Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/168

ASPEN. ing lathe, and especially for manufacture of troughs, trays, pails, etc. It is deemed excellent for arrows. If the stem is peeled and allowed to dry before it has been cut down, the wood becomes harder, and it may then be used as timber for the interior of houses. On this account the tree is of great importance in many districts, the more so as it succeeds in any soil, although it prefers one that is moist and gravelly. The bark contains considerable quantities of the glucoside called salicin. The charcoal made from the tree is sometimes used in the manufacture of gunpowder. Populus tremuloides, a similar species (according to some, a mere variety of the ordinary aspen), is a native of North America, and is called the American aspen. This is one of the widest-distributed trees of North America. It is found in Labrador and Alaska, and again as far south as Pennsylvania, Missouri, and even New Mexico. It lives in California also. Very similar also is another North American species, Populus grandidentata, which has a more restricted range. The wood of both these species is extensively used in the United States for the manufacture of wood pulp. Populus grandidentata has given rise to a number of forms with pendulous branches that are extensively grown as ornamentals. See also.

AS'PEN. A city and the county-seat of Pitkin County, Colo., on the Colorado Midland, and Denver and Rio Grande railroads, 30 miles west of Leadville (Map: Colorado, D 2). Rich silver and lead mines are located here. Aspen was settled 1879-80, and incorporated in 1881. Its government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a city council, composed of the mayor and 6 aldermen. Population, in 1890, 5108; in 1900, 3303.

AS'PER. A character meant to portray the author in Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of His Humour.

ASPERGILLUM. See.

ASPERN, iis'pern, or A village of Austria, on the left bank of the Danube, 5 miles east-northeast of Vienna. Population about 1100. This village and the neighboring one of Essling are celebrated as the scene of a sanguinary battle in the summer of 1809, between the French army, under Napoleon I., and the Austrians, under Archduke Charles. After the battle of Eckmühl (q.v.), in which the Austrians were defeated, the Archduke retired to the left bank of the Danube, leaving the road to Vienna open to the French. On May 12, 1809, the French army entered Vienna, when the Archduke concentrated his forces on the opposite bank of the river. Napoleon threw bridges over the river, from the island of Lobau, which he had occupied, and on the 21st the French army began crossing to the attack and seized Aspern and Essling. The Austrians at first seemed to give way; but when about half the French had crossed the river, they returned to the charge, and almost surrounded the enemy in the narrow plain between the two villages. Here ensued the battle of Aspern, a terrific conflict, the grand object of the contending hosts being the possession of the villages, of which Aspern was thrice lost and retaken by the Austrians. At the close of the day it remained undecided, but next morning it was renewed with fury on either side. The French had almost snatched the victory, when fresh Austrian troops marched on the field and saved the day. After terrible slaughter Napoleon ordered a retreat, and his shattered ranks retired to the little island of Lobau, in the middle of the river, whence they afterwards slowly withdrew to the right bank. The loss on the side of the Austrians was given at 4000 killed and 16,000 wounded; that of the French at double that number. Marshal Lannes, the most daring among the French generals, was among the slain. Both the villages were reduced to heaps of ruins. The French called this the battle of Essling, while the Austrians gave it the name of Aspern.

ASPER'ULA. See.

AS'PHALT, or ASPHAL'TUM (Gk. Ἄσφαλτος, -ον, asphaltos, -on, a loan-word of uncertain origin). A bituminous substance of solid consistency occurring in nature and belonging to the same series of hydrocarbon compounds as petroleum and natural gas. It also called Jews' pitch. Dead Sea bitumen, compact bitumen, and Trinidad bitumen. Asphalt probably owes its origin to vegetable mattes which has been subjected to a slow process of decay, the hydrocarbon compounds having distilled off and settled in neighboring deposits. It is in fact produced artificially in the manufacture of coal-gas, in which process much tarry matter is evolved from the retort. If this tar be subjected to partial distillation, naphtha and other volatile matters escape, while artificial asphalt is left behind. Asphalt commonly has a pitchy odor, a black or dark-brown color, but does not soil the fingers; it is insoluble in water, sparingly soluble in alcohol, but is dissolved in greater part by ether, oil of turpentine, and naphtha. Its specific gravity ranges from 1 to 1.1, and it burns readily with a smoky flame. In nature, asphalt occurs in sheets or lakes, mixed with earth, as in Trinidad and Venezuela, or mixed with sand, or in sandstone, or in limestone (asphaltic or bituminous limestone), as is the case in Cuba, California, and Utah.

The largest natural deposit of asphalt is on the island of Trinidad, where the so-called Pitch Lake exists. This is a great basin-shaped deposit of asphalt, 18 feet deep near the margin, and 78 feet in the centre, and although solid in appearance, there is nevertheless a continual but almost imperceptible motion throughout the mass. The surface of the lake is 148 feet above sea-level, and from the edge several streams of asphalt have flowed down the slope toward the shore. Excavations made to a depth of 20 feet have filled up again in 6 months. While the asphalt is solid enough to drive a wagon and team across it, still the slow movement of the material tends to draw in the tracks laid out to the pits, unless properly supported. Another asphalt lake occurs in Venezuela, and the product is known as Bermudez asphalt. It is a swampy tract of about 1000 acres, in which there are numerous pitch pools supplied by springs. Asphalt is also found on the shores of the Dead Sea in large quantity and is known to the Arabs by the name of Hajar mousa. or Moses's stone; while a fluid form occurring in California is known as maltha, or mineral tar. The occurrence of asphalt is not restricted to any one geological formation, but it is not