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* TILBURY FORT. 285 TILE. posite Gravesend, 30 miles below London (llap: England, Go). Originally erected in the time of Henry VIII. as a blockhouse, it was con- verted (1G67) into a regular fortification after the hold expedition of De Ruyter into the Thames and Jledway, and. luis been greiitly strengthened since 1861. Large docUs comprising 588 acres, opened in 1886, have reclaimed the waste land formei'ly surrounding the fort. TIL'DEN, Samuel Jones (1814-86). An .meriean lawyer and statesman, born at N^ew Lebanon, N. Y. He attended Yale College and the University of the City of New York, where he graduated in 1837; studied law, and in 1841 was admitted to the bar of New York City. As a lawyer he rose to the first rank. In 1846 he was a member of the State Legislature, in which he devoted his attention particularly to the sub- ject of the State canals, and in the same year served as a member of the State Constitutional Convention. In 18G7 he again sat as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Having been elected again to a seat in the Legislature, he took the lead in 1872 in the impeachment pro- ceedings against Barnard and Cardozo, two of Tweed's corrupt and subservient judges. He con- tributed to the exposure of the frauds of the Tweed Ring, and took the leading part in the prosecution of its guilty members. By 1868 he had become the acknowledged leader of the Demo- cratic Party in New York, and his activity in overthrowing the Tweed Ring led to his election in 1874 as Governor of New York. His admin- istration (1875-76) was marked by economy in the management of the State canals. In June, 1876, he was nominated by the Democratic Na- tional Convention at Saint Louis for President of the L'nited States, and in the ensuing Presi- dential election received a majority of the popu- lar vote, and according to the final count came within one vote of receiving a majority of tl'.e electoral vote. Because of alleged frauds in the elections of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, the votes of those States, which were nominally given for the Democratic Party and which would have turned the election in Til- den's favor, were claimed by the Republicans, and the excitement hich followed threatened to disturb the peace of the country. Finally Con- gress created an Electoral Conmiission (q.v.), consisting of five justices of the Supreme Court, five Senators, and five Representatives, to settle the dispute, and by a strict party vote of 8 to 7 it gave its decision in favor of Tilden's opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes ( q.v. ). Tilden thereupon promptly requested his friends to accept the de- cision Avith good grace, though many of his sup- porters continued to believe and to assert that he had rightfully been elected President. In 1880 and in 1884 the Democratic Party wished to nominate Tilden again for the Presidency, but each time he refused to be a candidate. He lived his remaining years in retirement near Yonkers, N. Y., dying on August 4, 1886. He bequeathed the greater portion of his fortune of about $5,000,000 to philanthropic purposes, chief- ly for the establisliment and endowment of a public library in the city of New York. The will was contested and only about .$2,000,000 went to the establishment of tlie Tilden Foundation of the New York Public Library (q.v.). Tilden's biog- raphy was written by John Bigelow (New York, 1895), and his writings were edited bv the same author (2 vols., 1885). TILE (AS. tlgol, tlgele, from Lat. tcniiUi. tile, from tegeie, to cover). Properly a piece of ma- terial for covering a roof, but limited to harder materials than wood. Slate, marble and other hard stones which can be cut into thin slabs and resist ordinary breakage have been used for tiles. Ordinary roof tiles are of earthenware and these may be perfectly flat and used to shed the water by being laid over one another on a sloping surface, exactly as shingles are laid. The other kind of roof tile 'is that which is made with ridges by the use of two kinds of tile, those which are flat and those which are curved and laid with the convex side uppermost to cover the joints between the flat ones. There is also a kind of tile which has the flat and the raised ridge-like convexity cast or molded in the same piece of ceramic ware. From the use of the term to cover many difi'erent kinds of roofing it has come to have two difl'erent meanings. First, any flat slab, if small and forming one^of many pieces used to cover a large surface, is a tile; second, the different ceramic wares used in building and in all kinds of engineering work, drainage, and the like are called tiles. The decorative value of tile is seen chiefly in flooring. The tile floors of the iliddle Ages were composed of earthenware tiles, each of which is complete and of one color, or incised with a pat- tern in such a way that a ditTerent-colorod clay may be inlaid. In the south of Europe wail tiles were much used according to a fashion always prevalent in the East, and were taken up by the Moslem peoples. These tiles in Cairo, Damascus, and other Levantine cities are of such beauty that squares composed of nine or sixteen are often sold for manv hundreds of dollars; and even these are admittedly inferior to the tiles of the Persian mosques. lii Spain a modification of this tendencv showed itself in the production of tiles of slight relief in the outlines of decorative scrolls and tlie like, so that the brilliant color with which these scrolls were painted is incrusted, as it were, between slight ridges raised in the clay. These tiles, unfit for floors, are veiy decorative when used for the linings of walls. The Gothic revival in England between 1840 and 1870 brought with it a strong movement to restore these appliances of decorative buildings; and many tile floors were designed and made in medifeval taste. In consequence of this the earthenware tile in- dustry became an extensive one in Cireat Britain and for many years the greater number of tiles imported into the United States came from Eng- land. Tiles of much greater refinement and beauty were made on the Continent, especially in France. Other tiles have been made witii heads, human figures, and even groups in slight relief, the ornamentation being obtained bj' sculpture rather than color. In very recent times the chief makers of decorative pottery have tried the adornment of tile with good results. There has grown up among these designers a certain freedom of color composition which no other trade seems to have achieved. Clay tiles may be divided broadly into solid and hollow, the former being thin "and. except for some roofing tiles generall}' flat, while hollow-