Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/843

BELTRAMI. gravity -if the centres of its inscribed and escribed circles." Besides his work in pure mathematies, his contributions to mathematical physics deserve mention, his original publications in the latter ticld including papers on electricity and magnetism, elasticity, etc.

BELTRAMI, Giovanni (1779-1854). An Italian lapidary, born at Cremona. With the exception of a preliminary course with Giacomo Guerrini he was self-taught. His fine work secured for him a patron in Eug&ne Beauharnais, for whom lie executed sixteen cameos, representing episodes from the story of Psyche. At the rccpicst of the Empress of Austria he prepared, in 1815, a cameo portrait of her father, the King of Bavaria, and ten years afterwards a similar portrait of her husband, Francis 1. Such was his skill that on one occasion he reproduced "The Lord's Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, upon a single topaz.

BELUCHISTAN, be-loo'che-stan'. See Ba- LUCm.STAN.

BELU'GA. See White Whale. BELUGA, or EIELAGA (Paiss. lyeluga, from hyi'ty, white ). A Russian sturgeon. See StI RGEON.

BE'LUS (Lat., Gk. /S^/Aof, liclos). (!) A son of Poseidon, father of -ilgyptus and Danaus, and King of Pha?nicia. The name is also borne by the unliajipy Dido's father, the King of Tyre, and by the King of Lydia, the father of Ninus. Ety- mologieally related to Baal, the name Belus is thought by some to be that of the common pro- genitor of various Eastern peoples, or at least of their ancestral hero and deity. It seems more certain that the Ass3'rian Bil. the Old Testament Bel, of Babylon, is not identical with the Baal of the Old Testament, but is in his attributes far superior to that deity as he is known among the Pha'nieians, Syrians, etc. (2) Belus is also tile name of a Syrian river, on the banks of which glass-making was invented, and which eni]ities into the Mediterranean near Acre. Its modern name is Nahr Xaaman.

BELVEDERE, bcl'vri-d.Tra, CoKTiLE del. A court in the V'atican, about which are placed some of the most famous works of ancient sculp- ture — the Torso of Hercules, the Laoeoiin, the Apollo Belvedere, and the Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus.

BELVEDERE, bel've-der, It. pron. bel'va- da'ra (It. h<i. beautiful + vedere, to see; a view). An Italian terra meaning originally an erection like a loggia on the top of a house, or a detached summer-house or terrace set upon an eminence, for the purpose of commanding a view. It is also sometimes used of a large inclosed — usiuxUy glassed-in — structure: for example, that part of the Vatican Palace (q.v. ) in Rome known as the Belvedere, which is now part of the sculp- ture gallery. The name was also given to the entire jialaee of Prince Eug6ne in Vienna.

BELVIDERE, bcl-vi-der'. A city and county- seat of Boone County, 111., 78 miles w-est by north of Chicago; on the Kishwaukee River, and on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad (IIap: Illinois, D 1). It contains a public library, city park, and a fine opera-house, court- house, and county-record building. The city is noted as a manufacturing centre, producing^ ex- tensively sewing-machines, bicycles, automobiles, boilers, condensed milk, l)utt<>r, screen doors. Hour, etc. It is surrounded by a fertile agricul- tural district, and has important dairying inter- ests. Settled in 183G, Belvidere was incorporated first in 1857. The government is administered under a charter of 1881, which provides for a mayor, elected every two years, and a city coun- cil. The water-works are owned and operated bv the municipality. Population, in 1800, 38G7 ; in 1900, 0937.

BELVIDERE. A town and county-seat of Warren County, N. J., 95 miles north of Phila- delphia, Pa. ; on the Delaware River, and on Die Pennsylvania and other railroads (Map: New Jersey, B 2). It derives good water-power from Request Creek, which here empties into the Delaware, and is the seat of a considerable mill- ing industry. Population, in 1890, 1768; in 1900, 1784.

BEL'VILLE. A character in Garriek's The Country Girl, and an adaptation of Wycherley'a comedy The Country Wife.

BELZONI, bel-zo'ne, Giambattista (1778- 1S23). An Italian explorer and arch^ologist. He was born in Padua, and was educated in Rome for the priesthood; but, having a natural inclination for mechanics, and especially hydrau- lics, he abandoned liis theological studies and returned to Padua when Rome was occujiied by the French troops. He went to Holland in 1800, and to England in 1803. There he lived for nine years in great jjoverty, being often com- pelled to earn a living by giving athletic per- formances at the theatre. He traveled to Spain, Portugal, and Malta, and in 1815 went to Egypt in order to construct a hydraulic engine for Mohanuued Ali. In Egypt he met Burckhardt and Salt, through whose advice and encourage- ment he began the exjiloration of Egyptian antiquities. In 1817 he cleared away the sand from the entrance to the great rock-hewn tem- ple of Abu Simbul (q.v.), and in the same year discovered the finest of the royal tombs (that of Seti I.) at Thebes. It is still known as 'Belzoni's tomb.' At Gizeh he found the entrance to Khafra's Pyramid (1818), and made the first thorough examination of the great pyra- niids. He also explored the desert between the Red Sea and the Xile, and visited the oasis of Siwa. The discovery of the ancient emerald mines at Gebel Zabara is often ascribed to him, but erroneously, as the place had previously been visited by Bruce and Cailliaud. Belzoni en- graved his name upon many ancient monuments in commcnioration of his discoveries.

In 1819 he returned to Italy, and thence to England, bringing with him, for exhibition and for sale, a valuable collection of antiquities; among them the splendid alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I. (now in the Kensington Museum), and the upper half of a colossal statue of Rameses II. (now in the British Museum), found at the Ramesseura. Two years later he published his 'Narrative of the Operations and Becent Discoveries Within, the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egyjjt and Wuhia, and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea in Search of the Ancient Berenice, and Another to the Oasis of Jupiter Amnion (London, 1821). In 1822 Belzoni undertook a journey to Timbuktu, in Central Africa, but was attacked by dysentery at Benin, and died at Gato, December 3, 1823. Bel-