Chapter CXXVIII: Act 1895: , may be given to a married woman on applying to (17)

Beside the altar was a drain (piscina) for pouring away the water in which the communion vessels were rinsed. This seems originally to have been under the altar, as it is still in the Eastern Church.

That the primitive communion table was covered with a communion-cloth is highly probable, and is mentioned by Optatus (c. A.D. 370), bishop of Alilevis. This had developed by the 14th or 15th century into a cerecloth, or waxed cloth, on the table itself; and three linen coverings one above the other, two of about the size of the table and one rather wider than the altar, and long enough to hang down at each end. Five crosses are worked upon it, four in the corners and one in the middle, and there is an embroidered edging.1 In front was often a hanging panel of embroidered cloth (the frontal; but frontals of wood, ornamented with carving or enamel, &c., are also to be found). These embroidered frontals are changeable, so that the principal colour in the pattern can accord with the liturgical colour of the day. Speaking broadly, red is the colour for feasts of martyrs, white for virgins, violet for penitential seasons, &c.; no less than sixty-three different uses differing in details have been enumerated. A similar panel of needlework (the dossal) is suspended behind the altar.

Portable altars have been used on occasion since the time of Bede. They are small slabs of hard stone, just large enough for the chalice and paten. They are consecrated and marked with the five incised crosses in the same way as the fixed altar, but they may be placed upon a support of any suitable material, whether wood or stone. They are used on a journey in a heretical or heathen country, or in private chapels. In the inventory of the field apparel of Henry, earl of Northumberland, A.D. 1513, is included ``A coffer wyth ij liddes to serue for an Awter and ned be'' (Archaeologia, xxvi. 403).

On the altar are placed a cross and candlesticks -- six in number, and seven when a bishop celebrates in his cathedral; and over it is suspended or fixed a tabernacle or receptacle for the reservation of the Sacrament.

III. Post-Reformation Altars. -- At the Reformation the altars in churches were looked upon as symbols of the unreformed doctrine, especially where the struggle lay between the Catholics and the Calvinists, who on this point were much more radical revolutionaries than the Lutherans. In England the name ``altar''2 was retained in the Communion Office in English, printed in 1549, and in the complete English Prayer-book of the following year, known to students as the First Book of Edward VI. But orders were given soon after that the altars should be destroyed, and replaced by movable wooden tables; while from the revised Prayer book of 1552 the word ``altar'' was carefully expunged, ``God's board'' or ``the table'' being substituted. The short reign of Mary produced a temporary reaction, but the work of reformation was resumed on the accession of Elizabeth.

The name ``altar'' has been all along retained in the Coronation Office of the kings of England, where it occurs frequently. It was also recognized in the canons of 1640, but with the reservation that ``it was an altar in the sense in which the primitive church called it an altar and in no other.'' In the same canons the rule for the position of the communion tables, which has been since regularly followed throughout the Church of England, was formulated. In the primitive church the altars seem to have been so placed that, like those of the Hebrews, they could be surrounded on all sides by the worshippers. The chair of the bishop or celebrant was on their east side, and the assistant clergy were ranged on each side of him. But in the middle ages the altars were placed against the east wall of the churches, or else against a reredos erected at the east side of the altar, so as to prevent all access to the table from that side; the celebrant was thus brought round to the west side and caused to stand between the people and the altar. On the north and south sides there were often curtains. When tables were substituted for altars in the English churches, these were not merely movable, but at the administration of the Lord's Supper were actually moved into the body of the church, and placed table-wise -- that is, with the long sides turned to the north and south, and the narrow ends to the east and west, -- the officiating clergyman standing at the north side. In the time of Archbishop Laud, however, the present practice of the Church of England was introduced. The communion table, though still of wood and movable, is, as a matter of fact, never moved; it is placed altar-wise -- that is, with its longer axis running north and south, and close against the east wall. Often there is a reredos behind it; it is also fenced in by rails to preserve it from profanation of various kinds.

In 1841 the ancient church of the Holy Sepulchre at Cambridge was robbed of most of its interest by a calamitous ``restoration'' carried out under the superintendence and partly at the charge of the Camden Society. On this occasion a stone altar, consisting of a flat slab resting upon three other upright slabs, was presented to the parish, and was set up in the church at the east wall of the chancel. This was brought to the notice of the Court of Arches in 1845, and Sir H. Jenner Fust (Faulkner v. Lichfield and Stearn) ordered it to be removed, on the ground that a stone structure so weighty that it could not be carried about, and seeming to be a mass of solid masonry, was not a communion-table in the sense recognized by the Church of England.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. -- For altars in the ancient East see M. Jastrow, Religion of Assyria anid Babylonia; Perrot and Chipiez, Art in Chaldea (i. 143, 255); Sir i. Gardiner Wilkinson, A Second Series of the Monners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, ii. 387; Benzinger's and Nowack's works on Hebraische Archaologie. For classical altars, much information can be obtained from the notes in J. G. Frazer's Pausaniae. See also Schomann, Griechische Alterthumer, vol. ii.; the volume on ``Gottesdienstliche Altcrthumer'' in Hermann's Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitaten. On domestic altars and worship see Petersen, Hausgottesdienst der Griechen (Cassel, 1851). On plural dedications consult Maurer, De aribus graecorum pluribus deis in commune positis (Darmstadt, 1885). For Christian altars, reference is best made to the articles on the subject in the dictionaries of Christian and liturgical antiquities of Migne, Martigny, Smith and Cheetham, and Pugin, where practically all the available information is collected. See also Ciampinus, Vetera Monumenta (Rome, 1747), where numerous illustrations of altars are to be found; Martune, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, iii. vi. (Rouen, 1700); Voigt, Thyslasteriologia sive de altaribus veterum Christianorum (Hamburg, 1709); and the liturgical works of Bona. Many articles on various sections of the subject have appeared in the journals of archaeoloeical societies; we may mention Nesbitt on the churches of Rome earlier than 1150 (Archaeologia, xl. p. 210), Didron, ``L'Autel chretien'' (Annales archeologiques, iv. p. 238), and a paper by Texier on enamelled altars in the same volume. (R. A. S. M.)

