Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/183

BLAIR. 1731 until his death was settled at Athelstaneford in East Lothian. Besides an elegiac poem and several paraphrases of Scripture which have been totally forgotten, he wrote the forcible but strikingly lugubrious poem of "67 lines, entitled The Grave, which, first published in 1743, enjoyed considerable popularity and was frequently reprinted.

BLAKE, (1833—). A Canadian state-man. He was born in Ontario, Canada, grsuluaied at the University of Toronto, was called to the bar in 1S5G, and soon rose to the first rank among chancery practitioners. In 1867 lie was elected to both the Ontario and Dominion Parliaments, and in the former House became the leader of the Liberal Opposition. In 1871 he became Premier of Ontario, but soon resigned. He was Privy Councilor m 1874, and Minister of Justice in 1875. After the return of the Conservatives to power, he became the leader of the Liberal Party in 1880: was elected to the British Parliament from South Longford. Ireland, in 1802, and was aiipointed to the judiciary committee of the Privy Council in 1896.

BLAKE, (1795-1886). An American inventor. He was born in New Haven, Conn., and graduated at Yale in 1816. Blake assisted his uncle, Eli Whitney (q.v.), in the management of the gun-factory at Whitneyville, and on his uncle's death assumed full charge. In conjunction with his brother, he afterwards established a hardware factory at Westville. Blake is best known for his invention of a stone-breaking machine. He wrote several scientific papers, the most noteworthy being Original f^oliitions of Several Problems in Aerodynamics (1882). His son. Eli Whitney (1836-1895), graduated at Yale in 1857, and later studied in Germany. He served as professor of physics in the universities of Vermont, Cornell, Columbia, and Brown, and was connected with several scientific societies, including the Apierican Association for the Advancement of Science.

BLAKE, (1850— ). An American inventor, born at Needham, Mass. In 1866-79 he was connected with the United States Coast Survey, and in 1S78 invented the transmitter for telephone instruments, which, known under his name, has become the most extensively used throughout the world.

BLAKE, (1843-1901). An English geologist and surveyor, bom in London. He was educated there at King's College, and apprenticed to the civil engineer Brereton, under whose direction he was for several years engaged in railway engineering and construction in Cornwall and" South Wales. In 1868 Blake joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and was commissioned to prepare large scale maps of certain portions of southern England. He surveyed parts of Somerset, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and studied the phenomena of the drift deposits of those regions. Several contributions, embracing the results of his observations on the drift and the Mesozoic formations, have been published in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom and in the Geological Magazine.

BLAKE, (1835 — ). An American woman suffragist and reformer. She was born in Raleigh, N. C., and was educated in New Haven, Conn. She married, in 1855. Frank G. Q. Unisted, a Philadelphia lawyer, who died in 1859, leaving her with two children to support. She turned her attention to literary work, her first story, A Lonely House, appearing in the Atlantic Monthly. In the next few years she completed two successful novels, Southwold (1859) and Rockford (1862). In 1866 she married Grinfill Blake, a wealthy New York merchant. She was one of the active promoters of the movement that resulted in the founding of Barnard College, and was prominent as a speaker on educational topics. She also identified herself with the woman's suffrage movement, and has delivered many addresses on the subject througiiout the country. She was president of the New York State Woman's Suffrage Association from 1879 to 1890, and of the New York City Woman's, Suffrage League from 1886 to 1900. She was largely instrumental in securing the passage in 1880 by the New York Legislature of the law permitting woman's suffrage in school elections, and was the author of the law providing for matrons in the police stations, passed in 1891, and of that requiring storekeepers to provide seats for saleswomen. In addition to the books mentioned, her writings include: Fettered for Life (1874), a novel dealing with the woman's suffrage question; Woman's Place To-day (1883), lectures delivered in reply to a series of Lenten sermons on "Woman," by Rev. Morgan Dix: and A Daring Experiment (1894).

BLAKE, (1599-1657). An English soldier and admiral of the Commonwealth. The eldest of twelve sons of a merchant, he was born at Bridgewater, Somerset, in August, 1599. He studied at Oxford from 1615-25, taking his degree of M.A. in 1623 at Wadsworth College. When the Civil War broke out. he raised a troop in Somersetshire, and narrowly escaped hanging for prolonging the defense of Bristol, when the Governor had capitulated. Parliament subse- quently appointed him lieutenant-colonel, and by his obstinate defense of Lyme with five hundred men against Prince Maurice's five thousand, he seriously damaged the reputation of that warrior, who retired in disgust. In 1644 he surprised Taunton, of which place he was made governor, and gave proof of no mean military skill by de- fending the place against an overwhelming force, until the town was little better than a heap of ruins, when the siege was raised. In 164!), in conjunction with two other ofiicers of equal rank, he was appointed general of the sea, the two services, military and naval, at that time not being distinct. This was Blake's true sphere. After an exciting hide-and-seek chase of several months, in 1651 he destroyed the squadron of Prince Rupert, which had sought safety in the Tagus, and forced the Royalists to surrender Guernsey, Jersey, and the Scilly Isles. In March, 1652. he was made sole admiral of the fieet for nine months, and during tliis year fought four engagements with Dutch ficcts luider Tromp. De Ruyter, and De WMtt. In the first, on May 19, the Dutch retreated under cover of darkness, with the loss of one man-of-war captured, and another sunk. In the next engagement, a squad- ron of 12 ships, sent to protect the herring-ves- sels from the attacks of Blake, were captured; and in the third, on September 28, 3 Dutch vessels were destroyed, and the rear-admiral taken. On November 29 a fleet of 80 vessels, under the command of Tromp, encountered Blake with only