Ballad

edge is as indispensable to the student of the evolution of literature as the knowledge of savage and barbaric institutions is to the student of the growth of human society. Meanwhile theories of the ballad which rest only on a knowledge of artistic and profcssional literature cannot be adequate, cannot hold their ground. Nobody can dogmatize about the share of the folk in the ballads unless he is widely read in the oral literature, in verse and prose, of Red Men, Africans, Australians, Maoris, and European peasants.

We have spoken of romantic ballads. The next largest and most important species is that of the historical ballad. A rcsounding event like the battle of Otterburn would inevitably become the subject of popular song, as, much earlier, we know, did the defeat of the rear-guard of Charlemagne, under Roland, at Roncesvalles. The historical ballads, in their earliest oral form, are lost; what we possess are but echoes, contaminated with many modernisms in their passage through the lips of several generations of reciters. We cannot go to the ballads for history, only for historical legend. Events of the 14th century and early 15th leave their traces in ballads, but the ballad may have been vastly altered in the course of recital. The balladmaker always introduces romantic motives, love affairs, and domestic treasons, which probably never occurred, while the persons of the story are socially promoted. Local, clannish, and family jealousies find expression, and ancient story roots are accommodated to the tale, and fitted with local habitations beside Ettrick or Yarrow. Examples of all these contaminations occur in Tamlane; in the snatch on the slaying of the Knight of Liddesdale; in the fragment on the judicial murder of the Douglases under James II., and in many other popular ballads. The student will soon discover that many variants of ballads, especially in England, have lost pith and merit in the hands of lowly hacks who prepared them for the broadsides of the cheap press.

While there are many interesting collections-Ramsay's, Percy's, Sir Walter Scott's-the amateur of ballads can only find full information in the ten volumes of Professor Child of Harvard University. He died, and left no introduction expressing his general ideas on the subject of the problems of the ballad. 'No scholar has had the hardihood,' says his biographer, Mr. Kittridge, 'to do what is undone. But we trust that we need not say,

"The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower

Unfinished must remain."*

544

Professor Child's volumes present most of the materials for the accomplishment of his task, which it would be pious for an American savant to undertake. Though the writer of this article expresses opinions independently evolved, he inclines to the belief that they vary little from those casually indicated in the notes and introductions of Professor Child, to whom he was able to offer some facts, and some variants of ballads. For opinions opposed to those here expressed, see T. F. Henderson's Vernacular Scottish Literature; for other views, Professor Gummere's The Beginnings of Poetry, containing many references to continental criticism.

Ballade, a poem divided into one or more triplets, each formed of seven or eight lined stanzas, the last line being a refrain common to each stanza. In the ballade of eight lines there are only three rhymes, thus-A, B, A, B; B, C, B, C. An envoi is usually attached. Its four lines repeat the rhymes of the last four fines of the stanza. This form was almost predominant in French literature from the 14th to the 16th century. Modern English poets who have revived the ballade are Swinburne, Austin Dobson, and Andrew Lang.

Ballagi,MORITZ(1815-91),Hungarian philologist and theological writer. Born a Jew, he embraced Protestantism, studied theology at Tübingen, and in 1851 was appointed professor of theology at Budapest, where he founded, in 1858, the Protestant Journal. He is, however, more important as a philologist, his chief works being Ausführliche theoretischpraktische Grammatik der Ungarischen Sprache (8th ed. 1880), Vollständiges Wörterbuch der Ungarischen und Deutschen Sprache (5th ed. 1882), and a Collection of Hungarian Proverbs (2 vols. 1855).

Ballanche, PIERRE SIMON (1776-1847), French philosopher, born at Lyons. He became a member of the Academy (1841). His best works are Palingénésie Sociale (1828) and Vision d'Hebal (1832). His system received the name of 'Ballancheism.' See Life by Ampère (1848); Sainte-Beuve's Portraits Contemporaines, vol. ii. (1847); Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. ii. pp. 410-456.

Ballantine, JAMES (1808-77), Scottish poet and artist, born in Edinburgh, studied glass-painting, upon which he wrote a treatise (1845), and made the stained-glass windows of the House of Lords. Some of his lyrics appeared in his Gaberlunzie's Wallet (1843), and others in The Miller of Deanhaugh (1847).

