General Peixoto was succeeded as president on the 15th of November 1894 by Dr Prudente de Moraes Barros. It was a moot question whether Peixoto, after the revolt was crushed, would not declare himself dictator; certainly many of his friends were anxious that he should follow this course, but he was broken down by the strain which had been imposed upon him and was glad to surrender his duties. He did not recover his health and died shortly afterwards.
From the first day that he assumed office, President Moraes showed that he intended to suppress praetorian systems and reduce militarism to a minimum. This policy received the approval and sympathy of the majority of Brazilians, but naturally met with bitter opposition from the military element. The president gradually drew to him some members of the better conservative class to assist in his administration, and felt confident that he had the support of public opinion. Early in 1895 murmurings and disorderly conduct against the authorities began to take place in the military school at Rio de Janeiro, which had always been a hotbed of intrigue. Some of the officers and students were promptly expelled, and the president closed the school for several months. This salutary lesson had due effect, and no more discontent was fomented from that quarter. Two great difficulties stood in the way of steering the country to prosperity. The first was the chaotic confusion of the finances resulting from the maladministration of the national resources since the deposition of Dom Pedro II., and the corruption that had crept into every branch of the public service. Much was done by President Moraes to correct abuses, but the task was of too herculean a nature to allow of accomplishmentwithin the four years during which he was at the head of affairs. The second difficulty was the war waged by religious fanatics under the leadership of Antonio Maciel, known as “Conselheiro,” against the constituted authorities of Brazil.
The story of Conselheiro is a remarkable one. A native of Pernambuco, when a young man he married against the wishes of his mother, who took a violent dislike to the bride. Shortly after the marriage the mother assured her son that his wife held clandestine meetings with a lover, and stated that if he would go to a certain spot not far from the house that evening he would himself see that her assertion was true. The mother invented some plea to send the wife to the trysting-place, and then, dressing herself in male clothing, prepared to come suddenly on the scene as the lover, trusting to be able to make her escape before she was recognized. The three met almost simultaneously. Conselheiro, deeming his worst suspicions confirmed, shot and killed his wife and his mother before explanations could be offered. He was tried and allowed to go at liberty after some detention in prison. From that time Conselheiro was a victim of remorse, and to expiate his sin became a missionary in thesertaoor interior of Brazil among the wild Jagunço people. He built places of worship in many different districts, and at length became the recognized chief of the people among whom he had thus strangely cast his lot. Eventually he formed a settlement near Canudos, situated about 400 m. inland from Bahia. Difficulty arose between the governor of Bahia and this fanatical missionary, with the result that Conselheiro was ordered to leave the settlement and take away his people. This order was met with a sturdy refusal to move. Early in 1897 a police force was sent to eject the settlers, but encountered strong resistance, and suffered heavy loss without being able to effect the purpose intended. In March 1897 a body of 1500 troops, with four guns, was despatched to bring the Jagunçoes to reason, but was totally defeated. An army comprising some 5000 officers and men was then sent to crush Conselheiro and his people at all costs. Little progress was made, the country being difficult of access and the Jagunçoes laying ambuscades at every available place. Finally strong reinforcements were sent forward, the minister of war himself proceeding to take command of the army, now numbering nearly 13,000 men. Canudos was besieged and captured in September 1897, Conselheiro being killed in the final assault. The expense of these expeditions was very heavy, and prevented President Moraes from carrying out many of the retrenchments he had planned.
Soon after the Canudos affair a conspiracy was hatched to assassinate the president. He was watching the disembarkation of some troops when a shot was fired which narrowly missed him, and killed General Bitencourt, the minister of war. The actual perpetrator of the deed, a soldier, was tried and executed, but he was apparently ignorant of the persons who procured his services. Three other men implicated in the conspiracy were subsequently sentenced to imprisonment for a term of thirty years. The remainder of the presidency of Dr Moraes was uneventful; and on the 15th of November 1898 he was succeeded by Dr Campos Salles, who had previously been governor of the state of São Paulo. President Salles publicly promised political reform, economy in the administration, and absolute respect for civil rights, and speedily made efforts to fulfil these pledges.
The difficulties in the reorganization of the finances of the state, which Dr Campos Salles had to face on his accession to power, were very great. The heavy cost involved in the suppression of internal disorders, maladministration,Reform under President Campos Salles.and the hindrances placed in the way of economical development by the semi-independence of the federal states had seriously depreciated the national credit. The president-elect accordingly undertook with the full approval of Dr Moraes, who was still in office, the task of visiting Europe with the object of endeavouring to make an arrangement with the creditors of the state for a temporary suspension of payments. He was successful in his object, and an agreement was made by which bonds should be issued instead of interest payments from the 1st of July 1898, the promise being given that every effort should be made for the resumption of cash payments in 1901. President Campos Salles entered upon his tenure of office on the 15th of November 1898, and at once proceeded to initiate fiscal legislation for the purpose of reducing expenditure and increasing the revenue. He had to face opposition from sectional interests and from the jealousy of interference with their rights on the part of provincial administrations, but he was able to achieve a considerable measure of success and to lay the foundation of a sounder system under which the financial position of the republic has made steady progress. The chief feature of the administration of Dr Campos Salles was the statesmanlike ability with which various disputes with foreign powers on boundary questions were seriously taken in hand and brought to a satisfactory and pacific settlement. There had for a long period been difficulties with France with regard to the territory which lay between the mouth of the Amazon and Cayenne or French Guiana. The language of various treatises was doubtful and ambiguous, largely owing to the ignorance of the diplomatists who drew up the articles of the exact geography of the territory in