Anti-Semitism, hostility to the Jews (Semites), has long been actively exhibited in severities and attacks of various kinds. A movement of the late 19th century manifested in various countries, especially Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Romania, and France. It may have been attributed to different motives in different countries, but on the whole owed its origin less to the fact of the Jews being a 'peculiar people' by race and religion, than to the comparatively high position won by them in the financial and political worlds.
In Western Russia there was a great outburst against the Jews in 1881, in which men, women, and children were slaughtered. The Russian government, by its anti-Jewish policy, may be said to have sanctioned this murderous outbreak, which was followed by harsh laws and actual persecutions, though afterwards there was a mitigation of the severity shown towards the Jews. Yet in 1903 the world was startled by a terrible massacre of Jews at Kishinef, in Bessarabia, connived at by the authorities on the spot; and towards the end of 1905, in connection with the Russian revolutionary movement, there were dreadful massacres of Jews in Odessa, Kishinef, and other towns, the authorities being similarly involved. In Russia, hatred of the Jews was party due to the position they occupied throughout the country as money-lenders.
In Rumania their position resembled what it was elsewhere in mediaeval times, and was less favourable than it was even under the Turks. In Germany, even before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party the movement was worked chiefly by politicians for their own ends, though the racial and religious question also had some influence; and among the ignorant the .belief that the Jews murder Christian children for ritual purposes was revived, as also in Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary the movement was partly political, partly social and economic, partly religious.
In France anti-Semitism was employed chiefly as a weapon by monarchists and clericals as against republicanism, and by the socialists as against capitalism, racial antipathy having also its influence in the movements. In Britain, anti-Semitism was much less severe, owing to there having been a very large influx of Jews from the Continent, forming part of Britian's immigration policy.
Anti-Semitism hit a climax in the 1930's with Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party with the wholesale slaughter of Jews throughout Europe, which provided an excuse for other world powers to oppose Germany's expansion through war - though economic reasons seem much more likely - and culminated in the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, subsequently named Israel, following the end of the Second World War. Research Anti-Semitism
A chronometer was any instrument that measures time, as a clock, watch, or dial; but, specifically, this term is applied to those time-keepers which were used for determining the longitude at sea, or for any other purpose where an accurate measure of time was required, with great portability in the instrument. The chronometer differed from the ordinary watch in the principle of its escapement, which was so constructed that the balance was free from the wheels during the greater part of its vibration, and also in being fitted with a compensation adjustment, calculated to prevent the expansion and contraction of the metal by the action of heat and cold from affecting its movements. Marine chronometers generally beat half-seconds, and were hung in gimbals in boxes 6 or 8 inches square. The pocket chronometer did not differ in appearance from a watch except that it was somewhat larger. Research Chronometer
A clock is an instrument for measuring time and indicating hours, minutes, and usually seconds, by means of hands moving on a dial-plate, and traditionally differing from a watch mainly in having the movement of its machinery regulated by a pendulum, and in not being portable. A clock also chimes, though the term clock is frequently, and incorrectly, applied to the non-chiming instruments for measuring time, which are technically known as a timepiece.
The use of a horologium, or hour-teller, was common even amongst the ancients, but their time-pieces were nothing else than sun-dials, hour-glasses, and clepsydrae. In the earlier half of our era we have accounts of several attempts at clock construction : that of Boethius in the 6th century, the clock sent by Harun al Rashid to Charlemagne in 809, that made by Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, in the 9th century, and that of PopeSylvester II in the 10th century. It is doubtful, however, if any of these was a wheel-and-weight clock, and it is probably to the monks that we owe the invention of clocks set in motion by wheels and weights. In the 12th century clocks were made use of in the monasteries, which announced the end of every hour by the sound of a bell put in motion by means of wheels. From this time forward the expression, 'the clock has struck,' is often met with. The hand for marking the time is also made mention of.
In the 14th century there are stronger traces of the later system of clock-work. Dante particularly mentions clocks. Richard, abbot of St Albans in England, made a clock in 1326, such as had never been heard of until then. It not only indicated the course of the sun and moon, but also the ebb and flood tide. Large clocks on steeples likewise were first made use of in the 14th century. Watches are a much later invention, although they have likewise been said to have been invented as early as the 14th century. A celebrated clock, the construction of which is well known, was set up in Paris for Charles V in 1379, the maker being Henry de Vick, a German. It probably formed a model on which clocks were constructed for nearly 300 years, and until Huyghens applied the pendulum to clock-work as the regulating power, about 1657. The great advantage of the pendulum prior to the invention of electronic oscillators is that the beats or oscillations of a pendulum all occupy substantially the same time (the time depending on its length), hence its utility in imparting regularity to a time-measurer. The mechanism by which comparative regularity was previously attained, though ingenious and simple, was far less perfect; and the first pendulum escapement that is, the contrivance by which the pendulum was connected with the clock-work, was also less perfect than others subsequently introduced, especially Graham's dead-heat escapement, invented in 1700.