Ballantrae, fshing vil., S.W. Ayrshire, 13 m. s.w. of Girvan;

Ballater

a summer resort, and formerly a smugglers' haunt; familiarized through R. L. Stevenson's novel The Master of Ballantrae. Pop. (1911) 1,080.

Ballantyne, JAMES(1772-1833), the printer of Sir Walter Scott's works, was a solicitor and then a printer in his native Kelso and in Edinburgh, whither he removed in 1802. The firm of James Ballantyne & Co., which in cluded Scott, became involved in the bankruptcy of Constable & Co., publishers, by which Scott's finances were wrecked. James Ballantyne was a man of some literary ability, and Scott owed a good deal to his critical sugges tions while the Waverley Novels were passing through the press. See History of the Ballantyne Press (1871).

Ballantyne, JAMES ROBERT (d. 1864), British Orientalist, was superintendent, from 1845, of the Sanskrit College established at Benares; librarian, India Office, London (1861). He made a large number of translations from Sanskrit. See his Christianity and Hindu Philosophy (1859), and The Practical Oriental Interpreter (1843).

Ballantyne, ROBERT MICHAEL (1825-94), Scottish author, writer of stories for boys, nephew of James Ballantyne, was born in Edinburgh. He served as a clerk of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company at Rupert I. (1841-7), and published over eighty vols., including Hudson's Bay, or, Life in the Wilds of North America (1848). See his Personal Reminiscences of Bookmaking (1893).

Ballarat, or BALLAARAT, the second city of Victoria, Commonwealth of Australia, in the counties of Grant and Grenville, 76 m. W.N.W. of Melbourne, is a well-built city. Owing to its elevation (1,438 ft.) its climate is exceptionally cool and healthy. The land around is fertile; large crops of potatoes and oats are grown, and sheep are pastured. Gold-mining (alluvial leads and quartz reefs), however, is the chief industry, the deepest mine being the South Star (2,520 ft.); the output is estimated at £70,000,000 since 1851. The discovery of gold at Golden Point in October, 1851, and the Ballarat riots of 1854, are the main facts in its history. Ballarat is the see of an Anglican and a Roman Catholic bishop. Pop. (1901)

43,710.

Ballast. See SHIP; YACHT; RAILWAY.

Ballater, vil. in W. Aberdeen. shire, Scotland, on 1. bk. of the Dee, 434 m. w.s.w. of Aberdeen; present terminus of Deeside Ry.; owes its origin, in 1770, to the Pannanich mineral wells in the vicinity. The bracing air of

Ball Bearings

the district makes it a favorite summer resort. Pop. 1,500.

Ball Bearings, a device for reducing friction, usually applied to the shaft or axle of a rotating wheel or disc, as in the motor car and bicycle, and consisting of a series of hardened and perfectly true steel balls, one-eighth inch in diam

Hub of motor car, showing two outer rows of balls taking the journal bearing load, and two inner taking the end thrust in both directions.

eter and upward. Each ball is separate, and rotates with the shaft. Sometimes the balls run in a channel or 'ball race,' sometimes between coned surfaces. In vehicles for heavier loads, and in some machines, rollers are used in place of balls. See FRICTION.

Ballenstedt, town, duchy of Anhalt, Germany, at the east end of the Harz Mountains, 13 m. by rail s.w. of Aschersleben, the summer residence of the Duke of Anhalt. Pop. (1905) 5,800.

Ballet, a dramatic representation, consisting of dancing and pantomime, regulated by the strains of music, and generally accompanied by scenery and decoration. The ballet, still combined with dialogue and vocal music, was introduced into France from Italy about 1580 by Baltasarini, under the patronage of Catherine de' Medici, and immediately became very popular. Even the Kings Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. took part in the court ballets, while Cardinal Richelieu interested himself in superintending and inventing new stage effects. It was for Louis XIV. that Molière wrote his comedy ballets Le Mariage Forcé, L'Amour Médecin, and others. But the ballet as an exclusively dancing establishment came into being with the foundation in 1669 of the Académie Royale de Musique et de Danse in Paris. Lulli, director of the opera, paid great attention to the ballet, and to him has been attributed the introduction of rapid dancing, in opposition to the solemn and deliberate steps favored by the court in the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. Quinault, the opera poet, who decorated his pieces with

545

dance and pantomime, had also much to do with making the incidental ballet a recognized part of opera performance, with his great ballets Armida and The Triumph of Love (1681)-the latter being the first public ballet in which women took part. But the true creator of the later power of the ballet, as an independent entertainment, was Jean Georges Noverre, who wholly parted it from opera about 1776, shut the mouths of the dancers and set the ballet very high on its own toes as a five-act play of music, dance, and pantomime. The ballet was introduced into England from France by two female dancers, named De Subligny and Sallé.