1 In the Eastern Church four small pieces of cloth marked with the names of the Evangelists are placed on the four corners of the altar, and covered with three cloths, the uppermost (the corporal) being of smaller size.

2 Except in one place where the term used is ``God's Board.''

ALTDORF, the capital of the Swiss canton of Uri. It is built at a height of 1516 ft. above sea-level, a little above the right bank of the Reuss, not far above the point where this river is joined on the right by the Schachen torrent. In 1900 the population was 3117, all Romanists and German-speaking. Altdorf is 34 m. from Lucerne by the St Gotthard railway and 22 m. from Goeschenen. Its port on the Lake of Lucerne, Fluelon, is 2 m. distant. There is a stately parish church, while above the little town is the oldest Capuchin convent in Switzerland (1581). Altdorf is best known as the place where, according to the legend, William Tell shot the apple from his son's head. This act by tradition happened on the market-place, where in 1895, at the foot of an old tower (with rude frescoes commemorating the feat), there was set up a fine bronze statue (by Richard Kissling of Zurich) of Tell and his son. In 1899 a theatre was opened close to the town for the sole purpose of performing Schiller's play of Wilhelm Tell. The same year a new carriage-road was opened from Altdorf through the Schachen valley and over the Klausen Pass (6404 ft.) to the village of Linththal (30 m.) and so to Glarus. One and a half mile from Altdorf by the Klausen road is the village of Burglen, where by tradition Tell was born; while he is also said to have lost his life, while saving that of a child, in the Schachen torrent that flows past the village. On the left bank of the Reuss, immediately opposite Altdorf, is Attinghausen, where the ruined castle (which belonged to one of the real founders of the Swiss Confederation) now houses the cantonal museum of antiquities. (W. A. B. C.)

ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT (N 1480-1538), German painter and engraver, was born at Regensburg (Ratisbon), where in 1505 he was enrolled a burgher, and described as ``twenty-five years old.'' Soon afterwards he is known to have been prosperous, and as city architect he erected fortifications and a public slaughter-house. Altdorfer has been called the ``Giorgione of the North.,' His paintings are remarkable for minute and careful finish, and for close study of nature. The most important of them are to be found in the Pinakothek at Munich. A representation of the battle of Arbela (1529), included in that collection, is usually considered his chief work. His engravings on wood and copper are very numerous, and rank next to those of Albrecht Durer. The most important collection is at the Bedin museum. Albrecht's brother, Erhard Altdorfer, was also a painter and engraver, and a pupil of Lucas Cranach.

ALTEN, SIR CHARLES [Karl] (1764-1840), Hanoverian and British soldier, son of Baron Alten, a member of an old Hanoverian family, entered the service of the elector as a page at the age of twelve. In 1781 he received a commission in the Hanoverian guards, and as a captain took part in the campaigns of 1793- 1795 in the Low Countries, distinguishing himself particularly on the Lys in command of light infantry. In 1803 the Hanoverian army was disbanded, and Alten took service with the King's German Legion in British pay. In command of the light infantry of this famous corps he took part with Lord Cathcart in the Hanoverian expedition of 1805 and in the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, and was with Moore in Sweden and Spain, as well as in the disastrous Walcheren expedition. He was soon employed once more in the Peninsula, and at Albuera commanded a brigade. In April 1813 Wellington placed him at the head of the famous ``Light Division'' (43rd, 52nd, 95th, and Cacadores), in which post he worthily continued the records of Moore and Robert Craufurd at Nivelle, Nive, Orthez and

Toulouse. His officers presented him with a sword of honour as a token of their esteem. In 1815 Alten commanded Wellington's 3rd division and was severely wounded at Waterloo. His conduct won for him the rank of Count von Alten. When the King's German Legion ceased to exist, Alten was given the command of the Hanoverians in France, and in 1818 he returned to Hanover, where he became subsequently minister of war and foreign affairs, and rose to be field-marshal, being retained on the British Army list at the same time as Major-General Sir Charles Alten, G. C. B. He died in 1840. A memorial to Alten has been erected at Hanover.

See Glentleman's Magazine, 1840; N. L. Beamish, Hist. of the King's German Legion, 2 vols. (1832-1837).

ALTENA, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the river Lenne, 38 m. S.S.E. from Dortmund. Pop. (1900) 12,769. It consists of a single street, winding up a deep valley for about 3 m. There are three churches, a museum, high grade and popular schools. Its hardware industries are important, and embrace iron rolling, the manufacture of fine wire, needles, springs and silver ornaments. On the neighbouring Schlossberg is the ancestral castle of the counts of La Marok, ancestors, on the female side, of the Prussian royal house.

ALTENBURG, a town of Germany, capital of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, situated near the river Pleisse, 23 m. S. of Leipzig, and at the junction of the Saxon state railways Leipzig- Hof and Altenburg-Zeitz. Pop. (1905) 38,811. The town from its hilly position is irregularly built, but many of its streets are wide, and contain a number of large and beautiful buildings. Its ancient castle is picturesquely situated on a lofty porphyry rock, and is memorable as the place from which, in 1455, Kunz von Kaufungen carried off the young princes Albert and Ernest, the founders of the present royal and ducal families of Saxony. Its beautiful picture gallery, containing portraits of several of the famous princes of the house of Wettin, was almost totally destroyed by fire in January 1905. Altenburg is the seat of the higher courts of the Saxon duchies, and possesses a cathedral and several churches, schools, a library, a gallery of pictures and a school of art, an infirmary and various learned societies. There is also a museum, with natural history, archaeological, and art collections, and among other buildings may be mentioned St Bartholomew's church (1089), the town hall (1562-1564), a lunatic asylum, teachers' seminary and an agricultural academy. There is considerable traffic in grain and cattle brought from the surrounding districts; and twice a year there are large horse fairs. Cigars, woollen goods, gloves, hats and porcelain are among the chief manufactures. There are lignite mines in the vicinity.

