Chapter VIII: JACQUES BERNOULLI (1759-1789), younger brother of the preceding, (3)

Many localities in the United States yield beryl, sometimes sufficiently fine to be cut as a gem. It is found, for example, at Hiddenite and elsewhere in Alexander county, N.C.; at Haddam and Monroe, Conn.; at Stoneham and at Albany, in Oxford county, Maine; at Royalston, Mass.; and at Mt. Antero, Colorado, where it occurs with phenacite. Beryl of beautiful pink colour occurs in San Diego county, California. Coarse beryl, much rifted, is found in crystals of very large size at Grafton and Acworth, N.H.; a crystal from Grafton weighing more than 2-1/2 tons. A colourless beryl from Goshen, Mass., has been called Goshenite; whilst crystals of coarse yellow beryl from Rubislaw quarry in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, have been termed Davidsonite.

Beryl suffers alteration by weathering, and may thus pass into kaolin and mica. (F. W. R.*)

BERYLLIUM, or GLUCINUM (symbol Be, atomic weight 9.1), one of the metallic chemical elements, included in the same sub-group of the periodic classification as magnesium. It was prepared in the form of its oxide in 1798 by L.N. Vauquelin (_Ann. de chimie_, 1798, xxvi. p. 155) from the mineral beryl, and though somewhat rare, is found in many minerals. It was first obtained, in an impure condition, in 1828 by A.A.B. Bussy (1794-1882) and F. Wohler by the reduction of the chloride with potassium, and in 1855 H.J. Debray prepared it, in a compact state, by reducing the volatilized chloride with melted sodium, in an atmosphere of hydrogen. L.F. Nilson and O. Pettersson (_Wied. Ann._ 1878, iv. p. 554) have also prepared the metal by heating beryllium potassium fluoride with sodium; P.M. Lebeau (_Comptes rendus_, 1895-1898, vols. 120-127) has obtained it in lustrous hexagonal crystals by electrolysing the double fluoride of beryllium and sodium or potassium with an excess of beryllium fluoride. It is a malleable metal, of specific gravity 1.64 (Nilson and Pettersson) and a specific heat of 0.4079. Its melting-point is below that of silver. In a fine state of division it takes fire on heating in air, but is permanent at ordinary temperatures in oxygen or air; it is readily attacked by hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but scarcely acted on by nitric acid. It is also soluble in solutions of the caustic alkalis, with evolution of hydrogen a behaviour similar to that shown by aluminium. It combines readily with fluorine, chlorine and bromine, and also with sulphur, selenium, phosphorus, &c.

Considerable discussion has taken place at different times as to the position which beryllium should occupy in the periodic classification of the elements, and as to whether its atomic weight should be 9.1 or 13.65, but the weight of evidence undoubtedly favours its position in Group II., with an atomic weight 9.1 (O=16) (see Nilson and Pettersson, _Berichte_, 1880, 13, p. 1451; 1884, 17, p. 987; B. Brauner, _Berichte_, 1881, 14, p. 53; T. Carnelley, _Journ. of Chem. Soc._, 1879, xxxv. p. 563; 1880, xxxvii., p. 125, and W.N. Hartley, _Journ. of Chem. Soc._, 1883, xliii. p. 316). The specific heat of beryllium has been calculated by L. Meyer (_Berichte_, 1880, 13, p. 1780) from the data of L.F. Nilson and O. Pettersson, and appears to increase rapidly with increasing temperature, the values obtained being 0.3973 at 20.2 deg. C., 0.4481 at 73.2 deg. C. and 0.5819 at 256.8 deg. C.

Beryllium compounds are almost wholly prepared from beryl. The mineral
is fused with potassium carbonate, and, on cooling, the product is
treated with sulphuric acid, the excess of which is removed by
evaporation; water is then added and the silica is filtered off. On
concentration of the solution, the major portion of the aluminium
present separates as alum, and the mother liquor remaining contains
beryllium and iron sulphates together with a little alum. This is now
treated for some days with a hot concentrated solution of ammonium
carbonate, which precipitates the iron and aluminium but keeps the
beryllium in solution. The iron and aluminium precipitates are
filtered off, and the filtrate boiled, when a basic beryllium
hydroxide containing a little ferric oxide is precipitated. To remove
the iron, the precipitate is again dissolved in ammonium carbonate and
steam is blown through the liquid, when beryllium oxide is
precipitated. This process is repeated several times, and the final
precipitate is dissolved in hydrochloric acid and precipitated by
ammonia, washed and dried. It has also been obtained by J. Gibson
(_Journ. of Chem. Soc._, 1893, lxiii. p. 909) from beryl by conversion
of the beryllium into its fluoride.

Beryllium oxide, beryllia or glucina, BeO, is a very hard white powder
which can be melted and distilled in the electric furnace, when it
condenses in the form of minute hexagonal crystals. After ignition it
dissolves with difficulty in acids. The hydroxide Be(OH)2 separates as
a white bulky precipitate on adding a solution of an alkaline
hydroxide to a soluble beryllium salt; and like those of aluminium and
zinc, this hydroxide is soluble in excess of the alkaline hydroxide,
but is reprecipitated on prolonged boiling. Beryllium chloride BeCl2,
like aluminium chloride, may be prepared by heating a mixture of the
oxide and sugar charcoal in a current of dry chlorine. It is
deliquescent, and readily soluble in water, from which it separates on
concentration in crystals of composition BeCl2.4H2O. Its vapour
density has been determined by Nilson and Pettersson, and corresponds
to the molecular formula BeCl2. The sulphate is obtained by dissolving
the oxide in sulphuric acid; if the solution be not acid, it separates
in pyramidal crystals of composition BeSO4.4H2O, while from an acid
solution of this salt, crystals of composition BeSO4.7H2O are
obtained. Double sulphates of beryllium and the alkali metals are
known, e.g. BeSO4.K2SO4.3H2O as are also many basic sulphates. The
nitrate Be(NO3)2.3H2O is prepared by adding barium nitrate to
beryllium sulphate solution; it crystallizes with difficulty and is
very deliquescent. It readily yields basic salts.

