Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/816

770 TABLE H. Earnings of the Cotton Industry, 1907-20.

Year.

No. of Companies.

Capital.

Profit. -ooc

Loss >'s

Average Dividend

Share. | Loan. -ooo's

1907

I(H>

3,723

2,265

1,321

1908

IOO

3,660

2,351 587

ni

1909

IOO

3,427

2,010

272

7]

1910

IOO

3,543

2,254

368

1911

IOO

3,728

2,442

30

4]

1912

IOO

3,649

2,211

558

7:

1913

IOO

3,692

2,225

537

7:

1914

loo 3,569

2,416

53

6J

1915

IOO

3,6i3

2,500

15

5

1916

IOO

3-503 2,570

400

6

1917

90

3,602 2,250

516

7

1918

40 1,678

953

577

L

1919

23

946

370

340

31

1920

IOO

2.261*

JVV


 * Amount paid in dividends only.

cotton-seed, rape, whale oil, etc., could not be used, e.g. for the manufacture of margarine or soap, without a certain proportion of hard fat or solid oil, such as lard, coconut or palm oil. But the discovery of a new hardening process made it possible, by the removal of certain constituents from the soft oils, to convert them into a hard stearine, more solid even than tallow, and which could therefore be used for all purposes for which hard fats only had hitherto been employed.

Again, only American cotton-seed had till then been regarded as capable of producing an edible oil. This was due not so much to anything in the seed itself, but to the processes used in manufacture. American cotton-seed, being " white " or " fuzzy," had to be decorticated before crushing, i.e. the whole of the husk or hull, with the short fuzz adhering thereto, was sep- arated from the meat or kernel, and the latter alone was crushed. In the case of the black Egyptian seed, however, which has practically no fuzz, and to a certain extent also Bom- bay or Indian cotton-seed, which has only a short fuzz, the whole seed was crushed, including the black hull; but the latter gave the oil a very dark colour, and in order to remove this certain chemicals had to be employed which left a distinct flavour in the refined oil, and this was thought to debar it entirely from use for edible purposes. Many other vegetable oils for other reasons were in a similar position; but the discovery of a process of deodorizing oils by blowing superheated steam through them made it possible to remove all objectionable flavour from almost any kind of vegetable oil.

The adoption of these two processes has gone far to revolu- tionize the relative values of the different vegetable-oil seeds, as now practically any kind of vegetable oil can be adapted for almost any purpose, either for culinary purposes or as a hard fat. They have also made it possible to use oils which hitherto had not been usable at all for either of these purposes.

During the same period considerable further knowledge has been gained as to the use of cotton-seed meal and cake for feed- ing purposes. A great deal has been done, by the combined use of different cakes possessing counteracting qualities, to make it possible to use certain cakes, such as Bombay, for purposes for which it had not formerly been thought suitable, e.g. Bombay or Indian cotton-seed cake was thought to be too astringent for cattle if used alone, but if given along with linseed or turnips, which possess laxative qualities, a good result can be obtained from the combination. Again, much has been learned as to the advantages of using particular cakes for special purposes; thus linseed cake was found to be the best for feeding cattle for the butcher, while Egyptian cotton-seed cake was looked upon as better than Bombay for dairy cattle.

Further future developments arc indicated by the invention of a new method of removing from white cotton-seed, such as American, after the ordinary process of delinting, an additional supply of short fuzz in such a condition that it can be advanta- geously used for many purposes, such as paper-making, guncot- ton, artificial silk, etc. Indeed, this process of economizing by- products has gone still further, for a plant has within recent years been erected in America which, by a similar process,

removes the final remaining short fuzz from the cracked hulls after decortiration, and even these have been put to good use for similar purposes. (J. A. T.*) COUPERUS, LOUIS (1863- ), Dutch writer, was born at The Hague June 10 1863, a member of a family of Scottish origin, banished from Scotland for political reasons in the i6th century. His early boyhood was spent in the Dutch East Indies, where his father was a prominent Government official. His first novel Eline Vere, written under the influence of Tolstoy, appeared in 1889 and was followed by Noodlot (The Footsteps of Fate) in 1894 and Exlaze, the first of his novels to be translated into English (1892). He next produced certain imag- inative and idealistic works, such as Majesteil (1895) and several volumes of prose poems. But the work by which he is best known in the English-speaking world is the series of " Books of the Small Souls, " four novels entitled Die Kleine Zielen (The Small Souls), Het Late Leven (The Later Life), Zielenschemering (The Twilight of the Soul), Het Hclge Wctcn (Eng. version Dr. Adriaan) which, together with Van Oude Menschen, de dingen de worbijgaan (Old People aitd the Things that Pass, Eng. version 1919) raised him to the first rank of European novelists. In this record of an ancient crime, buried deep in the hearts of the aged pair of lovers who committed it, and yet poison- ing the lives of their descendants to the third and fourth genera- tion, there is the austerity and inevitability of Aeschylean trag- edy. Couperus travelled much in Greece and Italy and embodied his classical researches in historical romances such as De Berg nan Licht (The Mountain Light) and its successor De Komedian- tcn (The Comedians), and mythological romances such as Dio- nysos (1905) and Herakles (1913), as well as volumes of essays, sketches and short stories. The greater part of his work has been rendered into English by A. Teixeira de Mattos. His his- torical novel Iskandcr (concerning Alexander the Great) appeared in 1020. COURTHOPE, WILLIAM JOHN. (1842-1917) (see 7.327), died at Wadhurst, Sussex, April 10 1917. He published a selection from Martial's Epigrams in 1914, and a volume of verse, The Country Town and other Poems, with a prefatory Memoir of him by A. O. Prickard, appeared in 1920.

See also J. \V. Mackail, W. J. Courtlwpe (1919). COURTNEY, LEONARD HENRY COURTNEY, BARON (1832-1918) (see 7.328), died in London on May n 1918. His brother, WILLIAM PRIDEAUX COURTNEY, died in London Nov. 14 1913. COURTRAI, BATTLE OF (1918): see YPRES and YSER BATTLES. COVENTRY, ENGLAND (see 7.342). Pop. (1911) 106,349, showing an extremely rapid increase of 52% over that of 1901. The normal engineering industries of Coventry were almost entirely transformed during the World War to munition production, which was carried on on a vast scale, and to the construction of aeroplanes, tanks, and guns. Among special industries newly established are the making of artificial silk and of telephone and other electrical apparatus. In order to meet the needs of an unusually rapid development, parliamentary powers were obtained in 1920 for the widening of several narrow streets and for the construction of two new arterial roads in the centre of the city. A new council house costing 100,000 was completed in 1917 and officially opened in 1920, and three branch public libraries were opened in 1913. The I4th century tower of Holy Trinity church was restored at a cost of 9,000 in 1918- 20, and the I4th century Guildhall was in process of restoration in 1921. Coventry was created a separate diocese in 1918, the church of St. Michael being constituted into a cathedral. COWDRAY, WEETMAN DICKINSON PEARSON, 1ST VISCOUNT (1856- ), was born at Shelley Woodhouse, Yorks., July 15 1856, and educated privately at Harrogate. He entered the family firm of S. Pearson & Co., contractors, ultimately becoming its head. Under him the firm greatly extended, undertaking many important contracts and acquiring large interests in Mexico and South America. In 1892 he unsuccessfully contested Colchester in the Liberal interest, but in 1895 was elected for the same seat, which he held until