ALTENSTEIN, a castle upon a rocky mountain in Saxe- Meiningen, on the south-western slope of the Thuringerwald, not far from Eisenach. It is the summer residence of the dukes of Meiningen, and is surrounded by a noble park, which contains, among other objects of interest, a remarkable underground cavern, 500 ft. long, through which flows a large and rapid stream. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, lived and preached at Altenstein in 724; and near by is the place where, in 1521, Luther was seized, by the order of the elector Frederick the Wise, to be carried off to the Wartburg. An old beech called ``Luther's tree,'' which tradition connected with the reformer, was blown down in 1841, and a small monument now stands in its place.

ALTERNATION (from Lat. aiternare, to do by turns), strictly, the process of ``alternating''' i.e. of two things following one another regularly by turns, as night alternates with day. A somewhat different sense is attached to some usages of the derivatives. Thus, in American political representative bodies and in the case of company directors, a substitute is sometimes called an ``alternate.'' An ``alternative'' IS that which is offered as a choice of two things, the acceptance of the one implying the rejection of the other. It is incorrect to speak of more than two alternatives, though Mr Gladstone wrote in 1857 of a fourth (Oxf. Essays, 26). When there is only one course open there is said to be no alternative.

ALTHAEA, in classical legend, daughter of Thestius, king of Aetolia, wife of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and mother of Meleager (q.v..)

ALTING, JOHANN HEINRICH (1583--1644), German divine, was born at Emden, where his father, Menso Alting ( 1541-1612), was minister. Johann studied with great success at the universities of Groningen and Herborn. In 1608 he was appointed tutor of Frederick, afterwards elector-palatine, at Heidelberg, and in 1612 accompanied him to England. Returning in 1613 to Heidelberg, after the marriage of the elector with Princess Elizabeth of England, he was appointed professor of dogmatics, and in 1616 director of the theological department in the Collegium Sapientiae. In 1618, along with Abraham Scultetus, he represented the university in the synod of Dort. When Count Tilly took the city of Heidelberg (1622) and handed it over to plunder, Alting found great difficulty in escaping the fury of the soldiers. He first retired to Schorndorf; but, offended by the ``semi-Pelagianism'' of the Lutherans with whom he was brought in contact, he removed to Holland, where the unfortunate elector and ``Winter King'' Frederick, in exile after his brief reign in Bohemia, made him tutor to his eldest son. In 1627 Alting was appointed to the chair of theology at Groningen, where he continued to lecture, with increasing reputation, until his death in 1644. Though an orthodox Calvinist, Alting laid little stress on the sterner side of his creed and, when at Dort he opposed the Remonstrants, he did so mainly on the ground that they were ``innovators.'' Among his works are: --Notae in Decadem Problematum Jacobi Behm (Heidelberg, 1618); Scripta Pheologica Meidelbergensia (Amst., 1662); Exegesis Augustanae Confessionis (Amst., 1647).

ALTINUM (mod. Altino), an ancient town of Venetia, 12 m. S.E. of Tarvisium (Treviso), on the edge of the lagoons. It was probably only a small fishing village until it became the point of junction of the Via Postumia and the Via Popillia (see AQUILEIA). At the end of the republic it was a municipium. Augustus and his successors brought it into further importance as a point on the route between Italy and the north-eastern portions of the empire. After the foundation of the naval station at Ravenna, it became the practice to take ship from there to Altinum, instead of following the Via Popillia round the coast, and thence to continue the journey by land. A new road, the Via Claudia Augusta, was constructed by the emperor Claudius from Altinum to the Danube, a distance of 350 m., apparently by way of the Lake of Constance. The place thus became of considerable strategic and commercial importance, and the comparatively mild climate (considering its northerly situation) led to the erection of villas which Martial (Epigr. iv. 25) compares with those of Baiae. It was destroyed by Attila in A.D. 452, and its inhabitants took refuge in the islands of the lagoons, forming settlements from which Venice eventually sprang.

ALTITUDE (Lat. altitudo, from altus, high), height or eminence, and particularly the height above the ground or above sea-level. In geometry, the altitude of a triangle is the length of the perpendicular from the vertex to the base. In astronomy, the altitude of a heavenly body is the apparent angular elevation of the body above the plane of the horizon (see ASTRONOMY: Spherical). Apparent altitude is the value which is directly observed; true altitude is deduced by correcting for astronomical refraction and dip of the horizon; geocentric altitude by correcting for parallax.

ALTMUHL, a river of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria. It is an important left bank tributary of the Danube, rising in the Franconian plateau (Frankische Terrasse), and after a tortuous course of 116 m., at times flowing through meadows and again in weird romantic gorges, joins the Danube at Kelheim. From its mouth it is navigable up to Dietfurt (18 m.), whence the Ludwigscanal (100 m. long) proceeds to Bamberg on the Regnitz, thus establishing communication between the Danube and the Rhine.

ALTO (Ital. for ``high',), a musical term applied to the highest adult male voice or counter-tenor, and to the lower boy's or woman's (contralto) Voice.

ALTON, a market-town in the Fareham parliamentary division of Hampshire, England, 46 1/2 m. S.W. of London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5479. It has a pleasant undulating site near the headwaters of the river Wey. Of the church of St Lawrence part, including the tower, is Norman; the building was the scene of a fierce conflict between the royalist and parliamentary troops in 1643. There is a museum of natural history; the collection is reminiscent of the famous naturalist Gilbert White, of Selborne in this vicinity. Large markets and fairs are held for corn, hops, cattle and sheep; and the town contains some highly reputed ale breweries, besides paper mills and iron foundries.