To-day the ballet flourishes on the Continent of Europe, especially in Paris, Milan, Moscow, and Vienna. The Continent also supplies the stage of England and of America, where, however, ballet dancing as a serious native art has greatly declined. See Pougin's Dictionnaire Historique du Théâtre.

Ball-flower, an ornament in Gothic architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which the petals of a sculptured flower enclose a ball, instead of pistils or

stamens.

Balliet, THOMAS M. (1852), American educator, was graduated from Franklin and Marshall College (1876), and studied at Yale and Leipzig. He was superintendent of schools in Springfield, Mass., from 1887 to 1904; professor of the science of education and dean of the School of Pedagogy, New York University, since 1904. He is associate editor of the Pedagogical Seminary. He has written Some New Phases of Educational Thought, and several monographs.

Ballin, ALBERT (1857), German merchant, was born in Hamburg. He joined the staff of the German steamship company, the HamburgAmerican Line, in 1880; was soon elected to the board, and later on became its managing director. It is owing to his business capacity and organizing talent that the company has been brought to its present notable position in German shipping.

Ballina, seaport, capital of County Mayo, Ireland, 20 m. N. of Castlebar. It is beautifully situated on the Moy, and has considerable trade in corn and salmon. Pop. 4,500.

Ballinger, RICHARD ACHILLES (1858), American lawyer and executive, was born in Boonesboro, Ia. He was educated at Washburn College, Kans., and was graduated at Williams College in 1884. Engaging in the study of law, he was admitted to the bar, and in 1890-2 was U. S. Court Commissioner, and later judge of the Superior Court of Jefferson County, Washington. He elected mayor of Seattle in 1904. His active and thorough work in

was

Balloon

cleaning up that city at the time of the Alaska gold rush brought him to the attention of President Roosevelt, who in 1907 appointed him Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington, D. C. In 1909 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Taft. In 1910 an investigation by a committee of Congress was instituted respecting his conduct as Commissioner of the General Land Office in previous years, and as Secretary of the Interior, in connection with certain land transactions. The criticisms, after investigation, were decided to be unfounded. He resigned as Secretary of the Interior on March 7, 1911. His legal reputation has been enhanced by the publication of Community Property (1895); Annotated Codes and Statutes of Washington (1897).

Balliol College, Oxford. See OXFORD.

Ballista, or BALISTA, an ancient military engine in the nature of a catapult, used in throwing large stones or darts. At the end of the fourth century, each centurion in a legion had a ballista, drawn on wheels by mules, and served by eleven men. See CATAPULT.

Ballistic Pendulum, an apparatus invented (about 1740) by Benjamin Robins to ascertain the velocity of projectiles fired from a gun. It is now superseded by other contrivances, as the electroballistic chronograph. See CHRO

NOGRAPH.

Ballistics. See GUNNERY. Ballistite, a smokeless powder. See SMOKELESS POWDERS.

Balloon. The first historical mention of a balloon occurs in Ministre's history of Lyons, France, in which it is recorded that an aerostat carrying several persons descended into that city during the latter part of the reign of Charlemagne (742-814). They were charged with being sorcerers, and condemned to death. It is generally believed that a balloon of some kind was sent up at Peking, China, at the coronation of the Emperor Fo-Kien in 1306. The first practical success was that achieved by the brothers Montgolfier at Annonay, France (June 5, 1783), when their large paper balloon inflated with the smoke and gases from burning straw rose to a height of 1,000 feet. In 1766 Cavendish discovered hydrogen, the lightest substance known, and Dr. Black shortly after suggested its use in bags for lifting heavy bodies from the ground. After the success of the Montgolfiers, Prof. Charles, a French scientist, constructed a balloon of silk made impervious by a varnish of rubber prepared by the brothers Robert of Paris; and this was filled with hydrogen and sent up in Paris, Aug. 29, 1783. The Montgolfiers then came to Paris, and sent up a

Balloon

hot-air balloon made of linen, with some animals as passengers. These coming safely to earth, Pilatre de Rozier built a similar balloon, but added a furnace to keep the air hot after the balloon had risen. Having anchored it by a rope, he ascended (Oct. 15, 1783) to a height of 80 feet, remaining for some time, feeding his fire as needed. On November 21, with the Marquis d'Arlandes, De Rozier made the first free balloon ascension, coming safely to earth after a voyage lasting 25 minutes. On Dec. 1, 1783, Prof. Charles with one of the brothers Robert made a voyage of 40 miles in a balloon 30 feet in diameter inflated with hydrogen.