question. Napoleon had forced the Portuguese government to cede to him the northernmost arm of the mouth of the Amazon as the southern boundary of French Guiana with a large slice of the unexplored interior westwards. A few years later the Portuguese had in their turn conquered French Guiana, but had been compelled to restore it at the peace of Paris. The old ambiguity attaching to the interpretation of earlier treaties, however, remained, and in April 1899 the question by an agreement between the two states was referred to the arbitration of the president of the Swiss confederation. The decision was given in December 1900 and was entirely in favour of the Brazilian contention. A still more interesting boundary dispute was that between Great Britain and Brazil, as to the southern frontier line of British Guiana. The dispute was of very old standing, and the settlement by arbitration in 1899 of the acute misunderstanding between Great Britain and Venezuela regarding the western boundary of British Guiana, and the reference to arbitration in that same year of the Franco-Brazilian dispute, led to an agreement being made in 1901 between Brazil and Great Britain for the submission of their differences to the arbitration of the king of Italy. The district in dispute was the site of the fabled Lake of Parima and the Golden City of Manoa, the search for which in the early days of European settlement attracted so many adventurous expeditions, and which fascinated the imagination of Raleigh and drew him to his doom. The question was a complicated one involving the historical survey of Dutch and Portuguese exploration and control in the far interior of Guiana during two centuries; and it was not until 1904 that the king of Italy gave his award, which was largely in favour of the British claim, and grants to British Guiana access to the northern affluents of the Amazon. Before this decision was given Senhor Rodrigues Alves had been elected president in 1902. Dr Campos Salles had signalized his administration, not only by the settlement of disputes with European powers, but by efforts to arrive at a good understanding with the neighbouring South American republics. In July 1899 President Roca had visited Rio de Janeiro accompanied by an Argentine squadron, this being the first official visit that any South American president had ever paid to one of the adjoining states. In October 1900 Dr Campos Salles returned the visit and met with an excellent reception at Buenos Aires. The result was of importance, as it was known that Brazil was on friendly terms with Chile, and this interchange of courtesies had some effect in bringing about a settlement of the controversy between Chile and Argentina over the Andean frontier question without recourse to hostilities. This was indeed a time when questions concerning boundaries were springing up on every side, for it was only through the moderation with which the high-handed action of Bolivia in regard to the Acré rubber-producing territory was met by the Brazilian government that war was avoided. Negotiations were set on foot, and finally by treating the matter in a give-and-take spirit a settlement was reached and a treaty for an amicable exchange of territoriesin the district in question, accompanied by a pecuniary indemnity, was signed by President Alves at Petropolis on the 17th of November 1903. During the remainder of the term of this president internal and financial progress were undisturbed save by an outbreak in 1904 in the Cunani district, the very portion of disputed territory which had been assigned to Brazil by the arbitration with France. This province, being difficult of access, was able for a time to assert a practical independence. In 1906 Dr Affonso Penna, three times minister under Pedro II., and at that time governor of the state of Minas-Geraes, of which he had founded the new capital, Bello Horizonte, was elected president, a choice due to a coalition of the other states against São Paulo, to which all the recent presidents had belonged. Penna’s presidency was distinguished by his successful efforts to place the finances on a sound basis. He died in office on the 14th of June 1909.
(K. J.; C. E. A.; G. E.)
Bibliography.—History: Capistrano de Abreu,Descobrimento do Brazil e seu desenvolvimento no seculo xix. (Rio de Janeiro, 1883); John Armitage,History of Brazil from 1808 to 1831(2 vols., London, 1836); Moreira de Azevedo,Historia do Brazil de 1831 à 1840(Rio de Janeiro, 1841); V.L. Basil,L’Empire du Brésil(Paris, 1862); Caspar Barlaeus,Rerun per octennium in Brasiliâ ... sub praefecturâ Mauritii Nassovii... historia(Amsterdam, 1647); F.S. Constancio,Historia do Brazil(Pernambuco, 1843); Anfonso Fialho,Historia d’estabelecimento da republica “Estados Unidos do Brazil”(Rio de Janeiro 1890); P. Gaffarel,Histoire du Brésil français(Paris, 1878); E. Grosse,Dom Pedro I.(Leipzig, 1836); E. Levasseur,L’Abolition de I’esclavage en Brésil(Paris, 1888); J.M. de Macedo,Anno biographico brazileiro(3 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1876); A.J. Mello Moraes,Brazil historico(4 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1839);Chorographia historica, chronographica genealogica, nobiliaria e politica do Brazil(5 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1858-1863);A Independencia e o imperio do Brazil(Rio de Janeiro, 1877); B. Mossé,Dom Pedro II., empereur du Brésil(Paris, 1889); P. Netscher,Les Hollandais au Brésil(Hague, 1853); J.M. Pereira da Silva,Varões illustres do Brazil(2 vols., Paris, 1888);Historia da fundação do imperio brazileiro(Rio de Janeiro, 1877);Segundo Periodo do reinado de D. Pedro I.(Paris, 1875);Historia do Brazil de 1831 à 1840(Rio de Janeiro, 1888); J.P. Oliveira Martins,O Brazil e as colonias Portuguezas(Lisbon, 1888); S. da Rocha Pitta,Historia da America Portugueza(Lisbon, 1730); C. da Silva.L’Oyapock et I’Amazone(2 vols., Paris, 1861); R. Southey,History of Brazil(3 vols., London, 1810-1819); J.B. Spix and C.F. von Martius,Reise in Brasilien, 1817-1820 (3 parts, Munich, 1823-1831); F.A. de Varnhagen,Historia geral do Brazil(2 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1877);Historia das luctas com os Hollandeses(Vienna, 187:); C.E. Akers,Hist. of South America, 1854-1904(1904); theRevista trimensal do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil(1839-1908), one or two volumes annually, is a storehouse of papers, studies and original documents bearing on the history of Brazil.Geography, &c.: Elisée Reclus,Universal Geography(1875-1894), vol. xix. pp. 77-291; J.E. Wappãus,Geographica physica do Brazil(Rio de Janeiro, 1884); A. Moreira Pinto,Chorographia do Brazil(5th ed., Rip de Janeiro, 1895); Therese Prinzessin von Bayern,Meine Reise indenbrasilianischen Tropen(Berlin, 1897); M. Lamberg,Brasilien, Land und Leute(Leipzig, 1899); L. Hutchinson,Reporton Trade in Brazil (Washington, 1906); F. Katzer,Grundzüge der Geologie des unteren Amazonegebietes(Leipzig, 1903); J.C. Branner,A Bibliography of the Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology of Brazil(Rio de Janeiro, 1903); J.W. Evans, “The Rocks of the Cataracts of the River Madeira and the adjoining Portions of the Beni and Mamoré,”Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., London, vol. lxii., 1906, pp. 88-124, pl. v.
