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REED

1597

REFORMATION

and oft-repeated. Its nest is a trim, cup-shaped affair of thin strips of bark, fine grass, vegetable fiber and plant-down. The three to five whitish eggs are blotched with brown and lilac.

Reed, in music, the mouthpiece of a hautboy, bassoon or clarionet. It also is a piece of metal with a brass spring or tongue so attached to it that the admission of a current of wind causes it to vibrate and produce a musical note. The reed is of two kinds: the beating reed and the free reed. The former is used in the pipes of an organ, and must be placed within a tube to produce a musical sound. The invention of the free reed has been ascribed to Grenie, a Frenchman, who brought it into use, but it had long been known to the Chinese. Its note is smoother and mellower than that of the beating reed, and it has the advantage of not requiring a pipe, which is a necessary appendage to the latter.

Reed,Thomas B., American politician, was born at Portland, Me., Oct. 18, 1839, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1860. After serving a short time as assistant paymaster in the navy, he studied law and commenced legal practice in 1865. After v serving successively as a member of trie Maine legislature, as attorney-general of the state and as city solicitor of Portland, he was elected a representative in the 45th Congress in 1876. His commanding ability was so clearly recognized that he soon became the acknowledged leader of the Republican party on the floor; and, when his party secured a majority of the house of representatives in the 5ist Congress, Mr. Reed was chosen speaker. He served continually in Congress until 1899, and was elected speaker of the 54th and 55th Congresses. He was re-elected in 1899, but resigned his seat and took up the practice of law in New York City. He published Reed's Rules in 1894, and edited Modern Eloquence. He died on Dec. 7, 1902.

Reeves, John Sims, one of England's greatest singers, was born at Shooter's Hill, Kent, Oct. 21, 1822. At fourteen he was deemed a skillful performer on various instruments, and was appointed organist and director of the choir. He went to Paris in 1843 to perfect his voice and style, and on his return to England in 1847 he was recog-nized as its first tenor, a position which he maintained for years, his voice being one of wide rang® and of great natural sweetness

THOMAS  B.   REED

and purity. He died at Worthing, Sussex, Oct. 25, 1900. Refin'ing.

Kerosene - Refining. Crude petroleum, commonly called oil, is refined into purer oils for lubrication and illumination. The method of refining is a process essentially of gradual distillation. The crude oil is conducted into iron vessels fitted with a dome from which a vapor-pipe leads to a condenser. The oil is then gradually heated until one constituent after another is given off as vapor. The principle of refining is that each oil has its own volatile temperature, so that one kind of oil may be conducted by the vapor-tube to its own tank and then condensed and collected and shut off, before another kind begins to evaporate. Naturally this simple method of distillation, where there are so many substances present as in petroleum, does not yield perfectly pure products. The first gases to be given off from the petroleum are various forms of naphtha. A second still is generally used for the distillation of benzine and the heavier oils, which are chiefly used for illumination and lubrication. The naphtha constituents of petroleum pass off in the following order : cymogene, rhigolene, petroleum, ether, gasoline and benzine. The residuum is then filtered, and a further separation of oils is effected by the filtration, as the lighter oils come through the bone-black cr fullers' earth more rapidly than do the heavier. Most of the lubricating oils are obtained in this process. The oils are tested with regard to color and specific gravity. It is important, however, that such oils as kerosene, which are in wide demand for illumination, should not be too inflammable! and therefore they are tested that their flashing-point may not be lower than 110° F. nor their burning-point lower than 125° F. Machine-oils are tested for coldness, as they must not thicken too readily.

Sugar-Re fining. The refining of sugar is largely by filtration and evaporation. The raw sugars made from beet, cane etc. differ greatly in their constituents, the beet containing alkalines and the cane eth ers and oils The refining process makes the sugars practically identical, except in the lower grades. The raw sugar is dissolved in a thirty per cent, solution, filtered through bags, often treated with lime, and then filtered as in the case of petroleum over bone-black. By this process the sugar is bleached. The almost white solution that results is then boiled and the size and hardness of the crystals may be regulated by the higher or lower vacuum, the lower vacuum producing the harder crystals. The crystals are dried ir» centrifugal dryers. The first granulation gives the highest grade of sugar; lower granulations give lower grades.

Reformation, the great religious revolution of the 16th century. With the Refor«