Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/615

 ANVIL APACHES 579 the lower Thebais, built in his honor, was the special seat of his worship. He is said to have represented the horizon. The name signifies gilded, and his images were either of solid gold or gilt. He was supposed to be the illegitimate son of Osiris by Nephthys, and was the atten- dant and guardian of Osiris and Isis. When Osiris was murdered by Typhon, Anubis help- ed Isis to find his body. He accompanied the souls of the deceased to their place of judg- ment, and weighed their actions before the tribunal of Osiris. In the Greek mythology he was identified with Hermes. ANVIL, an iron block with a smooth face on which smiths hammer and shape their work. The smallest anvils, called bickerns, are mostly made of steel. The largest, used with tilt, trip, or steam hammers, are of cast iron, and of a very uniform and simple shape. They are truncated quadrangular pyramids, placed with the small end up, the large resting upon a block of wood fixed in the ground. The mid- dle-sized anvils, on which the forging is per- formed with sledge hammers, are made of cast or wrought iron. Formerly extra good anvils were made of wrought iron covered with steel, the fibres of which Avere placed vertically. To do this the bars of steel were cut in pieces about an inch long, which were placed stand- ing side by side, bound by a wire, and welded into a steel plate, which was itself welded to the anvil. The heat necessary for welding very often altered the steel, which was brought back to its original state by the anvil being warmed for a few hours in a box full of ce- ment. It was afterward hardened by pouring a stream of water upon the steel face till the whole block was cooled. The best anvils made in the United States are of cast iron covered with steel ; they possess most of the advantages above described, and are compara- tively cheap. The covering of steel is placed at the bottom of a mould, and cast iron is poured upon it. Some makers place a core in the mould so as to leave a deep recess nearly reaching the steel covering in the centre of the anvil. The air penetrates into this recess, and the metal is cooled more uniformly. ANVILLE, Jean Baptiste Bourgnignon d', a French geographer, born at Paris in 1697, died there in 1782. At the age of 15 he published a map of ancient Greece. In his 22d year he was appointed royal geographer. He published 211 maps and plans, and 78 memoires. One of his best maps is that of ancient Egypt. His Orbia Veteribus Notus and his Orbis Romanus have become standard guides for students of ancient history. His " General Atlas," his Atlas Antiqutis Major, and his maps of Gaul, Italy, and Greece during the middle ages, are celebrated. In 1779 the French government purchased for the royal library his large collec- tion, which consisted of 10,500 maps. AORTA (Gr. aoprf, air vessel), the largest ar- tery in the body. The aorta and arteries were first named air vessels by Greek anatomists, because until the time of Galen they were sup- posed to contain air instead of blood. The aorta arises from the left ventricle of the heart, ascends a short distance toward the neck, and then curves obliquely backward and toward the left in a semicircular bend, at the level of the second dorsal vertebra, forming the "arch of the aorta." It then passes downward through the posterior part of the chest and ab- domen, to the point where it divides into the two common iliac arteries, which are each in turn divided on either side into an internal branch, ramifying into the lower regions of the trunk, and an external branch, descending to, the lower limbs. The carotids arise from the arch of the aorta to supply the head and face, and the subclavian arteries derive from the same arch, to supply the different regions of the neck and the upper limbs. Numerous large arteries arise from the aorta or main trunk as it descends from the upper to the lower portions of the trunk ; and these divide again into innumerable branches as they ram- ify minutely and extensively within the body. AOSTA (anc. Augusta Pretoria), a town of Piedmont, in the province and 49 m. N. N. "W. of Turin, on the Dora-Baltea, at the foot of the Great St. Bernard, and the southern termina- tion of the Alpine pass of that name ; pop. 6,000. It contains many Roman remains, and was the birthplace of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and the scene of the labors of St. Bernard, founder of the hospice bearing his name, who held the archdeaconry of Aosta. The valley in which it stands is famous for its immense pine forests, mines of copper, lead, and iron, and marble quarries. Cretinism and goitre prevail among its inhabitants. The third son of the king of Italy (Amadeus, late king of Spain) derives his title of duke of Aosta from this town, which has been greatly im- proved during the last 15 years. APACHES, a fierce nomadic nation of the great Athabascan family, roaming over portions of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in the United States, and Sonora, Chihuahua, and Durango in Mexico. The Apaches proper have only tem- porary war chiefs, and do not cultivate the soil, while the Lipans, a tribe of the same race and language, have their regular chiefs whom they obey ; and the Navajos, another tribe of the same language, cultivate the ground and manufacture excellent blankets. The Apaches comprise the Jicarillas, in the Sacramento mountains ; the Gila Apaches, on the San Francisco ; the Tonto Apaches, on the Sierra del Mogoyen, their impregnable position ; the Mimbrenos, in the Sierra de los Mimbres ; the Copper Mine Apaches, on the Rio Grande, and for part of each year in Chihuahua and Sonora ; the Mascalero Apaches, ranging from the Sierra de Guadalupe to that of San Andres and west to the Rio Grande ; with some smaller bands. As the Spanish settlements advanced the Apa- ches became the scourge of the frontier, repel- ling all attempts to civilize and convert them.