546

successful experiments with coal gas, and ballooning received a new impetus. Many long journeys have been safely accomplished with coalgas balloons-a voyage of 1,355 m. having been made by the America II. in the international race of October, 1910.

SCIENTIFIC BALLOONING.-The first scientific observations made during ascensions were those of Prof. Charles, in 1783. His barometer showed that he reached a height of 11,360 feet, up to which level he made a series of thermometer readings. The first solely scientific ascent was made by Dr. Jeffries in 1784. The first important balloon observations were

Balloon

only a set of recording instruments. usually

closed

The

These small balloons are made of varnished paper, and con tain but a few cubic feet of hydrogen gas. Another type is made of sheet rubber, and tightly after inflation. Upon reaching a certain altitude the rubber bursts, and the instruments float down gently under a parachute. importance of simultaneous plorations of the air was recognized, and in 1900 scientific men of several countries agreed to send up sounding balloons on the first Thursday of each month. Valuable tables have been constructed from these records made at the same time at widely distant

ex

Soon

With the exception of the ripping panel afterward invented by Wise and the drag-rope devised by Green, the Charles balloon was a complete model of those now in use.

In England, Tytler, and Lunardi a few weeks later, made the first ascensions in that country; and in January, 1785, the French aeronaut Blanchard, with Dr. Jeffries, an American scientist, succeeded in crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais in a hydrogen balloon. De Rozier lost his life soon after while attempting to cross the Channel from France to England in a combination of gas balloon with hot-air receptacle beneath. The apparatus exploded.

At that time, hydrogen was too costly for extended use; but in 1818 the English aeronaut Green began

made by Gay-Lussac and Biot in 1804, many atmospheric conditions being investigated. The series of records made by Glaisher, who was usually accompanied by Coxwell, in his 28 ascensions, from 1862 to 1866, were for a long time standard. His figures were modified (1887) by Assman in Germany, who with Berson and Gross made several ascents for meteorological facts, with the substantial aid of the Emperor and the German government. In 1901 Berson and Suring rose to a height of 6 miles, establishing many records.

SOUNDING BALLOONS.-The height to which a manned balloon can rise being limited by the inability to breathe above the sixmile level, recourse was had to small unmanned balloons, carrying

points. One of these sounding balloons set free near Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 5, 1908, rose to a height of 18 miles, registering a pressure of 0.4 inches of mercury. The lowest temperature was -89.7° Fahr., recorded at the height of 8 miles. These balloons are often carried long distances by the wind, one sent up in July, 1894, having travelled 700 miles at an average speed of 62 miles per hour. During the solar eclipse of 1905, meteorological observations of the upper air were made with sounding balloons at several stations in Europe. At the time of the passing of the earth through the tail of Halley's comet, in 1910, a number of these balloons were sent up in Germany, carrying glass bulbs exhausted of air, and fixed in an

Balloon

apparatus so arranged that the necks of the bulbs were broken at the desired level, and immediately sealed again by electric action, to bring down any cosmic dust which might be floating there. When opened, no such dust was found.

DIRIGIBLE BALLOONS, or AIRSHIPS. The first step toward practical navigation of the balloon was the elongation of the gas bag to the shuttle or cigar shape. General Meusnier designed an elliptical airship in 1789, with propellers to be worked by hand, but it was never built. Other attempts were made, but no adequate motive

547

electric battery at 6 miles per hour. This series of achievements culminated in the balloon La France, built by Captains Renard and Krebs, of the French army engineers. The gas envelope was 165 feet long and 27 feet in diameter, with the shape of a submarine torpedo. The propelling power was a nine horsepower Gramme electric motor run by a storage battery. On Aug. 9, 1884, the first trip was made, 24 miles and return to the starting point. The speed exhibited was 14 miles per hour. Seven voyages were made, and in five of them the air-ship sailed back successfully