The carbide BeC2 is formed when beryllia and sugar charcoal are heated
together in the electric furnace. Like aluminium carbide it is slowly
decomposed by water with the production of methane. Several basic
carbonates are known, being formed by the addition of beryllium salts
to solutions of the alkaline carbonates; the normal carbonate is
prepared by passing a current of carbon dioxide through water
containing the basic carbonate in suspension, the solution being
filtered and concentrated over sulphuric acid in an atmosphere of
carbon dioxide. The crystals so obtained are very unstable and
decompose rapidly with evolution of carbon dioxide.

Beryllium salts are easily soluble and mostly have a sweetish taste
(hence the name Glucinum (q.v.), from [Greek: glukus], sweet); they
are readily precipitated by alkaline sulphides with formation of the
white hydroxide, and may be distinguished from salts of all other
metals by the solubility of the oxide in ammonium carbonate. Beryllium
is estimated quantitatively by precipitation with ammonia, and
ignition to oxide. Its atomic weight has been determined by L.F.
Nilson and O. Pettersson (_Berichte_, 1880, 13, p. 1451) by analysis
of the sulphate, from which they found the value 9.08, and by G. Kruss
and H. Moraht (_Berichte_, 1890, 23, p. 2556) from the conversion of
the sulphate BeSO4.4H2O into the oxide, from which they obtained the
value 9.05. C.L. Parsons (_Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc._, 1904, xxvi. p.
721) obtained the values 9.113 from analyses of beryllium
acetonyl-acetate and beryllium basic acetate.

For a bibliography see C.L. Parsons, _The Chemistry and Literature of
Beryllium_ (1909).

BERYLLONITE, a mineral phosphate of beryllium and sodium, NaBePO4, found as highly complex orthorhombic crystals and as broken fragments in the disintegrated material of a granitic vein at Stoneham, Maine, where it is associated with felspar, smoky quartz, beryl and columbite. It was discovered by Prof. E.S. Dana in 1888, and named beryllonite because it contains beryllium in large amount. The crystals vary from colourless to white or pale yellowish, and are transparent with a vitreous lustre; there is a perfect cleavage in one direction. Hardness 5-1/2-6; specific gravity 2.845. A few crystals have been cut and faceted, but, as the refractive index is no higher than that of quartz, they do not make very brilliant gem-stones.

BERZELIUS, JONS JAKOB (1779-1848), Swedish chemist, was born at Vafversunda Sorgard, near Linkoping, Sweden, on the 20th (or 29th) of August 1779. After attending the gymnasium school at Linkoping he went to Upsala University, where he studied chemistry and medicine, and graduated as M.D. in 1802. Appointed assistant professor of botany and pharmacy at Stockholm in the same year, he became full professor in 1807, and from 1815 to 1832 was professor of chemistry in the Caroline medico-chirurgical institution of that city. The Stockholm Academy of Sciences elected him a member in 1808, and in 1818 he became its perpetual secretary. The same year he was ennobled by Charles XIV., who in 1835 further made him a baron. His death occurred at Stockholm on the 7th of August 1848. During the first few years of his scientific career Berzelius was mainly engaged on questions of physiological chemistry, but about 1807 he began to devote himself to what he made the chief object of his life--the elucidation of the composition of chemical compounds through study of the law of multiple proportions and the atomic theory. Perceiving the exact determination of atomic and molecular weights to be of fundamental importance, he spent ten years in ascertaining that constant for some two thousand simple and compound bodies, and the results he published in 1818 attained a remarkable standard of accuracy, which was still further improved in a second table that appeared in 1826. He used oxygen--in his view the pivot round which the whole of chemistry revolves--as the basis of reference for the atomic weights of other substances, and the data on which he chiefly relied were the proportions of oxygen in oxygen compounds, the doctrines of isomorphism, and Gay Lussac's law of volumes. When Volta's discovery of the electric cell became known, Berzelius, with W. Hisinger (1766-1852), began experiments on the electrolysis of salt solutions, ammonia, sulphuric acid, &c., and later this work led him to his electrochemical theory, a full exposition of which he gave in his memoir on the _Theory of Chemical Proportions and the Chemical Action of Electricity_ (1814). This theory was founded on the supposition that the atoms of the elements are electrically polarized, the positive charge predominating in some and the negative in others, and from it followed his dualistic hypothesis, according to which compounds are made up of two electrically different components. At first this hypothesis was confined to inorganic chemistry, but subsequently he extended it to organic compounds, which he saw might similarly be regarded as containing a group or groups of atoms--a compound radicle--in place of simple elements. Although his conception of the nature of compound radicles did not long retain general favour--indeed he himself changed it more than once--he is entitled to rank as one of the chief founders of the radicle theory. Another service of the utmost importance which he rendered to the study of chemistry was in continuing and extending the efforts of Lavoisier and his associates to establish a convenient system of chemical nomenclature. By using the initial letters of the Latin (occasionally Greek) names of the elements as symbols for them, and adding a small numeral subscript, to show the number of atoms of each present in a compound, he introduced the present system of chemical formulation (see CHEMISTRY). Mention should also be made of the numerous improvements he effected in analytical methods and the technique of the blowpipe (_Uber die Anwendung des Lothrohrs_, 1820), of his classification of minerals on a chemical basis, and of many individual researches such as those on tellurium, selenium, silicon, thorium, titanium, zirconium and molybdenum, most of which he isolated for the first time. Apart from his original memoirs, of which he published over 250, mostly in Swedish in the _Transactions_ of the Stockholm Academy, his remarkable literary activity is attested by his _Lehrbuch der Chemie_, which went through five editions (first 1803-1818, fifth 1843-1848) and by his _Jahresbericht_ or annual report on the progress of physics and chemistry, prepared at the instance of the Stockholm Academy, of which he published 27 vols. (1821-1848).