Bibliography.—History: Capistrano de Abreu,Descobrimento do Brazil e seu desenvolvimento no seculo xix. (Rio de Janeiro, 1883); John Armitage,History of Brazil from 1808 to 1831(2 vols., London, 1836); Moreira de Azevedo,Historia do Brazil de 1831 à 1840(Rio de Janeiro, 1841); V.L. Basil,L’Empire du Brésil(Paris, 1862); Caspar Barlaeus,Rerun per octennium in Brasiliâ ... sub praefecturâ Mauritii Nassovii... historia(Amsterdam, 1647); F.S. Constancio,Historia do Brazil(Pernambuco, 1843); Anfonso Fialho,Historia d’estabelecimento da republica “Estados Unidos do Brazil”(Rio de Janeiro 1890); P. Gaffarel,Histoire du Brésil français(Paris, 1878); E. Grosse,Dom Pedro I.(Leipzig, 1836); E. Levasseur,L’Abolition de I’esclavage en Brésil(Paris, 1888); J.M. de Macedo,Anno biographico brazileiro(3 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1876); A.J. Mello Moraes,Brazil historico(4 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1839);Chorographia historica, chronographica genealogica, nobiliaria e politica do Brazil(5 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1858-1863);A Independencia e o imperio do Brazil(Rio de Janeiro, 1877); B. Mossé,Dom Pedro II., empereur du Brésil(Paris, 1889); P. Netscher,Les Hollandais au Brésil(Hague, 1853); J.M. Pereira da Silva,Varões illustres do Brazil(2 vols., Paris, 1888);Historia da fundação do imperio brazileiro(Rio de Janeiro, 1877);Segundo Periodo do reinado de D. Pedro I.(Paris, 1875);Historia do Brazil de 1831 à 1840(Rio de Janeiro, 1888); J.P. Oliveira Martins,O Brazil e as colonias Portuguezas(Lisbon, 1888); S. da Rocha Pitta,Historia da America Portugueza(Lisbon, 1730); C. da Silva.L’Oyapock et I’Amazone(2 vols., Paris, 1861); R. Southey,History of Brazil(3 vols., London, 1810-1819); J.B. Spix and C.F. von Martius,Reise in Brasilien, 1817-1820 (3 parts, Munich, 1823-1831); F.A. de Varnhagen,Historia geral do Brazil(2 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1877);Historia das luctas com os Hollandeses(Vienna, 187:); C.E. Akers,Hist. of South America, 1854-1904(1904); theRevista trimensal do Instituto Historico e Geographico do Brazil(1839-1908), one or two volumes annually, is a storehouse of papers, studies and original documents bearing on the history of Brazil.
Geography, &c.: Elisée Reclus,Universal Geography(1875-1894), vol. xix. pp. 77-291; J.E. Wappãus,Geographica physica do Brazil(Rio de Janeiro, 1884); A. Moreira Pinto,Chorographia do Brazil(5th ed., Rip de Janeiro, 1895); Therese Prinzessin von Bayern,Meine Reise indenbrasilianischen Tropen(Berlin, 1897); M. Lamberg,Brasilien, Land und Leute(Leipzig, 1899); L. Hutchinson,Reporton Trade in Brazil (Washington, 1906); F. Katzer,Grundzüge der Geologie des unteren Amazonegebietes(Leipzig, 1903); J.C. Branner,A Bibliography of the Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology of Brazil(Rio de Janeiro, 1903); J.W. Evans, “The Rocks of the Cataracts of the River Madeira and the adjoining Portions of the Beni and Mamoré,”Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., London, vol. lxii., 1906, pp. 88-124, pl. v.
1The areas are reduced from the planimetrical calculations made at Gotha and used by A. Supan inDie Bevölkerung der Erde(1904). They are corrected to cover all boundary changes to 1906.2The census of 1890 is the last one of which complete returns are published. That of 1900 was notoriously inaccurate in many instances.3The census returns are for municipalities, and not for cities proper. As a municipality covers a large extent of country, the population given is larger than that of the urban parishes, and is therefore not strictly correct according to European practice.4The Brazilian official titles are given for the state capitals: Belem for Pará; São Luiz for Maranhão; São Salvador for Bahia; and Recife for Pernambuco.5The capital of Minas Geraes in 1890 was Ouro Preto; it has since been transferred to Bello Horizonte, or Cidade de Minas, which has an estimated population of 25,000.6Since the naval revolt of 1893-1894 the name of the capital of Santa Catharina has been changed from Desterro to Florianopolis in honour of President Floriano Peixoto.7The “bran” exported is from imported wheat and cannot be considered a national product.8The “old metals” consist of old iron, brass, &c., derived from railway material, machinery, &c., all imported, and should not be considered a Brazilian product.The “sundry products” would probably be included in the four general classes were the items given.9Previous to 1907 these two departments were united in one under the designation of “Industry, Communications and Public Works.” The division was decreed December 29, 1906.
1The areas are reduced from the planimetrical calculations made at Gotha and used by A. Supan inDie Bevölkerung der Erde(1904). They are corrected to cover all boundary changes to 1906.
2The census of 1890 is the last one of which complete returns are published. That of 1900 was notoriously inaccurate in many instances.
3The census returns are for municipalities, and not for cities proper. As a municipality covers a large extent of country, the population given is larger than that of the urban parishes, and is therefore not strictly correct according to European practice.
4The Brazilian official titles are given for the state capitals: Belem for Pará; São Luiz for Maranhão; São Salvador for Bahia; and Recife for Pernambuco.
