Algebra is a kind of generalized arithmetic, in which numbers or quantities and operations, often also the results of operations, are represented by symbols. Algebra is an invaluable instrument in intricate calculations of all kinds, and enables operations to be performed and results obtained that by arithmetic would be impossible, and its scope is still being extended.
The beginnings of algebraic method are to be found in Diophantus, a Greek of the fourth century of our era, but it was the Arabians that introduced algebra to Europe and from them it received its name. The first Arabian treatise on algebra was published in the reign of the great Kaliph Al Mamun (813-833) by Mohammed Ben Musa. In 1202 Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, who had travelled and studied in the East, published a work treating of algebra as then understood in the Arabian school. From this time to the discovery of printing considerable attention was given to algebra, and the work of Ben Musa and another Arabian treatise, called the Rule of Algebra, were translated into Italian.
The first printed work treating on algebra (also on arithmetic, etc) appeared at Venice in 1494, the author being a monk called Luca Pacioli da Bergo. Rapid progress now began to be made, and among the names of those to whom advances are to be attributed are Tarfcaglia and Cardan. About the middle of the sixteenth century the German Stifel introduced the plus, minus and square root symbols, and Recorde the equals sign. Recorde wrote the first English work on algebra. Francois Vieta, a French mathematician (1540-1603), first adopted the method which has led to so great an extension of modern algebra, by being the first who used general symbols for known quantities as well as for unknown. It was he also who first made the application of algebra to geometry.
Albert Girard extended the theory of equations by the supposition of imaginary quantities. The Englishman Harriot, early in the seventeenth century, discovered negative roots, and established the equality between the number of roots and the units in the degree of the equation. He also invented the less than and greater than signs, and Oughthred that of the x multiplication symbol. Descartes, though not the first to apply algebra to geometry, has, by the extent and importance of his applications, commonly acquired the credit of being so. The same discoveries have also been attributed to him as to Harriot, and their respective claims have caused much controversy. He obtained by means of algebra the definition and description of curves. Since his time algebra has been applied so widely in geometry and higher mathematics that we need only mention the names of Fermat, Wallis, Newton, Leibnitz, De Moivre, MacLaurin, Taylor, Euler, D'Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace, Fourier, Poisson, Gauss, Horner, De Morgan, Sylvester, Cayley. Boole, Jevons, and others have applied the algebraic method not only to formal logic but to political economy. Research Algebra More information about Algebra
Berne Union is the informal name for the International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers, an association of credit insurers from the main industrial countries, except Japan. Its main function is to facilitate an exchange of information, especially over credit terms. The Export Credits Guarantee Department of the UK government is a member. Research Berne Union
The Compagnie des Indes, or Company of the Indies, was a corporation organized in Paris by John Law in 1719, by combination of the Guinea)Company, the Company of the West, the East India Company and the China Company. It was the basis of his great credit operations, in connection with his bank, and of the Mississippi Bubble, but is of importance in American history because it for several years owned the state of Louisiana. Research Compagnie des Indes
The Confederate States was a government formed in 1861, in North America, by seceding States. The second State to secede, Mississippi, at the time of secession, January 9, 1861, proposed a convention to form a Southern Confederacy. This provisional Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, with delegates present from six of the seven States - which had then seceded. It voted by States. On February 8, it adopted a provisional Constitution, and the next day choseJefferson Davis, of Mississippi, provisional President and Alexander H Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President.
The permanent Constitution was adopted on March 11. It set forth the doctrines of State sovereignty and recognized slavery, though it forbade the slave trade. It forbade protective tariffs and Federal expenditures for internal improvements. Congress was forbidden to emit bills of credit. It could permit members of the Cabinet to speak before it. The President was empowered to veto single items in appropriation bills. His term was to be six years, and he was not to be re-elected. All the seceding States ratified the Constitution through conventions. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded, and were admitted into the Confederacy. The seat of government was removed to Richmond, and Davis and Stephens were chosen again under the permanent Constitution. They were inaugurated as such on February 22, 1862.
During most of the existence of the Confederate Government, Judah P Benjamin was Secretary of State, Charles G Memminger Secretary of the Treasury, James A Seddon Secretary of War, Stephen R Mallory of the Navy and John H Reagan Postmaster-General. In this government Congress was of little account. Everything was subordinated to the energetic prosecution of the war, for which the President assumed almost dictatorial powers. Extraordinary efforts were made.
Money was obtained by means of the issue of Treasury notes, by cotton loans and by requisitions. Supplies were obtained by any means possible. Troops were obtained, finally, by conscription. The Government, though given belligerent rights by most maritime nations, could not secure any recognition of its independence. As the armies began to be more and more completely destroyed, dissensions broke out. Violent criticism of Davis prevailed. Finally, the surrender of Lee brought the Confederate Government to an end. The Federal Government of the USA never recognized its existence. Research Confederate States
Gaming, or gambling is the practice of indulging in games involving some element of chance or hazard with a view to pecuniary gain.