BES, or BESAS (Egyp. _Bes_ or _Besa_), the Egyptian god of recreation, represented as a dwarf with large head, goggle eyes, protruding tongue, shaggy beard, a bushy tail seen between his bow legs hanging down behind (sometimes clearly as part of a skin girdle) and usually a large crown of feathers on his head. A Bes-like mask was found by Petrie amongst remains of the twelfth dynasty, but the earliest occurrence of the god is in the temple of the queen Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri (c. 1500 B.C.), where he is figured along with the hippopotamus goddess as present at the queen's birth. His figure is that of a grotesque mountebank, intended to inspire joy or drive away pain and sorrow, his hideousness being perhaps supposed actually to scare away the evil spirits. In his joyous aspect Bes plays the harp or flute, dances, &c. He is figured on mirrors, ointment vases and other articles of the toilet. Amulets and ornaments in the form of the figure or mask of Bes are common after the New Kingdom; he is often associated with children and with childbirth and is figured in the "birth-houses" devoted to the cult of the child-god. Perhaps the earliest known instance of his prominent appearance of large size in the sculptures of the temples is under Tahraka, at Jebel Barkal, Nubia, at the beginning of the 7th century B.C. As the protector of children and others he is the enemy of noxious beasts, such as lions, crocodiles, serpents and scorpions. Large wooden figures of Bes are generally found to contain the remains of a human foetus. In the first centuries of our era an oracle of Besas was consulted at Abydos, where A.H. Sayce has found graffiti concerning him, and prescriptions exist for consulting Besas in dreams. It has been held that Bes was of non-Egyptian origin, African, as Wiedemann, or Arabian or even Babylonian, as W. Max Muller contends; he is sometimes entitled "coming from the Divine Land" (i.e. the East or Arabia), or "Lord of Puoni" (Punt), i.e. the African coast of the Red Sea; his effigy occurs also on Greek coins of Arabia. It is remarkable also that, contrary to the usual rule, he is commonly represented in Egyptian sculptures and paintings full faced instead of in profile. But the connexion of the god with Puoni may have grown out of the fact that dwarf dancers were especially brought to Egypt from Ethiopia and Puoni.

See K. Sethe in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie, s.v._; A. Wiedemann,
_Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1897), p. 159; E.A.W.
Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. p. 284 (London); W. Max Muller,
_Asien u. Europa_ (Leipzig, 1893), p. 310. (F. Ll. G.)

BESANCON, a city of eastern France, capital of the department of Doubs, 76 m. E. of Dijon by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) town, 41,760; commune, 56,168. It is situated on the left bank of the river Doubs, 820 ft. above sea-level at the foot of the western Jura, and is enclosed by hills in every direction. The Doubs almost surrounds the city proper forming a peninsula, the neck of which is occupied by a height crowned by the citadel; on the right bank lie populous industrial suburbs. The river is bordered by fine quays, and in places by the shady promenades which are a feature of Besancon. On the right bank there is a fine bathing establishment in the Mouillere quarter, supplied by the saline springs of Miserey. The cathedral of St Jean, the chief of the numerous churches of the town, was founded in the 4th century but has often undergone reconstruction and restoration; it resembles the Rhenish churches of Germany in the possession of apses at each of its extremities. Several styles are represented in its architecture which for the most part is the work of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries; the eastern apse and the tower date from the reign of Louis XV. In the interior there are a "Madonna and Child" of Fra Bartolommeo and a number of other paintings and works of art. The archiepiscopal palace adjoining the cathedral is a building of the 18th century. The church of Ste. Madeleine belongs to the 18th and 19th centuries. The Palais de Granvelle, in the heart of the town, was built from 1534 to 1540 by Nicolas Perrenot de Granvella, chancellor of Charles V., and is the most interesting of the secular buildings. It is built round a square interior court surrounded by arcades, and is occupied by learned societies. The hotel de ville dates from the 16th century, to which period many of the old mansions of Besancon also belong. The law-court, rebuilt in recent times, preserves a Renaissance facade and a fine audience-hall of the 18th century. Some relics of old military architecture survive, among them a cylindrical tower of the 15th century near the Porte Notre-Dame, the southern gate of the city, and the Porte Rivotte, a gate of the 16th century, flanked by two round towers. The Roman remains at Besancon are of great archaeological value. Close to the cathedral there is a triumphal arch decorated with bas-reliefs known as the Porte Noire, which is generally considered to have been built in commemoration of the victories of Marcus Aurelius over the Germans in 167. It is in poor preservation and was partly rebuilt in 1820. Remains of a Roman theatre, of an amphitheatre, of an aqueduct which entered the town by the Porte Taillee, a gate cut in the rock below the citadel, and an arch of a former Roman bridge, forming part of the modern bridge, are also to be seen. Besancon has statues of Victor Hugo and of the Marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans (b. 1751), inventor of steam-navigation.

Besancon is important as the seat of an archbishopric, a court of appeal and a court of assizes, as centre of an _academie_ (educational division), as seat of a prefect and as headquarters of the VIIth army corps. It also has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, an exchange and a branch of the Bank of France. Its educational establishments include the university with its faculties of science and letters and a preparatory school of medicine and pharmacy, an artillery school, the lycee Victor Hugo for boys, a lycee for girls, an ecclesiastical seminary, training colleges for teachers, and schools of watch-making, art, music and dairy-work. The library contains over 130,000 volumes, and the city has good collections of pictures, antiquities and natural history. The chief industry of Besancon is watch- and clock-making, introduced from the district of Neuchatel at the end of the 18th century. It employs about 12,000 workpeople, and produces about three-fourths of the watches sold in France. Subsidiary industries, such as enamelling, are also important. The metallurgical works of the _Societe de la Franche-Comte_ are established in the city and there are saw-mills, printing-works, paper-factories, distilleries, and manufactories of boots and shoes, machinery, hosiery, leather, elastic fabric, confectionery and artificial silk. There is trade in agricultural produce, wine, metals, &c. The canal from the Rhone to the Rhine passes under the citadel by way of a tunnel, and the port of Besancon has considerable trade in coal, sand, &c.