5The capital of Minas Geraes in 1890 was Ouro Preto; it has since been transferred to Bello Horizonte, or Cidade de Minas, which has an estimated population of 25,000.
6Since the naval revolt of 1893-1894 the name of the capital of Santa Catharina has been changed from Desterro to Florianopolis in honour of President Floriano Peixoto.
7The “bran” exported is from imported wheat and cannot be considered a national product.
8The “old metals” consist of old iron, brass, &c., derived from railway material, machinery, &c., all imported, and should not be considered a Brazilian product.
The “sundry products” would probably be included in the four general classes were the items given.
9Previous to 1907 these two departments were united in one under the designation of “Industry, Communications and Public Works.” The division was decreed December 29, 1906.
BRAZIL,a city and the county-seat of Clay county, Indiana, U.S.A., situated in the west central part of the state, about 16 m. E. of Terre Haute and about 57 m. W.S.W. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 5905; (1900) 7786 (723 foreign-born); (1910) 9340. It is served by the Central Indiana, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Evansville & Indianapolis and the Vandalia railways, and is connected with Indianapolis, Terre Haute and other cities by an interurban electric line. The principal business thoroughfare is part of the old National Road. Brazil’s chief industrial importance is due to its situation in the heart of the “Brazil block” coal (so named because it naturally breaks into almost perfect rectangular blocks) and clay and shale region; among its manufactures are mining machinery and tools, boilers, paving and enamelled building bricks, hollow bricks, tiles, conduits, sewer-pipe and pottery. The municipality owns and operates its water-works. The first settlement here was in 1844; and Brazil was incorporated as a town in 1866, and was chartered as a city in 1873.
BRAZIL NUTS,the seeds ofBertholletia excelsa, a gigantic tree belonging to the natural order Lecythidaceae, which grows in the valleys of the Amazons and generally throughout tropical America. The tree attains an average height of 130 ft., having a smooth cylindrical trunk, with a diameter of 14 ft. 50 ft. from the ground, and branching at a height of about 100 ft. The lower portion of the trunk presents a buttressed aspect, owing to the upward extension of the roots in the form of thin prop-like walls surrounding the stem. The fruit of the tree is globular, with a diameter of 5 or 6 in., and consists of a thick hard woody shell, within which are closely packed the seeds which constitute the so-called nuts of commerce. The seeds are triangular in form, having a hard woody testa enclosing the “kernel”; and of these each fruit contains from eighteen to twenty-five. The fruits as they ripen fall from their lofty position, and they are at the proper season annually collected and broken open by the Indians. Brazil nuts are largely eaten; they also yield in the proportion of about 9 oz. to each ℔ of kernels a fine bland fluid oil, highly valued for use in cookery, and used by watchmakers and artists.
BRAZIL WOOD,a dye wood of commercial importance, obtained from the West Indies and South America, belonging to the generaCaesalpiniaandPeltophorumof the natural order Leguminosae. There are several woods of the kind, commercially distinguished as Brazil wood, Nicaragua or Peach wood, Pernambuco wood and Lima wood, each of which has a different commercial value, although the tinctorial principle they yield is similar. Commercial Brazil wood is imported for the use of dyers in billets of large size, and is a dense compact wood of a reddish brown colour, rather bright when freshly cut, but becoming dull on exposure. The colouring-matter of Brazil wood, brazilin, C16H14O5, crystallizes with 1½ H2O, and is freely soluble in water; it is extracted for use by simple infusion or decoction of the coarsely-powdered wood. When freshly prepared the extract is of a yellowish tint; but by contact with the air, or the addition of an alkaline solution, it develops a brick-red colour. This is due to the formation of brazilein, C16H12O5·H2O, which is the colouring matter used by the dyer. Brazilin crystallizes in hexagonal amber yellow crystals, which are soluble in water and alcohol. The solution when free of oxygen is colourless, but on the access of air it assumes first a yellow and thereafter a reddish yellow colour. With soda-ley it takes a brilliant deep carmine tint, which colour may be discharged by heating in a closed vessel with zinc dust, in which condition, the solution is excessively sensitive to oxygen, the slightest exposure to air immediately giving a deep carmine. With tin mordants Brazil wood gives brilliant but fugitive steam reds in calico-printing; but on account of the loose nature of its dyes it is seldom used except as an adjunct to other colours. It is used to form lakes which are employed in tinting papers, staining paper-hangings, and for various other decorative purposes.
BRAZING AND SOLDERING,in metal work, termed respectively hard and soft soldering, are processes which correspond with soldering done at high and at low temperatures. The first embraces jointing effected with soldering mixtures into which copper, brass, or silver largely enter, the second those in which lead and tin are the only, or the principal, constituents. Some metals, as aluminium and cast iron, are less easily soldered than others. Aluminium, owing to its high conductivity, removes the heat from the solder rapidly. Aluminium enters into the composition of most of the solders for these metals, and the “soldering bit” is of pure nickel.
The hard solders are the spelter and the silver solders. Soft spelter solder is composed of equal parts of copper and zinc, melted and granulated and passed through a sieve. As some of the zinc volatilizes the ultimate proportions are not quite equal. The proportion of zinc is increased if the solder is required to be softer or more fusible. A valuable property of the zinc is that its volatilization indicates the fusing of the solder. Silver solder is used for jewelry and other fine metal work, arid has the advantage of high fusing points. The hardest contains from 4 parts of silver to 1 of copper; the softest 2 of silver to 1 ofbrass wire. Borax is the flux used, with silver solder as with spelter.
The soft solders are composed mainly of tin and lead. They occur in a large range. Common tinner’s solder is composed of equal parts of tin and lead, and melts at 370° Fah. Plumber’s solder has 2 of lead to 1 of tin. Excess of lead in plumber’s solder renders the solder difficult to work, excess of tin allows it to melt too easily. Pewterers add bismuth to render the solder more fusible,e.g.lead 4, tin 3, bismuth 2; or lead 1, tin 2, bismuth 1. Unless these are cooled quickly the bismuth separates out.
