Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/495

LEFT SILL 431 SILURIAN SYSTEM bins, twisted by the revolutions of a flyer, *" and then wound on a reel. The cultivation and production of silk was commenced in the United States at a very early period. In 1734 eight pounds of silk cocoons raised in Georgia were taken to England by Governor Oglethorpe. Nearly a century afterward the first silk made by machinery in the United States was manufactured at Mansfield, Conn. (1829). Silk cultivation is now a firmly established industry in California and several other States, and there are extensive silk manufactories at Paterson, N. J., Hartford and South Manchester, Conn., Newton, Groton, Northampton and other points in Massachusetts, Philadel- phia, Baltimore, New York, etc. Sewing silks of American manufacture are re- garded throughout the world as superior in many respects to those manufactured in Italy or elsewhere in Europe. The same is also true of American-made dress silks and ribbons. The silk crop of the world in 1919 was about 24,100,000 kilos, of which the greater part came from Ja- pan. The production of American fac- tories in the same year was valued at $750,000,000, compared with a value of $250,000,000 in 1914. The imports of manufactures of silk in the United States in 1920 were valued at $87,728,181. SILL, EDWARD ROWLAND, an American poet; born in Windsor, Conn., April 29, 1841. In 1874 he became Pro- fessor of English Literature in the Uni- versity of California, where he remained till 1882, subsequently removing to Cuya- hoga Falls, Ohio. His poetical works are "The Hermitage, and Other Poems" (1867) ; "The Venus of Milo, and Other Poems" (1882) ; and "Poems," posthu- mously issued (1888). He died in Cleve- land, O., Feb. 27, 1887. SILL, LOUISE MORGAN, an Ameri- can author, born in Honolulu, H. I. She was educated at Mt. Vernon Institute, Washington, D. C. From 1899 to 1905 she was a member of the literary staff of Harper & Bros., and from 1905 to 1910 was an assistant editor of "Harper's Mag- azine." In 1889 she married G. I. Sill, whom she divorced in 1908. In 1910 she removed to Paris, France. She wrote "In Sun or Shade" (1906) ; "Sunnyfield" (1909); "Kitty Tipsy-Toe" (1909). She also translated various books from the French, among which are to be mentioned Bordeaux' "Biography of Guynemer" (1918), and Charles des Granges' "His- tory of French Literature" (1919). SILLIMAN, BENJAMIN, an Ameri- can scientist; born in North Stratford, Conn., Aug. 8, 1779; was graduated at Yale College in 1796 and admitted to the bar in 1802. At the solicitation of Pres- ident Dwight, of Yale, he abandoned law to devote himself to science, and in 1802 was chosen Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Yale. In 1807 he wrote the earliest authentic account of a fall of a meteor in America. In 1811 he began a series of experiments with the compound blowpipe and obtained for the first time in the United States the metals sodium and potassium. He discovered the fusion of the carbons in the voltaic arc in 1822 ; opened the Lowell Institute in Bos- ton with a course of lectures on geology in 1838; was chosen president of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists in 1840; and was one of the corporate members named by Congress for the formation of the National Acad- emy of Sciences in 1863. In 1818 he founded the "American Journal of Sci- ence," which he conducted as sole editor till 1838 and as senior editor till 1846. Among his numerous publications are: "Elements of Chemistry," "Consistency of Discoveries of Modern Geology with the Sacred History of the Creation and the Deluge," etc. He died in New Haven, Conn., Nov. 24, 1864. SILLS, KENNETH CHARLES MOR- TON, an American educator, born at Halifax, N. S., in 1879. He was educated at Bowdoin, Harvard, and Columbia, and, besides receiving degrees from these in- stitutions, also received honorary degrees from the University of Maine, Bates Col- lege, and Dartmouth College. From 1901 to 1903 he was an assistant in Eng- lish at Harvard University; from 1903 to 1904, instructor in English and classics at Bowdoin College; and from 1904 to 1905, tutor in English at Columbia Uni- versity. In 1906 he returned to Bowdoin College as adjunct professor of Latin, becoming, in 1907, Winkley professor of Latin language and literature; in 1910, dean; in 1917, acting president; and in 1918, president of Bowdoin College. From 1917 to 1919 he was a member of the board of visitors, of the United States Naval Academy. He wrote "The First American, and Other Poems" (1911). SILO, a store-pit for potatoes or beets; also, a pit in which green fodder is tightly packed to make silage or ensilage. SILOAM, or SILOAH, a pool in Jeru- salem, fed by the waters of the Gihon and forming part of the ancient water- supply system of the city. In 1880 the famous "Siloam inscription" was discov- ered in the aqueduct. It is the oldest Hebrew inscription known. SILURIAN SYSTEM, in geology, a term made public by Sir Roderick Murchi-