Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/468

* BBAINEBD. 414 BRAKE. shops, and a hospital for its employes. The city contains also a lumbermen's hos])ital, a Unit- ed States signal station, fine court-house and Y. M. C. A. buildings, a public park, and athletic grounds. A dam across the Mississijipi furnishes water-])over for various manuf:utures. There are extensive lumber-mills, cigar-factories, large foundrv and machine shops, tlour-mills. brewery, etc. The city is important as the commercial centre for the adjacent region, the export trade consisting largely of lumber, grain, agricultural produce, furs," etc. Brainerd, chartered in 1S83 as a city, is governed by a mayor, elected every two years, and a city council. Population, in 1800.' 5703: in 1900, 7524. BRAINERD, David (1718-47). An Ameri- can missionary; born in Connecticut. His mis- sionary- work was among the Indians in Massa- chusetts and those around the Delaware and Sus- quehanna rivers. President Jonathan Edwards wrote his biography (Boston, 1749). It is a missionary classic "(best ed. J. JI. Sherwood, New York, 1884), and that and Brainerd's Jour- nals are well known. His brother, John Brain- erd (1720-81), continued his labors among the Indians. BRAIN FEVER. See Bbaik, Diseases of. BRAINSTONE. See Cor.l. BRAIN'TREE'. A town, including the vil- lages of South and East Braintree, in Norfolk County, Mass., 10 miles south of Boston; on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It has granite-quarries, metal-foundries, and manufactures of boots, shoes, leather, paper, nails, tacks, absorbent cotton, electrical ma- chinciy, filters, etc. (Map: Massachusetts, E 3). The tovv-n contains Thayer Academy and the Thayer Public Library. The government is ad- ministered bv toTO meetings. First permanently settled in 1034, when the General C<nirt of Massachusetts ordered that Boston, being "too small to contain many, shall have convenient enlargement at Mount Wollaston," Braintree was incorporated as a town in 1C40. In the portion of old Braintree now included within the limits of Quincv, Thomas Morton (q.v.) established his "New Canaan" at "IMerrymount" (Mount Wol- laston), and John Adams, John Hancock, and John Quincy Adams were born. The township included Quincv (q.v.) until 1792, and Randolph until 1793. Population, in 1890, 4848: in 1900, 5981. Consult: Pattee, Uistorn of Old Braintree and Qtiincy (Quincv, 1878) ; Adams, Three Kpi- sodea of Mnfssaehusetts History (Boston, 1892) ; and Bates (ed.), Recoris of the Town of Brain- tree from llJ'iO to 1793 (Randolph, Mass., 1880). BRAIN"WORM'. The name of a resourceful servant in llie employ of the elder Knowell, in Jonson's Ei:ery Ulan in Bis Humour (1598). BRAITH, brit, .A.NTON (1830-1905). A Ger- man painter; born in Biberach (Wiirttemberg) . He studied at the Stuttgart Art School and the Munich .cadeniy, and gained high rank as an animal painter.' His works include "Herd at the Brook" (1873) ; "Herd Overtaken by Storm" (1874) ; "Going to Drink" (1888) ; and "After the Storm" (1896). BRAIZE (probably akin to hrcam, OF. hrcsme; cf. OHG. braiisima, brahsa. bream), or Becker. (1) A British sparoid marine food-fish {Spams pagrits,), commonly called porgj', scup, or king of the breams. See Bream. (2) In Scot- land, the roach. BRAKE ( OE. brake: J.G. brake, Ger. Breche, a tool for breaking llax, from the same root as break). A mechanical contrivance consisting usually of a shoe or band applied to the surface of a rotating shaft or wheel in such a manner that motion is retarded by means of the fric- tion. A shoe-brake consists of a wood or metal block or shoe which is pressed against the rim of a wheel by means of a system of levers. The han<l-brakes used on railway-cars and the foot or hand brake used on horse-drawn vehicles are familiar examples of shoe-brakes. Band brakes consist of a llexible band looped around the perimeter of the wliecl. and contrived so that it may be tightened and tlius grip the wheel. Such brakes are extensively used on hoisting-engines and automobiles, and also on some makes of bicycles. Perhaps the most elaborate braking mechanism in common use is the air-brake for railway-cars. (See .Air-Brake.) The Prony brake is a form of band brake used to measure the horse-power of a rotating shaft or pulley, and is more properly classed as a dynamometer than as a brake. BRAKE (AS. bracce, a fern). A popular name for the European and North American ferns of the genus Pteris. This genus is a member of the family Polypodiacea-. and is distinguished by having the spore-cases situated along the edges of the leaves and covered by the reflexed margin on tlie frond. The conunon brake or bracken (Pteris aquilina) is very abundant in most parts of the continents of Europe and America, grow- ing in heaths, parks, etc., often covering consid- erable tracts. It is a widely distributed plant, and is found also in many parts of Asia, and in some parts of Africa. It has a long, creeping, black rhizome, or rootstock, from which grow up naked stalks of eight to eighteen inches or more in height; each stalk divides at the top into three br:inches; the branches are bipinnate, the inferior pinnules pinnatifid. The rootstock, when cut across, exhibits an appe.irance which has been supposed to resemble a spread eagle, whence the specific name aquilina (Lat. uquila, an eagle). The rootstock is bitter, and has been used as a substitute for hops; it has also been ground, mixed with barley, and made into a wretched bread in times of distress. The plant is a.strin- gcnt and antlielmintic, and as such it had at one time a high reputation, although it is now little used, at least by medical practitioners. It is employed in dressing kid and cluimois leather. Brake is also employed for thatching, for litter- ing cattle, etc., and is occasionally chopped up with straw or hay for feeding cattle. It is a favorite cover of deer and other game. The abundance of this ])lant is sometimes regarded as a sign of poor land, although, probably, its absence from the richer soils is very much a result of cultivation. To extirpate it, nothing n.ore is necessary than a few successive mowings of the young shoots as they appear. The annual growth of brake is killed by first frosts of au- tumn, but remains rigid and brown, still afford- ing shelter for game, and is almost ascharaeteris- tic a feature in the landscape of winter as in that of summer, perhaps adding to its general desolateness. Pteris eaudata. a large species of brake, very similar to that of Europe, is one of