In many countries such games, and the collateral practices of betting on events, taking shares in lotteries, etc, are legally prohibited or restricted as frequently associated with fraud and as themselves demoralizing. At other times governments, tempted by the prospect of gain, have openly encouraged gambling by licensing gaming- houses, or instituting lotteries under their own authority. In France public gaming-tables were suppressed from the 1st of January, 1838, but lotteries were still sometimes carried on.
Previous to the formation of the German Empire gambling was encouraged in both of the ways referred to in several of the principalities of Germany. Baden-Baden, in the Grand-duchy of Baden, and Homburg, in Hesse-Homburg, were the two most famous resorts in Europe of the frequenters of gaming-tables. After the formation of the empire gaming was suppressed in these places on the 31st of December, 1872, and after that time the Italian principality of Monaco became the last public resort of this species of gambling, quickly developing into a world famous gaming center even after a relaxation of gaming rules in other European countries during the 20th century.
In Great Britain gaming has been the subject of numerous enactments. Henry VIII made proclamation against certain games, including dice, cards, and bowls, and prohibited the keeping of any common house for unlawful games under penalties of 40 shillings per day for keeping the house, and 6s. 8d per time for playing in it.
By an act of Charles II in 1663 any person fraudulently winning money by gaming was to forfeit treble the amount, and any person losing more than 100 pounds at cards, etc, on credit at one sitting was not bound to pay, and the winner forfeited treble the amount.
Under Anne all notes, bills, bonds, etc, given for money won by gaming were decreed void, and any person paying a loss of more than 10 pounds might recover it within three months as a common debt; or if the loser did not sue, any other person might do so. In the reign of William IV such notes were declared void between the parties, but not in the hands of purchasers or endorsers.
By acts of George II keepers of public-houses were punishable for permitting gaming, and the games of faro, hazard, roulette, and all other games with dice, except backgammon, are prohibited under penalties. This law, with amendments is still in force in 2009 with cribbage, dominoes and other games of pure skill allowed to be played in public-houses for moderate stakes.
An act of 1845, while repealing some of the previous acts and exempting games of mere skill, including billiards and dominoes, inflicted the penalty of 100 pounds (afterwards increased to a maximum of 500 pounds) on any person keeping a gaming-house, with the alternative of six months' imprisonment. Cards and other games could of course be played in private houses, but not in gaming-houses, or in such a way as to constitute a nuisance. Persons playing or gaming in public places could be punished as rogues and vagabonds. Penalties were inflicted for keeping billiard
or bagatelle tables without a license. Lotteries and raffles were illegal (but art union lotteries were excepted). Persons fraudulently winning money by gaming were deemed guilty of obtaining it by false pretences. No suit-at-law could be brought against a loser for money won at play or to recover money so lost, or to recover a deposit from a stakeholder; but this did not apply to prizes at any lawful sport. Later acts provide that betting-houses should be considered gaming-houses. Any person found in a gaming-house who gave a false name or address was liable to a fine of fifty pounds. Research Gaming
Hard selling is aggressive advertising or salesmanship. In sales, a typical hard sell technique, as utilised by among other companies Kirbyvacuum cleaners, Zenith windows and doors, and Craftmatic adjustable beds, is to exhaust a potential customer into agreeing to buy. A standard soft sale might involve simply asking the potential customer if they should like to purchase a product. In a hard sell, often a potential customer will be presented with an arduous demonstration and talk, perhaps lasting for as much as three hours at the end of which the customer is so exhausted by the experience they can no longer rationalise and will sign almost anything to end their ordeal. During a hard sell presentation, if the potential customer tries to terminate the presentation is usual for the salesman to employ guilt as a weapon, asking the customer if he or she might telephone his boss to explain why he has failed to make the sale, often then passing the telephone to the potential to receive more sales pitch from the 'manager'. Hard sells are employed in the second-hand car industry to sell worthless warranties and expensive credit agreements. Customers are deliberately kept waiting for hours while 'the paperwork is arranged' and then hurriedly asked to sign various agreements, the exhausted customer by then is too tired and fed up to carefully check what they are signing. Research Hard Sell
Originally, a hospital was any building appropriated for the reception of any class of persons who were unable to supply their own wants, and were more or less dependent upon public help to have those wants supplied. Hence hospitals were of various kinds, according to the nature of the wants they supplied and the class of persons for whom they are intended. A large number of hospitals were medical; others were for the reception of incurables; others for the aged and infirm; others for the education of children of people in reduced circumstances; others for the reception of the wounded in battle; and so on.