The essentials of a soldered joint are the contact of absolutely clean surfaces, free from oxide and dirt. The surfaces are therefore scraped, filed and otherwise treated, and then, in order to cleanse and preserve them from any trace of oxide which might form during subsequent manipulation, a fluxing material is used. The soldering material is compelled to follow the areas prepared for it by the flux, and it will not adhere anywhere else. There is much similarity between soldering and welding in this respect. A weld joint must as a rule be fluxed, or metal will not adhere to metal. There is not, however, the absolute need for fluxing that there is in soldered joints, and many welds in good fibrous iron are made without a flux. But the explanation here is that the metal is brought to a temperature of semifusion, and the shapes of joints are generally such that particles of scale are squeezed out from between the joint in the act of closing the weld. But in brazing and soldering the parts to be united are generally nearly cold, and only the soldering material is fused, so that the conditions are less favourable to the removal of oxide than in welding processes.
Fluxes are either liquid or solid, but the latter are not efficient until they fuse and cover the surfaces to be united. Hydrochloric acid (spirits of salts) is the one used chiefly for soft soldering. It is “killed” by the addition of a little zinc, the resulting chloride of zinc rendering its action quiet. Common fluxes are powdered resin, and tallow (used chiefly by plumbers for wiped joints). These, with others, are employed for soft solder joints, the temperature of which rarely exceeds about 600° Fah. The best flux for zinc is chloride of zinc. For brazed joints, spelter or powdered brass is employed, and the flux is usually borax. The borax will not cover the joint until it has been deprived of its water of crystallization, and this is effected by raising it to a full red heat, when it swells in bulk, “boils,” and afterwards sinks quietly and spreads over, or into the joint. There are differences in details of working. The borax is generally powdered and mixed with the spelter, and both with water. But sometimes they are applied separately, the borax first and over this the particles of spelter. Another flux used for copper is sal ammoniac, either alone or mixed with powdered resin.
As brazed joints often have to be very strong, other precautions are frequently taken beyond that of the mere overlapping of the joint edges. In pipes subjected to high steam pressures, and articles subjected to severe stresses, the joints are “cramped” before the solder is applied. That is, the edges are notched in a manner having somewhat the appearance of the dovetails of the carpenter; the notched portions overlap the opposite edges, and on alternate sides. Such joints when brazed are stronger than plain overlapping joints would be. Steam dome coverings are jointed thus longitudinally as cylinders, and the crown is jointed thereto, also by cramping. Another common method of union is that of flanges to copper pipes. In these the pipe passes freely within a hole bored right through the flange, and the solder is run between. The pipe is suspended vertically, flange downwards, and the spelter run in from the back of the flange. The fused borax works its way in by capillary action, and the spelter follows.
The “copper bit” is used in soft soldering. Its end is a prismatic pyramid of copper, riveted to an iron shank in a wooden handle. It is made hot, and the contained heat is sufficient to melt the solder. It has to be “tinned,” by being heated to a dull red, filed, rubbed with sal ammoniac, and then rubbed upon the solder. It is wiped with tow before use. For small brazed work the blow-pipe is commonly employed; large works are done on the brazier’s hearth, or in any clear coke fire. If coal is used it must be kept away from the joint.
In “sweating on,” a variation in soldering, the surfaces to be united are cleaned, and solder melted and spread over them. They are then brought together, and the temperature raised sufficiently to melt the solder.
A detail of first importance is the essential difference between the melting points of the objects to be brazed or soldered, and that of the solder used. The latter must always be lower than the former. This explains why soldering materials are used in a large range of temperatures. A few will melt at the temperature of boiling water. At the other extreme 2000° Fah. is required to melt a solder for brazing. If this point is neglected, it will often happen that the object to be soldered will fuse before the solder melts. This accident may occur in the soft Britannia and white metals at the one extreme, and in the softer brasses at the other. It would not do, for example, to use flanges of common brass, or even ordinary gun-metal, to be brazed to copper pipe, for they would begin to fuse before the joint was made. Such flanges must be made of nearly pure copper, to withstand the temperature, usually 98 of copper to 2 of tin (brazing metal). A most valuable feature in solder is that by varying the proportions of the metals used a great range in hardness and fusibility is obtainable. The useful solders therefore number many scores. This is also a source of danger, unless regard be had to the relative fusing points of solders, and of the parts they unite.
(J. G. H.)
BRAZZA, PIERRE PAUL FRANÇOIS CAMILLE SAVORGNAN DE,Count(1852-1905), French explorer and administrator, founder of French Congo, was born on board ship in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro on the 26th of January 1852. He was of Italian parentage, the family name being de Brazza Savorgnani. Through the instrumentality of the astronomer Secchi he was sent to the Jesuit college in Paris, and in 1868 obtained authorization to enter as a foreigner the marine college at Brest. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 he took part in the operations of the French fleet. In 1874 when the warship on which he was serving was in the Gabun, Alfred Marche and the marquis de Compiègne arrived at Libreville from an expedition in the lower Ogowé district. Interested in the reports of these travellers, de Brazza conceived the idea of exploring the Ogowé, which he thought might prove to be the lower course of the Lualaba, a river then recently discovered by David Livingstone. Having meantime been naturalized as a Frenchman, de Brazza in 1875 obtained permission to undertake his African scheme, and with the naval doctor, Noel Ballay, he explored the Ogowé river. Penetrating beyond the basin of that river, he discovered the Alima and Likona, but did not descend either stream. Thence turning northwards the travellers eventually regained the coast at the end of November 1878, having left Paris in August 1875. On arrival in Paris, de Brazza learned of the navigation of the Congo by H.M. Stanley, and recognized that the rivers he had discovered were affluents of that stream.