ALTON, a city of Madison county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the W. part of the state, on the Mississippi river, about 10 m. above the mouth of the Missouri, and about 25 m. N. of St Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1890) 10,294; (1900) 14,210, of whom 1638 were foreign-born; (1910) 17,528. Alton is served by the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Peoria & St Louis, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Illinois Terminal railways. The river is here spanned by a bridge. The residential portion of the city lies on the river bluffs, some of which rise to a height of 250 ft. above the water level, and the business streets are on the bottom lands of the river. Alton has a public library and a public park. Upper Alton (pop. 2918 in 1910), about 1 1/2 m. N.E. of Alton, is the seat of the Western Military Academy (founded in 1879 as Wyman Institute; chartered in 1892), and of Shurtleff College (Baptist, founded in 1827 at Rock Spring, removed to Upper Alton in 1831, and chartered in 1833), which has a college of liberal arts, a divinity school, an academy and a school of music; and the village of Godfrey, 5 1/2 m. N. of Alton, is the seat of the Monticello Ladies' Seminary, founded by Benjamin Godfrey, opened in 1838, and chartered in 1841. Among the manufactures of Alton are iron and glass ware, miners' tools, shovels, coal-mine cars, flour, and agricultural implements; and there are a large oil refinery and a large lead smelter. The value of the city's factory products increased from $4,250,389 in 1900 to $8,696,814 in 1905, or 104.6%.

The first settlement on the site of Alton was made in 1807, when a trading post was established by the French. The town was laid out in 1817, was first incorporated in 1821, and in 1827 was made the seat of a state penitentiary, which was later removed to Joliet, the last prisoners being transferred in 1860. Alton was first chartered as a city in 1837. In 1836 the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy (1802-1837), a native of Albion, Maine, removed the Observer, a religious (Presbyterian) periodical of which he was the editor, from St Louis to Alton. He had attracted considerable attention in St Louis by his criticisms of slavery, but though he believed in emancipation, he was not a radical abolitionist. After coming to Alton his anti-slavery views soon became more radical, and in a few months he was an avowed abolitionist. His views were shared by his brother, Owen Lovejoy (1811-1864), a Congregational minister, who also at that time lived in Alton, and who from 1857 until his death was an able anti-slavery member of Congress. Most of the people of southern Illinois were in sympathy with slavery, and consequently the Lovejoys became very unpopular. The press of the Observer was three time destroyed, and on the 7th of November 1837 E. P. Loveioy was killed while attempting to defend against a mob a fourth press which he had recently obtained and which was stored in a warehouse in Alton. His death caused intense excitement throughout the country, and he was everywhere regarded by abolitionists as a martyr to their cause. In 1897 a monument, a granite column surmounted by a bronze statue of Victory, was erected in his honour by the citizens of Alton and by the state.

See Henry Tanner, The Martyrdom of Lovejoy (Chicago, 1881), and ``The Alton Tragedy'' in S. J. May's Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict (Boston, 1869).

ALTONA, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, on the right bank of the Elbe immediately west of Hamburg. Though administratively distinct, the two cities so closely adjoin as virtually to form one whole. Lying higher than Hamburg, Altona enjoys a purer and healthier atmosphere. It has spacious squares and streets, among the latter the Palmaille, a stately avenue ending on a terrace about 100 ft. above the Elbe, whence a fine view is obtained of the river and the lowlands beyond. Of the six Evangelical churches, the Hauptkirche (parish church), with a lofty steeple, is noteworthy. The main thoroughfares are embellished by several striking monuments, notably the memorials of the wars of 1864 and 1870, bronze statues of the emperor William I. and Bismarck and the column of Victory (Siegessaule). The museum (1901) is an imposing building in the German Renaissance style and contains, in addition to a valuable library, ethnographical and natural history collections. Its site is that formerly occupied by the terminus of the Schleswig-Holstein railways, but a handsome central station lying somewhat farther to the N., connected with Hamburg by an elevated railway, now accommodates all the traffic and provides through communication with the main Prussian railway systems. There are also fine municipal and judicial buildings, a theatre (under the same management as the Stadttheater in Hamburg), a gymnasium, technical schools, a school of navigation and a hospital. In respect of its local industries Altona has manufactures of tobacco and cigars, of machinery, woollens, cottons and chemicals. There are also extensive breweries, tanneries and soap and oil works. Altona carries on an extensive maritime trade with Great Britain, France and America, but it has by no means succeeded in depriving Hamburg of its commercial superiority -- indeed, so dependent is it upon its rival that most of its business is transacted on the Hamburg exchange, while the magnificent warehouses on the Altona river bank are to a large extent occupied by the goods of Hamburg merchants. Since 1888, when Altona joined the imperial Zollverein, approximately half a million sterling has been spent upon harbour improvement works. The exports and imports resemble those of Hamburg. In the ten years 1871-1880, the port was entered on an average annually by 737 vessels of 67,735 tons, in 1881-1890 by 608 vessels of 154,713 tons, and in 1891-1898 by 839 vessels of 253,384 tons.

In 1890 the populous suburbs of Ottensen to the W., where the poet Gottlieb Klopstock lies buried, Bahrenfeld, Othmarschen and Ovelgonne were incorporated. Without these suburbs the growth of the town may be seen from the following figures: -- (1864, when it ceased to he Danish) 53,039; (1880) 91,049; (1885) 104,717; (1890) together with the four suburbs, 143,249; (1895) 148,944; (1900) 161,508; (1905) 168,301. Altona is the headquarters of the IX. German army corps.