As a fortress Besancon forms one of a group which includes Dijon, Langres and Belfort; these are designed to secure Franche Comte and to cover a field army operating on the left flank of a German army of invasion. The citadel occupies the neck of the peninsula upon which the town stands; along the river bank in a semicircle is the town _enceinte_, and the suburb of Battant on the right bank of the Doubs is also "regularly" fortified as a bridge-head. These works, and Forts Chaudanne and Bregille overlooking the Doubs at the bend, were constructed prior to 1870. The newer works enclose an area more suited to the needs of modern warfare: the chain of detached forts along the ridges of the left bank has a total length of 7-1/2 m., and the centre of this chain is supported by numerous forts and batteries lying between it and the citadel. On the other bank Fort Chaudanne is now the innermost of several forts facing towards the south-west, and the foremost of these works connects the fortifications of the left bank with another chain of detached forts on the right bank. The latter completely encloses a large area of ground in a semicircle of which Besancon itself is the centre, and the whole of the newer works taken together form an irregular ellipse of which the major axis, lying north-east by south-west, is formed by the Doubs.

Besancon is a place of great antiquity. Under the name of Vesontio it was, in the time of Julius Caesar, the chief town of the Sequani, and in 58 B.C. was occupied by that general. It was a rich and prosperous place under the Roman emperors, and Marcus Aurelius promoted it to the rank of a _colonia_ as _Colonia Victrix Sequanorum_. During the succeeding centuries it was several times destroyed and rebuilt. The archbishopric dates from the close of the 2nd century, and the archbishops gradually acquired considerable temporal power. As the capital of the free county of Burgundy, or Franche-Comte, it was united with the German kingdom when Frederick I. married Beatrix, daughter of Renaud III., count of Upper Burgundy. In 1184 Frederick made it a free imperial city, and about the same time the archbishop obtained the dignity of a prince of the Empire. It afterwards became detached from the German kingdom, and during the 14th century came into the possession of the dukes of Burgundy, from whom it passed to the emperor Maximilian I., and his grandson Charles V. Cardinal Granvella, who was a native of the city, became archbishop in 1584, and founded a university which existed until the French Revolution. After the abdication of Charles V. it came into the possession of Spain, although it remained formally a portion of the Empire until its cession at the peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the 17th century it was attacked several times by the French, to whom it was definitely ceded by the peace of Nijmwegen in 1678. It was then fortified by the engineer Vauban. Until 1789 it was the seat of a _parlement_. In 1814 it was invested and bombarded by the Austrians, and was an important position during the Franco-German War of 1870-71.

See A. Castan, _Besancon et ses environs_ (Besancon, 1887); A.
Guenard, _Besancon, description historique_ (Besancon, 1860).

BESANT, SIR WALTER (1836-1901), English author, was born at Portsmouth, on the 14th of August 1836, third son of William Besant of that town. He was educated at King's College, London, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he was a scholar. He graduated in 1859 as 18th wrangler, and from 1861 to 1867 was senior professor of the Royal College, Mauritius. From 1868 to 1885 he acted as secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund. In 1884 he was mainly instrumental in establishing the Society of Authors, a trade-union of writers designed for the protection of literary property, which has rendered great assistance to inexperienced authors by explaining the principles of literary profit. Of this society he was chairman from its foundation in 1884 till 1892. He married Mary, daughter of Mr Eustace Foster-Barham of Bridgwater, and was knighted in 1895. He died at Hampstead, on the 9th of June 1901. Sir Walter Besant practised many branches of literary art with success, but he is most widely known for his long succession of novels, many of which have enjoyed remarkable popularity. His first stories were written in collaboration with James Rice (q.v.). Two at least of these, _The Golden Butterfly_ (1876) and _Ready-Money Mortiboy_ (1872), are among the most vigorous and most characteristic of his works. Though not without exaggeration and eccentricity, attributable to the influence of Dickens, they are full of rich humour, shrewd observation and sound common-sense, and contain characters which have taken their place in the long gallery of British fiction. After Rice's death, Sir Walter Besant wrote alone, and in _All Sorts and Conditions of Men_ (1882) produced a stirring story of East End life in London, which set on foot the movement that culminated in the establishment of the People's Palace in the Mile End Road. Though not himself a pioneer in the effort made by Canon Barnett and others to alleviate the social evils of the East End by the personal contact of educated men and women of a superior social class, his books rendered immense service to the movement by popularizing it. His sympathy with the poor was shown in another attempt to stir public opinion, this time against the evils of the sweating system, in _The Children of Gibeon_ (1886).

Other popular novels by him were _Dorothy Forster_ (1884), _Armorel of Lyonesse_ (1890), and _Beyond the Dreams of Avarice_ (1895). He also wrote critical and biographical works, including _The French Humorists_ (1873), _Rabelais_ (1879), and lives of Coligny, Whittington, Captain Cook and Richard Jefferies. Besant undertook a series of important historical and archaeological volumes, dealing with the associations and development of the various districts of London--of which the most important was _A Survey of London_, unfortunately left unfinished, which was intended to do for modern London what Stow did for the Elizabethan city. Other books on _London_ (1892), _Westminster_ (1895) and _South London_ (1899) showed that his mind was full of his subject. No man of his time evinced a keener interest in the professional side of literary work, and the improved conditions of the literary career in England were largely due to his energetic and capable exposition of the commercial value of authorship and to the unselfish efforts which Sir Walter constantly made on behalf of his fellow-workers in the field of letters.

See also _Autobiography of Sir Walter Besant_ (1902), with a prefatory
note by S.S. Sprigge; the preface to the library edition (1887) of
_Ready-Money Mortiboy_ contains a history of the literary partnership
of Besant and Rice.

