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ROYAL SOCIETY, CANADA

1640

RUBENS

by the government for his successful administration. Since its opening 180 cadets have been granted commissions in the imperial army, as well as 70 others in the Canadian permanent force. About 80 cadets are in training. Cadets must pass a competitive examination on entering, with half-yearly examinations afterwards to obtain diplomas. Although the college is organized on a strictly military basis, a thoroughly practical and complete course of study in civil engineering, civil and hydro-graphic surveying, physics, chemistry, French and English is provided. Constant practice of gymnastic drills and outdoor exercises of all kinds ensure good health and fine physical condition. Five commissions in the imperial army are awarded yearly to the cadets who stand highest. The length of the course is three years, in three terms of nine and a half months' residence each. The total cost of the course, including board, uniform, instructional material and all extras, is from $750 to $1,000. The present commandant is Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Thornton Taylor, who is a graduate of the college. Perhaps the most distinguished graduate is Lieutenant-Colonel E. P. C. Girouard, K. C. M., who stands easily first in the annals of railway work in time of war.

Royal Society of Canada, The, was founded by the Marquess of Lome in conjunction with the leaders of thought in the Dominion, and its first meeting took place at Ottawa in 1882, Sir William Dawson presiding. Only 80 members are elected, divided into sections numbering 20 each. The first is devoted to French-Canadian literature and history, the second to English-Canadian literature and history, the third to mathematical, physical and chemical science and the fourth to geological and biological science. Meetings are held yearly in May, usually at Ottawa, and the transactions, filling a large volume, are published annually at governmental expense.

Rub'ber Man'ufac'ture. In a number of different kinds of tropical trees is found a secretion that does not seem to be essential to the life of the tree, in which float minute globules of rubber. Many methods of securing this secretion, usually called rubber-milk, are employed; but the most common and economical way is to make incisions in the trunk of the tree. As the rubber-milk flows out, it is caught in a small cup of clay and at the end of each day emptied into a larger vessel, The old and still common way of separating the small globules of rubber from the rubber-milk is by evaporation. Where rubber-milk is collected in large quantities, however, a machine similar to a cream-separator is used. This collects the rubber on the top and drives the water and all impurities to the bottom. The manufacture of rubber began about 1820. The application of rubber to making waterproof

cloth first gave commercial importance to rubber. The first to make this application of rubber was Charles Mclntosh, who reduced it to a solution in naptha and spread it between two pieces of cloth. Waterproof coats still bear his name. Williams Chaffee developed a rubber-varnish for coating different materials to make them waterproof. The Roxbury Rubber Company was formed in 1833, and lor a time did a flourishing business, but it was soon found that the articles manufactured had a tendency to harden and crack in winter p~A become soft and sticky in summer. In the meantime Charles Goodyear was trying to overcome this defect by mixing pure rubber with various other substances. Nathaniel Hayward of Woburn, Mass., found that by mixing dry sulphur with pure rubber the stickiness was removed. Goodyear acquired Hayward's patent. By accident he dropped some of the mixture on a hot stove and found that it did not melt. He then placed it in extreme cold and found that its texture was not changed. Thus the art of vulcanizing rubber was discovered, for the process consists simply of mixing sulphur with pure rubber and then subjecting the mixture to moderate heat for a period of time. The mixture varies from soft to hard according to the amount of heat applied. Although sulphur is the only essential ingredient, others, as asphalt, carbonate of lead, magnesium, silicate or tar, are often added, each of which imparts a different quality to the product. Pure rubber is now used only to a limited extent in arts, but in its vulcanized state it is applied to an almost endless variety of purposes.

Ru'bens, Peter Paul, a celebrated painter of the Flemish school, was born at Siegen in Westphalia, June 29, 1577. In 1579 his father, who was a lawyer, died, and his mother went back to her native city of Antwerp, where young Rubens was taught at a Jesuit school. For a while he served as a page, but at 13 began to study art. In 1600 he went to Italy, studied the works of Titian and Paul Veronese, and became court-painter to the Duke of Mantua. In 1605 he was sent on a mission to Philip III of Spain and proved a good diplomat. At Madrid he painted the portraits of many of the nobility. He settled at Antwerp in 1609, and became court-painter to Archduke Albert. The same year he married his first wife, Isabella Brant, whose likeness he so often painted. Between 1611 and 1614 he painted his Descent from the Cross, which is usually thought to be his masterpiece. At Paris he painted over a score of pictures for the queen-mother, Marie de Medici, illustrating her marriage with Henry IV. Sent on a mission to Philip IV of Spain, he stayed nine months in Madrid, became acquainted with Velasquez, and painted some 40 pictures, among them five portraits of the king.