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AITKEN war took place on the banks of the Aisne or in the country tributary to it. The battles of the Aisne constitute a very important chapter in the history of the World War. See WORLD WAR.

AITKEN, ROBERT GRANT, an American astronomer; born in Jackson, Cal., in 1864. He graduated from Williams College in 1887. In the following year he became instructor of mathematics of Livermore College, California. From 1891 to 1895 he was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of the Pacific. He was appointed astronomer at the Lick Observatory in 1895, and has to his credit the discovery of about three thousand double stars. He was awarded prizes and medals by many American and foreign scientific societies. He was editor of "Publications of the Astronomical Societies of the Pacific," and contributed much to astronomical and other scientific journals.

AITKEN, ROBERT INGERSOLL, an American sculptor; born in San Francisco and was professor of sculpture at public schools, studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in San Francisco and was professor of sculpture at this institution from 1901 to 1904. He showed remarkable talent in the making of portrait busts. Among those which he executed were busts of Mme. Modjeska, Augustus Thomas, William H. Taft, Henry Roger Wolcott, and others. He also designed many important monuments, including the McKinley Monument in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the Bret Harte Monument in San Francisco, etc. He was awarded many medals for his work and became secretary of the National Sculpture Society, and a member of many American and foreign societies relating to art and sculpture.

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (āx´lä-shäp-el´) (German Aachen), the capital of a district in Rhenish Prussia. Pop. about 175,000. Aix-la-Chapelle is the center of a valuable coal district, and of numerous thriving manufactories, especially for spinning and weaving woolen fabrics, and for needle and pin making. There are also immense manufactures of machinery, bells, glass buttons, chemicals and cigars. The city is rich in historical associations. It emerged from historical obscurity about the time of Pepin; and Charlemagne founded its world-wide celebrity. Whether it was his birthplace is doubtful, but in 814 it became his grave. In 796 he had rebuilt the imperial palace, as well as the chapel in which Pepin had celebrated Christmas in 765. The present town-house was built in 1353