from Eden" is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

COLE, VICAT , English painter, born at Portsmouth on the 17th of April 1833, was the son of the landscape painter, George Cole, and in his practice followed his father's lead with marked success. He exhibited at the British Institution at the age of nineteen, and was first represented at the Royal Academy in 1853. His election as an associate of this institution took place in 1870, and he became an Academician ten years later. He died in London on the 6th of April 1893. The wide popularity of his work was due partly to the simple directness of his technical method, and partly to his habitual choice of attractive material. Most of his subjects were found in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, and along the banks of the Thames. One of his largest pictures, "The Pool of London," was bought by the Chantrey Fund Trustees in 1888, and is now in the Tate Gallery.

His life was written by his son, Sir T. E. Colebrooke, in 1873.

COLEMANITE, a hydrous calcium borate, Ca2B6O11 + 5H2O, found in California as brilliant monoclinic crystals. It contains 50.9% of boron trioxide, and is an important source of commercial borates and boracic acid. Beautifully developed crystals, up to 2 or 3 in. in length, encrust cavities in compact, white colemanite; they are colourless and transparent, and the brilliant lustre of their faces is vitreous to adamantine in character. There is a perfect cleavage parallel to the plane of symmetry of the crystals. Hardness 4-4 1/2 ; specific gravity 2.42. The mineral was first discovered in 1882 in Death Valley, Inyo county, California, and in the following year it was found in greater abundance near Daggett in San Bernardino county, forming with other borates and borosilicates a bed in sedimentary strata of sandstones and clays; in more recent years very large masses have been found and worked in these localities, and also in Los Angeles county .

Priceite and pandermite are hydrous calcium borates with very nearly the same composition as colemanite, and they may really be only impure forms of this species. They are massive white minerals, the former friable and chalk-like, and the latter firm and compact in texture. Priceite occurs near Chetco in Curry county, Oregon, where it forms layers between a bed of slate and one of tough blue steatite; embedded in the steatite are rounded masses of priceite varying in size from that of a pea to masses weighing 200 lb. Pandermite comes from Asia Minor, and is shipped from the port of Panderma on the Sea of Marmora: it occurs as large nodules, up to a ton in weight, beneath a thick bed of gypsum.

Another borate of commercial importance found abundantly in the Californian deposits is ulexite, also known as boronatrocalcite or "cotton-ball," a hydrous calcium and sodium borate, CaNaB5O9 + 8H2O, which forms rounded masses consisting of a loose aggregate of fine fibres. It is the principal species in the borate deposits in the Atacama region of South America.

COLENSO, JOHN WILLIAM , English bishop of Natal, was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on the 24th of January 1814. His family were in embarrassed circumstances, and he was indebted to relatives for the means of university education. In 1836 he was second wrangler and Smith's prizeman at Cambridge, and in 1837 he became fellow of St John's. Two years later he went to Harrow as mathematical tutor, but the step proved an unfortunate one. The school was just then at the lowest ebb, and Colenso not only had few pupils, but lost most of his property by a fire. He went back to Cambridge, and in a short time paid off heavy debts by diligent tutoring and the proceeds of his series of manuals of algebra and arithmetic , which were adopted all over England. In 1846 he became rector of Forncett St Mary, Norfolk, and in 1853 he was appointed bishop of Natal. He at once devoted himself to acquiring the Zulu language, of which he compiled a grammar and a dictionary, and into which he translated the New Testament and other portions of Scripture. He had already given evidence, in a volume of sermons dedicated to Maurice, that he was not satisfied with the traditional views about the Bible. The puzzling questions put to him by the Zulus strengthened him in this attitude and led him to make a critical examination of the Pentateuch. His conclusions, positive and negative, were published in a series of treatises on the Pentateuch, extending from 1862 to 1879, and, being in advance of his time, were naturally disputed in England with a fervour of conviction equal to his own. On the continent they attracted the notice of Abraham Kuenen, and furthered that scholar's investigations.

While the controversy raged in England, the South African bishops, whose suspicions Colenso had already incurred by the liberality of his views respecting polygamy among native converts and by a commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans , in which he combated the doctrine of eternal punishment, met in conclave to condemn him, and pronounced his deposition . Colenso, who had refused to appear before their tribunal otherwise than as sending a protest by proxy, appealed to the privy council, which pronounced that the metropolitan of Cape Town had no coercive jurisdiction and no authority to interfere with the bishop of Natal. No decision, therefore, was given upon the merits of the case. His adversaries, though unable to obtain his condemnation, succeeded in causing him to be generally inhibited from preaching in England, and Bishop Gray not only excommunicated him but consecrated a rival bishop for Natal , who, however, took his title from Maritzburg. The contributions of the missionary societies were withdrawn, but an attempt to deprive him of his episcopal income was frustrated by a decision of the courts. Colenso, encouraged by a handsome testimonial raised in England, to which many clergymen subscribed, returned to his diocese, and devoted the latter years of his life to further labours as a biblical commentator and translator. He also championed the cause of the natives against Boer oppression and official encroachments, a course by which he made more enemies among the colonists than he had ever made among the clergy. He died at Durban on the 20th of June 1883. His daughter Frances Ellen Colenso published two books on the relations of the Zulus to the British , taking a pro-Zulu view; and an elder daughter, Harriette E. Colenso , became prominent as an advocate of the natives in opposition to their treatment by Natal, especially in the case of Dinizulu in 1888-1889 and in 1908-1909.