In a watch, prior to the invention of electronics, the balance-wheel and spring served the same purpose as the pendulum, and the honour of being the inventor of the balance-spring was contested between Huyghens and the English pliilosopher Dr. Hooke. Various improvements followed, such as the chronometerescapement, and the addition of a compensation adjustment, by which two metals having unequal rates of expansion and contraction under variations of temperature are combined in the pendulum or the balance-wheel, so that, each metal counteracting the other, the vibrations are isochronous under any change of temperature. This arrangement was perfected by Harrison in 1726, and was especially useful in navigation. Research Clock
Corn Laws are various enactments designed to ensure an adequate supply of cereal foods to a country, usually by protection allotted to its own farmers.
In Britain the name was commonly given to certain statutes passed to protect the agricultural interest in Britain. The first form of interference by legislative enactment with the corn-trade in England, beginning soon after the Conquest, was the prohibition of exportation, an expedient in those times to prevent scarcity in a sudden emergency. The exportation of grain was prohibited in the reign of Edward III in 1360-61, Calais and other appointed ports being excepted. This provision was relaxed by a statute of Richard II in 1394, by which exportation was permitted from all ports not excepted by royal proclamation.
In 1436, under Henry VI, the exportation of grain was permitted without license whenever the price of wheat did not exceed 6s. 8d per quarter, and barley 3s. 4d. In 1463 a statute of Edward IV prohibited importation until the price exceeded the limit at which exportation was permitted. This was the beginning of protection, properly so called.
At the restoration of Charles II duties were imposed both on exportation and importation, while the old principle of a standard price, beyond which exportation was prohibited, was retained. At the Revolution a new policy still more favourable to the agricultural interest was adopted. By act 1 William and Mary, cap xii., a bounty was granted on the exportation of corn, and the duties on exportation were abolished. The amount of the bounty was 5s. for every quarter of wheat exported while the price was at or under 48s, with corresponding prices for other grains.
The exportation of grain reached its highest point about 1750. From this period the country, which had always been normally a grain-exporting country, began, on account of the increase of population and expansion of mechanical industries, to fall off in this respect, and in 1778 became permanently a grain-importing country. From this time the main efforts of the agricultural interest, largely represented in the parliament and the ruling classes of the kingdom, were concentrated on obtaining the imposition of prohibitory duties on foreign grain. In 1804, for instance, if the price of corn was below 63s. a prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. was laid on what was imported; if between 63s and 66s, a duty of 2s. 6d; and only when the price at home had risen as high as 66s per quarter was the foreign grain allowed to pass at a nominal duty of 6d. With variations of more or less importance this sliding-scale of prohibitory duties continued in force until 1846, when Sir Robert Peel, influenced by the corn-law repeal agitation, and more especially by the Anti-Corn-law League, headed by Cobden and Bright, carried a measure repealing the duty on imported corn, except a nominal sum of 1s per quarter, which also in 1869 was done away with, but was temporarily re-imposed in 1902-1903. Research Corn Laws
Diffusionism is the theory that human culture was spread by degrees by outward expansion from a single source, as opposed to the view that cultures are developed independently and are only diffused when a particular people develops a more or less permanent type of culture which is well in advance of that of neighbouring peoples and becomes impressed upon the latter. Research Diffusionism
An Empire is a large state or federation of states extending over a wide geographical area ruled by a single person - an emperor or empress. Empires are usually developed by the absorption of other peoples and countries. Empires are nearly always built up by the virile conquering and colonising expansion of a single State, but subsequently the individual provinces gradually attain independence. Research Empire
National Socialism was the doctrines and practices of the Nazis, involving the supremacy of Hitler as Fuhrer, anti-Semitism, state control of the economy, and national expansion. Research National Socialism
A nursery school or kindergarten is an educational establishment for children aged three to five. The first was established in Germany in 1836 by Friedrich Froebel. Provision of nursery education varies widely between countries. In the UK, fewer than half of three and four-year olds have nursery education. In France, all children attend a state-run ecole maternelle from the age of three. In Japan, education is compulsory only from the age of six, but 90% of children attend a private nursery school from the age of three. The first kindergarten in Britain was opened by a German exile, Johannes Ronge, in Hampstead, London, in 1851, based on the philosophy of Froebel. Nursery education was extended in 1911 to working- class children by MargaretMcMillan and her sister Rachel, who worked in London's docklands. The Education Act of 1944 did not make nursery school compulsory. Increasing parental pressure from the 1960s led to a slow expansion, although at the end of the 1980s the UK still lagged behind most European countries in the provision of nursery-school places. Although 45% of three-and four-year-olds were in education in 1992, only half of these were in genuine nursery classes or schools; the rest were in primary classes. Research Nursery School
The frilled lizard (Chlamydosaurus Kenti) is a reptile of the lizard family Agamidae found in Australia. It grows to about 90 centimetres in length and receives its name from the presence of a large expansion of the skin at either side of the neck, the two halves meeting at the throat. This frill is notched at the edge. has special supporting cartilages, and by means of muscles can be folded or expanded at will. The lizard walks on its hind limbs, having the fore limbs hanging down. Research Frilled Lizard
Nepenthes is a genus of tropical shrubs and sub-shrubs, bearing small greenish flowers and alternate leaves, the petiole winged at the base, the midrib prolonged at the top and curved or spirally twisted, terminating in a second foliaceous expansion, which is hollowed like an urn, to the opening of which is fitted a sort of lid, attached as by a hinge. They are one of the pitcher plantgenus. Research Nepenthes
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Anti-Semitism