The name Altona is said to be derived from allzu-nah (``all too near''), the Hamburgers' designation for an inn which in the middle of the 16th century lay too close to their territory. For a long time this was the only house in the locality. When in 1640 Altona passed to Denmark it was a small fishing village. Its rise to its present position is mainly due to the fostering care of the Danish kings who conferred certain customs privileges and exemptions upon it with a view to making it a formidable rival to Hamburg. In 1713 it was burnt by the Swedes, but rapidly recovered from this disaster, and despite the trials of the Napoleonic wars, gradually increased in prosperity. In 1853, owing to the withdrawal by Denmark of its customs privileges, its trade waned. In 1864 Altona was occupied in the name of the German Confederation, passed to Prussia after the war of 1866, and 1888 together with Hamburg joined the Zollverein, while retaining certain free trade rights over the Freihafengebiet which it shares with Hamburg and Wandsbek.

See Wichmann, Geschichte Altonas (2 vols., Alt., 1896); Ehrenberg & Stahl, Altonas topographische Entwickelung (Alt., 1894).

ALTOONA, a city of Blair county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 117 m. E. by N. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 30,337; (1900) 38,973, of whom 3301 were foreign-born, 1518 being German; (1010) 52,127. It lies in the upper end of Logan Valley at the base or the Alleghany mountains, about 1180 ft. above sea-level, and Commands views of some of the most picturesque mountain scenery in the state. A short distance to the W. is the famous Horseshoe Bend of the Pennsylvania

railway. Altoona is served by the Pennsylvania railway, and is one of the leading railway cities in the United States. Its freight yard is 7 m. long, and has 221 m. of tracks. Large numbers of eastbound coal trains from the mountains and westbound ``empties'' returning to the mines stop here; and the cars of these trains are classified here and new trains made up. Locomotives and cars are sent to Altoona to be repaired from all over the Pennsylvania railway system E. of Pittsburg, and cars and locomotives are built here; and in the south Altoona foundries car wheels and general castings for locomotives and cars are made. The several departments of railway work are used to give training in a sort of railway university. Graduates of technical schools are received as special apprentices and are directed in a course of four years through the erecting shops, vice shop, blacksmith shop, boiler shop, roundhouse, test department, machine shop, air-brake shop, iron foundry, car shop, work of firing on the road, office work in the motive power accounting department, and drawing room; the most competent may be admitted through the grades of inspector, in the office of the master mechanic or of the road foreman of engines, assistant master mechanic, assistant engineer of motive power, master mechanic and superintendent of motive power. The Pennsylvania railway, co-operating with the public school authorities, established at Altoona, in 1907, a railway high school, the first institution of the kind in the country. It has a well-equipped drawing room, carpenter shop, forging room, foundry, science laboratories and machinery department, in which expert instruction is given. In 1905 the city's factory products were valued at $14,349,963, and in this year the railway shops gave employment to 83.7% of all wage-earners employed in manufacturing establishments. The manufacture of silk is the only other important industry in the city. The site of the city (formerly farming land) was purchased in 1849 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and was laid out as a town. It was incorporated as a borough in 1854 and was chartered as a city in 1868.

ALTO-RELIEVO (Ital. for ``high relief''), the term applied to sculpture that projects from the plane to which it is attached to the extent of more than one-half the outline of the principal figures, which may be nearly or in parts entirely detached from the background. It is thus distinguished from basso-relievo (q.v.), in which there is a greater or less approximation in effect to the pictorial method, the figures being made to appear as projecting more than half their outline without actually doing so. At the same time it is not only the actual degree of relief which is implied by these two terms, but a resultant difference also of design and treatment necessitated by the contingent differences of light and shadow. (See RELIEF and SCULPTURE.)

ALTOTTING, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, On the Morren, not far from its junction with the Inn, and on the Mulildorf-Burghausen railway. Pop. (1900) 4344. It has long been a place of pilgrimage to which Roman Catholics, especially from Austria, Bavaria and Swabia resort in large numbers, on account of a celebrated image of the Virgin Mary in the Holy Chapel, which also contains the hearts of some Bavarian princes in silver caskets. In the church of St Peter and St Paul is the tomb of Tilly.

ALTRANSTADT, a village of Germany, in Prussian Saxony near Merseburg (q.v.), with (1900) 813 inhabitants. Altranstadt is famous in history for two treaties concluded here: (1) the peace which Augustus II., king of Poland and elector of Saxony, was forced to ratify, on the 24th of September 1706, with Charles XII. of Sweden, whereby the former renounced the throne of Poland in favour of Stanislaus Leszczynski -- a treaty which Augustus declared null and void after Charles XII.'s defeat at Poltava (8th of July 1709); (2) the treaty of the 31st of August 1707, by which the emperor Joseph I. guaranteed to Charles XII. religious tolerance and liberty of conscience for the Silesian protestants.

ALTRINCHAM, or ALTRINOHAM (and so pronounced), a market-town, in the Altrincham padiamentary division of Cheshire England, 8 m. S.W. by S. of Manchester, on the London & North-Western, Manchester, South Junction & Altrincham and Cheshire Lines railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 16,831. Many residences in the locality are occupied by those whose business lies in Manchester, who are attracted by the healthy climate and the vicinity of Bowdon Downs and Dunham Massey Woods. Market gardening is carried on, large quantities of fruit and flowers being grown for sale in Manchester. Cabinet-making is also practised; and there are sawmills, iron foundries, and manufactures of cotton, yarn and worsted.

