Books › The New twentieth century cyclopaedia and dictionary; biography, history, art, science; dictionary and gazetteer of the world, 1903 › scan 87
Scan 87
The New twentieth century cyclopaedia and dictionary; biography, history, art, science; dictionary and gazetteer of the world, 1903
22 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 75. See the scan on archive.org.
1BOW — BOW INSTRUMENTS.
3the bow. Merchants were obliged to import a certain proportion of bow-staves with every cargo; town-councils had to provide public shooting butts near the town. Of the power of the bow, and the distance to which it will carry, some remarkable anecdotes are related. Thus Stuart (Athenian Antiquities i.) mentions a random shot of a Turk, which he found to be 584 yards. In the journal of King Edward VI. it is mentioned that 100 archers of the king's guard shot at a 1-inch board, and that some of the arrows passed through this and into another board behind it, although the wood was extremely solid and firm. See Archery.
5Bow, in music, is the name of that well-known implement by means of which the tone is produced from violins, and other instruments of that kind. It is made of a thin staff of elastic wood, tapering slightly till it reaches the lower end, to which the hairs (about 80 or 100 horse-hairs) are fastened, and with which the bow is strung. At the upper end is an ornamental piece of wood or ivory called the nut, and fastened with a screw, which serves to regulate the tension of the hairs.
7Bow Bells, the peal of bells belonging to the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London, and celebrated for centuries. One who is born 'within the sound of Bow Bells' is considered a genuine Cockney.
9Bowdich (bou'dich), THOMAS EDWARD, African traveller, born in 1790. In 1816 he led an embassy to the King of Ashantee, and afterwards published an account of his mission (1819). Having undertaken a second African expedition, he arrived in the river Gambia, where disease put an end to his life, 1824.
11Bowdoin (bo'dn), JAMES, an American worthy, born 1727, at Boston, New England; died 1790. He distinguished himself as an opponent of the unfortunate policy of Britain; in 1785 was appointed governor of Massachusetts, and he was a member of the convention assembled to deliberate on the adoption of the constitution of the United States. He was a friend and correspondent of Franklin.—Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, was named after him. It is a flourishing institution, which has had among its students Longfellow and Hawthorne.
13Bower (bou'ér), an anchor: so named from being carried at the bow of a ship. See Anchor.
15Bower, ARCHIBALD, a Scottish writer, born in 1686, of Catholic parents. He was employed by the booksellers in conducting the Historia Literaria, a monthly review of books, and in writing a part of the Universal History, in sixty vols. 8vo. He also published a History of the Popes, characterized by the utmost zeal against Popery. He died a Protestant in 1766.
17Bower-bird, a name given to certain Australian birds of the starling family from a remarkable habit they have of building bowers to serve as places of resort. The bowers are constructed on the ground, and usually under overhanging branches in the most retired parts of the forest. They are decorated with variegated feathers, shells, small pebbles, bones, &c. At each end there is an entrance left open. These bowers do not serve as nests at all, but seem to be places of amusement and resort, especially during the breeding season.—The Satin Bower-bird (Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus), is so called from its beautiful glossy plumage, which is of a black colour. Another common species is the Spotted Bower-bird (Chlamydera maculata), which is about 11 inches long, or rather smaller than the first-mentioned, and less gay in colour, but is the most lavish of all in decorating its bowers.
19Bowie-knife, a long kind of knife like a dagger, but with only one edge, named after Colonel James Bowie, and used in America by hunters and others.
21Bow Instruments are all the instruments strung with cat-gut from which the tones are produced by means of the bow. The most usual are the double-bass (violono or contrabasso), the small bass, or violoncello, the tenor (viola di braccio), and the violin proper (violino). In reference to their construction the several parts are alike; the difference is in the size. See Violin.
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