BESENVAL DE BRONSTATT, PIERRE VICTOR, BARON DE (1722-1794), French soldier, was born at Soleure. He was the son of Jean Victor Besenval, colonel of the regiment of Swiss guards in the pay of France, who was charged in 1707 by Louis XIV. with a mission to Sweden, to reconcile Charles XII. with the tsar Peter the Great, and to unite them in alliance with France against England. Pierre Victor served at first as aide-de-camp to Marshal Broglie during the campaign of 1748 in Bohemia, then as aide-de-camp to the duke of Orleans during the Seven Years' War. He then became commander of the Swiss Guards. When the Revolution began Besenval remained firmly attached to the court, and he was given command of the troops which the king had concentrated on Paris in July 1789--a movement which led to the taking of the Bastille on the 14th of July. Besenval showed incompetence in the crisis, and attempted to flee. He was arrested, tried by the tribunal of the Chatelet, but acquitted. He then fell into obscurity and died in Paris in 1794. Besenval de Bronstatt is principally known as the author of _Memoires_, which were published in 1805-1807 by the vicomte T.A. de Segur, in which are reported many scandalous tales, true or false, of the court of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette. The authenticity of these memoirs is not absolutely established.

BESKOW, BERNHARD VON, BARON (1796-1868), Swedish dramatist and historian, son of a Stockholm merchant, was born on the 19th of April 1796. His vocation for literature was assisted by his tutor, the poet Johan Magnus Stjernstolpe (1777-1831), whose works he edited. He entered the civil service in 1814, was ennobled in 1826 and received the title of baron in 1843. He held high appointments at court, and was, from 1834 onwards, perpetual secretary of the Swedish academy, using his great influence with tact and generosity. His poetry is over-decorated, and his plays are grandiose historical poems in dramatic form. Among them are "Erik XIV." (2 parts, 1826); and four pieces collected (1836-1838) as _Dramatiska Studier_, the most famous of which is the tragedy of "Thorkel Knutsson." His works include many academical memoirs, volumes of poems, philosophy and a valuable historical study, _Om Gustav den Tredje sasom konung och menniska_ (5 vols. 1860-1869, "Gustavus III. as king and man"), printed in the transactions of the Swedish Academy (vols. 32, 34, 37, 42, 44). He died on the 17th of October 1868.

See also a notice by C. D. af Wirsen in his _Lefnadsteckningar_
(Stockholm, 1901).

BESNARD, PAUL ALBERT (1849- ), French painter, was born in Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, winning the _Prix de Rome_ in 1874. Until about 1880 he followed the academic tradition, but then broke away completely, and devoted himself to the study of colour and light as conceived by the impressionists. The realism of this group never appealed to his bold imagination, but he applied their technical method to ideological and decorative works on a large scale, such as his frescoes at the Sorbonne, the Ecole de Pharmacie, the Salle des Sciences at the hotel de ville, the mairie of the first arrondissement, and the chapel of Berck hospital, for which he painted twelve "Stations of the Cross" in an entirely modern spirit. A great virtuoso, he achieved brilliant successes alike in water-colour, pastel, oil and etching, both in portraiture, in landscape and in decoration. A good example of his daring unconventionality is his portrait of Madame Rejane; and his close analysis of light can be studied in his picture "Femme qui se chauffe" at the Luxembourg in Paris.

BESOM (Old Eng. _besema_, a rod), originally a bundle of rods or twigs, used for sweeping, &c.; a stiff broom.

BESSARABIA, a government of south-west Russia, separated on the W. and S. from Moldavia and Walachia by the Pruth, and on the E. and N. from the Russian governments of Podolia and Kherson by the Dniester; on the S.E. it is washed by the Black Sea. Area, 17,614 sq. m. The northern districts are invaded by offshoots of the Carpathians, which reach altitudes of 800 to 1150 ft., and are cut up by numerous ravines and river valleys. Here, however, agriculture is the prevailing occupation, the soil being the fertile black earth. The crops principally raised are wheat and maize, though here, as well as in other parts of the government, barley, flax, tobacco, water-melons, gourds, fruit, wine, saffron and madder are grown. The middle of the government is also hilly (850-1000 ft.), and is heavily timbered, chiefly with beech, oak and mountain-ash, and, though to a smaller extent, with birch. The districts south of the old Roman earthworks which link the Dniester with the Pruth along the line of the Botna, just south of Bender, consist of level pasture-land known as the Budjak steppes. Here stock-breeding is the predominant calling, the people owning large numbers of sheep, cattle and horses, also goats, pigs and buffaloes. Lagoons fringe the lower course of the Pruth and the coast of the Black Sea, and marshy ground exists beside the Reuth and other tributaries of the Dniester. The climate is rather subject to extremes, the mean temperature for the year, at Kishinev, being 50 deg. Fahr., of January 27 deg., and of July 72 deg. The rainfall amounts to over 25 in. annually. Salt, saltpetre and marble are the principal mineral products. Manufacturing industry is only just beginning, wine-making (17,000,000 gallons annually), cloth-mills, iron-works, soap-works and tanneries being the principal branches. Both the Dniester and the Pruth are important waterways commercially, the former being navigable up to Mogilev and the latter to Leovo (46 deg. 30' N. lat.). Down the Dniester come timber and wooden wares from Galicia, and grain and wool from Bessarabia itself. Three branches of the railway from Odessa to Poland penetrate the government and proceed towards the Carpathians. The population numbered 988,431 in 1860 and 1,938,326 in 1897, of whom only 302,852 were urban, while 942,179 were women. In 1906 it was estimated at 2,262,400. It consists of various races, nearly one-half (920,919 in 1897) being Moldavians, the others Little Russians, Jews (37% in the towns and 12% in the rural districts), Bulgarians (103,225), Germans (60,206), with some Gypsies (Zigani), Greeks, Armenians, Tatars and Albanians. The Germans, who form some thirty prosperous colonies in the Budjak steppes west from Akkerman, have been settled there since about 1814. The government is divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which are Akkerman (pop. 32,470 in 1900), Bender (33,741 in 1900), Byeltsi (18,526 in 1897), Izmail (33,607 in 1900), Khotin (18,126), Kishinev (125,787 in 1900), Orgeyev (13,356), and Soroki (25,523 in 1900). The capital is Kishinev. Kagul, on the Pruth, and Reni on the Danube (the place to which Alexander of Bulgaria was carried when kidnapped by the Russians in 1886), are small, but lively, river-ports.