The first establishments of this nature are believed to belong to the 4th century AD. Their primary object was to afford a shelter to strangers and travellers, and it was only occasionally that the sick and infirm were admitted. One of the earliest hospitals of which we have any satisfactory information was that established by the emperor Valens at Caesarea about the end of the 4th century, and which was conducted on a very large scale.
The Arabs in Spain, at an early period of their occupation of that country, founded a magnificent hospital at Cordova, where physicians were trained, who did a vast deal to advance the study of medicine. The Arabs have also the dubious credit of having founded the first mental hospital (then known as a lunatic asylum) in Europe, which was erected in the city of Granada. The majority of hospitals everywhere are medical, often called infirmaries. These may be divided into general and special hospitals, the former class admitting cases of all kinds; the latter class admitting only patients suffering from some special trouble. Thus there were formerly lying-in hospitals, cancer, consumption, ophthalmic, lock (for venereal diseases), fever, and small-pox hospitals. There are also hospitals for children, and for persons suffering from incurable diseases. Such institutions formerly served a double purpose, inasmuch as they not only afford the best medical advice and treatment to the poor, who otherwise were unable to obtain it prior to the formation of the national health service, but also supplied the best means of giving instruction in medicine and surgery, as in them students had the opportunity of witnessing cases of nearly every variety of disease, and observing how they it was treated by the physicians and surgeons. For this reason a good infirmary or medical hospital was considered an indispensable adjunct to every school of medicine and surgery. Research Hospital
The Northwest Territory, consisting of the area west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi, came under the control of the Continental Congress by reason of the cessions made by Virginia in 1784, New York in 1782, Massachusetts in 1785 and Connecticut in 1786. In 1784 Jefferson brought forward an ordinance for the government of this territory. Its leading features were that it provided for its erection into States, and their entrance into the Union on equal terms with the rest. A clause which would have prohibited slavery after 1800 was voted down.
In 1787 a new ordinance was framed upon this and passed on September the 13th. The credit of its final form, including the forbidding of slavery, has been attributed to Nathan Dane member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts, and, to Dr. Manasseh Cutler, of the same State, agent of the Ohio Company. The ordinance provided that no land was to be taken up until it had been purchased from the Indians and offered for sale by the United States; no property qualification was required of electors or elected; a temporary government, consisting of an appointed governor and law-making judges might be established until the adult male population of the territory increased to 5000; then a permanent and representative government would be permitted, with the right of sending a representative to Congress, who should debate, but not vote. When the number of inhabitants in any of the five divisions of the territory equalled 60,000, it should be admitted as a new State; the new States should remain forever a part of the United States; should bear the same relation to the Government as the original States; should pay their apportionment of the Federal debts; should in their governments uphold republican forms, and slavery should exist in none of them. It also provided for equal division of the property of intestates, and for the surrender of fugitive slaves from the States.
The Northwest Territory, consisting of the area west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi, came under the control of the Continental Congress by reason of the cessions made by Virginia in 1784, New York in 1782, Massachusetts in 1785 and Connecticut in 1786. In 1784 Jefferson brought forward an ordinance for the government of this territory. Its leading features were that it provided for its erection into States, and their entrance into the Union on equal terms with the rest. A clause which would have prohibited slavery after 1800 was voted down.
In 1787 a new ordinance was framed upon this and passed on September the 13th. The credit of its final form, including the forbidding of slavery, has been attributed to Nathan Dane member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts, and, to Dr. Manasseh Cutler, of the same State, agent of the Ohio Company. The ordinance provided that no land was to be taken up until it had been purchased from the Indians and offered for sale by the United States; no property qualification was required of electors or elected; a temporary government, consisting of an appointed governor and law-making judges might be established until the adult male population of the territory increased to 5000; then a permanent and representative government would be permitted, with the right of sending a representative to Congress, who should debate, but not vote. When the number of inhabitants in any of the five divisions of the territory equalled 60,000, it should be admitted as a new State; the new States should remain forever a part of the United States; should bear the same relation to the Government as the original States; should pay their apportionment of the Federal debts; should in their governments uphold republican forms, and slavery should exist in none of them. It also provided for equal division of the property of intestates, and for the surrender of fugitive slaves from the States.
The outbreak of the American Civil War and the feeling of necessity of a better connection with the Pacific coast, induced the American Government to make large grants in favour of the Central Pacific, Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific Railroads, by an act of July the 1st, 1862. Later, 47,000,000 acres were granted to the Northern Pacific. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific were completed in 1869. The construction and finance of the Union Pacific were managed by the Credit Mobilier and involved in legislative scandals. In 1878 the office of Commissioner of Railroads was instituted, to supervise the accounts of the Pacific railways. Research Pacific Railroads
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