Balloon

a rigid structure of aluminum lattice with seventeen compartments, each of which had a separate gas bag. Over all was an envelope of linen and silk, treated with pegamoid. The ship had the form of a prism of twenty-four sides, the ends arching to blunt points. It was 420 feet long and 38 feet in diameter. A speed of 20 miles an hour was attained with two gasoline engines, each of sixteen horsepower; but the construction was too weak for the great length, the gas bags were not tight, and the engines of insufficient power. Another airship was begun, in which

power was available. In 1851, M. Giffard, a French inventor, succeeded in constructing a steam engine of three horse-power, weighing but 100 pounds. He then built a cigar-shaped airship, and installed the engine. With a threebladed propeller he travelled at the rate of 6 to 8 miles per hour. He planned a much larger airship, but became blind before it was built. In 1872, De Lome's airship, propelled by fourteen men turning screw propellers, made a successful trip at 6 miles per hour, and Haenlcin's airship, inflated with coal gas and propelled by a gas engine, made its trial trip at 10 miles per hour. In 1883, the brothers Tissandier made a successful trial of their airship, propelled by a large

to its shed at Chalais-Meudon. The power was found insufficient for practical voyaging, however, the speed being too slow for effective steering.

Within the following fifteen years the automobile gasoline engine was developed, and in 1898 Santos-Dumont began the construction of a series of twelve air

ships, equipped with gasoline engines, which established the latter's efficier.cy as a motive power for dirigible balloons.

While Santos-Dumont was making his experiments, Count von Zeppelin was building his first great airship on a plan which had been unsuccessfully tried by Schwartz in 1897, but with much essential modification. The framework was

these faults were corrected. It was finished five years later.

In 1902 the Lebaudy dirigible was completed. It consisted of a flexible gas envelope, fastened firmly to a rigid floor of elliptical shape. It attained a speed of 23 miles per hour, and made 33 successful voyages. In 1904 it was lengthened, and in that year, and 1905, it made thirty voyages, carrying 195 passengers. After extended trials it was purchased by the French government. The rigid framework of the Lebaudy airship made its transportation difficult, and this objection to the type led to the invention, by Majer von Parseval, of a collapsible airship, which may be packed into a small compass and transported readily

Balloon

with the baggage of any body of troops. A semi-rigid type is exemplified in the Gross airships, which, with the Parsevals, have been accepted by the German government as successful.

The Von Zeppelin airships, of which type seven have been built, have successively met with disaster, and in most instances complete destruction, after having made some remarkable journeys. The Deutschland, largest of the Zeppelins, built for passenger traffic, and finished elegantly in rosewood and motherof-pearl, was dashed to a wreck upon the tree-tops of the Teutoberg forest in June, 1910, after having been in commission but one week, during which time it made several noteworthy voyages.

In France the Ville-de-Paris of. M. Henri Deutsch and the ClementBayard dirigibles have proved successful.

In England the War Office has been experimenting on a limited scale since 1903, without marked achievement. On Oct. 16, 1910, its new Clement-Bayard dirigible arrived under its own power from Paris with seven men on board, having made the trip of 259 miles at the rate of 41 miles an hour.

small

The United States Government is possessed of but one dirigible, purchased in 1908. Popular interest was aroused by the attempt made by the Wellman airship to cross the Atlantic to Europe in October, 1910. Caught severe gales, the airship became unmanageable, and was abandoned by its crew in mid-ocean.

in

In

Toward the close of 1910 there were 52 dirigibles in commission, or in process of construction. the United States there were 7; in Belgium, 2; in England, 6; in France, 12; in Germany, 14; in Italy, 5; in Russia, 1; in Spain, 1.

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, an association of the aeronauts of all nations, holds an annual balloon race for the International Challenge Cup. The fifth race started at St. Louis, Oct. 17, 1910, and was won by Hawley and Post with the America II., by a voyage of 1,355 miles in 46 hours.

