Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/871

* DAMMAR. 755 DAMPER. makes an excellent colorless varnish for positive photographs on glass. To this genus belongs also Agathis Austnilis, the Kauri pine (q.v.) of New Zealand, which produces the resin known as Kauri resin, or Kauri gum. The tree at- tains a height of 150 to 200 feet, and a diameter of 15 feet. The timber is straiglit-grained and very durable. The' Kauri resin is dug from under the trees, masses weighing 100 pounds having been found. Agathis robusta is a valu- able Queensland ti'ce which has been success- fully introduced in California. The resin known as black dammar is obtained in the Molucca Islands from the trunk of Protium obtusifolium, a tree of the natural order Burseraeea;. It is a semi-fluid, strong-smelling resin, which be- comes black when dry; it is used as pitch, also to yield a kind of turpentine, which is ob- tained by distillation. C'anariuni microcarpum and C'anarium strictum, trees of the same order, also natives of the farthest East, yield by in- cision of the trunk a viscid, odorous, yellowish substance, very similar to balsam of copaiva, which is called damar, or dammar, and is used in naval yards, mixed with a little chalk and the bark of reeds, for calking boats. The resin called white dammar, or piney dammar, in India, often also called copal in India, is the prod- uct of Valeria indica and related species, large trees of the natural order Dipterocarpaceae. It is obtained by wounding the tree, and when fresh is clear, fragrant, and acridly bitter : when dried it becomes yellow, brittle, and glass-like. It is used in India a.s a varnish ('piney var- nish') which is hard, tenacious, and much esteemed. It is also made into candles in !Mala- bar, which, in burning, diffuse an agreeable fragrance, and give a clear light with little smoke. Shorea robusta, the Sal (q.v.), so much valued in India as a timber-tree, of the same natural order, and some other species of Shorea, yield a resin, also known as dammar and as ral and dhooua, which is much used in dockyards in India, as pitch. For illustration of Agathis dam- mara, sec Plate of Dahlias. DAM'MARA. See Kauri Pine. DAMMARTIN, da'miir'taN'. A family of distinguished French architects of the close of the fourteenth century. — Andris Dammartin was architect of the Chartreuse, near Dijon (1383), in the service of the Duke of Burgundy. — Gui Dajimartin was architect of the Duke de Berri. Both were engaged on the Old Louvre and died about 1400. — .Jean Daiijiaetin was employed (1421-32) in the constriiction of the great cathe- drals of Le JIans and Tours. DAMNATION DE FATJST, da'nft'syoN' de f6st. La (Fr., the damnation of Faust). Tlie title of a symphony-cantata by Berlioz, produced in Paris in 1846. DAMOCLES, dam'6-klez (Lat., from Aa;xo- kXtjs, DamukUs). One of the courtiers and sj'co- phants of the elder Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse. It is recorded by Cicero that Damo- cles, having lauded in the highest terms the grandeur and hapjiiness of royalty, was shown the nature of this happiness by Dionysius in the following manner. He was seated at a table richly spread and surroinided by all the pomp of royalty, but in the midst of his luxurious banquet, on looking upward, he saw a keen- edged sword suspended over his head by a single hair. The story had become proverbial in the day of Horace, who alludes to it in his Odes, iii. 1, 17ir. DAM'ODAR. A ricr of India, rising in Kanigarh, a district in the Presidency of Bengal, and after a generally southeastern course of 350 miles, entering the Ilugli from tlie right, below Calcutta (Map: India, K 4). The vaRey of the Damodar, traversed by the main railway between Calcutta and the nortlnvest (the Fast Indian Railway), abounds in coal and iron. It is navi- gable from the mouth of its chief tributary, the Barakhar, which Hows into it from the north. DA'MON AND PHIL'LIDA. A mock pas- toral in dramatic form by Gibber (1721)), pub- lished anon3^uously. DAMON (Lat., from Gk. Ad/xwx) AND PHIN'TIAS (Lat., from (4k. itWas), com- monly Pythias. Two Pythagoreans of Syracuse, who have been remembered as models of faithful friendship. Pythias having been condemned to death by Dionysius, the Tyrant of Syracuse, begged to be allowed to go home, for the purpose of arranging his affairs, Damon pledging his own life for the reappearance of his friend. Diony- sius consented, and Pythias returned Just in time to save Damon from death. Struck by so noble an example of mutual affection, the tyrant pardoned Pythias and desired to be admitted into their fellowship. The story is told by Plu- tarch, De Ainic, and by Valerius Maximus, iv. 7. DAM'OPHON (Lat., from Gk. AafjuxpHv). A Greek sculptor of Messene, whose works were found chiefly at Messene, Megalopolis, and Ly- cosura. It was formerly supposed that he lived in the fourth century B.C., and that his statues were completed soon after the foimding of Mes- sene and Megalopolis under the auspices of Epaminondas. The discovery of fragments, in- cluding three heads, of the colossal statues at Lycosura, and the architectural evidence as to the date of that sanctuary, have led many scholars in recent years to assign Daniophon to the first half of the second century B.C., though some (notably E. A. Gardner) still insist on the earlier dale. DAMOPHYLE, da-mdf'Me, or DAMOPH'- ILA (Lat., from Gk. AafwtpuXri). A lyric poet of Pamphylia, who lived about B.C. 610. She was a pupil of Sappho, and like her. instructed other damsels. She is said to have written love poems and a hymn on the worship of the Per- gaean Artemis, but none of her works is extant. DAMOX'ENUS (Lat., from Gk. AaixSiemi). An Athenian poet of the new, and, probably, of the middle comedy. Two of his pla.ys, The Foster-Brothers CSii'Tpoipoi) and The Self- Tormentor ("Eavrbv H(v6S>ii), are mentioned by Suidas and by Athenoeus, who quotes a long pas- sage from the former and a few lines from the latter work. The extant fragments of his works are published in Meineke's Frngmenta Comico- rum Ffisloricorum, vol. iv. (1839-57). DAMPER. A door or valve which, by slid- ing, rising and falling, turning on a hinge, or otherwise, diminishes the aperture of a chimney or air-flue; this lessens the quantity of air that can pass through a furnace or other fire, and thus 'damps' or checks the combustion. The damper of a pianoforte is that part of the mech- anism which, after a key is struck, and the finger