Altrincham (Aldringham) was originally included in the barony of Dunham Massey, one of the eight baronies founded by Hugh, earl of Chester, after the Conquest. An undated charter from Hamo de Massey, lord of the barony, in the reign of Edward I., constituted Altrincham a free borough, with a gild merchant, the customs of Macclesfield, the right to elect reeves and bailiffs for the common council and other privileges. In 1290 the same Hamo obtained a grant of a Tuesday market and a three days' fair at the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin; but in 1319, by a charter from Edward II., the date of the fair was changed to the feast of St James the Apostle. A mayor of Altrincham is mentioned by name in 1452, but the office probably existed long before this date; it has now for centuries been a purely nominal appointment, the chief duty consisting in the opening of the annual fairs. The trade in worsted and woollen yarns, which formerly furnished employment to a large section of the population, has now completely declined, partly owing to the introduction of Irish worsted.

See Victoria County History, Cheshire; Alfred Ingham, History of Altrincham and Bowdon (Altrincham, 1879).

ALTRUISM (Fr. autrui, from Lat. alter, the other of two), a philosophical term used in ethics for that theory of conduct which regards the good of others as the end of moral action. It was invented by Auguste Comte and adopted by the English positivists as a convenient antithesis to egoism. According to Comte the only practical method of social regeneration is gradually to inculcate the true social feeling which subordinates itself to the welfare of others. The application to sociological problems of the physical theory of organic evolution further developed the altruistic theory. According to Herbert Spencer, the life of the individual in the perfect society is identical with that of the state: in other words, the first object of him who would live well must be to take his part in promoting the well-being of his fellows individually and collectively. Pure egoism and pure altruism are alike impracticable. For on the one hand unless the egoist's happiness is compatible to some extent with that of his fellows, their opposition will almost inevitably vitiate his perfect enjoyment; on the other hand, the altruist whose primary object is the good of others, must derive his own highest happiness -- i.e. must realize himself most completely -- in the fulfilment of this object. In fact, the altruistic idea, in itself and apart from a further definition of the good, is rather a method than an end.

The self-love theory of Hobbes, with its subtle perversions of the motives of ordinary humanity, led to a reaction which culminated in the utilitarianism of Bentham and the two Mills; but their theory, though superior to the extravagant egoism of Hobbes, had this main defect, according to Herbert Spencer, that it conceived the world as an aggregate of units, and was so far individualistic. Sir Leslie Stephen in his Science of Ethics insisted that the unit is the social organism, and therefore that the aim of moralists is not the ``greatest happiness of the greatest number,'' but rather the ``health of the organism.'' The socialistic tendencies of subsequent thinkers have emphasized the ethical importance of altruistic action, but it must be remembered always that it is ultimately only a form of action, that it may be commended in all types of ethical theory, and that it is a practical guide only when it is applied in accordance with a definite theory of ``the good.'' Finally, he who devotes himself on principle to furthering the good of others as his highest moral obligation is from the highest point of view realizing, not sacrificing, himself.

See works of Comte, Spencer, Stephen, and text-books of ethics (cf. bibliography at end of article ETHICS).

ALTWASSER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, 43 m. by rail S.W. from Breslau, and 3 m. N. from Waldenburg. It has factories for glass, porcelain, machinery, cotton-spinning, iron-foundries and coal-mines. Pop. (1900) 12,144.

ALTYN-TAGH, or ASTYN-TAOH, one of the chief constituent ranges of the Kuen-lun (q.v.) in Central Asia, separating Tibet from east Turkestan and the Desert of Gobi.

ALUM, in chemistry, a term given to the crystallized double sulphates of the typical formula M2SO4.M2111.(SO4)324H2O, Where M is the sign of an alkali metal (potassium, sodium, rubidium, caesium), silver or ammonium, and M111 denotes one of the trivalent metals, aluminium, chromium or ferric iron. These salts are employed in dyeing and various other industrial processes. They are soluble in water, have an astringent, acid, and sweetish taste, react acid to litmus, and crystallize in regular octahedra. When heated they liquefy; and if the heating be continued, the water of crystallization is driven off, the salt froths and swells, and at last an amorphous powder remains.

Potash alum is the common alum of commerce, although both soda alum and ammonium alum are manufactured. The presence of sulphuric acid in potash alum was known to the alchemists. J. H. Pott and A. S. Marggraf demonstrated that alumina was another constituent. Pott in his Lithogeognosia showed that the precipitate obtained when an alkali is poured into a solution of alum is quite different from lime and chalk, with which it had been confounded by G. E. Stahl. Marggraf showed that alumina is one of the constituents of alum, but that this earth possesses peculiar properties, and is one of the ingredients in common clay (Experiences faites sur la terre de l'alun, Marggraf's Opusc. ii. 111) . He also showed that crystals of alum cannot be obtained by dissolving alumina in sulphuric acid and evaporating the solutions, but when a solution of potash or ammonia is dropped into this liquid, it immediately deposits perfect crystals of alum (Sur la regeneration de l'alun, Marggraf's Opusc. ii. 86).

T. O. Bergman also observed that the addition of potash or ammonia made the solution of alumina in sulphuric acid crystallize, but that the same effect was not produced by the addition of soda or of lime (De confectione aluminus, Bergman's Opusc. i. 225), and that potassium sulphate is frequently found in alum.

After M. H. Klaproth had discovered the presence of potassium in leucite and lepidolite, it occurred to L. N. Vauquelin that it was probably an ingredient likewise in many other minerals. Knowing that alum cannot be obtained in crystals without the addition of potash, he began to suspect that this alkali constituted an essential ingredient in the salt, and in 1797 he published a dissertation demonstrating that alum is a double salt, composed of sulphuric acid, alumina and potash (Annales de chimie, xxii. 258). Soon after, J. A. Chaptal published the analysis of four different kinds of alum, namely, Roman alum, Levant alum, British alum and alum manufactured by himself. This analysis led to the same result as that of Vauquelin (Ann. de chim xxii. 280).