The original inhabitants were Cimmerians, and after them came Scythians. During the early centuries of the Christian era Bessarabia, being the key to one of the approaches towards the Byzantine empire, was invaded by many successive races. In the 2nd century it was occupied by the Getae, a Thracian tribe, whom the Roman emperor Trajan conquered in 106; he then incorporated the region in the province of Dacia. In the following century the Goths poured into this quarter of the empire, and in the 5th century it was overrun one after the other by the Huns, the Avars and the Bulgarians. Then followed in the 7th century the Bessi, a Thracian tribe, who gave their name to the region, and in the 9th the Ugrians, that is to say the ancestors of the present Magyars of Hungary, the country being then known as Atel-kuzu. The Ugrians were forced farther west by the Turkish tribe of the Petchenegs in the 10th century, and these were succeeded in the 11th century by the Kumans (Comani) or Polovtsians, a kindred Turkish stock or federation. In the 13th century Bessarabia was overrun by the irresistible Mongols under the leadership of Batu, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. In this century also the Genoese founded trading factories on the banks of the Dniester. In 1367 Bessarabia was subdued and annexed by the ruling prince of Moldavia. During the 16th century it was in the possession alternately of the Turks and the Nogais or Crimean Tatars. From early in the 18th century it was a bone of contention between the Ottoman Turks and the Russians, the latter capturing it five times between 1711 and 1812. In the latter year it was definitely annexed to Russia, and in 1829 its frontier was pushed southwards so as to include the delta of the Danube. After the Crimean War, however, Russia ceded to Moldavia not only this later addition, but also certain districts in the south of the existing government, amounting altogether to an area of 4250 sq. m. and a population of 180,000. By the treaty of Berlin (1878) Russia recovered of this 3580 sq. m., with a population of 127,000.

See Nakko, _History of Bessarabia_, in Russian (1873).
(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

BESSARION, JOHANNES, or BASILIUS (c. 1395-1472), titular patriarch of Constantinople, and one of the illustrious Greek scholars who contributed to the great revival of letters in the 15th century, was born at Trebizond, the year of his birth being variously given as 1389, 1395 or 1403. He was educated at Constantinople, and in 1423 went to the Peloponnese to hear Gemistus Pletho expound the philosophy of Plato. On entering the order of St Basil, he adopted the name of an old Egyptian anchorite Bessarion, whose story he has related. In 1437 he was made archbishop of Nicaea by John VII. Palacologus, whom he accompanied to Italy in order to bring about a union between the Greek and Latin churches with the object of obtaining help from the West against the Turks. The Greeks had bitterly resented his attachment to the party which saw no difficulty in a reconciliation of the two churches. At the councils held in Ferrara and Florence Bessarion supported the Roman church, and gained the favour of Pope Eugenius IV., who invested him with the rank of cardinal. From that time he resided permanently in Italy, doing much, by his patronage of learned men, by his collection of books and manuscripts, and by his own writings, to spread abroad the new learning. He held in succession the archbishopric of Siponto and the bishoprics of Sabina and Frascati. In 1463 he received the title of Latin patriarch of Constantinople; and it was only on account of his Greek birth that he was not elevated to the papal chair. For five years (1450-1455) he was legate at Bologna, and he was engaged on embassies to many foreign princes, among others to Louis XI. of France in 1471. Vexation at an insult offered him by Louis is said to have hastened his death, which took place on the 19th of November 1472, at Ravenna. Bessarion was one of the most learned scholars of his time. Besides his translations of Aristotle's _Metaphysics_ and Xenophon's _Memorabilia_, his most important work is a treatise directed against George of Trebizond, a violent Aristotelian, entitled _In Calumniatorem Platonis_. Bessarion, though a Platonist, is not so thoroughgoing in his admiration as Gemistus Pletho, and rather strives after a reconciliation of the two philosophies. His work, by opening up the relations of Platonism to the main questions of religion, contributed greatly to the extension of speculative thought in the department of theology. His library, which contained a very extensive collection of Greek MSS., was presented by him to the senate of Venice, and formed the nucleus of the famous library of St Mark.

See A.M. Bandini, _De Vita et Rebus Gestis Bessarionis_ (1777); H.
Vast, _Le Cardinal Bessarion_ (1878); E. Legrand, _Bibliographie
Hellenique_ (1885); G. Voigt, _Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen
Altertums_, ii. (1893); on Bessarion at the councils of Ferrara and
Florence, A. Sadov, _Bessarion de Nicee_ (1883); on his philosophy,
monograph by A. Kandelos (in Greek: Athens, 1888); most of his works
are in Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, clxi.

BESSBOROUGH, EARLS OF. The Ponsonby family, who have contributed many conspicuous men to Irish and English public life, trace their descent to Sir John Ponsonby (d. 1678), of Cumberland, a Commonwealth soldier who obtained land grants in Ireland. His son William (1657-1724) was created Baron Bessborough (1721) and Viscount Duncannon (1723), and the latter's son Brabazon was raised to the earldom of Bessborough in 1739. He was the father not only of the 2nd earl (1704-1793), but of John Ponsonby (q.v.), speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The 2nd earl was a well-known Whig politician, who held various offices of state; and his son the 3rd earl (1758-1844) was father of the 4th earl (1781-1847), first commissioner of works in 1831-1834, lord privy seal from 1835 to 1839 and lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1846. He was succeeded by his three sons, the 5th earl (d. 1880), 6th earl (1815-1895), a famous cricketer and chairman of the Bessborough commission (1881) to inquire into the Irish land system, and 7th earl (d. 1906), and the last named by his son the 8th earl.

BESSEGES, a town of south-eastern France, in the department of Gard, on the Ceze, 20 m. north of Alais by rail. Pop. (1906) 7662. The town is important for its coal-mines, blast-furnaces and iron-works.

BESSEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1784-1846), German astronomer, was born at Minden on the 22nd of July 1784. Placed at the age of fifteen in a counting-house at Bremen, he was impelled by his desire to obtain a situation as supercargo on a foreign voyage to study navigation, mathematics and finally astronomy. In 1804 he calculated the orbit of Halley's comet from observations made in 1607 by Thomas Harriot, and communicated his results to H.W.M. Olbers, who procured their publication (_Monatliche Correspondenz_, x. 425), and recommended the young aspirant in 1805 for the post of assistant in J.H. Schroter's observatory at Lilienthal. A masterly investigation of the comet of 1807 (Konigsberg, 1810) enhanced his reputation, and the king of Prussia summoned him, in 1810, to superintend the erection of a new observatory at Konigsberg, of which he acted as director from its completion in 1813 until his death. In this capacity he inaugurated the modern era of practical astronomy. For the purpose of improving knowledge of star-places he reduced James Bradley's Greenwich observations, and derived from them an invaluable catalogue of 3222 stars, published in the volume rightly named _Fundamenta Astronomiae_ (1818). In _Tabulae Regiomontanae_ (1830), he definitively established the uniform system of reduction still in use. During the years 1821-1833, he observed all stars to the ninth magnitude in zones extending from -15 deg. to +45 deg. dec., and thus raised the number of those accurately determined to about 50,000. He corrected the length of the seconds' pendulum in 1826, in a discussion re-published by H. Bruns in 1889; measured an arc of the meridian in East Prussia in 1831-1832; and deduced for the earth in 1841 an ellipticity of 1/299. His ascertainment in 1838 (_Astr. Nach._, Nos. 365-366) of a parallax of 0".31 for 61 Cygni was the first authentic result of the kind published. He announced in 1844 the binary character of Sirius and Procyon from their disturbed proper motions; and was preparing to attack the problem solved later by the discovery of Neptune, when fatal illness intervened. He died at Konigsberg on the 17th of March 1846. Modern astronomy of precision is essentially Bessel's creation. Apart from the large scope of his activity, he introduced such important novelties as the effective use of the heliometer, the correction for personal equation (in 1823), and the systematic investigation of instrumental errors. He issued 21 volumes of _Astronomische Beobachtungen auf der Sternwarte zu Konigsberg_ (1815-1844), and a list of his writings drawn up by A.L. Busch appeared in vol. 24 of the same series. Especial attention should be directed to his _Astronomische Untersuchungen_ (2 vols. 1841-1842), _Populare Vorlesungen_ (1848), edited by H.C. Schumacher, and to the important collection entitled _Abhandlungen_ (4 vols. 1875-1882), issued by R. Engelmann at Leipzig. His minor treatises numbered over 350. In pure mathematics he enlarged the resources of analysis by the invention of Bessel's Functions. He made some preliminary use of these expressions in 1817, in a paper on Kepler's Problem (_Transactions Berlin Academy_, 1816-1817, p. 49), and fully developed them seven years later, for the purposes of a research into planetary perturbations (_Ibid._ 1824, pp. 1-52).

See also H. Durege, _Bessels Leben und Wirken_ (Zurich, 1861); J.F.
Encke, _Gedachtnissrede auf Bessel_ (Berlin, 1846); C.T. Anger,
_Erinnerung an Bessels Leben und Wirken_ (Danzig, 1845);
_Astronomische Nachrichten_, xxiv. 49, 331 (1846); _Monthly Notices
Roy. Astr. Society_, vii. 199 (1847); _Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie_, ii. 558-567.

BESSEL FUNCTION, a certain mathematical relation between two variables. The _Bessel function of order m_ satisfies the differential equation

d^2u 1 du / m^2 \
-------- + ----- ------ + ( 1 - ------- ) u = 0,
d[rho]^2 [rho] d[rho] \ [rho]^2 /

and may be expressed as the series

[rho]^m / [rho]^2 [rho]^4 \
------- ( 1 - -------- + ----------------- ... );
2^m.m! \ 2.2m + 2 2.4.2m + 2.2m + 4 /

the function of _zero order_ is deduced by making m=0, and is equivalent to the series

[rho]^2 [rho]^4
1 - ------- + -------, &c.
2^2 2^2.4^2

O. Schlomilch defines these functions as the coefficients of the power of t in the expansion of exp 1/2[rho](t - t^(-1)). The symbol generally adopted to represent these functions is J_m([rho]) where m denotes the order of the function. These functions are named after Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, who in 1817 introduced them in an investigation on Kepler's Problem. He discussed their properties and constructed tables for their evaluation. Although Bessel was the first to systematically treat of these functions, it is to be noted that in 1732 Daniel Bernoulli obtained the function of zero order as a solution to the problem of the oscillations of a chain suspended at one end. This problem has been more fully discussed by Sir A.G. Greenhill. In 1764 Leonhard Euler employed the functions of both zero and integral orders in an analysis into the vibrations of a stretched membrane; an investigation which has been considerably developed by Lord Rayleigh, who has also shown (1878) that Bessel's functions are particular cases of Laplace's functions. There is hardly a branch of mathematical physics which is independent of these functions. Of the many applications we may notice:--Joseph Fourier's (1824) investigation of the motion of heat in a solid cylinder, a problem which, with the related one of the flow of electricity, has been developed by W.E. Weber, G.F. Riemann and S.D. Poisson; the flow of electromagnetic waves along wires (Sir J.J. Thomson, H. Hertz, O. Heaviside); the diffraction of light (E. Lommel, Lord Rayleigh, Georg Wilhelm Struve); the theory of elasticity (A.E. Love, H. Lamb, C. Chree, Lord Rayleigh); and to hydrodynamics (Lord Kelvin, Sir G. Stokes).

The remarkable connexion between Bessel's functions and spherical harmonics was established in 1868 by F.G. Mehler, who proved that a simple relation existed between the function of zero order and the zonal harmonic of order n. Heinrich Eduard Heine has shown that the functions of higher orders may be considered as limiting values of the associated functions; this relation was discussed independently, in 1878, by Lord Rayleigh.

