Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/414

366 penetration to the individual and real ; what she had her self known and felt, the deep impressions made on her mind by wild scenery, and by rugged yet genuine human natures, that she mirrored forth with living truth and fiery vehe mence. Doubtless her strength at times approaches too near to coarseness, the situations become almost melo dramatic, and the result may be charged with sensationalism, but the pervading sense of intense reality is more than sufficient to carry off these defects. Of her three great works Jane Eyre will always be the one which occurs most readily in connection with her name ; it has all the vigour and individuality of a first-born work of genius. Shirley, one of the sweetest love-stories in the range of English fiction, abounds in rich humour, but wants the perfection of artistic unity. Villette contains, perhaps, more of the author s personality than either of the others. The character of the heroine is in truth that of Miss Bronte herself, and the analysis of it is at times morbidly acute. The Professor has never gained much popularity, though the main conception is one of great beauty and is skilfully handled.

Of 'S works it is somewhat difficult to speak. Hers was a strange nature, not easily understood ; and it had but little time to develop. Some of her poems are singularly powerful, and show uncommon abilities. Wither ing Heights is a literary curiosity. Unmistakably the work of a strong mind, into which the wild scenery of the north had sunk deeply, it shows absolutely no comprehension of human character. We are transplanted to a dreamland, enveloped in a lurid thunderous atmosphere, through which stalk fantastic giant beings, gloomy and devilish in their utter wickedness. It is the production of a powerful imagination, but of an imagination unrestrained by any experience of the real, and regulated by no considerations of artistic beauty and proportion.

's was a mind of weaker calibre. Aynes Grey is a gentle, gracefully written tale, founded on the writer s own experiences of a governess s life ; but it mani fested little power or promise. Tlie Tenant of Wildfell Hall has much greater force and vigour ; but the main concep tion is an unpleasant one over which the writer had brooded until she had been seized with a morbid craving to give it shape and substance. It is a painful story, inartistically told.

1em  BRONZE is an alloy formed wholly or chiefly of copper and tin, in variable proportions. It has been used from a very early period. Archaeologists distinguish a bronze age in prehistoric times in Western Europe (intermediate between those of stone and iron), characterized by a general use of the alloy for cutting instruments and other objects. The &quot; brass &quot; of the Bible was probably of the nature of bronze, The use of bronze in early times is noticed more particularly below. The addition of tin to copper gives rise to a product more fusible than copper, and thus better suited for casting. The alloy is also harder and less malleable. The proportions in which copper and tin are combined to make bronze vary according to the object for Avhich the alloy is designed. With about 7 parts copper to 1 part tin, bronze is very hard, brittle, and sonorous, Soft bronze, again, which bears drifting, rolling, and drawing, is generally composed of 16 copper to 1 tin ; while a flexible tenacious alloy, good for nails and bolts, is made of 20 copper to 1 tin. In preparing bronze for statues, bas-reliefs, &c., the qualities chiefly looked at are fusibility and hardness, also readiness to acquire a fine patina on exposure, though it appears this may be acquired by bronzes differing widely in composition. A common statue bronze is formed of copper 80, tin 20. Bell- metal, for large bells, is generally made with about 3 parts copper to 1 part tin ; for house bells, 4 copper to 1 tin. The bronze of bells (as of various other objects) sometimes contains a little zinc, lead, &c., in addition to the primary ingredients. The Chinese tarn tarns or gongs, are made of bronze forged by the hammer ; they contain about 20 per cent, tin, the rest copper only. The secret of their manu facture seems to have been revealed by MM. Julien and Champion, who find that a bronze of this nature, though at the common temperature brittle as glass, may, at a dull red heat, be forged and beaten out as easily as soft tin, The speculum metal employed in telescopes is of 2 copper to 1 tin; and on the other hand, with larger proportions of copper, we have an alloy suitable for machinery bearings, and also for medals, 8 copper to 1 tin; another for brass ordnance or bronze cannon, 9 copper to 1 tin ; another for mathematical instruments, 12 copper to 1 tin, &c. The hardness and resistance to oxidation of bronze fit it admir ably for coins, and many ancient bronze coins have come to us but little deteriorated, though buried forages in damp soil, or immersed in water. The composition of the present bronze British coinage is (in 100 parts) 95 copper, 4 tin, 1 zinc. A few years ago some very beautiful Chinese and Japanese bronzes were exhibited in Paris, remarkable chiefly for the dead black colour of their patina. From analyses by M. Morin it appeared that they contained a large proportion of lead, the average composition being copper 80 parts, lead 10, tin 4, zinc 2, and the remaining four parts consisting of iron, nickel, arsenic, silver, and gold. According to M. Christofle, lead is not essential for production of a fine black patina ; and it renders the alloy brittle. Bronze can be covered with a black, red, brown, or green patina, as desired, by suitable oxidation or sulphurization. Some important researches on bronze for field-guns have lately been made by Colonel Uchatius of Vienna ; and the steel bronze he produces is said to be quite equal to steel in hardness, homogeneousness, resistance, and other qualities ; while it is less affected by atmospheric agency, and less costly. He casts the bronze (which contains 8 per cent, tin, the rest copper) in a cast-iron ingot mould, with a core of wrought-copper 50 mm. in diameter. Then after boring out the hollow ingot to a diameter of 80 mm. he forces through it a series of six conical pistons of hardened steel, slightly larger in diameter than the bore. The interior is then excessively hard and ready for rifling. The hardness, elasticity, and solidity diminish from within outwards. These new bronze guns have been found to bear several hundred discharges successively without the slightest ap parent deformation or other injury. It is only of late years that the changes produced in bronze by addition of phosphorus have been scientifically investigated ; and from experiments by Messrs Montefiore, Kiinzel, Kirkaldy, and others, phosphor bronze is proved to have great superiority to ordinary bronze in tenacity, elasticity, and tensile strength (being to it much what-steel is to wrought iron). The presence of oxides in ordinary bronze accounts for its possessing these qualities in less degree, and phosphorus increases them by reduction of the metal. Phosphor bronze is further greatly improved in tensile strength by being drawn into wire or rolled into sheets ; and it resists the action of sea-water much better than copper. Such a substance cannot fail to find many important applications, military, industrial, and domestic. In virtue of its reducing properties, we may add, phosphor bronze can be platinized better than any other metal.