The word alumen, which we translate alum, occurs in Pliny's Natural History. In the 15th chapter of his 35th book he gives a detailed description of it. By comparing this with the account of stupteria given by Dioscorides in the 123rd chapter of his 5th book, it is obvious that the two are identical. Pliny informs us that alumen was found naturally in the earth. He calls it salsugoterrae. Different substances were distinguished by the name of ''alumen''; but they were all characterized by a certain degree of astringency, and were all employed in dyeing and medicine, the light-coloured alumen being useful in brilliant dyes, the dark-coloured only in dyeing black or very dark colours. One species was a liquid, which was apt to be adulterated; but when pure it had the property of blackening when added to pomegranate juice. This property seems to characterize a solution of iron sulphate in water; a solution of ordinary (potash) alum would possess no such property. Pliny says that there is another kind of alum which the Greeks call schistos. It forms in white threads upon the surface of certain stones. From the name schistos, and the mode of formation, there can be little doubt that this species was the salt which forms spontaneously on certain slaty minerals, as alum slate and bituminous shale, and which consists chiefly of sulphates of iron and aluminium. Possibly in certain places the iron sulphate may have been nearly wanting, and then the salt would be white, and would answer, as Pliny says it did, for dyeing bright colours. Several other species of alumen are described by Pliny, but we are unable to make out to what minerals he alludes.

The alumen of the ancients, then, was not the same with the alum of the moderns. It was most commonly an iron sulphate, sometimes probably an aluminium sulphate, and usually a mixture of the two. But the ancients were unacquainted with our alum. They were acquainted with a crystallized iron sulphate, and distinguished it by the names of misy, sory, chalcanthum (Pliny xxxiv. 12). As alum and green vitriol were applied to a variety of substances in common, and as both are distinguished by a sweetish and astringent taste, writers, even after the discovery of alum, do not seem to have discriminated the two salts accurately from each other. In the writings of the alchemists we find the words misy, sory, chalcanthum applied to alum as well as to iron sulphate; and the name atramentum sutorium, which ought to belong, one would suppose, exclusively to green vitriol, applied indifferently to both. Various minerals are employed in the manufacture of alum, the most important being alunite (q.v.) or alum-stone, alum schist, bauxite and cryolite.

In order to obtain alum from alunite, it is calcined and then exposed to the action of air for a considerable time. During this exposure it is kept continually moistened with water, so that it ultimately falls to a very fine powder. This powder is then lixiviated with hot water, the liquor decanted, and the alum allowed to crystallize. The alum schists employed in the manufacture of alum are mixtures of iron pyrites, aluminium silicate and various bituminous substances, and are found in upper Bavaria, Bohemia, Belgium and Scotland. These are either roasted or exposed to the weathering action of the air. In the roasting process, sulphuric acid is formed and acts on the clay to form aluminium sulphate, a similar condition of affairs being produced during weathering. The mass is now systematically extracted with water, and a solution of aluminium sulphate of specific gravity 1.16 is prepared. This solution is allowed to stand for some time (in order that any calcium sulphate and basic ferric sulphate may separate), and is then evaporated until ferrous sulphate crystallizes on cooling; it is then drawn off and evaporated until it attains a specific gravity of 1.40. It is now allowed to stand for some time, decanted from any sediment, and finally mixed with the calculated quantity of potassium sulphate (or if ammonium alum is required, with ammonium sulphate), well agitated, and the alum is thrown down as a finely-divided precipitate of alum meal. If much iron should be present in the shale then it is preferable to use potassium chloride in place of potassium sulphate.

In the preparation of alum from clays or from bauxite, the material is gently calcined, then mixed with sulphuric acid and heated gradually to boiling; it is allowed to stand for some time, the clear solution drawn off and mixed with acid potassium sulphate and allowed to crystallize. When cryolite is used for the preparation of alum, it is mixed with calcium carbonate and heated. By this means, sodium aluminate is formed; it is then extracted with water and precipitated either by sodium bicarbonate or by passing a current of carbon dioxide through the solution. The precipitate is then dissolved in sulphuric acid, the requisite amount of potassium sulphate added and the solution allowed to crystallize.

Potash alum, K2SO4.Al2(SO4)3.24H2O, crystallizes in regular

octahedra and is very soluble in water. The solution redens litmus and is an astringent. When heated to nearly a red heat it gives a porous friable mass which is known as ``burnt alum.'' It fuses at 92 deg. C. in its own water of crystallization. ``Neutral alum'' is obtained by the addition of as much sodium carbonate to a solution of alum as will begin to cause the separation of alumina; it is much used in mordanting. Alum finds application as a mordant, in the preparation of lakes for sizing hand-made paper and in the clarifying of turbid liquids.

Sodium alum, Na2SO4.Al2(SO4)3.24H2O, occurs in nature as the mineral mendozite. It is very soluble in water, and is extremely difficult to purify. In the preparation of this salt, it is preferable to mix the component solutions in the cold, and to evaporate them at a temperature not exceeding 60 deg. C. 100 parts of water dissolve 110 parts of sodium alum at 0 deg. C. (W. A. Tilden, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1884, 45, p. 409), and 51 parts at 16 deg. C. (E. Auge, Comptes rendus, 1890, 110, p. 1139).

Chrome alum, K2SO4.Cr2(SO 4/0)3.24H2O, appears chiefly as a by-product in the manufacture of alizarin, and as a product of the reaction in bichromate batteries.

