Acheson
EDWARD GOODRICH, an American inventor, born in Washington, Pa., in 1856. He received an academic education and for a short time acted as assistant of Thomas A. Edison. He invented carborundum, silicon, and several methods of making graphite. He has received medals from many American and foreign scientific societies, and has been president of the American Chemical Society and an officer and member of many other chemical societies.
ACHILLES (ak-il'ez), son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, in Thessaly, and of Thetis, da daughter of Nereus. He joined the Grecian army, in which he was preeminent in valor, strength, swiftness, and beauty. Before Troy a quarrel broke out between him and the general-in-chief, Agamemnon, which led him to with draw entirely from the contest. In consequence, the Trojans reduced the Greeks to extreme distress. The Greek council of war now sent its most influential members to soothe the anger of Achilles, and to induce him to return to arms, but without effect. Rage and grief, caused by the death of his friend Patroclus, slain by Hector, induced Achilles to return to battle. At the close of a day of slaughter he killed Hector, and dragged him at his chariot wheels to the camp.
Here ends the history of Achilles, so far as it is derived from Homer. By later authors, a variety of fable is mixed up with this simple narrative. Thetis is said to have dipped him, while an infant, in the Styx, which rendered him invulnerable except in the heel by which she held him, and he was killed at last by a wound in the heel.
ACIDS