COLENSO, a village of Natal on the right or south bank of the Tugela river, 16 m. by rail south by east of Ladysmith. It was the scene of an action fought on the 15th of December 1899 between the British forces under Sir Redvers Buller and the Boers, in which the former were repulsed.

COLEOPTERA, a term used in zoological classification for the true beetles which form one of the best-marked and most natural of the orders into which the class Hexapoda has been divided. For the relationship of the Coleoptera to other orders of insects see HEXAPODA. The name was first used by Aristotle, who noticed the firm protective sheaths, serving as coverings for the hind-wings which alone are used for flight, without recognizing their correspondence with the fore-wings of other insects.

Aristotle's term was adopted by Linnaeus , and has been universally used by zoologists. The identification of the elytra of beetles with the fore-wings of other insects has indeed been questioned by F. Meinert, who endeavoured to compare them with the tegulae of Hymenoptera, but the older view was securely established by the demonstration in pupal elytra by J. G. Needham and W. L. Tower , of nervures similar to those of the hind-wing, and by the proof that the small membranous structures present beneath the elytra of certain beetles, believed by Meinert to represent the whole of the true fore-wings, are in reality only the alulae.

The head is extended from behind forwards, so that the crown is large, while the face is small. The chin is a very characteristic sclerite in beetles, absent only in a few families, such as the weevils. There is usually a distinct labrum .

The prothorax is large and "free," i.e. readily movable on the mesothorax, an arrangement usual among insects with the power of rapid running. The tergite of the prothorax is prominent in all beetles, reaching back to the bases of the elytra and forming a substantial shield for the front part of the body. The tergal regions of the mesothorax and of the metathorax are hidden under the pronotum and the elytra when the latter are closed, except that the mesothoracic scutellum is often visible--a small triangular or semicircular plate between the bases of the elytra . The ventral region of the thoracic skeleton is complex, each segment usually possessing a median sternum with paired episterna and epimera . The articular surfaces of the haunches of the fore-legs are often conical or globular, so that each limb works in a ball-and-socket joint, while the hind haunches are large, displacing the ventral sclerites of the first two abdominal segments . The legs themselves are of the usual insectan type, but in many families one, two, or even three of the five foot-segments may be reduced or absent. In beetles of aquatic habit the intermediate and hind legs are modified as swimming-organs , while in many beetles that burrow into the earth or climb about on trees the fore-legs are broadened and strengthened for digging, or lengthened and modified for clinging to branches. The hard fore-wings are strengthened with marginal ridges, usually inflected ventrally to form epipleura which fit accurately along the edges of the abdomen. The upper surface of the elytron is sharply folded inwards at intervals, so as to give rise to a regular series of external longitudinal furrows and to form a set of supports between the two chitinous layers forming the elytron. The upper surface often shows a number of impressed dots . Along the sutural border of the elytron, the chitinous lamella forms a tubular space within which are numerous glands. The glands occur in groups, and lead into common ducts which open in several series along the suture. Sometimes the glands are found beneath the disk of the elytron, opening by pores on the surface. The hind-wings, when developed, are characteristic in form, possessing a sub-costal nervure with which the reduced radial nervure usually becomes associated. There are several curved median and cubital nervures and a single anal, but few cross nervures or areolets. The wing, when not in use, is folded both lengthwise and transversely, and doubled up beneath the elytron; to permit the transverse folding, the longitudinal nervures are interrupted.

Ten segments can be recognized--according to the studies of K. W. Verhoeff --in a beetle's abdomen, but the tenth sternite is usually absent. On account of the great extension of the metathorax and the haunches of the large hind-legs, the first abdominal sternite is wanting, and the second is usually so much reduced that the foremost apparent ventral sclerite of the abdomen represents the third sternite. From this point backwards the successive abdominal segments, as far as the seventh or eighth, can be readily made out. The ninth and tenth segments are at most times retracted within the eighth. The female can protrude a long flexible tube in connexion with the eighth segment, carrying the sclerites of the ninth at its extremity, and these sclerites may carry short hairy processes--the stylets. This flexible tube is the functional ovipositor, the typical insectan ovipositor with its three pairs of processes being undeveloped among the Coleoptera. In male beetles, however, the two pairs of genital processes belonging to the ninth abdominal segment are always present, though sometimes reduced. Between them is situated, sometimes asymmetrically, the prominent intromittent organ.

In the structure of the digestive system, beetles resemble most other mandibulate insects, the food-canal consisting of gullet, crop, gizzard, mid-gut or stomach, intestine and rectum. The stomach is beset throughout its length with numerous small, finger-like caecal tubes. The excretory tubes are few in number, either four or six. Many beetles have, in connexion with the anus, glands which secrete a repellent acid fluid, serving as a defence for the insect when attacked. The "bombardier" ground beetles have this habit. Oil-beetles and ladybirds defend themselves by ejecting drops of fluid from the knee-joints. The nervous system is remarkably concentrated in some beetles, the abdominal ganglia showing a tendency to become shifted forward and crowded together, and in certain chafers all the thoracic and abdominal ganglia are fused into a single nerve-centre situated in the thorax,--a degree of specialization only matched in the insectan class among the Hemiptera and some muscid flies.

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