Catgut is a cord made from the intestines of sheep, and sometimes from those of the horse, ass, and mule, but not from those of cats. The manufacture is chiefly carried on in Italy and France by a tedious process. Catgut for stringed instruments, as violins and harps, is made principally in Milan and Naples, the latter having a high reputation for treble strings. Research Catgut
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
The hoopoe (Upupa) is a bird about 30cm long with a fine crest of pale cinnamon-red feathers tipped with black. The upper surface is on the whole an ashy-brown colour while the wings are black, the coverts having white bars; the throat and breast a pale fawn colour, the abdomen white, with black streaks and dashes. It is a ground feeder eating mainly insects. It nests in cavities of trees or walls, and its eggs vary from four to seven. The hoopoe utters a loud double or treble hoop, whence its name. Research Hoopoe
The Manchester Treble-bar (Carsia soroiata) is a moth of the family Geometridae with a wing span of between 20 and 23 mm found mainly in scattered peat-bog localities in central Europe flying from June to August. Research Manchester Treble-Bar
The Treble-bar (Aplocera plagiata) is a moth of the family Geometridae with a wing span of between 27 and 40 mm found throughout the Palaearctic flying from May to October. Research Treble-Bar
The Battle of Trafalgar took place on October 21st 1805, and was a victory for the British fleet under Horatio Nelson over the French and Spanish fleets under Villeneuve. The battle took place off Cape Trafalgar in south-west Spain. The British fleet consisted of 27 sail-of-the-line ships and the enemy fleet 33.
The enemy was sighted in the early morning, steering due north in a confused line ahead formation, and Horatio Nelson in accordance with arrangements previously made with his officers, divided his force into two columns which he proposed to drive at different points through the enemy's line. This manoeuvre was foreseen by Villeneuve, but conducted successfully none-the-less. Collingwood, leading the lee (or starboard) line of 15 ships in the Royal Sovereign, broke through ahead of the 15th ship from the enemy's rear, while Horatio Nelson, leading the weather-line in the Victory, made a second breech immediately astern of the Bucentaure, the Franco-Spanish flagship, after feinting as if to engage the Van.
The victory had made the signal to prepare for battle at 0622 but it was noon before the first shot was fired. The Bucentaure opened on the Victory at a range of 2 km, but no answer was returned until the latter was passing under and within ten meters of the French ship's stern, when every gun on the broadside double or treble shotted was discharged as it came to bear. In this single broadside 400 of the enemy were killed or wounded. By 1330 the action was at its height, scattered groups of ships being freely engaged down the whole length of the line and it was during this period that Horatio Nelson was shot and mortally wounded from a musket fired from atop of the Redoutable, though he lived long enough to know the day was won. By 1500 the issue was decided and the French and Spanish ships that were in a condition to do so were endeavouring to escape. Two hours later the fighting ceased altogether.
Fifteen of the enemy ships were taken or destroyed, and of the 18 that escaped two were wrecked on the 24th and four captured on November the 3rd by Strachan. No British ship was lost, but 449 British personnel were killed and 1242 wounded. The battle's victory destroyed the French and Spanish fleets and secured Britain from invasion. Research Battle of Trafalgar
A block is a mechanical contrivance consisting of one or more grooved pulleys mounted in a casing or shell which is furnished with a hook, eye, or strap by which it may be attached to an object, the function of the apparatus being to transmit power or change the direction of motion by means of a rope or chain passing round the movable pulleys. Blocks are single, double, treble, or fourfold, according as the number of sheaves or pulleys is one, two, three, or four. A running block is attached to the object to be raised or moved; a standing block is fixed to some permanent support. Blocks also receive different denominations from their shape, purpose, and mode of application. They are sometimes made of iron as well as of wood. Blocks to which the name of dead-eyes has been given, are not pulleys, being unprovided with sheaves.
Dissidents Sample Wrench is an audio sample editor for the IBMPC running the Windows operating system. It supports all Windows sound-cards and a variety of MIDI-based keyboard and rack-mount samplers. Sample Wrench enables you to edit mono or stereo sounds with 24 bit better than CD quality and fidelity. Numerous special effects and processes are provided including reverb, flange, chorus, echo, amplitudemodulation, frequency modulation, rectify, arbitrary transfer functions, invert, reverse, hand-drawn amplitude envelopes, pitch shift, time stretch, amplitude compressor/limiter/ expander, bass and trebleEQ, filters, parametric EQ, spectral warp, resynthesis, FFTanalysis, sample rate transposition, cross multiply, integrate, differentiate, dedicated looping tools, noise gate, grunge, noise reduction, click and pop removal for digitally remastering old vinyl records, impulse (acoustical) modeling, convolution and harmony. Research Sample Wrench More information about Sample Wrench
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