De Brazza was anxious to obtain for France some part of the Congo. The French ministry, however, determined to utilize his energies in another quarter of Africa. Their attention had been drawn to the Niger through the formation of the United African Company by Sir George Goldie (then Mr Goldie Taubman) in July 1879, Goldie’s object being to secure Nigeria for Great Britain. A new expedition was fitted out, and de Brazza left Paris at the end of 1879 with orders to go to the Niger, make treaties, and plant French flags. When on the point of sailing; from Lisbon he received a telegram cancelling these instructions, and altering his destination to the Congo. This was a decision of great moment. Had the Nigerian policy of France been maintained the International African Association (afterwards the Congo Free State) would have had a clear field on the Congo, while the young British Company would have been crushed out by French opposition; so that the two great basins of the Niger and the Congo would have had a vastly different history.
Acting on his new instructions, de Brazza, who was againaccompanied by Ballay, reached the Gabun early in 1880. Rapidly ascending the Ogowé he founded the station of Franceville on the upper waters of that river and pushed on to the Congo at Stanley Pool, where Brazzaville was subsequently founded. With Makoko, chief of the Bateke tribe, de Brazza concluded treaties in September and October 1880, placing the country under French protection. With these treaties in his possession Brazza proceeded down the Congo, and at Isangila on the 7th of November met Stanley, who was working his way up stream concluding treaties with the chiefs on behalf of the International African Association. De Brazza spent the next eighteen months exploring the hinterland of the Gabun, and returned to France in June 1882. The ratification by the French chambers in the following November of the treaties with Makoko (described by Stanley as worthless pieces of paper) committed France to the action of her agent.
Furnished with funds by the French government, de Brazza returned in 1883 to the Congo to open up the new colony, of which he was named commissioner-general in 1886. This post he held until January 1898, when he was recalled. During his period of office the work of exploration was systematically carried out by numerous expeditions which he organized. The incessant demands on the resources of the infant colony for these and other expeditions to the far interior greatly retarded its progress. De Brazza’s administration was severely criticized; but that its comparative failure was largely due to inadequate support from the home authorities was recognized in the grant to him in 1902 of a pension by the chambers. Both as explorer and administrator his dealings with the natives were marked by consideration, kindness and patience, and he earned the title of “Father of the Slaves.” His efforts to connect the upper Congo with the Atlantic by a railway through French territory showed that he understood the chief economic needs of the colony. After seven years of retirement in France de Brazza accepted, in February 1905, a mission to investigate charges of cruelty to natives brought against officials of the Congo colony. Having concluded his inquiry he sailed for France, but died at Dakar, Senegal, on the 4th of September 1905. His body was taken to Paris for burial, but in 1908 was reinterred at Algiers.
See D. Neuville et Ch. Bréard,Les Voyages de Savorgnan de Brazza, Ogooué et Congo, 1875-1882(Paris, 1884), andConférences et lettres de P. Savorgnan de Brazza sur ses trois explorations dans l’ouest africain de 1875 à 1886(Paris, 1887); A.J. Wauters, “Savorgnan de Brazza et la conquête du Congo français,” inLe Mouvement geographique, vol. xxii., No. 39 (Brussels, 1905). Giacomo or Jacques de Brazza (1859-1883), a younger brother of Savorgnan, and one of the men he employed in the work of exploration, published in collaboration with his companion A. Pecile,Tre Anni e mezzo nella regione del Congo e dell’ Ogowe(Rome, 1887).
See D. Neuville et Ch. Bréard,Les Voyages de Savorgnan de Brazza, Ogooué et Congo, 1875-1882(Paris, 1884), andConférences et lettres de P. Savorgnan de Brazza sur ses trois explorations dans l’ouest africain de 1875 à 1886(Paris, 1887); A.J. Wauters, “Savorgnan de Brazza et la conquête du Congo français,” inLe Mouvement geographique, vol. xxii., No. 39 (Brussels, 1905). Giacomo or Jacques de Brazza (1859-1883), a younger brother of Savorgnan, and one of the men he employed in the work of exploration, published in collaboration with his companion A. Pecile,Tre Anni e mezzo nella regione del Congo e dell’ Ogowe(Rome, 1887).
(G. T. G.)
BRAZZA(Serbo-Croatian,Brač;Lat.Brattia), an island in the Adriatic Sea, forming part of Dalmatia, Austria. Pop. (1900) 24,408. With an area of 170 sq. m. Brazza is the largest of the Dalmatian Islands; it is also the most thickly populated, and one of the most fertile. Its closely cultivated surface though ragged and mountainous yields an abundance of olives, figs, almonds and saffron, while its wines are of good quality. The corn-crop, however, barely suffices for three months’ food. Other local industries are fishing and silkworm-rearing. The most important among twenty small villages on the island is Milná (pop. 2579), a steamship station, provided with shipwrights’ wharves. The early history of Brazza is obscure. In the first years of the 13th century it was ruled by the piratical counts of Almissa; but after a successful revolt and a brief period of liberty it came under the dominion of Hungary. From 1413 to 1416 it was subject to Ragusa; and in 1420 it passed, with the greater part of Dalmatia, under Venetian sovereignty.
BREACH(Mid. Eng.breche, derived from the common Teutonic rootbrec, which appears in “break,” Ger.brechen, &c.), in general, a breaking, or an opening made by breaking; in law, the infringement of a right or the violation of an obligation or duty. The word is used in various phrases:breach of close, the unlawful entry upon another person’s land (seeTrespass);breach of covenant or contract, the non-fulfilment of an agreement either to do or not to do some act (seeDamages);breach of the peace, a disturbance of the public order (seePeace, Breach of);breach of pound, the taking by force out of a pound things lawfully impounded (seePound);breach of promise of marriage, the non-fulfilment of a contract mutually entered into by a man and a woman that they will marry each other (seeMarriage);breach of trust, any deviation by a trustee from the duty imposed upon him by the instrument creating the trust (q.v.).
