Chambers's encyclopædia: [Chiva'sso to Elephant]

Chambers, William; Chambers, Robert; Chambers, Ephraim

Bibliographic data

Multivolume work

Persistent identifier:: 874247535

Title:: Die Königlich Preussische Landes-Triangulation

Sub title:: Abrisse, Koordinaten und Höhen sämmtlicher von der Trigonometrischen Abtheilung der Landesaufnahme bestimmten Punkte

Year of publication:: 1903

Place of publication:: Berlin

Publisher of the original:: Im Selbstverlage

Identifier (digital):: 874247535

Language:: German

Editor:: Königlich Preußische Landesaufnahme

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 875018165

Title:: Regierungsbezirk Merseburg und Herzogtum Anhalt

Sub title:: mit 10 Beilagen

Scope:: VIII, 619 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1904

Place of publication:: Berlin

Publisher of the original:: Im Selbstverlage

Identifier (digital):: 875018165

Illustration:: Karten

Signature of the source:: Md. 9200(15)

Language:: German

Usage licence:: Public Domain Mark 1.0

Editor:: Königlich Preußische Landesaufnahme

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: Abrisse.

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Section

Title:: 298. Größt I. (III. 0.) - [363. Bottendorf I. (III. 0.)]

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Section

DAWLISH—DAY. not immediately need, are carried in tin-boxes or wicker-baskets called pettarahs, by separate bearers, who precede or accompany the palanquin ; whatever he considers necessary, however, he keeps beside himself inside. At all the stages, which are from 9 to 11 miles apart, there are relays of bearers, previously provided by the postmaster, the usual number for one palanquin being eleven. All arrangements as to cost are made with the postmaster of each presidency before starting, but the traveller is also expected to give some small sum to his bearers at the end of each stage : eight annas (one shilling) among the entire set of bearers is as much as is expected in the way of gratuity. The Horse-dawk, a kind of carriage with seats for four, and capable of being used as a bed in which two can sleep, the baggage being conveyed on the top, set on wheels, and drawn by horses, is in use on the great trunk road from Calcutta to the upper provinces, but has not been established throughout the country generally. DAW'LISH, a flourishing and picturesque watering-place, on the south coast of Devonshire, 12 miles south of Exeter. It lies in a valley running east and west between the mouths of the Exe and Teign. It has recently built public-baths. Pop. (1861) 4014. DAWN. See TWILIGHT. DAX, a town of France, in the department of Landes, pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Adour, 20 miles north-east of Bayonne. Among its principal buildings are the high church, once a cathedral, and the bishop’s palace. It is an inter- mediate dépot for goods forwarded to Spain, and has some manufactures of earthen-ware, wine, and brandy ; but it is chiefly remarkable for its hot saline springs, the temperature of which at the source is 212° F. The water, which is medicinal and nearly tasteless, was used for bathing-purposes by the Romans, who conferred upon the springs the name Aque Augustee Tarbellicee. Pop. 5801. DAY (probably allied to the Lat. dies, day, divum, the sky, from the root div, to shine) origin- ally meant the space of time during which it is light, in opposition to the space of darkness or night; it Bow more usually denotes a complete alternation of light and darkness. It is the earth’s rotation that causes the vicissitude of day and night. The earth being a globe, only one-half of it can be in the sun’s light at once; to that half it is day, while the other half is in its own shadow, or in night. But by the earth’s rotation, the several portions of the surface have each their turn of light and of darkness. This happens because the position of the earth is such that the equator is on the whole presented towards the sun; had either pole been towards the sun, that hemisphere would have revolved in continual light, the other in continual darkness. One complete rotation of the earth does not make a day, in the usual sense. If the time is noted when a particular fixed star is exactly south or on the meridian, when the same star comes again to the meridian the next day, the earth has made exactly one rotation, and the time that has elapsed is called a sidereal day. This portion of time is always of the same length ; for the motion of the earth on its axis is strictly uniform, and is, in fact, the only strictly uniform motion that nature presents us with. Sidereal time, or star-time, from its unvarying uniformity, is much used by astronomers. But the passage of a star across the meridian is not a con- spicuous enough event for regulating the movements of men in general. It is not a complete rotation of the earth, but a complete alternation of light and darkness that constitutes their day. This, which is called the civil or the solar day, is measured between two meridian passages of the sun, and is about four minutes longer than the sidereal day. The cause of the greater length is this: When the earth has made one complete turn, so as to bring the meridian of the place to the same position among the fixed stars as when it was noon the day before, the sun has in the meantime (apparently) moved eastward nearly one degree among the stars, and it takes the earth about four minutes more to move round so as to overtake him. If this eastward motion of the sun were uniform, the length of the solar day would be as simple and as easily determined as that of the sidereal. But the ecliptic or sun’s path crosses the earth’s equator, and is therefore more oblique to the direction of the earth’s rotation at one time than another; and besides, as the earth moves in her orbit with vary- ing speed, the rate of the sun’s apparent motion in the ecliptic, which is caused by that of the earth, must also vary. The consequence is, that the length of the solar day is constantly fluctuating ; and to get a fixed measure of solar time, astronomers have to imagine a sun moving uniformly in the celestial equator, and completing its circuit in the same time as the real sun. The time marked by this imaginary sun is called mean solar time; when the imaginary sun is on the meridian, it is mean noon ; when the real sun is on the meridian, it is apparent noon. It is obvious that a sun-dial must shew apparent time, while clocks and watches keep mean time. Only in four days of the year do these two kinds of time coincide. In the intervals, the sun is always either too fast or too slow; and the difference is called the equation of time, because, when added to or subtracted from apparent time, it makes it equal to mean time. The mean solar day is divided into twenty-four hours, the hours into minutes and seconds. A sidereal day, we have seen, is shorter ; its exact length is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds of mean solar or common time. Astronomers divide the sidereal day also into twenty-four hours, which are of course shorter than common hours. In the course of a civil year of 365 days, the earth turns on its axis 366 times, or there are 366 sidereal days. Astrono- mers reckon the day as beginning at noon, and count the hours from 1 to 24. The civil day begins at midnight, and the hours are counted in two divisions of twelve each. The ecclesiastical day was reckoned from sunset to sunset. A day, in law, includes the whole twenty-four hours, without any reference to the season of the year, or the amount of light or darkness. Where there is no qualifying stipulation, therefore, the obligation to pay on a certain day is discharged, if the money be paid before twelve o’clock at night, or the commencement of the following day. On the same principle, if anything is to be done within a certain time from or after the doing of a certain other thing, the day on which the first act or occurrence takes place is excluded. If A binds himself to pay money ten days after B’s death, and B dies on the 1st, the money will not be due till the night of the 11th at twelve o’clock. Where it is not absolutely necessary, for the pur- poses of justice, the law excludes fractional portions of time ; thus, half a year consists of 182 days, and a quarter of a year of 91. A lawful day is a day on which there is no legal impediment to the execution of a writ—i. e., all days except Sundays and fast-days appointed by govern- ment. Criminal warrants are an exception to this rule, and may be both granted and executed on Sundays and fast-days. By 29 Car. IL c. 7, all contracts made by persons in their ordinary calling 435

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