The solubility of the various alums in water varies greatly, sodium alum being readily soluble in water, whilst caesium and rubidium alums are only sparingly soluble. The various solubilities are shown in the following table: --

Ammonium Alum. Caesium Alum. Potash Alum. Rubidium Alum.
t deg. C. 100 parts t deg. C. 100 parts t deg. C. 100 parts t deg. C. 100 parts
water water water water
dissolve dissolve dissolve dissolve
0 2.62 0 0.19 0 3.9 0 0.71
10 4.5 10 0.29 10 9.52 10 1.09
50 15.9 50 1.235 50 44.11 50 4.98
80 35.2 80 5.29 80 134.47 80 21.60
100 70.83 100 357.48
Poggiale C. Setterberg Poggiale C. Setterberg
Ann. Chim. phys. Ann. 1882,
[3] 8, p. 467 211, p. 104

ALUMINIUM (symbol Al; atomic weight 27.0), a metallic chemical element. Although never met with in the free state, aluminium is very widely distributed in combination, principally as silicates. The word is derived from the Lat. alumen (see ALUM), and is probably akin to the Gr. als (the root of salt, halogen, &c.). In 1722 F. Hoffmann announced the base of alum to be an individual substance; L. B. Guyton de Morveau suggested that this base should be called alumine, after Sel alumineux, the French name for alum; and about 1820 the word was changed into alumina. In 1760 the French chemist, T. Baron de Henouville, unsuccessfully attempted ``to reduce the base of alum'' to a metal, and shortly afterwards various other investigators essayed the problem in vain. In 1808 Sir Humphry Davy, fresh from the electrolytic isolation of potassium and sodium, attempted to decompose alumina by heating it with potash in a platinum crucible and submitting the mixture to a current of electricity; in 1809, with a more powerful battery, he raised iron wire to a red heat in contact with alumina, and obtained distinct evidence of the production of an iron-aluminium alloy. Naming the new metal in anticipation of its actual birth, he called it alumium; but for the sake of analogy he was soon persuaded to change the word to aluminum, in which form, alternately with aluminium, it occurs in chemical literature for some thirty years.

Preparation.

In the year 1824, endeavouring to prepare itbychemicalmeans, H. C. Oersted heated its chloride with potassium amalgam, and failed in his object simply by reason of the mercury, so that when F. Wohler repeated the experiment at Gottingen in 1827, employing potassium alone as the reducing agent, he obtained it in the metallic state for the first time. Contaminated as it was with potassium and with platinum from the crucible, the metal formed a grey powder and was far from pure; but in 1845 he improved his process and succeeded in producing metallic globules wherewith he examined its chief properties, and prepared several compounds hitherto unknown. Early in 1854, H. St Claire Deville, accidentally and in ignorance of Wohler's later results, imitated the 1845 experiment. At once observing the reduction of the chloride, he realized the importance of his discovery and immediately began to study the commercial production of the metal. His attention was at first divided between two processes -- the chemical method of reducing the chloride with potassium, and an electrolytic method of decomposing it with a carbon anode and a platinum cathode, which was simultaneously imagined by himself and R. Bunsen. Both schemes appeared practically impossible; potassium cost about L. 17 per lb, gave a very small yield and was dangerous to manipulate, while on the other hand, the only source of electric current then available was the primary battery, and zinc as a store of industrial energy was utterly out of the question. Deville accordingly returned to pure chemistry and invented a practicable method of preparing sodium which, having a lower atomic weight than potassium, reduced a larger proportion. He next devised a plan for manufacturing pure alumina from the natural ores, and finally elaborated a process and plant which held the field for almost thirty years. Only the discovery of dynamo-electric machines and their application to metallurgical processes rendered it possible for E. H. and A. H. Cowles to remove the industry from the hands of chemists, till the time when P. T. L. Heroult and C. M. Hall, by devising the electrolytic method now in use, inaugurated the present era of industrial electrolysis.

Ores.

The chief natural compounds of aluminium are four in number: oxide, hydroxide (hydrated oxide), silicate and fluoride. Corundum, the only important native oxide (Al2O3), occurs in large deposits in southern India and the United States. Although it contains a higher percentage of metal (52.9%) than any other natural compound, it is not at present employed as an ore, not only because it is so hard as to be crushed with difficulty, but also because its very hardness makes it valuable as an abrasive. Cryolite (AlF3.5NaF) is a double fluoride of aluminium and sodium, which is scarcely known except on the west coast of Greenland. Formerly it was used for the preparation of the metal, but the inaccessibility of its source, and the fact that it is not sufficiently pure to be employed without some preliminary treatment, caused it to be abandoned in favour of other salts. When required in the Heroult-Hall process as a solvent, it is sometimes made artificially. Aluminium silicate is the chemical body of which all clays are nominally composed. Haolin or China clay is essentially a pure disilicate (Al2O3.2SiO2.2H2O), occurring in large beds almost throughout the world, and containing in its anhydrous state 24.4% of the metal, which, however, in common clays is more or less replaced by calcium, magnesium, and the alkalis, the proportion of silica sometimes reaching 70%. Kaolin thus seems to be the best ore, and it would undoubtedly be used were it not for the fatal objection that no satisfactory process has yet been discovered for preparing pure alumina from any mineral silicate. If, according to the present method of winning the metal, a bath containing silica as well as alumina is submitted to electrolysis, both oxides are dissociated, and as silicon is a very undesirable impurity, an alumina contaminated with silica is not suited for reduction. Bauxite is a hydrated oxide of aluminium of the ideal composition, Al2O3.2H2O. It is a somewhat widely distributed mineral, being met within Styria, Austria, Hesse, French Guiana, India and Italy; but the most important beds are in the south of France, the north of Ireland, and in Alabama, Georgia and Arkansas in North America. The chief Irish deposits are in the neighbourhood of Glenravel, Co. Antrim, and have the advantage of being near the coast, so that the alumina can be transported by water-carriage. After being dried at 100 deg. C., Antrim bauxite contains from 33 to 60% of alumina, from 2 to 30% of ferric oxide, and from 7 to 24% of silica, the balance being titanic acid and water of combination. The American bauxites contain from 38 to 67% of alumina, from 1 to 23% of ferric oxide, and from 1 to 32% of silica. The French bauxites are of fairly constant composition, containing usually from 58 to 70% of alumina, 3 to 15% of foreign matter, and 27% made