BREAD,the name given to the staple food-product prepared by the baking of flour. The word itself, O. Eng.bréad, is common in various forms to many Teutonic languages; cf. Ger.Brot, Dutch,brood, and Swed. and Dan.bröt; it has been derived from the root of “brew,” but more probably is connected with the root of “break,” for its early uses are confined to “broken pieces, or bits” of bread, the Lat.frustum, and it was not till the 12th century that it took the place, as the generic name of bread, ofhlaf, “loaf,” which appears to be the oldest Teutonic name, cf. Old High Ger.hleib, and modern Ger.Laib.
History.—Bread-baking, or at any rate the preparation of cakes from flour or parched grain by means of heat, is one of the most ancient of human arts. At Wangen and Robenhausen have been found the calcined remains of cakes made from coarsely-ground grain in Swiss lake-dwellings that date back to the Stone Age. The cakes were made of different kinds of grain, barley and one-grained wheat (Triticum monococcum) being among the ingredients. This bread was made, not from fine meal, but from grain crushed between some hard surfaces, and in these lake-dwellings many round-shaped stones have been found, which were evidently used for pounding or crushing grain against the surface, more or less concave, of another stone (seeFlour and Flour Manufacture). Perhaps the earliest form of bread, if that word may be used, was prepared from acorns and beech nuts. To this day a sort of cake prepared from crushed acorns is eaten by the Indians of the Pacific slopes. The flour extracted from acorns is bitter and unfit to eat till it has been thoroughly soaked in boiling water. The saturated flour is squeezed into a kind of cake and dried in the sun. Pliny speaks of a similar crude process in connexion with wheat; the grain was evidently pounded, and the crushed remnant, soaked into a sort of pulp, then made into a cake and dried in the sun. Virgil (Georgics, i. 267) refers to the husbandman first torrefying and then crushing his grain between stones:—”Nunc torrete igni fruges, nunc frangite saxo.”
The question naturally arises, how did the lake-dwellers bake their cakes of bruised grain? Probably the dough was laid on a flat or convex-shaped stone, which was heated, while the cake was covered with hot ashes. Stones have been found among prehistoric remains which were apparently used for this purpose. In ancient Egyptian tombs cakes of durra have been found, of concave shape, suggesting the use of such baking-slabs; here the cake was evidently prepared from coarsely-cracked grain. In primitive times milling and baking were twin arts. The housewife, and the daughters or handmaids, crushed or ground the grain and prepared the bread or cakes. When Abraham entertained the angels unawares (Genesis xviii.) he bade his wife Sarah “make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.” Professor Maspero says that an oven for baking bread was to be found in the courtyard of every house in Chaldaea; close by were kept the grinding stones. That bread prepared by means of leaven was known in the days of the patriarchs may be fairly inferred from the passage in Genesis ML, where it is said of Lot that he “made a feast, and did bake unleavened bread.” Whether the shew-bread of the Jewish tabernacle was leavened is an open question, but it is significant that the Passover cakes eaten by Jews to-day, known as Matzos, are innocent of leaven. Made from flour and water only, they are about 12 in. in diameter, and have somewhat the look of water biscuits.
The ancient Egyptians carried the art of baking to high perfection. Herodotus remarks of them, “dough they knead with their feet, but clay with their hands.” The practice of using the feet for dough kneading, however repulsive, long persisted in Scotland, if indeed it is yet defunct. The Egyptiansused for their bread, wheat, spelt, barley and durra (sorghum). In the opinion of Dr Wallis Budge, barley was in Egypt the grain of most primitive culture. However that may be, it is certain that even in ancient Egypt white bread made from wheat was used by the rich. The form of the bread is revealed by ancient monuments. A common shape was a small, round loaf, something like the muffin of to-day. Other loaves were elongated rolls, and curiously enough were sprinkled on the top with seeds like modern Vienna bread.
The history of baking in classical Greece and Italy can be clearly traced. Athenaeus in hisDeipnosophistsminutely describes many different kinds of bread, which may be assumed to have been currently used in Greece. According to Pliny (Nat. Hist, xviii. II. § 28) Rome had no public bakers till after the war with Perseus (171-168B.C.). That long after public bakehouses came into use the Romans and other urban dwellers in Italy continued to make a great deal of bread at home is certain. In Pompeii several private houses had their own mill and bakehouse. That city must also have possessed bakers by trade, as loaves of bread have been found, round in form, and stamped with the maker’s name, possibly to fix responsibility for weight and purity. In the time of the Republic, public bakehouses were under the control of the aediles. Grain was delivered to the public granaries by theSaccarii, while another body calledCatabolensesdistributed the grain to the bakers. The latter were known asPistoresor “pounders,” a reminiscence no doubt of the primitive time when grain was pounded by a pestle in a mortar. Slaves were largely employed in the irksome work of grinding, and when Constantine abolished slavery the staff of thepistrinaewas largely recruited from criminals. The emperor Trajan incorporated aboutA.D.100 the college ofPistores(millers and bakers), but its members were employers, not operatives. The work of a bakery is depicted in a set of bas-reliefs on the tomb of a master Pistor named Eurysaces, who flourished about a century before the foundation of the college. Here the grain is being brought and paid for; mills driven by horse and ass (or mule) power are busy; men are sieving out the bran from the flour by hand (bolters); bakers are moulding loaves on a board; an oven of domelike shape is being charged by means of a shovel (peel); and baskets of bread are being weighed on the one hand and carried off on men’s backs on the other.
