Screw Propeller
a spiral blade on a cylindrical axis, called the shaft or spindle, parallel with the keel of vessels, made to revolve by power beneath the surface of the water, usually at the stern, as a means of propulsion. In 1802, Shorter, an English mechanician, produced motion through the water by means of a screw, but his discovery had no practical value, and it was not till 1837 that its practicability was demonstrated by the American inventor, Captain Ericsson, since which time the screw has steadily gained in favor as a means of propulsion for vessels all over the world. In 1860 the first steamer operated by twin-screws was constructed by Messrs.
Dudgeon of London, England.
SCRIBE (Hebrew, sofer), among the Jews, originally a kind of military of ficer, whose business appears to have been the recruiting and organizing of troops, the levying of war-taxes, and the like.
Later the Hebrew name sofer seems to have been especially bestowed on a copyist of the law books. After the exile, under Ezra, apparently the copyist became more and more an expounder of the law. In Christ's time the name had come to designate a learned man, a doctor of the law. Christ himself recognizes scribes as a legal authority (Matt. xxiii. 2); they were the preservers of traditions, and formed a kind of police in the Temple and synagogues, together with the high priest; and the people reverenced them, or were expected to reverence them, in an eminent degree. They were to be found all over the country of Palestine, and occupied the rank and profession of both lawyers and theologians. Their public field of action was probably threefold: they were either assessors of the Sanhedrim, or public teachers, or administrators and lawyers. Many of these teachers had special al class-rooms somewhere in the Temple of Jerusalem, where the pupils destined to the calling of a rabbi sat at their feet. The calling of a scribe being gratuitous, it was incumbent on every one of them to learn and to exercise some trade. As a rule they were PHARISEES (q. v.), and zealous to keep the law pure from any foreign influence.
Among famous scribes are to be reckoned Hillel, Shammai, and Gamaliel.