For the mathematical investigation see SPHERICAL HARMONICS and for tables see TABLE, MATHEMATICAL.

See A. Gray and G.B. Matthews, _Treatise on Bessel's Functions_
(1895); _Encyclopadie der math. Wissenschaften_; F.W. Bessel,
_Untersuchung des Teils der planetarischen Storungen_ (1824).

BESSEMER, SIR HENRY (1813-1898), English engineer, was born on the 19th of January 1813, at Charlton, in Hertfordshire. Throughout his life he was a prolific inventor, but his name is chiefly known in connexion with the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel, by which it has been rendered famous throughout the civilized world. Though this process is now largely supplemented, and even displaced, by various rivals, at the time it was brought out it was of enormous industrial importance, since it effected a great cheapening in the price of steel, and led to that material being widely substituted for others which were inferior in almost every respect but that of cost. Bessemer's attention was drawn to the problem of steel manufacture in the course of an attempt to improve the construction of guns. Coming to the conclusion that if any advance was to be made in artillery better metal must be available, he established a small iron-works in St Pancras, and began a series of experiments. These he carried on for two years before he evolved the essential idea of his process, which is the decarbonization of cast iron by forcing a blast of air through the mass of metal when in the molten condition. The first public announcement of the process was made at the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association in 1856, and immediately attracted considerable notice. Many metallurgists were sceptical on theoretical grounds about his results, and only became convinced when they saw that his process was really able to convert melted cast iron into malleable iron in a perfectly fluid state. But though five firms applied without delay for licences to work under his patents, success did not at once attend his efforts; indeed, after several ironmasters had put the process to practical trial and failed to get good results, it was in danger of being thrust aside and entirely forgotten. Its author, however, instead of being discouraged by this lack of success, continued his experiments, and in two years was able to turn out a product, the quality of which was not inferior to that yielded by the older methods. But when he now tried to induce makers to take up his improved system, he met with general rebuffs, and finally was driven to undertake the exploitation of the process himself. To this end he erected steelworks in Sheffield, on ground purchased with the help of friends, and began to manufacture steel. At first the output was insignificant, but gradually the magnitude of the operations was enlarged until the competition became effective, and steel traders generally became aware that the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was underselling them to the extent of L20 a ton. This argument to the pocket quickly had its effect, and licences were applied for in such numbers that, in royalties for the use of his process, Bessemer received a sum in all considerably exceeding a million sterling.

Of course, patents of such obvious value did not escape criticism, and invalidity was freely urged against them on various grounds. But Bessemer was fortunate enough to maintain them intact without litigation, though he found it advisable to buy up the rights of one patentee, while in another case he was freed from anxiety by the patent being allowed to lapse in 1859 through non-payment of fees. At the outset he had found great difficulty in making steel by his process--in his first licences to the trade iron alone was mentioned. Experiments he made with South Wales iron were failures because the product was devoid of malleability; Mr Goransson, a Swedish ironmaster, using the purer charcoal pig iron of that country, was the first to make good steel by the process, and even he was successful only after many attempts. His results prompted Bessemer to try the purer iron obtained from Cumberland haematite, but even with this he did not meet with much success, until Robert Mushet showed that the addition of a certain quantity of spiegeleisen had the effect of removing the difficulties. Whether or not Mushet's patents could have been sustained, the value of his procedure was shown by its general adoption in conjunction with the Bessemer method of conversion. At the same time it is only fair to say that whatever may have been the conveniences of Mushet's plan, it was not absolutely essential; this Bessemer proved in 1865, by exhibiting a series of samples of steel made by his own process alone. The pecuniary rewards of Bessemer's great invention came to him with comparative quickness; but it was not till 1879 that the Royal Society admitted him as a fellow and the government honoured him with a knighthood. Bessemer died at Denmark Hill, London, on the 15th of March 1898.

Among Bessemer's numerous other inventions, not one of which attained a tithe of the success or importance of the steel process, were movable dies for embossed stamps, a gold paint, sugar machinery, and a ship which was to save her passengers from the miseries of _mal de mer_. This last had her saloon mounted in such a way as to be free to swing relatively to the boat herself, and the idea was that this saloon should always be maintained steady and level, no matter how rough the sea. For this purpose hydraulic mechanism of Bessemer's design was arranged under the control of an attendant, whose duty it was to keep watch on a spirit-level, and counteract by proper manipulation of the apparatus any deviation from the horizontal that might manifest itself on the floor of the saloon owing to the rolling of the vessel. A boat, called the "Bessemer," was built on this plan in 1875 and put on the cross-Channel service to Calais, but the mechanism of the swinging saloon was not found effective in practice and was ultimately removed.

An _Autobiography_ was published in 1905.

BESSEMER, a town of Jefferson county, Alabama, U.S.A., about 12 m. S.W. of Birmingham, a little N. of the centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 4544; (1900) 6538, including 3695 negroes; (1910) 10,864. The town is served by the Alabama Great Southern (Queen & Crescent route), the Louisville & Nashville, the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham (St Louis & San Francisco system), the Birmingham Southern, and the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic railways. Bessemer is situated in the midst of the iron ore and limestone district of Alabama, in the south part of Jones' Valley (about 3 m. wide.); to the east is the Red Ore mountain range, rich in red haematite; to the north-west are the Warrior coalfields; to the south-west, south and south-east are immense fossiliferous iron ore seams and the Cahaba coalfields; in the immediate vicinity of the city are limestone quarries, and about 18 m. north-east are the limestone kilns of Gate City. Mining, iron smelting and the manufacture of iron and coke are the chief industries of Bessemer; truck farming is also an important industry. In 1900 Bessemer was the eighth city of the state in population, second in amount of capital invested in manufacturing, and fourth in the value of its manufactured product for the year. Bessemer was laid out in 1887, and was incorporated in 1889.