Regulation of Sale.—In the middle ages bakers were subjected to special regulations in all European lands. These regulations were supposed to be conceived in the interests of bread consumers, and no doubt were intended to secure fair dealing on the part of bread vendors. The legislators appear, however, to have been unduly biased against the baker, who was often beset by harassing restrictions. Bakers were formed into gilds, which were under the control, not only of their own officials, but of the municipality. In London the bakers formed a brotherhood as early as 1155, and were incorporated in 1307. There were two distinct corporate bodies concerned with bread-making, the Company of White Bakers and the Company of Brown Bakers; these were nominally united in 1509, but the union did not become complete till the middle of the 17th century. In Austria, bakers who offended against police regulations respecting the sale of bread were liable, until comparatively recent times, to fine, imprisonment and even corporal punishment. In Turkey the lot of the baker was very hard. Baron de Tott, writing of Constantinople in the 18th century, says that it was usual, when bread went to famine prices, to hang a baker or two. He would have us believe that it was the custom of master bakers to keep a second hand, who, in consideration of a small increase of his weekly wage, was willing to appear before the cadi in case a victim were wanted. A barbarous punishment, inflicted in Turkey and in Egypt on bakers who sold light or adulterated bread, consisted in nailing the culprit by his ear to the door-post of his shop. In France a decree of 1863 relieved bakers from many of the restrictions under which they previously suffered, but it did not touch the powers of the municipalities to regulate the quality and sale of bread. It left them the right conferred in 1791, to enforce thetaxe du pain, the object of which was to prevent bakers from increasing the price of bread beyond a point justified by the price of the raw materials; but the right was exercised on their own responsibility, subject to appeal to higher authorities, and by a circular issued in 1863 they were invited to abolish thistaxe officielle. In places where it exists it is fixed every week or fortnight, according to the average price of grain in the local markets.
In England an act of parliament was passed in 1266 for regulating the price of bread by a public assize, and that system continued in operation till 1822 in the case of the city of London, and till 1836 for the rest of the country. The price of bread was determined by adding a certain sum to the price of every quarter of flour, to cover the baker’s expenses and profit; and for the sum so arrived at tradesmen were required to bake and sell eighty quartern loaves or a like proportion of other sizes, which it was reckoned each quarter of flour ought to yield. The acts now regulating the manufacture and sale of bread in Great Britain are one of 1822 (Sale of Bread in the City of London and within 10 m. of the Royal Exchange), and the Bread Act of 1836, as to sale of bread beyond 10 m. of the Royal Exchange. The acts require that bread shall be sold by weight, and in no other manner, under a penalty not exceeding forty shillings. This does not, however, mean that a seller is bound to sell at any particular weight; the words quartern and half-quartern, though commonly used and taken to indicate a 4-℔ and 2-℔ loaf respectively, have no legal sanction. That is to say, a baker is not bound to sell a loaf weighing either 4 ℔ or 2; all he has to do, when a customer asks for a loaf, is to put one on the scale, weigh it, and declare the weight. When bread is sold over the counter it is usual for the vendor to cut off and tender a piece of bread to make up any deficiency in the loaf. This is known as the “overweight.” There is little doubt the somewhat misty wording of the bread acts lends itself to a good deal of fraudulent dealing. For instance, when bread is sold over the counter, two loaves may be 5 or 6 oz. short, while the piece of makeweight may not reach an ounce. The customer sees the bread put on the scale, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred does not trouble to verify the weight, and unless he expressly asks for 2 ℔ or some specific weight of bread, it is very doubtful whether the seller, having satisfied the letter of the law by placing the bread on the scales, could be convicted of fraud. The provision as to selling by weight does not apply to fancy bread and rolls. No exact definition of “fancy bread” has ever been laid down, and it must be largely a question of fact in each particular case. All bakers or sellers of bread must use avoirdupois weight, and must provide, in a conspicuous place in the shop, beams, scales and weights, in order that all bread there sold may from time to time be weighed in the presence of the purchaser. The penalty for using any other weight than avoirdupois is a sum not exceeding £5 nor less than forty shillings, and for failing to provide beams and scales a sum not exceeding £5. Also every baker and seller of bread, delivering by cart or other conveyance, must be provided with scales and weights for weighing bread; but since the Weights and Measures Act 1889, no penalty is incurred by omission to weigh, unless there has been a request on the part of the purchaser. The acts also define precisely what ingredients may be employed in the manufacture of bread, and impose a penalty not exceeding £10 nor less than £5 for the adulteration of bread. (See further underAdulteration.)
Although the act of 1836 extends to the whole of the United Kingdom (Ireland excepted) out of the city of London and beyond 10 m. of the Royal Exchange, yet in many Scottish burghs this act is replaced by local acts on the sale of bread. These are in all cases of a much more stringent nature, requiring all batch or household bread to be stamped with the reputed weight. Any deficiency within a certain time from the withdrawal of the bread from the oven is an offence. The London County Council desired to introduce a similar system into the area under their jurisdiction, and promoted a bill to that effect in 1905, but it fell through. The bill was opposed not only by the National Association of Master Bakers, the London MasterBakers’ Protection Society, and by the West End metropolitan bakers in a body, but also by the Home Office, which objected to what it termed exceptional legislation.
It may be noted that the acts of 1822 and 1836 define precisely what may and may not be sold as bread. It is laid down in section 2 that “it shall and may be lawful ... to make and sell ... bread made of flour or meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas, beans, rice or potatoes, or any of them, and with any (common) salt, pure water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato or other yeast, and mixed in such proportions as they shall think fit, and with no other ingredients or matter whatsoever.”
Sanitation of Bakehouses.—The sanitary arrangements of bakehouses in England were first regulated by the Bakehouse Regulation Act 1863, which was repealed and replaced by the Factory and Workshop Act 1878; this act, with various amending acts, was in turn repealed and replaced by the Factory and Workshop Act 1901. By the act of 1901 a bakehouse is defined as a place in which are baked bread, biscuits or confectionery, from the baking or selling of which a profit is derived. The act of 1863 placed the sanitary supervision of bakehouses in the hands of local authorities; from 1878 to 1883 supervision was in the hands of inspectors of factories, but in 1883 the supervision of retail bakehouses was placed in the hands of local authorities. Under the act of 1901 the supervision of bakehouses which are “workshops” is carried out by local authorities, and for the purposes of the act every bakehouse is a workshop unless within it, or its close or curtilage or precincts, steam, water or other mechanical power is used in aid of the manufacturing process carried on there, in which case it is treated as a non-textile factory, and is under the supervision of factory inspectors.