Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/882

* URANIUM BAYS. 754 URBAN. and actinium. The radioactivity of thorium oxide ■was discovered independently in 1898 hy Madame Curie and G. C. Schmidt; M. and Mme. Curie isohited polonium and radium from pitchblende ; and Debierne has isolated actinium from the same ore. These new substances are much more intense in their action than is uranium. (See Radioactivity.) These radiations are not re- flected, refracted, diffracted, or polarized. See XRats. U'RANUS (Lat., from Gk. Ovpav6c, Ouranos, licavens, skyj . In Greek theogony, the husband of GiEa, the Earth, and, according to Hesiod, father of the Titans, C.vclopes, and Hecatonchei- res. Legend represented him as dethroned and mutilated by his son Cronos. (See Satukn.) From his blood, which fell upon the earth, sprang the Gigantes, while the part which fell into the sea was washed about until from the foam which gatheretl rose Aphrodite. Uranus was never an object of worship, but rather, like Cro- nos, a conception formed from the cult of Zeus for the purpose of a constructive theogony. Among the Romans Ctelus appears in myth as a translation of the Greek name, but not as a deity of the Roman religion. URANUS. The next to the outermost mem- ber of the solar system. Its mean distance from the sun is 1.782.000.000 miles; sidereal period, 84 years; eccentricity not quite -^^ or about the same as that of Jupiter; inclination to the ecliptic. 46'. It is about 6G times greater than the earth in volume and 15 times in mass, and its density and surface-gravity respectively are 0.22 and 0.9. In the telescope the planet appears as a greenish disk of about 4" diameter. The green- ish tinge is explained as due to some unidentified substance in the planet's atmosphere. Because of its immense distance, astronomers have been un- able to gain much information concerning it. Spots and belts have been seen, but they are too faint to warrant any positive assertion, and the time of rotation of the planet is unknown. Ura- nus was accidentally discovered by Sir William H«rschel on March 13, 1781, and was named 'the Georgium Sidus' and 'Herschel,' but these names soon fell into disuse and the name of Uranus, suggested by Bode, finally prevailed. Herschel announced the discoverj' as that of a comet, and its planetary nature was not demonstrated until three or four months later by Lexell, of Saint Petersburg. Before its detection by Herschel, Uranus had been recorded no less than 20 times as a fixed star, 12 times by Lemonier alone. These observations when compared with more re- cent ones showed that the planet was wandering from its track. The attempts made to account for these irregularities led to the discovery of Neptune (q.v.). Uranus has four satellites: NAME Distance from planet in miles Sidereal period 120,000 170.000 280,000 376,000 2d 12h 29" T'mbriel id ,<lh 27m 8d Ifih 67m 13d llh 7m Oberon and Titania were discovered by the elder Herschel. January 11, 1787, the other two were discovered by Lassell, October 24, 1851. They are estimated to vary in size from 200 to 500 miles in diameter. The plane of their orbit is in- clined 82.2° to the plane of the ecliptic and their motions, like that of the satellite of Nep- tune, is retrograde, i.e. from cast to west. See PLANET.S. URASHIMA TARO, oS'ra-she'ma ta'r6. In Japanese legend, the story of a fisher-boy who was taken dovm on the back of a tortoise into the palace of Riu-gu, or the realm of the dragon- king of the world under the sea, and there in blissful dalliance knew nothing of the flight of time. Returning to the earth for a brief visit to his parents, he finds all strange in his native village, enters the old cemetery, and, again.st the express orders of the sea-king's daughter, opens the casket she has given him, only to find him- self an old man soon to die. This is a favorite theme with native artists. The legend is one of the oldest in the language, and is first found in writing in the Mani/Oshiu, "Collection of a Myr- iad Leaves of Poetry." of the seventh and eighth centuries. The official annals give a.d. 477 and 825 as the dates of his disappearance and return. His tomb, with his fishing-line and the casket he had received from the dragon-king's daughter, are still shown in a temple at Kana- gawa, near Yokohama. The myth of Urashiraa is the Japanese version of the Oriental legend of the Seven Sleepers, represented in America hy the story of Rip Van Winkle. URATYUBE, oG'ri-tyoo'be. A town in the Territory nf Samarkand, Russian Turkestan, 55 miles southwest of Khodjend (Map: Asia, Cen- tral, L 2 ). It is surrounded by a wall and has a Russian quarter. The chief articles of trade are horses and camel-wool cloth. Population, in 1897. 20.837, chiefly Uzbegs. Uratyube was founded, according to local tradition, by Cyrus. It was taken by the Russians in 1866. UR'BAN. The name of eight popes. Urban I., Saint, Pope 222-230. His pontificate, coming under the reign of the Emperor Alexander Sever- us, was little disturbed by external persecution. The schismatic movement fostered by the self- willed rigorist Hippolytus still continued ; but Urban, like his predecessor Calixtus (or Callis- tus) I., set himself firmly against it. — Urban II., Pope 1088-99, originally Othon by name. He was Archdeacon of Auxerre, and then entered the Monastery of Cluny, where he became prior. Gregory VII. called him to Rome and made him Bishop of Ostia. His election to the Papacy was contested by the Imperial candidate. Guibert of Ravenna, under the name of Clement III., and the first years of his pontificate were a time of constant strife. Urban II. successfully prose- cuted the struggle of the Papac,y against the Em- peror Henry IV.. which had been inaugurated by Gregory VII. In 1094 he excomnnmicated Philip I. of France for his matrimonial infidelity. He presided at the famous Council of Clermont in 1095, which gave the impulse to the Crusades. The most important event of the last years of his pontificate was holding a council at Bari in 1098, at which many Greek bishops were present, and in which the addition of the word fiUoquc to the creed was discussed. He died in the close of 1090, just at the time when the Fir.st Crusade, which he had organized, terminated in the suc- cessful occupation of Jerusalem. — Ukban III., Pope 1185-87, LTmberto Crivelli. Before his eleva-