Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/462

 442 ROS1NI ROSS add materially to their value. By the process of Messrs. Hunt and Pochin, the rosin is dis- tilled at a temperature below that by which it would be decomposed, the process being conducted with steam under a pressure of ten atmospheres. The maximum temperature al- lowed is about 600. The rosin and steam are collected and condensed in a suitable receiver kept as cold as possible by the application of water, and free from the moisture of the con- densed steam. Instead of steam, carbonic acid, or a mixture of carbonic acid and nitrogen, or hydrogen gas, &c., is introduced to decolor the rosin. The product is white and almost transparent, and is greatly preferred to the crude article by soap and varnish makers. Rosin is employed for a variety of useful pur- poses. It is an ingredient in varnishes, and is united with tallow in the preparation of cheap candles. It answers to some extent as a sub- stitute for fixed oil or fat in the manufacture of yellow soap ; but, without glycerine in its composition, it possesses no true saponifying properties. (See SOAP.) Rosin is also used in perfumery, and in various pharmaceutical preparations, as plasters and ointments. In caulking the seams of ships it is used in a melted state to fill them, and by oakum makers it is intermixed in a pulverized state with the oakum to increase its weight. It enters into the composition of some fireworks, and is used as a reducing agent in soldering. Another well known use of it is for covering the bows of violins, to prevent them from slipping over the strings without producing vibration. In France rosin oil is largely used as an ingredi- ent in printers' ink, and elsewhere in the com- position of coarse lubricating oils. Nearly all the rosin of commerce is furnished by North America. ROSIM, Giovanni, an Italian author, born at Lucignano, Tuscany, June 24, 1776, died in Pisa, May 16, 1855. He became in 1803 pro- fessor of Italian literature at the university of Pisa. He prepared new editions of Guicciar- dini's Storia <VItalia (10 vols., 1819-'20), and of Tasso's works (33 vols., 1821-'32). He wrote the novels La monaca di Monza (3 vols., 1829) and Luisa Strozzi (4 vols., 1833), Storia delta pittnra italiana (2d ed., 7 vols., 1848- '52), and other works. ROSIN WEED. See SILPHIUM. RO.SKILDE, a town of Denmark, in the island of Seeland, on a branch of the Issefiord, 20 m. "W. by S. of Copenhagen; pop. about 5,000. It was the ancient capital of the kingdom, but ceased to be a royal residence in 1443. The cathedral, dating from 1084, is the largest and finest in Denmark, and contains more than 70 tombs of Danish kings and members of the royal family. Outside of the town is the large lunatic asylum, called Bidstrup, belonging to the city of Copenhagen. Charles X. (Gusta- vus) of Sweden, after several victories over Frederick III. of Denmark, concluded a treaty here in March, 1658. ROSMIM SERBATI, Antonio, an Italian phi- losopher, born in Roveredo, March 24, 1797, died at Stresa, July 1, 1855. He took priest's orders at the age of 24, and in 1827 published his Introduzione alia Jilosofia, followed in 1829 by // nuoto saggio sulV origine delle idee. In 1828 he founded " the brethren of charity," a religious order, which was confirmed by the pope in 1839. In 1836 he became abbot of San Michele della Chiusa, where he founded " the sisters of Providence." In 1848 Pius IX. nom- inated him to the cardinalate ; but on account of his work on church government and re- form, Cinque piaghe della tanta chiesa (" Five Wounds of the Church "), and one of his polit- ical tracts, La costituzione secondo la giustizia sociale, he was not confirmed, and the books were put upon the catalogue of the Index Ex- purgatorius. His published works amounted to 35 volumes, 14 being posthumous. Father Lockhart published a memoir of Rosmini in 1856, and Vincenzo Garelli another in 1861. (See PHILOSOPHY, vol. xiii., p. 440.) ROSNY, Leon de, a French orientalist, born at Loos, department of Le Nord, Aug. 5, 1837. He studied in Paris, and was appointed in 1863 interpreter of the Japanese ambassadors to the European courts. In 1868 he was appointed to the chair of Japanese at the special school of oriental languages in Paris. He is perpetual secretary of the Asiatic society, and is the founder of the society of American and orien- tal ethnography. He has published treatises on the Semitic languages and their history, figurative and hieroglyphical writing, the Co- rean language, text books for learning Japa- nese, Dictionnaire des signet ideographiques de la Chine (5 parts, 1864-'7), fitiides asiatiquea de geographic et d'histoire (1864), &c. ROSS, a S. county of Ohio, intersected by Scioto river and drained by Paint creek ; area, about 650 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 87,097. It has a diversified surface, and the soil, espe- cially in the valley of the Scioto, is very fer- tile. It is intersected by the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad, and by the Ohio and Erie canal. The chief productions in 1870 were 327,858 bushels of wheat, 2,313,529 of Indian corn, 99,983 of oats, 98,134 of potatoes, 9,868 tons of hay, 4,048 Ibs. of tobacco, 85,402 of wool, 334,391 of butter, and 24,191 gallons of sorghum molasses. There were 8,035 horses, 5,532 milch cows, 14,258 other cattle, 24,411 sheep, and 53,926 swine ; 23 manufactories of carriages and wagons, 1 of railroad cars, 2 of iron castings, 18 of leather, 3 of liquors, 10 of lumber, 1 of engines and boilers, 2 of paper, 15 of saddlery and harness, 10 flour mills, and 5 woollen mills. Capital, Chillicothe. ROSS, a county of Scotland. See Ross AND CROMARTY. ROSS, Alexander Milton, a Canadian naturalist, born at Belleville, Ontario, Dec. 13, 1832. He was educated as a physician, and has collected a male and a female specimen of every bird, native or migratory, in the Dominion, num-