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* 124 BISMUTH. BISMARC-iC-SCHONHATJSEN. hostility. He was, beyond question, the greatest of ordn.^nce. He was attached to the Imperial EuropeL statesman of the century, and one of Chancellery from 18,8 to the fall of 18,9, «hen European statesman of the century the greatest statesmen of all time. His jzenius was of the rare constructive type, and he is justly included in the trio of creators of modern (Jer- manv, together with the Great Elector Frederick Wiiriam and Frederick the Great. He had set himself a great end. the realization of a united •Germany and the fullest development of the Ger- man nation ; l.e pursued it relentlessly, and he he was transferred to Alsace-Lorraine as assist- ant to the Governor. He again served in the Imperial Chancellery from 1881 to 1884, and was later successively appointed President of the Province of Hanover (1889) and Governor of East Prussia. BISMUTH, biz'mfilh (Fr. bismuth. t>r. His- mutli. Wisiiiiilli. of unknown origin). A metallic achieved it bv methods at least as uninipugnable ^,!enu'nt, prohablv known to the ancients, but as those applied to any similar task in history Against his critics he could set up the worldly but weighty defense of success. He found Ger- manv a group of jealous kingdoms and princi- palities, the shuttlecock of Austria and France. He left it a united nation, one of the world's great Powers, and the dominant force on the Continent of Europe. In his (ledanken nnd Erin- nrningeii^ the work of his years of retirement, coramonlv though somewhat inaccurately called, in its English translation, "Bismarck's Auto- biography," he has left a valuable epitome of his views on many points of European policy. In this and in his collected speeches, letters, and papers must be sought his Apologia. In private life Bismarck was a kind husband and father, a genial friend, and a considerate landlord. Phys- ieallv and mentally, he was a man of surpass first described in 1450. In the native state it is found widely distributed in small quantities, generally with ores of copper, lead. etc. It is further found in combination with oxygen as bismite, with sulphur as bi.imtithinite, with car- bonic acid as bismutitc, and as an alloy with tellurium, called tetraiU/mitc. These various minerals are widely distributed; but the princi- pal commercial source is the metallic bismuth which is found in association with other ores, in the mines of Saxony and Bohemia, and at ilonroe. Conn., in the United States. The com- mercial metal is obtained chiefly from the reduc- tion-works in Saxony, although a small quantity is smelted in England. The process by which the metal is obtained consists in first carefully hand-picking the ore, after which the selected pieces are roasted and the metal run off from ing power and endurance, and his capacity for ti,e gangue into pots. By renielting at as work, creative or absorptive, was tremendous, a temperature as possible, with one-tenth of its Though not a scholar in the strict sense of the weight of nitre, a solid slag is formed by the word, he was a man of wide information, always njtre „„ the surface, with practically pure metal accessible to bis ready memory. While not a beneath. Bismuth (symbol. Bi : atomic weight, finished orator, the pungency of his speech and 208.5) is a brittle, grayish - white, crj-stalline the aptness of his quotations from history and metal of a distinctly red tinge, with a specific literature always held his audience in the Reichs- gravity of 9.8. It melts at 268.3° C, and boils tag. He died July 30, 1898. For his own epi- between 1090° and 1450° C. It is a poor con- taph he wrote simply, after his name and the juctor of heat and electricity. The metal itself dates of his birth and" death, "a faithful (Jerman j^ ugpd chiefly as a constituent of alloys and servant of the Emperm- V'illiam I." He had amalgams. With lead, tin, and cadmium it three children —Countess JIarie, born August 28, 1848: Prince Herbert, bom December 28, 1849; and Count Wilbelm. born August 1, 1852, and died in 1901. BiBi.iotiRAPiiY. Bi.imarck, the Man and the Statesman; being the reflections and reminis- cences of Otto, Prince von Bismarck, written and dictated by himself after his retirement from office, 2 vols., translated by Butler, popularly known as Bismarck's Autobiography ( New York, 1899) ; Busch, Bismarck: tiome i<eeret Pages of His History, 2 vcls. (New York, 1899); Bismarck, Gcsiimmelte Werke, 5 vols. (Berlin, 1892) ; and id. Poiitische Reden, ed. von Kohl, 9 vols. (Stuttgart, 1892-94) ; Blum, Uas deutsche Reich zur Zeit Bismarcks (l-cijizig and Vienna, 1893) ; Sybel, The Founding of the dcrman Em- pire, 7 vols, trans. (New York. 1898); Tuttle, Brief Biographies: German PoJitical Leaders (New York, 187(i) ; Lowe, Prince Bismarck (London, 1885); Dawson, Bismarck and fitate Socialism (London, 1890); :Muiiroe-Smitb. Bis- mnrck and German Unity (New York, 1898) ; Kbiczko. 7'/ie Two Chancellors — Gortchakoff and Bismarck (London. 18701 : Onckcn. Das Zeital- tcr Willubns I. ( B.-rlin. H'.IO I . BISMABCK - SCHONHAUSEN, Wiliielm Albrecht Otto, Count von (1852-1901). A German statesman, second son of Prince Otto von Bismarck, born at Frankfortont he-Main. He was educated at the University of Bonn, and eerved in the Franco-Prussian War as an officer forms a fusible metal, which melts at from lti° C. to 34.5° C, according to the proportion of its constituents. These alloys, besides having a re- markably low melting-point, expand in the act of solidification, thus giving a perfect cast. Sniall quantities have been used in the manufacture of bell-metal. Bismuth combines with radicals to form diad, triad, and pentad salts, of which the trivalent compounds are the most stable. Its )irincipal compound with oxygen is the trioxide, which is found native as the mineral bismite, and may be prepared artificially by igniting the bis- muth subnitrate until red" fumes cease to come o(T. It is a pale-yellow amorphous compound, used for glass and jiorcelain staining, as an addition to certain fluxes to prevent the produc- tion of color, and in gilding porcelain. Its most important compound is the nitrate, which may be made by dissolving metallic bismutli. or its oxide, or carbonate, in nitric acid, yielding a pearly-white powder consisting of minute scales, which is used as a flux for certain enamels, owing to the fact that it increases their fusibility, as a colorless iridescent glaze on porcelain, and as a cosmetic for softening the skin, under the names of blnnc dr fard and blanc d'Espagne. It is an officinal medicine, and was formerly termed majcstery of bismuth, being largely used in chronic diarrhoea and cholera. Bismuth oxy- chloride, lucpared by treating a solution of the normal nitrate with a dilute solution of common salt, yields a precipitate which is a white pearly