MILITARY BALLOONING.-With the earliest successful ascensions, the military authorities of the day recognized the advantages of the balloon in warfare; and it was with this object in view that General Meusnier turned his inventive genius toward the improvement of the Charles balloon-resulting in the elongation of the gas bag and the invention of the indispensable air ballonnet. The first use of the balloon in warfare was as a means of sending despatches out of the besieged city of Condé, in 1793. Small unmanned balloons were used, and most of them fell into the hands of the besieging

548

army. The value of the captive balloon for purposes of observation was recognized, but the necessities of war demanded that the available supply of sulphur be kept for gunpowder, which prohibited the manufacture of hydrogen by the method then in use. Under this spur the French chemist Lavoisier invented the process of making hydrogen by passing steam over red-hot iron; and thus it became possible for an army corps to carry with it a complete outfit for the rapid inflation of a balloon. The first military use of the observation balloon was at the battle of Fleurus, in 1794, by the French balloon corps. In 1795 this balloon was again used at the battle of Mayence. In 1796 two other balloons were used by the French Army at Andernach and Ehrenbreitstein. In 1798 the French aerostiers took part in the Egyptian campaign, at the battle of the Nile, and later at Cairo. In the year following, Napoleon ordered the balloon corps disbanded. In 1815 an observation balloon was used at the siege of Antwerp.

The next historical record of the use of the balloon for military purposes is credited to the Austrians in their campaign against Venice (1849). Being unable to reach the city with their guns, they loaded small balloons with bombs, with fuses so timed as to drop them into the heart of the city. A few reached their destination, but the changing winds in some cases caused them to return and fall into their own ranks. In 1859 Napoleon I. re-established the French balloon corps, equipping it with two Italian balloons. In the Civil War (1861-5) the United States Army made extended use of the balloon, eight being supplied to the several divisions. They were used not only for observation of the enemy's positions, but also as a point of vantage for directing artilfery fire. During the siege of Paris (1870-1), 64 balloons were sent out of Paris, carrying nine tons of despatches and 3,000,000 letters. Of these, 57 reached friendly territory. Gambetta left the city by one of these balloons on his mission to raise an army of relief.

The device of compressing hydrogen gas, so that many cubic feet may be transported in a small cylinder, has facilitated the use of the balloon in military operations, obviating the necessity of making the gas in the field. The British army in Bechuanaland in 1884, and in the Boer War (1899-1902), inflated their balloons in this manner. At Port Arthur (1905) both the Japanese and the Russian armies employed balloons for observation; and Spain used them in 1909 in her campaign against the Moors. All modern armies have trained balloon corps as a part of their equip

Ballot

ment. In the United States Army this service is allotted to the Signal Corps, a company of which is attached to the headquarters of a field army or of a separate army corps in charge of the balloon train, under the general supervision of the chief of staff. The observer is a selected and well-informed officer, who communicates from the basket to the ground by telephone. In 1907 military ballooning in the United States Army received an impetus by the acquisition of several new balloons and the systematic training of soldiers in their use at Washington, D. C. Numerous ascents were made.

The ballooning duties of the British Army devolve upon the Royal Engineers. The headquar ters of this particular branch of the corps are at Aldershot. The balloon service is an important branch of the communication of troops in the German Army. The unit of organization is the battalion, consisting of two companies of pioneers, and a train detachment of one officer and 60 drivers (with 60 horses). The organization is the most complete and the personnel the best trained in the world. In late years considerable progress has been made in the German Army and Navy with kite balloons, by means of which an observer is raised to great heights.

France, Austria, Belgium, Italy, China, Denmark, Bulgaria, Japan, Morocco, Roumania, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain all have efficiently equipped military aeronautical divisions.

The improvement of the dirigible balloon has engaged the attention of the war departments of all civilized nations. In Germany, manœuvres of fleets of dirigibles have been attempted by night as well as by day, and with success from the military standpoint. In England the largest of all dirigibles is being built (1911). It is 510 feet long, 48 feet in diameter, and holds 700,000 cubic feet of gas. The powerful engines installed are expected to drive the airship at 50 miles per hour. The Hague Conference has passed a resolution prohibiting the offensive use of aircraft in war, but this resolution has not received unanimous assent. See AERONAUTICS; FLYING MA

CHINES.

Consult Assman and Berson's Wissenschaftliche Luftfahrten (1899); Hildebrandt's Airships Past and Present (1908); Moedebeck's Handbook of Aeronautics; Berget's Conquest of the Air (1909); Turner's Aerial Navigation of To-Day (1910); Ferris' How It Flies (1910).

Ballot, or secret voting, is a very old institution, practised both in Greece and in Rome, principally for voting at criminal trials, and for some purposes, such as ostracism, in deliberative